That's Who God Is

Psalm 103:1-18 (ESV)
¹ 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, ³ who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, ⁴ who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, ⁵ who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. ⁶ The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. ⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. ⁸ 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. ¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. ¹⁴ 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. 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.

Let's say I was a waiter in a medium priced restaurant. I take an order from a very rich man and serve him. He leave me a $100 tip. What can I say of this man if I don't know him? Actually, nothing. Unless he does this consistently or I have heard this of this man universally I can't say whether or not he is generous. A one time act does not create a characteristic.

This would be true if a person acts negatively as well. Each of us has known someone to act uncharacteristically of themselves. We said something like: "That's just not like him. I wonder what's wrong." We assume that something negatively has happened outside of his or her life to cause this reaction.

But this is never true of God. He doesn't act because of circumstances. He acts because that is who He is. He never acts uncharacteristically. He is what He does. He does what He is.

Sometimes we want God to act. We ask Him to provide for us or heal us or tell us what to do. We acts as if we have to tell Him to perform like we need Him to. Instead we should see ourselves as getting in tune with Him in our needs. In other words, we need to be where we need to be in order to meet Him where He is. We will always find Him to be forgiving, loving, providing, directing and just when we come to where He is.

Instead we are so often telling Him to come over to where we are. We don't expect any change in our lives to meet Him. We believe that our need is enough for God to meet us. We presume that He should act regardless of our requests are within His will. We think He should respond to what we see as our need without us ever confessing or obeying or seeking Him apart from whatever our need is.

Thus, we ask God to be all the things that David has mentioned in Psalm 103 but fail to understand Him as doing these things because we have not gone to where He is. This is much worse than asking the President of the United States to come to our homes to hear our requests rather than going to meet him at his convenience in the White House. Suppose you wrote a letter to the President requesting such a meeting. Then, you used the lack of response to conclude that he either couldn't hear you, couldn't meet your request or didn't care anything about his people. Obviously, you know that isn't necessarily the case for the President. Why would you assume as much for God?

David has gone to God. He has known Him as characteristically these things.He has received them because of his adjustment to who God is. These attributes are not simply what God has done. They are who He is. And they are known to those who come to Him and walk in His ways.