Psalm 103:2-5 God Is Compassionate
“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (NIV).
We count on God’s compassions every day. I know I need His mercy and compassion daily because I don’t follow Him and His leading as I should. I get lazy about Bible reading and I get lazy about prayer. I don’t know why I do that because I am rewarded every time I read His Word, and I come away from prayer time, when I take time to listen for His voice, refreshed. As a member of the human race, I sin both consciously and unconsciously much more than I should, but because of His compassionate nature, I can feel confident that He has forgiven me for all of my sins. As Isaiah suggests in 49:13, I “Shout for joy, you heavens, rejoice, you earth, burst into song you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones” (NIV). I shout, I rejoice, and I burst into song many times in life. Why wouldn’t I shout because of the Lord’s compassion? I shout at baseball games. Why wouldn’t I rejoice because of His compassion? I rejoice when I get a raise at work or get a compliment for some work I’ve done. What better reason is there to sing than having received the compassion of the Lord?
We are rewarded for waiting on the Lord. Isaiah tells us in 30:18, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion, for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him” (NIV). This verse makes it sound like God looks for opportunities to be gracious to us, and we are blessed when we wait for Him. He makes an effort to show us compassion: “…he will rise up to show you compassion….”
Of course, John 3:16 tells of His greatest compassion for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). That makes me eternally grateful to Him for His great compassion.
In his letter in 1 Peter, Peter was encouraging the Christians in Asia Minor who were being persecuted. He told them in chapter 3, verses 8-9: “Finally, all of you, be like minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (NIV). Sounds like serious instruction to “turn the other cheek.” Jesus didn’t say that His instructions were easy, but they were right–as Jesus demonstrated in the time just prior to His crucifixion. Sometimes it is costly to follow Jesus.