DeConick A.D

37
THE MATRIX OF ANCIENT SPIRITUALITY
Mercy and Forgiveness
This covenantal agreement put a new twist on the relationship between
human and God. Because it was bound to be broken and would need
to be reestablished, it meant that mercy and forgiveness had to come
into play on the part of YHWH, and repentance on the part of Israel.
Although YHWH is never perceived to love his people in terms of unconditional
affection, his relationship takes on a new flavor. He becomes
a God whose fierceness is tempered by his mercy and compassion, as long
as his servants continue to fear him as liege. He is reenvisioned as a father
who pities his children, who are weak creatures of dust and short days.
The psalmist sings, in Psalm 103:11–18:
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
It is quite likely that the crystallization of this covenant spirituality
was the direct result of the trauma that rocked the Jewish community as
they watched the temple of YHWH destroyed in Jerusalem, their population
decimated and then deported to Babylon, and their land colonized.