There are all sorts of problems for new believers.
The object of their worship now is God YHWH, but they are not in a position to jettison practices that were till yesterday part of their life. Practices that may run counter to their newfound faith. Practices that are held dear by the social and family circles of which they are still a part and are embedded in their cultural mores. But practices nevertheless, a puritanical believer will never countenance.
But will God be wroth? Will He deem these, as unpardonable transgressions?
That is not the impression you get from this prayer of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:18.
“Yet in this thing may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing.”
Clearly, Naaman does not deem God implacable.
A well-founded confidence indeed. We know that David writes in Ps.103 that
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in mercy.
As a father pities his children,
So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
Even Paul when writing about food offered to idols declares in 1 Cor.8:4. that “Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one” and goes on to say that “8 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.”
Nor is this problem confined only to new believers. There are also seasoned sinners!
I imagine David wrote Psalm 103 only after his highly questionable behaviour at Nob. Let us read 1 Samuel 21; David and his men are on the run.
21 Now David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”
2 So David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has ordered me on some business, and said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about the business on which I send you, or what I have commanded you.’ And I have directed my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now therefore, what have you on hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
4 And the priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread on hand; but there is holy bread……………………
5 Then David answered the priest, and said to him,……………………………….”the bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day.”
I see two problems here. 1. David quite patently lies that “The king has ordered me on some business” 2. He argues that the holy “bread is in effect common, even though it was consecrated in the vessel this day” because hot bread would be put in its place on the day when it was taken away.
Then there was the priest Ahimelech’s transgression in this matter. He seems to have been thoroughly intimidated by David. He didn’t bother to pray or consult God before lightly giving away the “show bread”.
It is not our intention to find fault with the people of God, but to rather emphasize the point that God understands special situations in which we find ourselves and is merciful not to punish us as long as we do not deny Him. Oops! That is not entirely correct, is it? In the matter of Peter squirming and cursing when the palace maid calls him out, Jesus turns and looks at him when the cock crowed. It was a merciful and compassionate look, but that was chastisement enough to send the Big Fisherman weeping in remorse.
There are other situations we can cite. involving apostle Paul, prophet Samuel, the whale-fame Jonah and the supplanter Jacob in similar or comparable equivocal or downright controvertible acts.
I think this song would resonate with Peter.