Thursday 04 April 2019

Psalm: Psalm 110

Background

Despite being Daniel’s ‘Ancient One’ (Daniel 7), God is all about renewal and refreshing:

Do not remember the former things,
or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? (vs. 18-19)

‘New’ is deliverance, redemption, salvation, liberation, freedom. It would be tempting to say that it is literally world-changing (‘I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’, v. 19), but in fact, it is literary (see also the beginning of chapter 40 which we have already looked at). Paraphrasing the worship song, it is all about God, rescue is God’s business.

Does it take an ancient text to make us rethink ideas about ‘atonement’? It should, because what Isaiah offers as God’s perspective on restoration is lacking in any ‘theories’. God renews like this: ‘I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.' (v. 25) God clearly states that no atonement or payment is required. Sometimes we find it hard to accept that God can just forget sins. God’s own mouth establishes a ‘Doctrine of Divine Forgetfulness’.

To Ponder:

• How much do you see God in the way that Isaiah does here?
• What does ‘salvation’ mean to you?