Orienting Ourselves

מזרח

“For as high as the heavens are 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.” Psalm 103:11–12

Our English verb “orient” is from the Latin for “the rising sun.” Thus if we were literally “to orient ourselves,” we would face eastward. In so doing we would be much like the Israelites, for one of their words for “east,” qedem, also means “in front of.” Another Hebrew word for “east,” mizrach, occurs in Psalm 103. Mizrach refers to “sunrise,” thus “east.” Now put this together: to truly orient ourselves, we face eastward, to the rising of the sun. And what does that rising tell us? It orients us toward the God who removes our transgressions “as far as the east is from the west.” There are poles for north and south; we can measure the distance from the north pole to the south pole. But it is impossible to measure the distance from the east to the west, from sunrise to sunset.

That is how far God’s love stretches. How far his forgiveness extends. How far our sins have been removed in Christ. When we orient ourselves to that joyous reality and bathe in its rising light of grace, we will never be lost.

“From the rising of the sun to its setting, we praise your name, O Lord!” (Ps. 113:3).

Devotion by Chad Bird, Unveiling Mercy: 365 Daily Devotions Based on Insights from Old Testament Hebrew (Irvine, CA: Fifteen-Seventeen Publishing, 2020)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

 – Pastor Darrin Sheek