Freedom is Good News Part 25

If you’ve been with me these past two weeks, you know that we have been looking into Psalm 103.  We have seen that God is loving, compassionate and gracious.  He is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.  And I hope we have seen that these are not just things God has decided to do, but that they are inherently a part of His personality.

It would be a decidedly foolish thing for Him to do; create a beautiful environment for life, provide everything needed in abundance and create a life form to dwell there, all the while ruing the day that He did so.  No, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son….  God, our God loves us and wants us to come to love Him.

This is a beautiful Psalm!  God so loves us that (verse 10), “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”  In other words it is we who have gone astray in our respect and love for Him and still, His love is bigger than we are!  His love is bigger than our foolishness.  His love is bigger than our sins.

Verse 11 says it all very well, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear Him.  As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” 

Jesus Christ while on this earth told us that we should call this great God of the entire universe, “Father”.  All of us have had a father and perhaps many of you reading this are fathers.  Some of us have had wonderful, loving fathers and other of us … well, not so much.  We do not live in a perfect world.  But God our Father loves us with an undying love; with a love that goes beyond our understanding.  And so in verse 13 we see King David using a metaphor that we can all grasp.  He informs us that, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.”

Oh, wait a minute here, didn’t we just read that there’s a condition to that love from God?  Doesn’t it say He has compassion on those that fear Him?  What’s up with this fear?  The word for fear in the original Hebrew has several nuances of meaning.  Vines Hebrew Dictionary has this to say about the word “yare” (fear):  “Used toward a person in an exalted position, “yare” (fear) connotes “standing in awe”.  This is not simple fear, but reverence, whereby one individual recognizes the power and position of the individual revered and renders him proper respect.  In this sense the word may imply submission to a proper ethical relationship to God.”  Yes, that’s a mouthful but I believe you see how this word is used in the Psalm. 

In this 21st century we sometimes lament the way children do not show respect for parents and elders.  Do you, as a child of God, show respect and fear for Him?

More good news to come, in this beautiful Psalm of David’s.