Tim’s Daily Bread Devotional 6.20.22

By June 20, 2022Daily Bread

Good morning!

I hope this day finds you and your family well. I invite you to take a few moments with me to read and reflect upon today’s scripture selection — and to carry these thoughts with you into your day.

Today’s Scripture: Psalm 103:8-18 New Revised Standard Version

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always accuse,
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 the heavens are high 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 he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we were made;
he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.

 

Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today

We celebrate Father’s Day in June, and today’s passage from Psalm 103 is appropriate for the day.  Today’s passage compares the compassion of God to the compassion of the most loving father.  One of the many images of God in scripture is that of a Father.  There are others, of course.  Just to name a few:  God is like a mother eagle (Deuteronomy 32:11-12), God is like a comforting mother (Isaiah 66:13), God is like a nursing mother (Isaiah 49:15), God is like a woman in labor (Isaiah 42:14), God is like a vineyard owner (Isaiah 5:1-7), God is like a builder (Job 38:1-18), God is like a potter (Jeremiah 18:1-12), and the list goes on.

The image of God as Father brings to mind the very best of what fatherhood is about.

But there’s a challenge in this passage—at least as it is in most translations.  Verse 13 says, “As a father has compassion for his children, so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him.”  The word “fear” is a stumbling block, especially for those whose image of God or experience of their father has been negative.  Are we to be afraid of God?  Are we to fear the One who delivers us from fear (Psalm 34:4)?

There are better translations of the word that get at its meaning in context.  Here are a few:

Honor (Common English Bible)

Worship (Contemporary English Version)

Respect (Expanded Bible)

Reverence (Living Bible)

Revere (The Voice)

Jesus addressed God as Abba, generally translated as “Father,” but it is a much more intimate word.  Perhaps a better translation would be “Daddy.”  The depth and breadth of that love are perfectly seen in the life and teachings of Jesus.

At all times—especially when times are hard or when God feels distant—the words of Psalm 103 remind us that God’s love is like the love of the most loving parent.

 

Hymn: “Children of the Heavenly Father”

by Caroline V. Sandell-Berg (1855); translated by Ernst W. Olson (1925)

Children of the heav’nly Father
safely in his bosom gather;
nestling bird nor star in heaven
such a refuge e’er was given.

God his own doth tend and nourish;
in his holy courts they flourish.
From all evil things he spares them;
in his mighty arms he bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
from the Lord his children sever;
unto them his grace he showeth,
and their sorrows all he knoweth.

Though he giveth or he taketh,
God his children ne’er forsaketh;
his the loving purpose solely
to preserve them pure and holy.

Thank you for sharing this moment of your day with me, with God, and with these reflections on a portion of scripture.  I hope you will carry these with you throughout your day and night.

Grace and Peace,


Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor