PSALMS 103:6 The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. 17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
Have you wondered what God really thinks about you? Our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be how much we know about how much God knows about us. We struggle with God because we feel so bad about ourselves, and if we know the truth about ourselves, think of how much God knows us! We can’t fool him. Sometimes we don’t want to pray or read the Bible or think about God because when we look in the mirror, we feel like saying, "You’re a big disappointment" or "You ought to be a lot better by now." Or "Why aren’t you a better Christian than you are?"
We’ve all felt that way from time to time, and I imagine that many people may feel that way right now. This is a rough time of year for some. It’s been a hard week, or a bad month, and now we’re near the end of what seems like another wasted year. I think we run from God rather than to him because we know our own hearts all too well and his barely at all. Perhaps no other chapter in the Bible so clearly reveals God’s compassion for his people than PS 103. If you’re wondering what God thinks about you, let’s look at these seven liberating truths about God’s heart.
1. He Loves to Help the Needy. Vs 6 The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel
Who are these "oppressed"? The "oppressed" are those who can’t help themselves. In the Old Testament the word especially referred to widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. When we are tempted to take advantage of others because we are strong and they are weak, God says, "Think about that first." He takes the side of the weak. Our God keeps his eyes on the helpless, and when others hurt them, he moves to balance the scales of justice. It’s been said that "The arm of the universe is long but it bends toward justice." There are days and times when this is hard to believe, especially in light of events like the terrorist bombing in Mumbai. But this truth stands like a solid rock for the believer.
If all of history is a book, we haven’t reached the final chapter yet. We’re somewhere near the end, but we’re not sure how far away we are. But we know this much. Eventually God will bring everything to light, and he will judge with impartiality. In that day there will be no hiding, no excuse-making, no bribes, and no way of escape. All of us who labor for a better world and a more just society and to those who stretch out a helping hand....you have to believe this or you can’t go on. Are you needy? The answer is yes whether you know it or not. You are needy and God is on your side. That’s a great place to start.
2. He Shows Mercy to Those Who Don’t Deserve It. Look at vs 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
Here are the four great attributes of God in this verse: 1) The Lord is compassionate-He pardons us. 2) The Lord is gracious-He gives us what we don’t deserve. 3) The Lord is slow to anger-He is patient with us when we fall. 4) The Lord abounds in love-He loves us more than we can imagine.
The King James Version translates the last phrase of verse 8 by saying that God is "plenteous in mercy." Charles Spurgeon put it like this..."All the world tastes of his sparing mercy, those who hear the gospel partake of his inviting mercy, the saints live by his saving mercy, are preserved by his upholding mercy, are cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through his infinite and everlasting mercy." I like that! Seven kinds of mercy in just one sentence. That’s plenteous mercy for anyone who needs it.
3. He Tempers His Wrath. Vs 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
Well, that’s some good news, isn’t it? Have you ever known anyone who loved to argue? We all know people who love to keep a quarrel going because they are so angry. God is not like that. He is willing to end the quarrel and welcome us back home. Sometimes the real problem is that we want to keep fighting him. He’s more ready to forgive than we are to be forgiven!
When we forget to pray, he remembers to feed us. When we forget to give thanks, he sends us restful sleep. When we idle in sin, he sends his Holy Spirit to convict us. When we refuse to give, he keeps on giving still. When we fall, he lifts us up. When we disappoint ourselves and others, he still calls us his children. What a forgiving God we have!
He even blesses those who don’t believe in him. Pastor Rhonda and I saw a movie called "Expelled" where it shows the defiance of scientists to acknowledge the exsistance of God. Richard Dawkins wrote a book called "The God Delusion" in which he not only denies God’s exsistance, but calls all those who do believe basically a bunch of uneducated idiots. But see the mercy of God. Instead of crushing him like an empty eggshell, the Lord feed him and nourishes him and gives him health and love and life. It is the longsuffering of God that allows Richard Dawkins to deny him. And why would God show such kindness to someone utterly dedicated to eradicating his influence in the world? Because God is not in the least intimidated by Richard Dawkins or any other athiest. The fact that God withholds punishment to his enemies is evidence of his mercy. Rm 2:4 "God’s kindness leads you toward repentance"
4. He Forgives All Our Sins. Vs 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
More good news! Let’s consider the greatness of God’s love. Astronomers tell us that the farthest known light source from the earth is ten billion light years away. That means that light starting from that source would take ten billion years traveling at the speed to light to arrive at the earth. By contrast the nearest star is "only" four light years away from us. That’s four years traveling at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second. Light from the sun reaches the earth in a little over eight minutes. So even the nearest star is a vast distance from the earth.
Here are two inescapable realities. First, we live in a tiny corner of the universe, and second, the universe is vast beyond our comprehension. But God’s love is greater, vaster, larger, deeper, longer, broader, and bigger in all dimensions that the universe itself. Get in a rocket equipped with any sort of sci-fi system you can imagine. Fly at warp speed if you like. Go as far as you can go, to the end of the known universe and beyond. And when you have gone as far as you can go, look up and smile because God’s love is still going. You will never reach the end of it.
