Repayment of Sin

Reading the Bible in 90 days is amazing.  I honestly never thought I would read the Bible in it's entirety, straight through.  It's been great to read each story and I have loved reading about the kings and the history of Israel.  But now I'm in Psalms.  Psalms has been a bit difficult for me. You'd think they would be easier to read since each chapter is a story unto itself, but for me, it's not easier. 

This program has me reading roughly 20 Psalms a day.  It does mean it won't take me very long to make it through Psalms, but with going through that many chapters a day, I feel like I'm not retaining much.  It's been rather discouraging to me to realize that. 

Of the books I've read so far (everything prior to Psalms in the Bible) I can give you a basic overview of each book with quite a bit of detail.  For Psalms, it's just all meshing together.  Someone asked me 2 weeks ago, "How can you possibly learn anything by reading the Bible that quickly?"  Thankfully, God reveals to us, what He wants to reveal to us when we study His word.

Today I read Psalms 81 - 108.  That's quite a few chapters.  But in there, God revealed to me a set of verses that stuck with me and I felt compelled to go back and review.

Psalm 103
⁸The LORD is merciful and gracious,
   slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide,
   nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰He does not deal with us according to our sins,
   nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹²as far as the east is from the west,
   so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³As a father shows compassion to his children,
   so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

Verse 10 is the one that stuck out to me the most.   Can you imagine what it would be like, if for every sin we committed, we were repaid how we ought to be repaid?  Let's think this through. 

What is the punishment for sin?  Death.  Not just death, that's not the scary part.  The part that should truly frighten you is the eternal separation from God.  I cannot begin to imagine being anywhere where God is not present.  I am so very thankful that "He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."  God is so merciful!  As a believer in Christ, all I have to do is ask His forgiveness and I am forgiven! 

Every word that I have read today is important and I look forward to the time when I can go back and read Psalms slowly.  For now, I am thankful that God is teaching me this lesson today.  Thank you Lord, for being merciful and not dealing with me according to my sins.