A Mark on their Soul

Psalms 130:2-4

Out of the depths I cry to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

Recently on a Saturday morning and while making breakfast for friends, I foolishly reached for something on the stove without looking first. The result, you guessed it ... a burn on my hand.

For the next several days that rather sizable red mark was a constant reminder of the careless action that created it. In the same way, all of us can be careless with our lives by "reaching" for something without looking first. The results can range from a slight reprimand to loss of job or family .. or even death.

Unintended consequences.

The verse above is key to understanding God's role; (psalm 130:3), “if You Lord would mark me, or keep in mind the things I have done wrong, how will I be able to stand it?” It’s a good question with a great answer supplied also by the psalmist in verse 4; “But with you, there is forgiveness.”

Every day, hundreds of men, women and families arrive at one of the ministry sites of Cherry Street Mission Ministries living out the unintended consequence of homelessness due to careless actions. They bear a kind of mark on their souls. Just like my burn, their mark is a constant reminder of things gone wrong, decisions which have gone badly and families left in disaster.

Like the Psalmist, they're crying out from the depths of their soul. The weight of incarceration, addiction, abandonment and homelessness crashes in on them every day. Can you imagine with me the joy and relief that comes on a person, when they begin to realize and accept that ‘In Him (God), there is forgiveness’, that our God has not marked them but rather desires to remove the mark of failure and addiction that's on their soul?

I hope, this is true for all of us today as we cry out to God for relief from our own failures and the weight of consequences we didn't intend - may we all find Him faithful in forgiveness.

What do you think?

Dan Rogers