Tag: Forgiveness

Morning Musings: 2 Chronicles 33:12-13

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“And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.  He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.  Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Manasseh’s story should give us a great deal of hope.  He was the most evil and overtly pagan of any of the kings to rule over Judah.  He essentially took his father Hezekiah’s legacy and turned it on its head.  If there was some practice that would offend the Lord, he jumped into it with both feet.  He led the whole nation astray and primed the pump for terrible judgment.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Psalm 99:8

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“O Lord our God, you answered them; you were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

One of the things that can be so frustrating about the Scriptures is that over and over they take two ideas which seem to be contradictory, declare them both to be true, and, rather than resolving the tension, simply leave it in place.

Some examples of this would be divine sovereignty and human responsibility, Jesus’ full humanity and full divinity, and the three-persons and one-person nature of the Trinity.  Right here we see another tension.  The psalmist declares God to be both a forgiver of sins, but also an avenger of wrongdoings.   Read the rest…

O God of Vengeance?

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I was reading the other day in Psalm 94 and I came across something that really caught my eye.  In the first verse, the psalmist proclaims this: “O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!”

O God of vengeance?  I can think of a lot of things for which to praise the Lord.  I could praise Him for His goodness, His love, His mercy, His compassion, His justice, His righteousness, His faithfulness, His generosity, His protection, His plans, His gentleness, His care, and I could probably keep going here for a while.  You may want to go get a sandwich and come back.

The point is: There are lots of things for which we could easily offer praise to God.  Vengeance doesn’t usually (or ever) fall on that list.  Why would the psalmist offer praise like this as the start of his poem and why would that particular song get picked up for the collection of sacred songs that were counted as Scripture?   Read the rest…