psalm 103: mercy is god's defining characteristic - 17th week tuesday

Foremost in our minds as young adolescents are the values of fairness and justice.  If they are treated like that, then we should also be treated like this.  If they have free day, then we should also have free day.  If we are punished then they should also be punished.  The concern is what is fair and just.  But as we grow older we realize that the world is not a fair place and relationships are not always just.  The corrupt are better off, the honest guys lose.  The good suffer, while those who do evil thrive.  The world is unfair, the world is not just place.  This is our realization as we grow older.

However, we believe that there is an end to everything.  There will be judgement and each one will be held accountable.  This is what our psalm is telling us today.  The LORD secures justice and the rights of all the oppressed.  A time will come when God will dispense justice.  A time will come when people will be held accountable for their deeds.  A time will come when the situation of the oppressed will be made right, and all will receive justice.

And yet it does not stop there.  The more we pray and the more we come to know our true selves, the more God reveals himself to us.  In the psalm God reveals to the psalmist that his defining characteristic however, is not justice.  Rather the defining characteristic of God is mercy.  In justice, each will receive according to what is due and what his sins deserve.  But in the psalm God deals with us not according to our sins, nor does he requite us according to our crimes. 

Merciful and gracious is the LORD, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.

Today let us offer in prayer the injustice we see in this world, the lack of fairness that hurts us often.  But also let us ask God to allow us to see his merciful heart as he deals with sinful men and as he deals with us sinners.