Thursday 14 March

Psalm 106, Exodus 32:7-14, John 5:31-47

The verbs tell the story

Psalm 106 tells the story of God’s faithfulness and man’s sinfulness. This is history painted in stark colours. Dark and dreadful verbs tell the story of the people’s disobedience. They ‘sinned … forgot … despised … grumbled … provoked … angered … rebelled … defiled … prostituted’. God’s story is told in strong contrasting verbs. He ‘saved … led … redeemed … gave … delivered … heard … remembered … relented (NRSV, showed compassion). As King David discovered, in his haunting confession in Psalm 51, his own shame and sinfulness were vastly outdone by God’s mercy and grace.