Our Compassionate God

In my family, I’m definitely the odd one out. While I studied languages and business in college, my siblings studied biological sciences. Between the three of them, they have researched diseases, treated athletic injuries, and assisted with numerous surgeries. On the other hand, I get queasy just at the thought of blood. (I’ve kindly asked them to talk about work after we’ve finished eating.)

While the details of human anatomy are foreign to me, I do understand the ingenuity and precision with which God formed us in body, mind, and spirit. Every day, I’m amazed by how God created us: how every pushup strengthens my body, how knowledge builds in my mind, and how God nourishes my spirit. God has truly painted a work of art within all of us.

But this doesn’t mean we’re invincible!

We have weakness, and the current circumstances in the world have certainly exposed them. Between the coronavirus pandemic, the racial tension, and the political divides uprooting our country, mankind is struggling to hold the world together, and I’m struggling to hold myself together.

As I watch negative headlines dominate the news, I find myself physically and mentally drained. Feelings of discouragement have crept in as I realize how powerless I am against these circumstances.

Search for Answers in Scripture

Seeking comfort for my troubled heart, I opened my Bible and landed on the second half of Psalms 103:

As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
  he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more. (vv. 13-16 ESV)

At first, I was startled to read this passage. When I think about who I am in God’s eyes, the words “daughter,” “treasured,” and “clothed in his righteousness” come to mind. But the words “you are dust” wouldn’t look pretty on a decorated sign hanging in my apartment.

So although I dismissed the psalm at first, with every new headline I read, the Holy Spirit brought these verses back to mind.

Seek to Know God First

In my last formal Bible study, the author challenged us to stop looking at the Bible for what it says about us and instead read Scripture to learn more about who God is. By having a better grasp on who God is, we can understand how we relate to him.

Going back to Psalm 103, I realized I had jumped over the first two stanzas about God and went straight to the stanzas about me. I pondered why David had written the psalm in this way as I revisited verse 13: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”

David wanted us to know, first and foremost, that God is a God of compassion to those who fear him and who belong to him. David then reminds us who we are in relation to our Creator. So why does God extend his gentleness and compassion to us? Because God remembers how he has formed us.

God is gentle and compassionate toward us because he knows our frame and knows that we are dust.

Admit Our Weaknesses

Now that we understand who God is, what does that say about who we are? In the second half of the passage, David emphasizes the fragility, weakness, and shortcomings of mankind.

As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more” (Ps. 103: 15-16 ESV)

Aside from my queasiness around blood, I am reluctant to acknowledge my weaknesses. When I face a problem or challenge, my first instinct is to tackle it alone. I rely on my own talents, strengths, or possessions to reach success.

So when my news feed filled up with unpleasant stories, I told God, Wait, I can handle this. I can maintain my joy and keep the fear and discouragement away.

My pride kept me from reaching to God for help, but Psalm 103 reminded me that I am a flower of the field. God doesn’t want me or expect me to overcome my circumstances or trials alone.

He responds to me, saying, Come into the arms of your compassionate God. God wishes to lavish his compassion on me—and on you—because he remembers our frame and he knows, as our provider, that we need it.

God Invites Us to Lean into Him

As women formed from dust, we can’t change the headlines. When our own strength fails us, discouragement and frustration may overwhelm us. Holding ourselves together may seem impossible.

But we can rest in the truth that our Father in heaven has not forgotten our form. He has claimed us as his and pours out his love onto us. He extends grace, compassion, and strength to us when we feel weak and disheartened.

So, let’s set aside our tendencies to rely on ourselves. If biology has taught us anything, it’s that God created us as works of art who still desperately need him. Let’s trust him with our delicate frames.

Dear Lord,

I am thankful that you have created me and that you have not forgotten my form. You know my frame, that I am delicate, and that I am made of dust. When I face tough circumstances, I struggle to hold myself together. Today, I run to you, into the arms of my compassionate God, for comfort and strength. May I trust you in these circumstances by remembering that though I am weak, you are strong. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kara J. Lovett is a business consultant in corporate America by day, Christian lifestyle blogger by night, and probably writing novels or traveling on the weekends. Currently residing in Georgia, she is a Southern girl at heart and loves drinking coffee, speaking French, listening to foreign music, and reading books on her porch. She likes to encourage young women through unexpected changes, big life transitions, new experiences, and doing that “adulting” thing. Kara blogs at karajlovett.com.

Photograph © Vinicius Wiesehofer, used with permission