Psalm 103:9-10
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbour his anger for ever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
"It's not fair!" Have you heard those words recently in your household? They come out of children's mouths fairly easily.
We may be more restrained about actually saying it out loud, but don’t our hearts feel the same way? What seems unfair to you right now? Seeing other people whose circumstances are so much easier than yours? We instinctively want justice when we feel disadvantaged. We want life to be 'fair'.
Except ... Maybe we don't. When it comes to judgement for
our sin, 'fair' is the last thing we want! When we read that "he does not treat us as our sins deserve", our hearts ought to rejoice. This is BETTER than fair.
God is so amazingly wonderful that he can be both righteous and just (as v6 reminded us) and still show us gracious, merciful forgiveness for our sins. The death of Jesus in our place proves that. God is always both perfectly just and perfectly loving. Yet there’s a sense in which his love outweighs his justice. This verse tells us that he will not 'always' accuse but we read in verse 17 that his love is from everlasting to everlasting. That is so much better than we deserve, we might almost call it unfair! Let's praise him for this great 'unfairness' today.
