Praise for God's Forgiveness

Micah 7:18-20  Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger for ever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea”

“Pardoning iniquity” - to lift up and take away. Perhaps there is no better picture of the uniqueness of God in His willingness to forgive.

“Passing over transgression” = To say that God passes over transgression means that he completely ignores it as having any effect upon our relationship with Him.

“He does not retain his anger for ever” = The verb translated “retain” means literally “to grasp with a strong hand” or to hold fast. To say that He does not retain His anger means that He loosens His grip on it and lets go of it. To punish is his strange work; to pardon is His delight, so great is His love for His children (Isa. 28:21).

“He delights in steadfast love” = The Lord “delights” in kindness, justice, and righteousness as well as mercy and pardon. (Jer. 9:24). It is the way God thinks. It is who He is. Steadfast, uncompromising, ongoing love is also what He desires of us.
“He will again have compassion upon us” = Compassion has to do with God’s attitude toward us as weak, finite human beings. Compassion is to feel for us as a “father pities his children”. It is His compassion that gives meaning to the hope we have in Him. Otherwise our miserable existence on earth would be most miserable.

“He will tread our iniquities under foot” = to tread on, emphasizes His forgiveness to the point that our forgiven sins are no longer an issue to be regarded. They are trodden under foot, cast away.

“Thou will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” = This is one of the expressions about how God removes our sins, as in “as far as the East is from the west”. God’s people can be free from the tyranny of sin. The prophet believed that God would always keep His promises, and here he offers praise for God’s forgiveness. I believe we should join him and offer our praise also.