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Forgiveness is a concept common to most everyone. It covers a vast landscape, to be sure. In biblical understanding it is especially broad, linking together economic, social, divine, and interpersonal realities. Indeed, it is pervasive and foundational to Judeo-Christian faith. However, in our contemporary world we cling with worn fingernails to forgiveness as a sparse, seldom-used interpersonal notion. If utilized, it comes when two people have a quarrel, and one forgives the other -- simple -- clean -- easy -- not too intrusive.

Yet, for people of faith, this cannot be the case. Forgiveness is the ground upon which we walk. It is the air we breathe and the eyes through which we see. It is integral, not only to our self-understanding but to our apprehension of God. Forgiveness is not just the stock and trade of faith, it has to do with the fiber of human reality.

Human beings need forgiveness. We need it because we are broken, flawed, and frail. We need it because, as the middle schooler in church wryly comments, "We mess up a lot." The words of this psalm go directly to this point.

With a full and painful awareness of culpability and responsibility the writer comes clean. If God kept score, none of us could stand (v. 4). How true it is.

But with God, there is forgiveness. Not a trite burying of the hatchet, not a sweeping under the rug of past hurts and insults, and not the strained fabric of denial, but true and miraculous forgiveness. For this, the soul will "wait." For this, the spirit dares to "hope."

True forgiveness changes things. It wipes clean the slate of anger and hurt. It breathes fresh air onto old wounds so that they can heal. It lifts the burden of guilt and allows for new beginnings. Yet, such powerful new possibilities are seldom realized in the wake of a narrow and self-absorbed notion of forgiveness.

Perhaps a fresh reading of this psalm can expand our understanding of forgiveness to include each and every aspect of the lives we lead together. Maybe if each person stopped to "wait" upon God's grace and forgiveness, a whole world of new opportunities might present themselves. Imagine what would happen in this nation if the idea of forgiveness reached into the economic realm? Forgiveness of debts in a debt-ridden world? It would be nothing short of revolutionary.

Picture, too, a world where the great social sins were answered, not with even greater sins, but forgiveness. We need only look to the Truth and Justice Commission of South Africa to see that such a thing can happen. Finally, it stirs the soul to conjure up a world where interpersonal relationships were marked with the practice of a true and transformational forgiveness.

There is indeed forgiveness with you, O Lord! And while we wait, let us dare to practice this divine art across the spectrum of our lives.