As I’ve said several times that the thing I love most about the Psalms is that they are honest. When the Psalmist is angry, you know it through reading what’s on the page. When the Psalmist is happy and full of joy, you know it by reading what’s on the page. When the Psalmist is struggling with something, you know it.

And the struggles that the Psalmist has with God is apparent in different times. Sometimes he’s upset with God about something. Sometimes he’s afraid that God will be mad at him because of something he has done. Sometimes he is just scared of his enemies, of his sin, of the things in his life.

I just love them because they are so honest about the things that we go through. The emotions behind them match the emotions of our lives.  We are the same. The Psalms reflect what we feel, so many times in our lives.

Listen to part of the words of one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 130:

Lord, if you kept a record of our sins,
who, O Lord, could ever survive?
But you offer forgiveness,
that we might learn to fear you.

If the Lord kept a record of sins, who among us could stand? If the Lord were to mark our mistakes, His book would be full of failures and sins. If we had to do more good than bad in our lives to earn His love, we wouldn’t be able to stand.  None of us could do that.  None of us could undo the bad that we’ve done.

We can’t do enough good to make God ignore the bad.

That was the work of the cross. Through the cross, our sins are done away with. Through the cross we are forgiven. Through the cross, things have changed, life is different, we are new. Through the cross, our sin is forgiven.

Through the power of the cross, there is no mark. It is erased.  It is forgiven. It is forgotten.  It is gone.

Through the power and grace and love of God, offered through the cross, there is no mark.  There is no record. There is no sin. The Psalms also tell us that as far as the East is from the West, that’s how far our sins are from God.

Today, you are forgiven. Today, there is no mark. Today, they are gone.

Today, may we live like the forgiven children of God that we are.