Psalm 130:3-4

A couple of days ago, I started writing some thoughts about Psalm 130. Today's post and a couple of more posts after this will continue to talk about it. Today, I want to spend some time on verses 3 & 4 of Psalm 130:
If you, LORD, kept a record of sins,
     Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
     so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

When I read those words, I'm so thankful to be reminded that not only does God offer forgiveness for my sins, but He also doesn't keep a record of them. I don't think I would ever want to see how large a record of my sins would be. That would be overwhelming and more than a little bit depressing. But, thankfully, God doesn't keep that kind of record of our sins.

God offers us forgiveness of our sins. How great is that? To me, that's a pretty amazing thing when I stop to think about it.

The last part of verse 4 really stuck with me as I reflected on this psalm ". . . so that we can, with reverence, serve you." God's forgiveness isn't conditional - all we have to do is come to Him and ask for it and then turn from our sin. But, God's forgiveness should show something in our lives. According to the psalmist, God's forgiveness is so that we can serve Him.

As followers of Christ, our lives should be lived in service to God. And we are freed to serve Him because of the forgiveness He gives us when we ask. God's forgiveness is something truly amazing to live in because it frees us to do exactly what the psalmist says - to serve God.