The Journey Continues: The Geography of Grace

"as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us." - Psalm 103:12

My dad was a compass type of man. I remember when we bought our family motorhome in 1972, he purchased two dash-mounted devices: an altimeter so we knew how high up (or how low down) we were, and a compass. As a child, there was something reassuring about knowing where we were and which direction we were heading.

Perhaps that's why verse 12 from Psalm 103 appeals to me. It not only references compass points, but gives me a better understanding of God's grace. As I began looking more closely at this verse, I discovered something that made its meaning even more profound. Why did the Psalmist choose east and west, rather than north and south? The answer, I believe, tells us something remarkable about the nature of God's forgiveness.

For the ancient Hebrews, the world was understood quite differently than we understand it today. Their experience of the world was bounded by the horizon, and east and west represented directions stretching far beyond anything they could see or reach. When David wrote of God removing our transgressions as far as the east is from the west, he was describing a distance beyond human comprehension. God doesn't merely overlook our sins. He removes them from us.

In our 21st-century context we can still apply this Psalm and be assured by its meaning. If one travels north they will eventually reach the North Pole, and if they continue moving in the same direction they will now be heading south, until they reach the South Pole. North and South meet, and reverse. But east and west are directions, not destinations. Unlike north and south, they have no geographical endpoints. 

No matter how we understand the world, whether through the eyes of the ancient Hebrews or our modern understanding of a globe, the spiritual geography remains the same. When God forgives, He removes our sins beyond our reach. They are no longer ours to carry, no longer ours to answer for, and no longer held against us.

I think back to that compass on the dashboard of our family motorhome, always pointing us in the right direction. Perhaps that's another lesson in this Psalm. God's grace allows us to stop looking backward at the sins He has already forgiven, and instead look forward, trusting in His mercy.

Thanks Be to God!

Soli Deo Gloria