A Father’s Day Message:
“The Father’s Heart”
Psalm 103
Watch on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFiMjTUt5DM
Today we celebrate Father’s Day, a day that has set aside to celebrate Fatherhood. It was a day I was looking forward to after the birth of my daughter Danielle. Finally, I’d be recognized as a father, and on that first Father’s Day I was handed my lovely 7-month-old daughter and was told, “You’re her father, she’s yours for the day.” Not exactly what I had in mind.
But all of us fathers have come to realize that this is how it works. We’re taken out to lunch only to end up paying for it, one way or another, like when we sit down to watch the game on TV, and the moms see us idle and say, “If you’re just sitting there, would you mind!”
Normally on Father’s Day sermons revolve around our responsibility as fathers, especially seeing what one author calls the epidemic of fatherless America. In several ways he’s correct, not only in the deterioration of fatherhood in America, but also as America has moved away from the belief in God the Father found in the Bible.
Now, when we think of the word “father,” many of us have mixed emotions considering our fathers as we grew up, that is, from love to hate. Others cannot comprehend the fullness of fatherhood seeing that their fathers were not around because of death, divorce, or abandonment. And for some fear and hatred exists because of a father’s abuse.
And so, when we talk about God the Father, an inaccurate picture is conjured up in our minds. We see our Heavenly Father in the much same light as our human fathers, and a distorted image emerges.
But for me, the fact that I can call God, Father, blows me away. The fact that God desires that sort of closeness and intimacy is just amazing. Further that He wants and desires to be my Father, and as a result has brought me into His family where I’m now an heir to His kingdom! And all this for someone as sinful as I am blows my mind.
As I was reading Psalm 103, I saw a beautiful picture of our heavenly Father’s heart towards us that I would like to share this morning.
It begins by saying that the Father’s heart towards His children is a giving heart.
A Giving Heart
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Psalm 103:2 NKJV)
David is telling us not to forget the benefits of God’s gracious dealings with His people. In the Bible, God continually tells His people not to forget the things they’ve seen Him do, the wonders and miracles He performed, His giving of the law and covenants, and especially His grace and mercy.
You see, as a Father, God gives us nothing but the best. The Apostle James says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17 NKJV)
Jesus said that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (Luke 11:13).
Next, the Psalmist points out that since God has a giving heart, His heart is one that is full of forgiveness.
A Forgiving Heart
“Who forgives all your iniquities.” (Psalm 103:3a NKJV)
Forgiveness has always been at the heart of God, and it’s in this forgiveness that He promises His New Covenant relationship with us. And we see this though what He said to the prophet Jeremiah. He said “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34b NKJV)
We see God’s forgiving heart in the prophet Micah’s declaration.
“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19 NKJV)
What a remarkable declaration. To pardon means to release from the penalty due for an offense. Think of it as standing before a judge and you’ve been found guilty of a crime, but instead of sentencing you, he pardons you and sets you free. And that is exactly what God the Father does, because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins upon the cross.
But even further, what this literally it means is that God lifts us up and bears us upon his shoulders that is He carries our sins, which is exactly what the Messiah was prophesied to do, and which Jesus did.
The prophet Isaiah brings this out in his 53rd chapter. “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows … He shall bear their iniquities … He poured out His soul unto death … He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:4, 11-12 NKJV)
Not only does God bear them away, but He also passes over them. This is a direct reference to that fateful night in Egypt when God passed over the homes of the Jews in Egypt. It says that when He saw the blood of the lamb upon the doorposts of their home the angel of death passed over that house.
What a beautiful picture of Jesus as that Passover Lamb of God who through His death upon the cross paid the penalty for our sins, and for all those who apply the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, upon the doorposts of their hearts, God forgives them and passes over them and they shall never perish.
Micah goes on to say that because it’s in the heart of God to show mercy and pardon; that He will subdue our iniquities and cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
To subdue means to tread upon, so Micah is saying that God’s going to trample all the remaining breath out of our sins and toss them into the sea and out of sight. And when we’re tempted to dredge them up again, God posts the sign, “No Fishing Allowed.”
And this is exactly what the Psalmist brings out in our Psalm.
“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:11-12 NKJV)
The third aspect of the Father’s heart is that it is a healing heart.
A Healing Heart
“Who heals all your diseases.” (Psalm 103:3b NKJV)
Another aspect of God’s heart is His desire to heal. David knew this as he cried out to God, “O Lord my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.” (Psalm 30:2-3 NKJV)
But God not only desires to heal our body and soul, but our spirit as well, as brought out at the end of our verse, saying, “that I should not go down to the pit.”
In the first part of Hosea 14:4, the Lord said, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” (Hosea 14:4a NKJV)
To backslide means to go back into the old ways of life. It speaks of once having that close relationship with God, but now self has taken center stage, and we go back into the direction of our life prior to salvation.
