Episode Transcript
Welcome Bonnie McClure to the Wake-Up Call for a mini-series on Psalm 103. Bonnie is from Bremen, Georgia. She is married to Matthew, and mother of two sons ten and eight, and a dog named Kudzu and a cat named Rose. She’s a high school bookkeeper by day and a writer by calling. She writes regularly at the Pointed Arrow.
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Psalm 103 (NLT)
Let all that I am praise the LORD;
with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Let all that I am praise the LORD;
may I never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins
and heals all my diseases.
He redeems me from death
and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things.
My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!
The LORD gives righteousness
and justice to all who are treated unfairly.
He revealed his character to Moses
and his deeds to the people of Israel.
The LORD is compassionate and merciful,
slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
He will not constantly accuse us,
nor remain angry forever.
He does not punish us for all our sins;
he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
He has removed our sins as far from us
as the east is from the west.
The LORD is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
But the love of the LORD remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!
The LORD has made the heavens his throne;
from there he rules over everything.
Praise the LORD, you angels,
you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
listening for each of his commands.
Yes, praise the LORD, you armies of angels
who serve him and do his will!
Praise the LORD, everything he has created,
everything in all his kingdom.
Let all that I am praise the LORD.
CONSIDER THIS
My children know to look for me in the garden. When they need a shoe tied, a drink opened when they need some type of strength beyond what they themselves are capable of accomplishing, or when their brotherly love has exhausted and they are locked in a stalemate argument, in need of a thoughtful mediator, they seek me and they know I have slipped away to somewhere I love.
Once the dishes are done, the counters are clean, and the laundry is done enough (for as my sister-in-law and I joke, laundry is one chore that is never completely finished), I can now retire to a work that I delight in, one that fills me with life: the garden.
Sin is a little like laundry, isn’t it? Just when we think we have cleansed and sorted, folded and put away our transgressions, we turn up to find another dirty sock in the hamper. But though to us the problem of sin seems recurrent, as we wear and soil the clothes Christ had so sacrificially made clean, we rest in knowing that, ultimately, this work is already completely finished.
The forgiveness that God reveals through Christ is once and for all. The work of the cross was not just for the sins from before we became believers; it was for all sins for all time. God, unbound by time, foreknew all the little dirty socks we would wear over the course of our lifetimes and though we live these out in present time, from his perspective, he has already washed them, folded them, and put them away.
As Jesus pronounced upon his last breath on the cross, “It is finished.” His work was done and he became free to retire to somewhere he loves: our hearts.
Which are like little gardens too. Hearts that must be labored, weeded, tilled, shaped, formed, seeded, watered, nurtured, poured into, but a work that God delights in, a work that brings life.
The forgiving nature of God is claimed and reclaimed all throughout Psalm 103.
“He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (vv. 9–12 NIV)
As I sit in my garden, I see my children grace the top of the back deck stairs, walking slowly toward me down each step, sometimes in tears, sometimes in frustration, sometimes in something they joyfully want to share with me or show me.
No matter what it is they bring me, I am happy that they come. I am happy to be a source of healing, a source of untangling, a source of comfort, a source of mediating, a source of standing up for, a source of sorting out, a source of moving forward, a source of rejoicing, a source of sharing in their joy, a source of shouldering their sorrows, a source of being an advocate for them, even if they have done something wrong.
And I expect God responds the same way I do when he sees his children stepping tentatively down the steps into the garden toward him.
He is only happy that they come.
THE PRAYER
Lord, forgiveness. I say the word as a testament to your mercy. Without forgiveness, we are hopeless. We thank you that you do not harbor anger. We thank you that you do not treat us as we deserve. We thank you that you do not repay us according to our iniquities, that your kindness and gentleness are not because of who we are but because of who you are. Let us open our hearts and receive the forgiveness you so readily offer. Let us ever return to your presence at work within our hearts. Amen.
