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East to west, not a very short distance (Psalm 103), July 29, 2015

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready -Psalms 103

Set – Psalms 103; 2 Peter 3

Go! – Isaiah 57-59; Psalms 103; 2 Peter 3

Psalms 103
1 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal
with all that is in me—body, emotions, mind, and will—every part of who I am—
praise His holy name.
2 O my soul, come, praise the Eternal;
sing a song from a grateful heart;
sing and never forget all the good He has done.
3 Despite all your many offenses, He forgives and releases you.
More than any doctor, He heals your diseases.
4 He reaches deep into the pit to deliver you from death.
He crowns you with unfailing love and compassion like a king.
5 When your soul is famished and withering,
He fills you with good and beautiful things, satisfying you as long as you live.
He makes you strong like an eagle, restoring your youth.
6 When people are crushed, wronged, enslaved, raped, murdered,
the Eternal is just;
He makes the wrongs right.
7 He showed Moses His ways;
He allowed His people Israel to see His wonders and acts of power.
8 The Eternal is compassionate and merciful.
When we cross all the lines, He is patient with us.
When we struggle against Him, He lovingly stays with us—changing, convicting, prodding;
9 He will not constantly criticize,
nor will He hold a grudge forever.
10 Thankfully, God does not punish us for our sins and depravity as we deserve.
In His mercy, He tempers justice with peace.
11 Measure how high heaven is above the earth;
God’s wide, loving, kind heart is greater for those who revere Him.
12 You see, God takes all our crimes—our seemingly inexhaustible sins—and removes them.
As far as east is from the west, He removes them from us.
13 An earthly father expresses love for his children;
it is no different with our heavenly Father;
The Eternal shows His love for those who revere Him.
14 For He knows what we are made of;
He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.
15 The children of Adam are like grass;
their days are few;
they flourish for a time like flowers in a meadow.
16 As the wind blows over the field and the bloom is gone,
it doesn’t take much to blow us out of the memory of that place.
17 But the unfailing love of the Eternal is always and eternal
for those who reverently run after Him.
He extends His justice on and on to future generations,
18 To those who will keep His bond of love
and remember to walk in the guidance of His commands.
19 The Eternal has established His throne up in the heavens.
He rules over every seen and unseen realm and creature.
20 Adore Him! Give Him praise, you heavenly messengers,
you powerful creatures who listen to
and act on His every word.
21 Give praise to the Eternal, all armies of heaven—
you servants who stand ready to do His will.
22 Give praise to the Eternal, all that He has made
in all corners of His creation.
O my soul, come, praise the Eternal!

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

I put the vision in the psalmist’s head about sins being cast away as far as the east is from the west. He could have said as far as the north is from the south, you know. But he didn’t. I didn’t want him to use those directions. I wanted him to use east and west. You might not have thought much about why, but I did. He might not have even thought about it at the time except that the sun rose in the east and set in the west. Maybe he thought about sins being blotted out the same way the sun is blotted out of the sky each night.

I wanted him to use those directions, though, because I knew that one day science would catch up with navigation. Men already navigated by the stars. They knew about the cardinal directions and that each of them went on endlessly. Except they don’t.

Today you know the truth. North stops at the north pole and south stops at the south pole. You can’t continue to go north or south when you’ve reach those two places respectively. As soon as you take another step, you’re headed in the opposite direction. So there is always a limit as to how far removed your sins would be if I let the psalmist use the expression “as far as the north is from the south”. The limit would be the distance from the north to the south pole, or 12,430 miles.

But how far is the east from the west? Begin traveling west and stop when you hit east. Sorry, there is no stop sign. You can circle the globe a million times and you’ll still be traveling west. It never ends when you travel east or west. The psalmist didn’t know that at the time. His concept of the world then was a flat world held up by pillars over an endless ocean. You know the earth is one of My planets circling one of billions of suns in one of billions of galaxies within this things you call a universe.

How far is east from west? You can’t get there in a million life times. That’s how far removed I take your sins when I forgive you. Come to Me and ask. I’ll do the job. Then you just follow Me and see what else I can do.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
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