Ps. 103.10 (lack of proportion)

He has not / treated us in proportion to our sins

nor has he dealt with us / as our iniquities deserve. 

There is a single word here that I think unlocks for us something important at the heart of this psalm: ‘proportion’. Here, Yhwh does not act ‘in proportion’ to our sins. He does less than what would otherwise be required. His failure is one of a lessening. This is significant. The psalmist recognizes there to be a certain standard (a certain ‘proportion’) when reacting to sins and iniquities. And he recognizes that Yhwh has violated that standard, in mercy. He has not acted ‘up to the standard.’ However, what we have already seen is that Yhwh also violates the standard in abundance. His acts of loyal-love are ‘lavish’. They are ‘total’ and without remainder. They are festive, they are abundant, they are overflow. The psalmist will soon revert to images of his ‘towering’ loving-kindness and of spatial imagery that is impossibly large. The point, it seems, is profound. Yhwh’s anger is always less than it could be and his blessings is always, profoundly, more than required.