“. . . As Far as the East is from the West . . .”
“as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12, English Standard Version)
I am in the middle of a war. It is a civil war, in which I am battling my own past. But, like all civil wars, this one tends to spill over the borders and to affect the present and other people. Every day, I put on my fatigues and pick up my weapons. Some days I think I’m winning the war. Other times not so much. There are days when I suspect that shame and regret are winning.
But today, I was wandering through a bit of a scholarly work when I encountered an unexpected ally in my private war. It’s a verse from the Old Testament. It is also a good example of how other ancient Near Eastern literature can enrich our reading of the Bible. Commenting on Psalm 103:12, here is what I read. “In an Egyptian hymn to Amun-Re the deity is praised for his judgment of the guilty. As a result of the god’s discernment the guilty are assigned to the east and the righteous to the west.”[1]
Psalm 103:12 may well be using part of this Egyptian hymn. However, notice the twist: The God of Israel doesn’t separate the guilty from the innocent. Rather, God is praised for separating the guilty from their own guilt. And we’re not talking about some minor infraction that results from ignorance or inattention. No! The Hebrew word that is used, pashaˀ is the word for willful rebellion.
For those of us who, like me, have done great wrong in our past, this is radically good news. To realize that God has judged our wrong-doing and removed it—well, words have not yet been invented to describe the wonder of a such a thing. What it would cost God to remove my wrong-doings, our wrong-doings, would become apparent at the cross of Christ. There are days when I believe that my war—and the war we all fight—was won at the cross. Maybe it’s true whether or not you or I or anyone believes it. Maybe I should eliminate the maybe.
[1] John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (Downers Grove: IVP Academic 2000), 548.
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