So how far exactly is the east from the west? No matter how far east you go, you will never find the west. Never the twain shall meet. The farther east you go, the farther you are from the west. And that’s how far your sins are from you when God forgives them. When God forgives, he removes our sins, he lifts them up, he takes them away, and he puts them so far away from us that we could never find them if we searched for them for a thousand years. They are gone forever. My sins can never come back to haunt me again...even Satan can’t bring them back. They’re gone! Aren’t you glad we have a God like that? I am!
5. He Understands Our Weakness. Vs 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him
It’s hard to understand that until you have children of your own. We have great emphathy and compassion for our kids, don’t we? A lot of room for error. Always believing the best, always trusting that they’re gonna do OK. And we tolerate a lot more out of them than we would anyone else! 1 PETER 4:8 tells us....“love will cover a multitude of sins.” And we’ve already seen how much God loves us!
Listen, our earthly fathers--however imperfect they may be--point us upward to our Heavenly Father. When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. Our children learn that we do not worship a god of stone or an empty idol or a remote deity or an impersonal machine in the sky. We serve a Father God who knows our weakness and loves us anyway. Thank God for Godly fathers here on earth!
6. He Remembers That We Are Dust. Vs 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.
Here is a truth we all understand, especially in this time of the year. Yesterday’s green leaves soon turn brown. It is an inexorable law of nature that the green leaves of spring end up in a pile on your lawn. If you don’t believe me, drive by our house and look at the front yard! Not so much here in Texas, but up north the leaves turn beautiful in the fall. My parents once drove through New England one fall and tell me that it was soooo beautiful. So how does this metamorphise take place? Why do the leaves lose their green and turn such beautiful colors? There is a scientific explanation having to do with the loss of green chlorophyll, but what it simply means is that the leaves are slowly dying. Their beauty comes from their death.
Who remembers each leaf? Not the tree. One by one the leaves fall to the ground where they disintegrate and return to the soil from which they came. No one names them or numbers them or even thinks about them. By now most of the leaves are gone from the trees. It is the way of nature, the way God arranged the changing of the seasons.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve had to add a little "color" to keep my beard brown. It didn’t used to be gray. When God puts gray in your beard, it’s like the leaves turning brown in the fall. Maybe I’m just getting more beautiful like those leaves! It’s God’s way of saying, "You won’t be here forever." We aren’t promised tommorrow. We really aren’t even promised the rest of today! When God puts gray in your beard, it’s like the leaves turning brown in the fall. It’s God’s way of saying, "You won’t be here forever."
If that’s all there is, if we are here today and gone tomorrow, if that’s the end of the story, then there isn’t much hope. But let me share something with you. If you don’t have anything else to be thankful for this year, here’s something you can hang your hat on. Our hope is not in man or in anything man can do. Our hope is in the everlasting God!
7. He Links Us With Eternity By Linking Us With Himself. Vs 17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
There is nothing we can do about our frailty. We come from the hand of our Creator stamped, "Fragile: Handle with care." We are like those dust devils that blow across west Texas. We make a big scene and then suddenly we disappear. Try as we might, we can’t cancel our humanity. Nothing can change what we are. Vitamins and exercise and clean living may slow down the process. Positive thinking may improve our mood. But for all of us, the end is the same: Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust.
Vs 17 offers us one strong ground of comfort that lifts us up above the transitory nature of this life. It is the "but" of verse 17, that one word that changes everything. That word offers an eternal contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God, our mortality and God’s eternity. This is our real hope of life that never ends.
Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope. And this endless hope is not only to us but to our children’s children. What will we leave our children? A vast estate? A large inheritance? A huge life insurance policy? Whatever we may say about earthly possessions, they pale next to the privilege of passing down a godly heritage, a tapestry of truth, and a pattern of believing that our children and grandchildren can claim as their own. In a transient and passing world where everything fades away, we have the promise that we are linked to the future even after we are gone by the faithfulness of God to our children to our children’s children. This, too, is the mercy of God.
What is Psalm 103 telling us? We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize. We frail, mortal sinners are rich in the mercy of God. And we have found that mercy--or rather, that mercy has found us--in the cross of Jesus Christ. During one of his sermons Billy Graham told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England. As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, "I’m lost. Please take me home." And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.
Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, "Do you live anywhere near that place?" The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, "Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home." All that we believe, all that we have, all that we hope for is found in the cross of Christ. Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.
Are you weak? So am I..........Are you needy? So am I...............Are you guilty? So am I..............Are you frail? So am I............Are you like dust? So am I. God says to us...His weak, needy, guilty, frail, dusty children... "I know you through and through, and I love you anyway. Come to me. Rest in me. Make me your Rock." God’s mercy in Christ is more than enough for all of us.
