This passage from Psalm 103 is
incredibly comforting. It is bookended
by two statements of God’s love for His children, and packed in the middle with
a tender understanding of how frail we humans really are.
Psalm 103:17 - But from everlasting
to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him
Things to think about:
·
Psalm 103:13 - As a father has compassion on his children, so the
Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
o
14 for he knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.
o
15 The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower
of the field;
o
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers
it no more.
o
17 But from everlasting to everlasting the
Lord’s love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their
children’s children—
o
18 with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His
precepts.
·
This psalm does such a beautiful job of illustrating God’s
gentleness for those who do their best to follow Him
o As fathers we
can relate to how much we love our children just because they are our children.
§ Even when we
mess up, He has compassion. Why? It’s in His nature as a father
·
Even in the most challenging parent/child relationships, we never
stop loving our kids. How much more our
Heavenly Father?
·
How do you find comfort in this?
o But also because
He knows well that it’s in our nature to stumble and fall.
§ We are formed from mere dust. Our Creator
knows we are not made of the best stuff…yet.
But when we are with Him in Heaven we will have a new body designed to
last.
§ How does it
make you feel knowing that God always keeps in mind our inherent weakness?
o This life is so short in the scheme of
eternity. We flourish for a season and
then poof – we’re gone from this Earth! While what we do here does matter for
eternity, it’s also just a very small season in the context of eternity.
§ All of our successes
and failures are real but they are also quite temporary
§ How does it
make you feel knowing that in the relative scheme of things our time here is so
brief?
·
Yet
God’s love is anything but temporary
o
But
from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him
§ He will never leave you or forsake you
§ And for all of you grandparents, His
righteousness is with our children’s children (Amen!)
·
But
please note, these promises aren’t for everyone.
o Three times the psalmist reminds us that
we are active participants in this relationship
§ For those who fear Him (vv. 13, 17) and
those who keep His covenant and obey His precepts (v 18)
§ He doesn’t expect perfection, but He does
want our genuine commitment
Gentleness,
compassion, understanding, faithfulness – these are some of the qualities we
see in God’s nature and attitude towards you and me today.
·
How
does focusing on these truths encourage and comfort you?
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