In a popular television commercial, a man who provides voice over for movies is describing the situation a lady was in when a certain insurance company came to her aid. One of his lines is "this time, pay back is for real."
Pay back.
When someone does something to hurt a person they might respond "I'll get you one day." What they mean is they intend to retaliate at some point. And, the extent of retaliation is anticipated to be to the degree that a person has been hurt.
For instance, a coach might feel like another coach has run the score up on them. As the game is in progress the coach might think "I'll pay you back one day." They are thinking that when given the opportunity in the future, they may return the favor. That's "pay back."
Or, maybe on the job someone does something to hurt us. We have no choice but to take it but, in our anger and hurt we think "you will get it one day."
That's called "tit for tat." "You hurt me so I hurt you in return."
The Psalmist says "The Lord is compassionate and gracious... he does not treat us our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities."
I like that last line, "the Lord does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." The Bible says "all have sinned." I know that I have. Yet, it is comforting to know that God doesn't repay us according to our sins. None of us could stand up under the wrath of God if we were repaid according to our iniquities.
So today, thank the Lord that He doesn't repay us according to our iniquities. Thank the Lord that even though we sin, God loves us and removes our sins "as far as the east is from the west."