The Daily Word

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Psalm 103 is one we turn to regularly, not only in our public worship, but also in our private meditations on God’s Word. It contains many thoughts of blessing to our souls. Quite early on in the psalm we have some essential characteristics of God defined. They are essential in many ways but primarily because they spell out crucial statements on God’s dealings with His people, and by that, I mean each one of us.

The first of these characteristics is, “The Lord is merciful”. We often concentrate, quite rightly, on the love of God. Love can be expressed in many ways, and we are eternally thankful to God for His love to us. But each of us may experience God’s love in widely differing ways. But mercy can only be expressed in one way, forgiving an offence against someone when a just punishment would be expected.

We can perhaps all look back to when God was merciful to us in forgiving all our sin because we realised that the punishment had been borne by Jesus on the cross. We would have wished from that point onwards in our lives to be able to live a perfect sinless life. But that is far from the case. All our sin has been forgiven, even those sins we commit every day and when we confess our failings, God restores that fellowship with Himself. And His mercy extends to us in that many times He shields us from the expected outcome of our sin. We have proved in practice many times over that God is merciful. Look back in your own lives and see how God has protected you, by His mercy, especially as He is the essence of holiness and righteousness.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church 

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