But God has compassion and heals us of this spiritual disease of backsliding. He heals our spirits. But we have to take God’s heavenly prescription, and that is to confess our sins, ask God to forgive us, and then repent, that is, turn from our own ways and back towards to ways of God.
Another aspect of the Father’s heart is a heart that is merciful.
A Merciful Heart
When it comes to understanding God’s merciful heart, there must be a delineation between what is mercy and what is grace, because they are different. Here’s a short definition.
Mercy is God not punishing us as our sins deserve, whereas grace is God blessing us even though we don’t deserve it. Mercy is deliverance from judgment. Grace is extending kindness to the unworthy.
So, as I look at God’s merciful heart I see this explained in this Psalm in three ways.
A Long Fuse
“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.” (Psalm 103:8 NKJV)
Here God is described as being patient. Yes, God gets angry, but because of His compassion and grace, He puts up with a whole lot from us, all in the hope that we’ll take advantage of His mercy by asking for forgiveness and turning back to Him.
But we must never assume that His patience will be forever, or that He’s not concerned with our disobedience. Please note a long fuse isn’t a forever fuse! But we should be thankful for His patience and not giving us what we deserve, which is judgment (mercy), but rather giving us what we don’t deserve, which is forgiveness and salvation (grace).
A Short Memory
“He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.” (Psalm 103:9 NKJV)
We tend to have long memories when it comes to wrongs done to us, but our heavenly Father isn’t like that. He’ll not always accuse or harbor anger against us, because He because chooses to no longer remember our sins against us. If I could, I’d like to paraphrase what the Lord is saying to us through Isaiah 57:16 to explain this.
“If I keep throwing in your face all your past failures, and if I choose to retain an angry disposition towards you because of your sin, then your spirit would grow faint, and you would wither away and die.” (Isaiah 57:16 paraphrase)
A Thick Skin
“He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.” (Psalm 103:10 NKJV)
If God punished us every time we deserved it, then we’d be living in the woodshed. There’s a word that describes this aspect of God’s love for us; it’s called His forbearance. It means God’s patient endurance, which is a redundancy because they both mean the same thing, but I see it more for the emphasis God wants to get across. (That because of his patient endurance, He will not keep us in the woodshed.)
That’s why the Apostle Paul tells us not to despise the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, knowing that these are what leads us to repentance and everlasting life (Romans 2:4).
The fifth aspect of the Father’s heart is that it is big.
A Big Heart
“For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.” (Psalm 103:11 NKJV)
In Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul talks about the bigness of God’s heart and how it can’t be measured.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV)
Now, in Ephesians 3:18, Paul tells us to comprehend, to understand the width, length, depth, and height of Jesus’s love for us. And if I can give a short understanding of this, it is that God’s love has no boundaries, that is, it is bound by nothing.
In Romans 8:35, Paul said that nothing can separate us from God’s love, not tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. These are the very real sufferings humanity faces, but what’s great is that no matter how powerful they may seem they’re not powerful enough to separate us from the heart of God’s love for us.
Therefore, nothing can separate us from the love God the Father has towards us, which was demonstrated when He gave Jesus, His only Son, to come and die for our sins so that we can live in a loving relationship with Him.
Finally, the last aspect of the Father’s heart towards us is that it’s a heart that understands us.
An Understanding Heart
“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.” (Psalm 103:13-14 NKJV)
God knows just how frail we are. Jesus said to the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane that while their spirits may be willing, their flesh was weak (Matthew 26:41).
As our Father, God understand our weaknesses and limitations, and factors in our frailty as He graciously responds to us. The prophet Isaiah said, “He will not crush those who are weak or quench the smallest hope. He will bring full justice to all who have been wronged.” (Isaiah 42:3 NLT)
God knows all about us, and knows what we’re capable of doing, but He also knows what He’s capable of doing for us, in us, and through us.
Conclusion
At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona Spain, the world watched the heart of a father.
Derrick Redman was about to experience his lifelong dream as he was favored to win the 400-meter race. But, 4 months earlier he had surgery on his Achilles tendon, the one he tore right before the exact same race four years earlier an hour before the race began. But now he was clear to run. As he entered the back stretch he tore his hamstring dashing his dream of winning, but not his dream of finishing.
In excruciating pain, he began hopping towards the finish line when suddenly his father jumped out of the stands and past the security guards and threw his arm around his son and said, “Let’s finish this together.”
This is our heavenly Father’s love towards us. He’ll carry us when we don’t have the strength to continue.
Are you experiencing the Father’s heart towards you? God wants you to know that while we were yet sinners, Jesus Christ came and died for us, so that we can finish this race called life and cross the finish line of heaven.
That’s the Father’s heart. It’s a giving and forgiving heart, a healing and merciful heart, a big and understanding heart, and it’s a heart that is full of love for all who come asking Him to be their Father through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
