WHO COULD STAND?

WHO COULD STAND?
Psalm 130:3
“If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 

Does God “mark iniquities” (ESV) or “keep a record of our sins” (NIV)? Or as another psalm assures us, “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Ps 103.12). Since the former verse begins with “If”, it posits a hypothetical situation. The latter gives us the actual, thankfully! 

Hypothetical as it may be, the question underscores the earth-shaking and far-reaching extent of God’s forgiveness. A friend of mine was raised in a religious home where he was taught to do good and avoid evil. He was told that an angel sat on his right shoulder recording all his good deeds. Another angel sat on his left shoulder recording all his bad deeds. As he grew up, he was constantly troubled by how his good and bad deeds were balancing out.

Could our good deeds cancel out our bad deeds? I remember once beating a red light, driving home tired and preoccupied after a long meeting. I saw the camera flash and felt the weight of guilt. For the next half-dozen traffic lights, I made conscious effort to obey, foolishly thinking the authorities would absolve my one offence by my many compliances. Of course, I got the ticket. The traffic police had marked my iniquity and I had to pay the fine!

Indeed, no one could stand if God would keep a record of our sins. A million good deeds would not nullify one sin. What more the multitude of sins we commit. But the psalmist offers us the good news (v.4): “But with you there is forgiveness….” As the prophet Isaiah would later prophesy:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him [the Messiah] the iniquity of us all". (Isaiah 53:6)

Which leaves us to ask: do we keep a record of sins committed against us? Do we forgive as God forgives us? Jesus tells a parable of a servant who, having been forgiven a debt of 10,000 talents, refused to forgive a fellow-servant of 100 denarii (Matt 19.21-35). In today’s currency, the talents would be worth 600,000 times the denarii. Would we not forgive one wrong when God had removed more than half a million iniquities from the records? Mark the sombre words of our Lord (Matt 19.35), “So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you [mark your iniquities], if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

If God keeps no record, should we?