“The Steadfast Love of God”
October 3, 2010
Dr. Ritch Boerckel
Scriptural Foundation: Psalm 103:13-22, ESV
Of David.
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As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
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for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
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As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
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the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
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But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD's love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children's children-
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with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.
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The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.
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Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
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Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
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Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.
Some of my earliest memories are of sitting in church with my mom, dad, brothers, and sister. Calvary Bible Church
was a red brick building with dark wood in the inside, a balcony which was always mysterious because I was not
allowed to go there, stained glassed windows lining the sanctuary, and very hard pews. Like most little children, I had
a difficult time staying focused on the order of worship. My young mind captured much of the gospel from the
sermons preached, but I also passed time away by drawing pictures of pirates, counting the boards in the ceiling,
looking back at the people sitting behind us, and pressing my index finger along a huge vein that ran from my dad‟s
hand all the way up his arm to his elbow. It was an amazing vein! It was very squishy and unique and I never tired
pressing it and wondering what was going on.
When these sources of focus lost their luster, I would begin to make noise, pester my brothers and sister, crawl
underneath the pews, or any number of activities that would disturb other worshippers around me. This happened
frequently from the ages of three to five and my parents would first try to solve my fidgeting ways with a half stick of
gum or by offering some paper to draw on. When this did not work they would sit me between them and away from
my brothers and sister, and away from sources of temptation. When I persisted in my noisiness, after all of these
things, my dad would issue one warning and if I persisted I knew my dad would take my hand, stand me up in the
middle of the church service, and we would walk together down the aisle to the back of the church and then down
some stairs into the cinder block basement of the church.
Once in that basement, there was a particular storage closet dad would lead me to. I can still hear the voice of my
pastor vibrating down to the basement from the sanctuary above. Dad would turn on the light, close the door, talk to
me about worship, about my misbehavior, and how this was going to hurt him more than me. Dad would administer
discipline and I would cry and wail and dad would hug me and my heart would most often soften. After I calmed
down to a whimper, dad would lead me out of that storage room and over to a drinking fountain, pick me up, lean me
over, and that drinking fountain seemed to me to be a healing stream. It had the coldest water I can remember ever
tasting. Then we would go up the stairs and back into the sanctuary. That was a very frequent pattern.
One Sunday evening however, the discipline of my father did not break my hard heart and it did not soften me. I got
my drink of water, but not broken. I was mad at my dad. I blamed him for my stinging backside and I felt justice had
not been served. I continued to whimper on the outside, yet still defiant on the inside, as we made our way up the
stairs. Then my dad, in compassion, put his hand on my head and he patted my head against his leg to console me. My
head pressed against his leg and a wild thought entered my mind. My hard heart spoke to me, “This is your great
opportunity to get justice”, and with that I turned my head, opened my mouth, and bit down as hard as I could on my
dad‟s leg. Needless to say, we marched straightway down the stairs of the church to go for one more round, this time,
of more effective discipline.
Now, you would think my actions would have taught my dad a lesson, which would be: he would never again take
compassion upon this belligerent, willful boy, but you know, my dad continued to show me the same tender
compassion over and over and over again throughout my life, in spite of the fact I did not deserve it. Why would my
dad not say, “I have learned my lesson! I will never show compassion to that boy ever again!” It was because my dad
was a good dad and I was his son, and good dads have compassion upon their sons.
Psalm 103 teaches us about the steadfast love of God for His own children,
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Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For
He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.
In the first twelve verses of this psalm, David urges himself to remember all God‟s kind actions toward him. He
preaches to himself to bless the Lord for all the benefits that God has laid at his feet. He commits himself to take time
to consciously remember those actions, to meditate upon them, and to appreciate them. David becomes a great
example and model for us to do the same. He begins Psalm 103,
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Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits…
I love that. We do not preach often enough to ourselves to rouse our soul out of spiritual slumber and to awaken
ourselves to lively worship. We do well to follow David‟s example. After committing himself to worship, David then
begins to write a catalog of God‟s benefits that we would be right to remember; that God forgives all our iniquities,
that God heals all of our diseases, that God redeems our life from the pit, that God loves us with an everlasting love,
and that God crowns our life with a satisfaction and a fullness.
In this study, in Verses 13-22, David continues his thought about God‟s kind heart toward him. In verse 13, David
focuses on the Fatherliness of God‟s nature. In Verses 14-16, David focuses upon the feebleness of man‟s nature.
Finally, he leaves us with the thought of the fruitfulness from fearing God.
We will first look at Verse 13 and consider the Fatherliness of God‟s nature, as we read,
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As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
God‟s compassion and His love for us is not dispassionate and it is not distant, but rather His compassion and love is
close and it brings us near to Him. It is full of the feelings of a father toward their child and it is relational.
