"Return, O LORD, how long, and let it repent thee concerning thy servants..." Psalm XC(i.e. "Ninety").13

God may not be a man, that he should repent, but we also read of times where it did repent him that he had done (or determined to do) certain things. For example, it repented him that he had made man upon the earth in Genesis 6. Or, on several occasions, when he saw his people in sore distress, he repented himself of the evil he had sent upon them. David, the author of the Psalms, knew of this (II Samuel 24:16; Psalm 106:45) - and so did Moses, the author of this morning's first Psalm. He, as a matter of fact, was instrumental in turning away God's wrath(Psalm 106:23), that God should not destroy the children of Israel.


I am reminded of another instance where God repented himself: Nineveh. In this case, Jonah wondered at the justice of such repentance. After all, Niniveh was extremely wicked. The good news, however, is that no matter how wicked we are, we can rest assured that God may repent himself of the evil he has determined against us, if we will but repent. Furthermore, while God did honour the repentance of Nineveh, with some repentance of his own, judgement did still eventually come on Nineveh; so while he is gracious and ever willing to pardon, he is by no means mocked.




Then again, there was Josiah. He was a great king, and he turned to the LORD with all his heart, so that there was none like him - before him or after him. In this case, however, God actually refused to repent. Why, because - among other things - Manasseh in particular had just plain shed too much innocent blood; and God simply would not forgive it. Even this instance, however, God did honour the fact that Josiah's heart was tender, and promised not to send the evil in Josiah's lifetime (which, incidentally, was the same thing he did when Ahab repented - (please see: http://daninmbii.blogspot.com/2007/01/ahab-heard-elijah-words.html if ye would like to see a hymn I wrote about this)).


Moses knew what it was to see God repent of destroying Israel (alluded to earlier), and yet also refuse to repent of his decision to not allow Moses to take the Israelites into Canaan (after he had smitted the rock twice instead of speaking to it). Therefore, we may ask God to "let it repent him" concerning certain things, but may or may not find him willing to do so. In a word, God may not be oversimplified. As Matthew Henry notes, his "judgements are a great deep". This quotation is taken from Psalm 36:6, and it is followed by, "...O LORD, thou preservest man and beast". We may not always be able to make perfect sense of his various judgements, but we may rest assured that his is a preserving work that benefits his creation.

Sincerely,

Daniel