Psalm 103’s picture of east and west shows the completeness of God’s forgiveness and points to salvation through Jesus Christ.
Primary passage: Psalm 103:12
Psalms 103:12 – ESV
12. as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Verses around:
- He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
- The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
- He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
- He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
- For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
- as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
- As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
History:
Author is David.
Audience is Jews, and by extension, all of us.
The psalms are written, mostly by David, but by other authors also. They are to provide poetry or expressions of praise, or worship, or confessions. They are very often made into songs. They’re written between the time of Moses about 1440 BC and up until the Babylonian captivity about 586 BC. They’re not necessarily used as historical books, but they very often do parallel events in history that are happening.
Background:
On Israel’s annual Day of Atonement the high priest killed a bull as a sin offering for himself and his household. He also sacrificed a goat for the people of Israel. A second goat became the scapegoat. The high priest laid his hands on this animals’ head and confessed all Israel’s iniquities, transgressions, and sins. Then he sent the scapegoat into the wilderness, where it symbolically carried the nation’s sins over the horizon, never to return. Thus, the people’s sins were removed far from them.
Look at verse 11.
There are three uses of the term heaven in the Bible: the first heaven is the blue sky, the atmosphere with the sun. The second heaven is the night sky with the stars and the constellations. In the third heaven is the place where God dwells. I wonder when David writes these words what use of heaven do you think he’s using?
Do you think he’s laying out in the pasture being a shepherd looking up at the stars seeing the vastness and wondering about God‘s greatness? Is he thinking about heaven as in the place where God lives where we go when we die if we believe in Jesus? Because he’s using the term heaven as the greatness of God‘s mercy, as far as heaven is to the Earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him (verse 11).
Right after that, he switches to God‘s forgiveness: God’s mercy was as great as it is from heaven to earth. But his forgiveness is as far as east is from the west. What is different about these two?
Let’s put ourselves in this situation: if we start heading north eventually we will go over the north pole and start heading south.
However, if we go to the east or to the west, we will just continue going east west forever. Does that mean something? Is God‘s forgiveness forever.
In other words, east and west never meet each other the way David is describing it. So our sins, in God‘s eyes, will never meet us again. Isn’t that amazing?
What does it mean to me:
John 1:29. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 3:16—18. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
- For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
- Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Acts 4:12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
What does this mean to me? It means if I’m not already, I better get saved. Because when judgment day comes, I want my sins to be as far away as the east is from the west.
Translation note: ESV is identified for Psalm 103:12; other quoted passages are preserved as found.