The analogy of God being the Father of Psalm 103 is the shadow of what will take full shape in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament we gain the sense of the fatherliness of God, but in the New Testament God drives this truth
home to us with full force; namely God is the Father of those who trust in Him and believe in His Son.
The God who described Himself in the Old Testament as the majestic King who is holy, holy, holy, and just and
righteous, and we see that throughout the Old Testament, now describes Himself in the New Testament as “Father”.
We see Him describing Himself in the Old Testament as merciful, slow to anger, and kind and compassionate, but it
reaches its fullness in the New Testament as Jesus becomes the expression of God the Father to us as He is born into
this world and as He lives out His life before His Disciples and the people around Him.
Jesus is the One who taught us to pray this way, “Our Father who art in Heaven.” You do not find that address in the
Old Testament. So, how often do we to think of the “fatherliness” of God and how often ought we think of the
“fatherliness” of God? It is as often as we pray. Every time we pray, we ought to think God is our Father and wonder
at that expression.
“Father” is now the covenant name God takes to bind Himself to His children. We are His family and heirs of His
kingdom. This is most profound. J.I. Packer, in his book, Knowing God,1 writes this, “You sum up the whole of New
Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one‟s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a
person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God‟s child, and having God as
his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it
means he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes
the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely
Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. „Father‟ is the Christian name for God.”
If we ask the question, “What is a Christian”, one great answer and one great response to that question is a Christian is
one who has God as his Father. This cannot be said of every person. All people are not children of God, and God is
not the Father of every person born into this world. That is the clear teaching of the Scriptures. The Old Testament
teaches us God is the Father of a chosen nation and of a chosen people. In Exodus 4, God is speaking to Moses and
He is telling Moses what he is to say to Pharaoh, the Egyptian leader,
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, „Let
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my son go that he may serve me.‟”
Can you imagine how offensive that was to the leader of Egypt? Egypt was not God‟s son. That relationship was
reserved for those whom God had chosen to have mercy upon. The New Testament envisions God as the Father, not
of a people of a particular nation, but of people from every nation. Again, the New Testament teaches God is the
Father only of those who believe in His Son, Jesus as Savior and Lord. We read that in Galatians 3,
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You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus…
The liberal church often times stops, in that quotation, with, “You are all sons of God…”
In John 1, we read,
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But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
The gift of sonship becomes ours, not as we are born naturally into this world, but as we are supernaturally born again
by God‟s Spirit. The first question to ask before we begin to study Psalm 103 is this, “Is God my Father?” If we can
answer this question affirmatively, our answer changes the way we relate to God and the way we relate to everyone
else in this world. We now are bound to God by familial relationship! He loves us with a Father‟s love and we can
fellowship with Him now and forever and ever. God‟s Fatherhood answers the question of whether or not we can lose
our salvation.
The child does not secure his/her own place in the family; the Father secures that place for us. God‟s family is not
dysfunctional with some having entered into the family and then disowned from it. While this world knows the
heartache of broken families, Heaven does not. The family is whole in Heaven. While in this world we find families
in which siblings refuse to talk to one another and in which the parent/child bond is severed, Heaven does not admit
such brokenness. There are some earthly fathers who shut the door in their children‟s faces and say, “I never want to
speak to you again. I never want to see you. Get away from me,” but things are not like that in God‟s eternal family.
How sad would that be?
1
InterVarsity Press, 1993, 286 pages
God‟s family is absolutely and eternally stable because God‟s compassion is from everlasting, it was before we were
born, to everlasting, it is infinite in time and measure. The Father‟s compassion binds us to the Father‟s family. Only
bad fathers throw their children permanently out of the family and God is not a bad Father. God is not the Arminian
god who rises up in anger against his own children for their disobedience and tells them never to speak to Him again.
No, the God of the Scriptures is the God who is constant in His affection toward His own children and when they go
astray He disciplines then successfully and effectively because He is determined to rescue them from sin. He will not
allow sin to gain the upper hand in His own children‟s life. He never disowns them.
I do not praise everything taught under the banner of Calvinism, but that Arminian doctrine which teaches God
lovingly adopts children into his family, only to later disown them and put them on a plane and send them back to the
kingdom of darkness, I believe to be an assault upon God‟s character. It is a thought unworthy of Him.
Look at verse 14, and we can ask the question, “Why is it God has such compassion upon us?” It is because it is so
necessary,
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For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
He knows continued, ongoing, everlasting compassion is something which has to have the force of God‟s goodness
moving, because it does not naturally flow to people who frame is so weak and so feeble and so failing. God knows
the spiritual weakness of our nature and our proneness to move away from Him, to rebel against Him, and to sin. He
is not surprised by that proneness to disobedience. 2 Timothy 2 says,
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…if we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny himself.
