Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

Humbling ourselves before the Lord is not just an exercise in humility for its own sake, it is a pure form of praise. King David praised the Lord in Psalm 103, with many of us remembering verse 12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” That verse alone deserves its own unpacking, as contrary to north and south on Earth, if one heads east, one can never be heading west. But we’ll save that for another time. Look to verse 13 and 14, “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.” While God’s wrath against sin is real and justified, for He is holy, so, too is His great love. As parents, we have low expectations for our young children – milestones include first steps, first words, and the like. Such things are not noteworthy except for the fact that they are an achievement for the young one achieving them. It is part of the love of a parent that forgives all the wrong because, often, children do not know what wrong they do. We look at them with a different perspective than we consider other people. Consider then the perspective of God, our Father who created us, as Genesis 2:7 tells us, by breathing life into dust. He has the heart of a good and perfect Father, and when we sin, He remembers how He formed us and what we are. If we were not mere dust, or as Paul says “jars of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7), so much more might be expected of us. We may be called to stand upon our own merit, our own good deeds. But as God has the good and perfect heart of a Father, He sent the only suitable means to bring us back to Himself in righteousness – His son Jesus Christ. Thus, we are humbled when we remember how we were formed; we are humbled when we consider God’s great love for us; we are humbled when we believe that we are made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ alone, who paid the cost of our sin in our place. This humble posture of the heart is revealed then in praise to the One who gives us the way, the truth, and the life. Today, pray over Psalm 103, allow the kind of humility that Christ showed us when we went to the cross for us to wash over you, and praise the Lord for His goodness.

“for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” – Psalm 103:14