Moses in Psalm 90 talks in length about the brevity of Life. He talks about sorrow, death and especially about the wrath of God towards Man. He says how fragile life is.
And in the midst of saying so much,he reveals a shocking fact as the reason in verse 8:
‘You have set our iniquities before, Our secret sins in the light of Your countenance.’
All our sins are before the face of God. Everything done in secret is before Him. And as a reason, he continues to say in verse 9:
‘For all our days have passed away in Your wrath;we finish our years like a sigh’
As someone rightly said that Moses was so qualified to speak about death in his psalm as he witnessed one whole generation being wiped out from the face of the earth.
He sensed that the sins of children of Israel are before God’s throne and His wrath is consuming them away.
Again and again you’ll see in the Bible, that the sins of man are before the face of God.
After committing adultery, David cries in Psalm 51
‘ Hide Your face from my sins,And blot out all my iniquities.’
David cannot imagine his sins before God’s face and cries that they be blotted out.
Many psalmist have dreaded this fact of God remembering their sins and have said:
‘If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,O Lord, who could stand?’
‘For in Thy sight no man living shall be justified.’
Throughout psalms: You’ll see psalmist pleading that their sins which are before the face of God, be not remembered.
Even the sins of wicked cities like Nineveh, Sodom and Gomorrah reached the throne of God.
We see God talking to Jonah about Nineveh
‘For their wickedness has come up before Me’
And about Sodom and Gomorrah, He Says
‘And LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grievous, I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come to me’
God talking to Cain after the murder he committed, says
‘The voice of thy brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground’
God talks to Hosea about Israel:
‘Ho 7:2 :They do not consider in their hearts [That] I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face.’
But this same God is not only the one, who rightfully gets angry over our sins which are before His face, but also He has done great and wonderful things by covering all of them.
The Psalmist of Psalm 85 testifies it.
‘You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin‘
Solomon, with God given wisdom, said in proverbs that
“Love covers all sins”
And In New testament, John says that God is love. How wonderful to see that God covers all our sins. This is exactly what the psalmist testified, “You have covered all their sin” .
Our sins before the throne of God incurred the wrath of God; but this same God full of love has covered all our sins and remembers them no more.
The psalmist in psalm 89 says
‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face’
No doubt our sins were before the face of God, but the psalmist says that mercy and truth are also before His face
He had all the right to judge our sins. But our Just God, in bringing about justice; showed mercy towards us and poured the whole wrath of our sins on His only Son –Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ had all the right to sit back on His throne and watch our sins being judged before His face. But He rather chose to leave His throne for a moment, to come down to this earth as a Man and die for those very sins before the throne of God.
He looked beyond the sins to see, we sinners and wanted us to be before His throne instead of our sins. And in showcasing His Love, He has covered all our sins.
The Hebrew writer clearly says:
‘Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.’
I have no clue why we sinners should be the Joy of the LORD.
Why should Christ instead of watching our sins being judged, set joy before His face to endure the cross and despise the shame of it?
We could not cover our sins on our own, as Solomon has rightly said:
“He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper;but whoso confesseth and forsaketh [them] shall obtain mercy”.
Christ with His love has covered our sins.
We see in New Testament, John writing of the love of God being manifested through His Son and life we have received thereby.
‘In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him’
Once upon a time, our sins were before the face of God, inviting His wrath.
Today though Lord Jesus Christ, we stand at that very same place; just because of the Love of God. Paul said that God has made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are indeed before the throne of God
As the hymn goes
Rise, my soul! Behold ’tis Jesus,
Jesus fills thy wondering eyes;
See Him now in glory seated,
Where thy sins no more can rise.
All thy sins were laid upon Him,
Jesus bore them on the tree;
God, who knew them, laid them on Him,
And, believing, thou art free.
May glory go to His Name. Amen
