The Bible is a tremendously honest and reassuring book. It does not paint a picture of perfect people, never making mistakes. The greatest saints are portrayed as fallible people: Abraham lying, David committing adultery and murder, Samson giving in to temptation, Peter denying Christ, Paul giving assent to the murder of Stephen. Hebrews 11 is known as the ‘chapter of faith’, but when we read through the list of people there, we are well aware of their mistakes and failures which emphasise all the more God’s amazing grace and forgiveness.
The author Paulo Coelho has wryly remarked, ‘A mistake repeated more than once is a decision.’ George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.’ Sadly, we all tend to make the same mistakes more than once, and Psalm 78 is an object lesson on this.
Ps 78: 9-11 sets the tone for the whole psalm: ‘The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the day of battle; 10 they did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by his law.11 They forgot what he had done, the wonders he had shown them.’ In the wilderness, Israel ‘wilfully’ put God to the test, not once, not twice, but so many times that as we read the account, we wonder how God could keep on forgiving. Asaph points to this cycle in the middle of the psalm: ‘Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again.35 They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer.36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; 37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.38 Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath.39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.’ (Ps 78:34-39)
We cannot point the finger and tut-tut at their stupidity (often defined as the habit of making the same mistakes repeatedly!) because we are so prone to do the same thing. No wonder Jesus said, ‘You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?’ (Matt 17:17) The amazing thing is that He declared He would put up with us for eternity. (Matt 28:20) His forgiveness and love are not transient and fickle like ours. He is our Shepherd. (Ps 78:52-53, 70-72; Ps 23:1, John 10:11)
I’m all for learning from our mistakes. But I am profoundly glad that I serve a God of second, third, fourth and many more chances. As Rend Collective sing,
‘Always inside this mess
I have found forgiveness
Mercy infinite as You.’ (‘Second Chance’, Rend Collective)
Don’t let your mistakes keep you down. The cross means we can get up off the floor and start again.