We are His own now!
There are several applications of this idea of God being our Father and the Fatherliness of God. First, having God as
our compassionate Father motivates us to please Him and to bring Him glory in all we do and think. We do not obey
God because we have a slavish fear of what He will do to us if we do not. We obey Him because we love Him and He
first loved us. We revere, esteem, and respect Him because we know what a great Father He is to us. We do not obey
God in order to receive His affection. His affection is already there. It has already been given and applied to us. We
obey God out of our position of affection and out of a position of being loved.
There are a number of illustrations we might draw from our human experience with our dads. Some of you
undoubtedly had great dads and some of you, perhaps, had poor ones, but I believe the image of God in us has painted
for all of us a picture of what a “good” dad is. The Father always meets that perfect picture of what a good dad is
about. I remember growing up and recognizing the love of my dad for me and I wanted to please him. It was not
because I was fearful if I did not he would strike me down. I just wanted to please him because he was so pleasing to
me.
I remember on one occasion, as a young adult, I had begun a very superficial dating relationship with a girl. I had only
gone on a couple of dates with her. She was a sincere Christian, but she was not a Christian of maturity and strong
character. She was very pretty and fun and that caused me to want to date her several of more times, but I remember
not wanting to bring her home to meet my parents. It was not because there was something horribly wrong about her,
but I wondered whether or not my dad would look at me and say, “Son, that is a great decision.” I knew my dad was
not going to come and embarrass the girl or embarrass me. He was not going to come and chide me and say, “Son,
you really messed up here!” He is not the kind of dad who did that. I also knew, in his thoughts, as he got to know this
young lady, he wasn‟t going to say, “Ritch, good decision, great decision!” But, that is what I wanted.
Shortly after that, that relationship ended largely because I recognized if my dad was not pleased maybe God wasn‟t
please and that was not a relationship I needed to continue. I wanted so much to please my dad, not because I did not
think he was already pleased with me, but because I had such reverence and esteem for him, and as we come to know
God as our Father, and as we recognize His love, His affection, and His compassion upon us there is a motivation
which rises up within the soul of God‟s children and we say, “I want to please you, Father.” I think that this is what
Paul is driving at when He says, in 2 Corinthians 5,
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So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
I believe the writer of Hebrews is addressing this in Chapter 6,
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And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he
exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Believers desire to please God, not out of a slavish fear, but out of a love, an admiration, an esteem, and a respect.
The second application is having God as our compassionate Father motivates us to live out our faith before others. We
want others to know what a great God our Father is. We know our way of living will give a certain impression to
others about our Heavenly Father. Either, when others meet us and hear about our Father who is in Heaven and the
relationship we have with Him, they will think more of Him as a result of our life or they will think less of Him. The
more we come to appreciate and enjoy this idea of God‟s Fatherliness to us, the more motivated we are to say, “I do
not want to do anything that would reflect poorly upon my Father.”
The third application is having God as our compassionate Father calms us in anxious times. This is what Jesus is
driving at in the Sermon on the Mount, when He says, in Matthew 6,
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“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about
your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of
the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of
more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are
you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you,
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which
today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, „What shall we eat?‟ or „What shall we drink?‟ or „What shall we wear?‟ 32 For
the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Isn‟t it a joy to know the Fatherliness of God‟s affection toward us and His tender care?
We now look at the feebleness of man‟s nature. Again we read in the text,
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For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes
like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
God‟s compassion toward us is such He does not grow frustrated with us; He does not pull His hair out at our foibles
and faults; He is not irritated by our failings. He knows our frame. This is not an excuse for us to sin. We are still
responsible for every sin we commit, and we can be sure God will discipline us to drive sin far from us. David is
reminding all of us where we came from; we came from dust. The next time we think we are strong and self-
sufficient, and we can provide for ourselves, go out into the field, grab a handful of dirt, crumble it in your hands, and
let it fall through and say, “That is where I came from and this is where this body will return. That is how self-
sufficient I am. I need God to give me life. Just as God breathed into dust and formed Adam out of the dust of the
ground, so I need God‟s life to be infused in me to live out my life for His glory. I am not self-sufficient. I need Him.”
But also, David is acknowledging God understands our feebleness and He understands our weakness. God is not
working with supermen and superwomen, but He is working with weak souls, and He does not hold us in contempt
for our weakness. He does not ridicule us or mock us, but He holds us tenderly in His unfailing love. We all need the
compassion of the Lord because we are all weak before Him. If we were self-sufficient and strong, we would not need
God‟s fatherly compassion, but we are not.
