Father

Picture a father crouching down to eye level with a child who has just broken something expensive. He does not raise his voice. That is the whole scene, so hold it in your mind for a moment.

Now let the psalm do what it was written to do. Psalm 103 is praise before it is comfort, and it does not begin with anybody's need. It begins with David giving orders to his own soul: "Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." Then he starts counting what God does. He "forgiveth all thine iniquities," "healeth all thy diseases," "redeemeth thy life from destruction," and "crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies." Today's verse is one item in a long list of what God is like. It was never meant as a technique for feeling better about yourself.

The verse also has a boundary that many readings step over: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him." To fear God here means to take Him seriously as God, which is different from being scared of Him. Reverence and warmth turn out to be the same relationship, seen from two sides. Then, in the next verse, the psalm explains why God pities us: "For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." That is more than a soft feeling. It is a Maker who knows exactly what He made you from.

If you were not given a good father, this picture may land awkwardly. The psalm does not ask you to start from your own father and work up to God. It holds up the LORD as the picture of what a father was always meant to be.

So here is a blessing for you, built from the psalm's own words. May the LORD who knows your frame be gentle with you today, remembering the dust He made you from. May He crown this ordinary week with lovingkindness and tender mercies. And may everyone under your roof learn what a father is from the One this psalm describes.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 156 is Buried With Him (Romans 6:4).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna