Because God knows our frame, He has compassion on us.
Psalm 103 came up recently in a group study I'm apart of. I’m sure I've read it before, but this time I fell in love with it. Do yourself a favour and spend some time with this psalm soon. There is just so much uplifting truth in it. It’s my new favourite.
In particular my mind kept coming back to verses 13-14:
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13-14)
So beautiful. What grabbed me is the line “he knows our frame.” I took that to mean that God knows us inside and out. He knows how we are wired: what delights us, what inspires us, but also what trips us up. He knows the temptations we face, the hardships and pain that eat away at our core.
He knows because he made us, but also because he lived the human life as Jesus. From helplessness as a babe, the grief of losing loved ones, the searing pain of betrayal, to the temptation of choosing his own path to glory in this world, Jesus knows what it is to be human.
I've even come to love the line, ”he remembers that we are dust.” I think maybe because it gives me a release from a level of perfection I can't reach. Compared to him, I am dust, and what is "dust" alone?
He knows. He knows it all.
But here’s the really good news: Because God knows, he has “compassion”. I love that word, but I realized I couldn’t articulate what it meant. So, I looked it up: The Hebrew word translated means love, compassion, and sometimes mercy. I also found the Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition to round out my understanding of compassion: "the sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” God sees, he understands, he loves, he has mercy, and he wants to do something about it. That’s a lot of action from one word, and that's what we see when we read about Jesus' ministry on earth.
This promise, however, seems to be for certain people. This compassion is extended to those “who fear him”. What does fearing God look like? Hmm.... I'll have to meditate on that some more. For now though, I’m going to take comfort in the promise of God’s compassion for me.
Thank you Lord for loving me enough to know me and understand me. Thank you for being with me through my joy and pain. Thank you for caring enough not to leave me where I am. Lord, I need you. I am dust on my own, but with you, I am whole.
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