In what ways are we weak? Let us consider a few of them. First, we are weak in our capabilities. We forget when we
should remember. We neglect duties when we should be diligent in them. We are ignorant when we should be
informed. We are careless when we should be alert. We are children and our Father does not get in our face and yell
and scream about how worthless we are as a result, but He patiently continues to work with us and teach over and
over again. He does not dismiss us because we are prone to forget our lessons and say, “Get out of my class you
worthless student!” In compassion He teaches and He does not tire instructing us and helping us along. Aren‟t you
glad for that?
There are a couple of applications for that truth. First, do not think we do not share the same privileges as children as
those who are much more intelligent and much more, much more talented, and who have much more learning. Know
God looks over His children, regardless of where they are in their development, and He loves us thus all the same.
There are many believers who think to themselves, “I don‟t feel comfortable in a prayer meeting because there are
some people who know how to pray so much more than I do. I stumble and stammer. I do not want to go to a Bible
study because it seems as though everybody there knows the Bible backward and forward and I hardly know how to
open my Bible to get to Genesis.”
Understand, beloved, God has tender compassion upon us and has the same love for that child who is in the infancy
stages as He has for the one who has grown in years and who has advanced in knowledge and understanding. Do not
let pride keep you from enjoying God‟s family and enjoying God as your Father in the midst of that family.
In another application, if the Father has compassion on our weakness, how much more ought we to have compassion
upon others. Beware of pride which looks down upon others as somehow they are unworthy of our fellowship and
unworthy of our relationship, and hold others in the body with contempt because of their weakness. God knows our
frame and if we are growing to becoming more and more like our Father, we will grow and become more and more
affectionate and compassionate in the midst of others‟ weaknesses rather than being frustrated with them.
God knows our frame in that we are weak in our capabilities and He knows our frame in that we are weak in our
physical strength; that we get tired and sick. This is one of the points David is making,
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As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and
it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
We often place expectations upon others because we do not understand the weaknesses of others; their physical
weaknesses, their emotional weaknesses, and their mental weaknesses. God says He never does that, so let us not
misjudge others‟ strength and so get frustrated with them, but let us understand as God understands us. Isn‟t it good to
know God understands when we say, “I can‟t! I do not have the strength.”
We, finally, are weak in our foolish sins. God does not wink at our sins. He disciplines us in love, but He does not lay
blow upon blow in order to make us pay for our offenses against Him. He is not furious, as a judge would be furious,
with an offender, as we read in Verses 8 and following,
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The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always
chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us
according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love
toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions
from us.
The Father does not let sin define His children. When we look back at the Disciples we do not call Peter, “Peter, the
Denier” do we, because Jesus did not call Peter, “Peter the Denier”. Three days after Peter denied with oaths and
curses, the Lord Jesus reached out and said, “Peter, I am offering you and invitation to reenter into meaningful service
in my Kingdom.” Isn‟t that amazing!
If we were a human boss having a human employee do what Peter did to Jesus, we would say, “It is over for you. You
are gone,” but God is a Father, He is not an employer. He says, “Peter, I love you. I understand your frame. I
understand you are as dust. Peter, feed my sheep again.”
We call Thomas, “Doubting Thomas”. I believe that is unfair because God never called Thomas, “Doubting Thomas”.
When Jesus saw Thomas, right after he made his “doubting statement”, Jesus did not say, “Thomas, doubting
Thomas, that is who you are. Your sins define you.” No, He said, “Here, put your hands in my side; put your fingers
through my hands”, and Thomas fell down in tears and said, “My Lord and my God!”2
Now we will look at the fruitfulness from fearing God, as we read,
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But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his
righteousness to children's children…
Understand the condition is that of fearing God. It is bowing before Him, submitting to Him, trusting in Him, and
embracing Him. There is a condition which must be met in order to have God act in compassion as our Father. If we
have not come to the place of embracing His Son Jesus as Savior and Lord, then, friend, you are outside the walls of
God‟s compassion and you are living inside the walls of His justice and that is a fearful place to be.
God invites you to come and receive mercy and grace. God invites you to come and fear Him and esteem Him and to
bow your heart before Him and commit your way to Him, and receive all of His goodness to yourself. The fruitfulness
of fearing God is a fruitfulness of being introduced and adopted into a family in which the Father will never disown
you, will never cast you out, will never leave you, and will never forsake you, but will forever, from this day forward,
have compassion upon you.
So, I bit my dad on his leg, and he kept on having compassion upon me! I am so thankful for that, and if we, who are
evil, know how to have compassion upon our children when they offend us, how much more will our Heavenly Father
continue to have compassion upon us? God does not allow His children to be defined by their sin. He does not say,
“There is the adulterer! There is the thief! There is the liar! There is the greedy man! There is the covetous woman!”
God, in His redeeming love, reaches out to you and He says, “There is my son! There is my daughter! My compassion
will be upon you from everlasting to everlasting.” Praise God that is so.
2
John 20:24-28