The psalms continue to remind us that God does not throw us away. God knows we need a transformation.
The psalmist reminds us, "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. … He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities." That's why the psalmist can say, "Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me."
God will not cast us away from the divine presence. When we feel far from God, it is not because God has moved.
We're the ones who have moved. It could be because we have had a "throwaway God," a God to whom we listen when it's convenient, a God to whom we pray only when in distress, a God who has become largely irrelevant because we really don't apply the knowledge of God to our day-to-day lives.
God does not cast us away. God repairs and redeems. "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD."
"I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten."
"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
The big fix is mediated from God to us by Jesus Christ: "In whom we have redemption ... the forgiveness of sins."
So this lent we need repair. This is what God does. We should take our sorry souls to God's Big Repair House because God knows how to make things new!
