“The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” Psalm 103:6-10
Devotional Thought For The Day
These verses provide us with more “advertisement” of the benefits of God’s kingdom, provided freely to all who are willing to allow God to embrace them in love and to be brought into His family of love. The psalmist wants us to know what these benefits are, and to utilize them, for this world of sin is a difficult and dangerous place to live in. There is free legal counsel and representation “for all who are oppressed,” and the One advocating FOR us is the LORD Himself, the Almighty. He has “accounted” us to be righteous through faith, and this has been the case with all of His people since the days of Adam and Eve. The justice He works is commensurate with this mercy and love; for the repentant there is forgiveness and clemency – “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” – but for the impenitent, those incorrigibly committed to continue oppressing others, there is punishment and legal justice. It is assumed that those who know God’s gracious mercy and steadfast love will not be among those doing oppression, but it is acknowledged that those who seek to do good to others will be taken advantage of and at times oppressed. So it is great to know that we have this help and defense whenever others are turning the screws against us.
Another great benefit of membership in the kingdom of God is the free education – an ongoing and continuing education – in the most important, lofty, noble, and beautiful things, the very “ways of God.” These are all written down and supplied to us by servants of God – Moses is mentioned as representative of all the prophets and apostles of God, the authors of Holy Scripture. This is an incredibly valuable benefit, for to know the Lord and His ways is to understand the very basics of how life in this world works, and what the future holds, both for those who have been brought into God’s kingdom of grace and for those who continue to rebel against God and His salvation. It is one of the most remarkable and incomprehensible weaknesses of the church that so few people are involved in Bible Study, and that many are sporadic in their attendance even at worship. What does this mean? How can one truly know and understand the benefits of God’s kingdom and yet despise them? It is a rabid and deadly temptation of the devil to think that we have “probably” learned about all there is to know about the ways of God, or to arrogantly believe we have arrived at the 90th percentile of the “grading curve” and therefore have graduated from further instruction. Anyone who thinks this way demonstrates that they are not in the upper percentile, but failing miserably! In view of this rejection of God’s ongoing and continuing instruction, it is a good thing that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” and that “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”
Even God’s “chiding,” His encouragement, admonition, instruction, guidance, direction, and discipline are benefits of belonging to His kingdom. It is true, what the Scripture notes about God’s discipline, that “for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.” But it is also true that God’s discipline “later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” [Heb. 12:11] It is a great weakness of our character and fallen nature that we are so self-indulgent that we avoid what is painful and unpleasant at all costs, even when this involves forfeiting great benefit and blessing. This is another dynamic that causes many people to avoid both worship and Bible Study – they do not want to be challenged to any change for the better, but rather to be blessed in what they are, even though they are enmeshed in a selfishness which is oppressive of others and suffocating of their own soul. Lord, have mercy! And of course He does have mercy – “He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” and “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” But if we grasp this and truly understand it, eventually it will thaw our icy hardness toward His instruction so that we embrace His benefits and blessings, and allow Him to be our Lord and God – even though this involves personal discomfort.
The psalmist was fully enmeshed in this deep, painful, healing, blessed relationship with God, and this is what the Scripture is referring to when it describes him as “a man after My heart, who will do all My will.” [Acts 13:22] From his own experience and understanding of the “ways of God” and the “acts of God,” he encourages us to receive and become fully enmeshed in the same blessed benefits of God’s kingdom. Such a life is quite different from a myopic and deluded sense of self-righteous goodness and accomplishment; it is filled with the bitter realities of recognizing our sinfulness in repentance, but also with fullness of joy in God’s ways and acts – His mercy, forgiveness, steadfast love, and healing. These are the benefits of being a true and genuine child of God.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, help us to more fully understand and embrace Your benefits, even though they be difficult and painful and counter to what we might like. Forbid that we should forget Your benefits or turn away from them in arrogance or indifference. Bless us deeply as You did David, with the wisdom and renewal of knowing Your ways and Your acts. Draw us closer to You so that the evil one may not sift us and devour us. Amen.