Psalm 103 may be my favorite Psalm to date. Particularly Psalm 103:8-12:

The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
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.

This week in scripture meditation, I focused on Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”

Sometimes I forget that David didn’t have the benefit of looking back and relying on the finished work of Jesus. He had to have faith in the to-be-fulfilled promise of a coming Christ whom he could cast his transgressions upon. Yet, even without the fulfilling of the promise, David asserted in faith that God had removed his transgressions from him, as far as the east is from the west.

This Psalm boasts encouragement of pure Gospel caliber. Grace, unadulterated and totally saturated. As Christians, with all confidence in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we can shout this verse into the face of any temptation and any sin, knocking to the floor the enemy disarmed.

But for me, these verses haven’t only encouraged me against the enemy’s accusations. It also drips with the Lord’s good favor and patient correction, his love, that at the behest of grace, the Church enjoys in Jesus.

In Christ, God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger and overflowing with unmovable love (v8). That little word “chide” simply means to “rebuke sternly”, and we’re assured that his stern rebuke will not persist and his anger will subside (v9)–a beautiful promise fully fulfilled in Christ (1 John 2:2). Because of Christ, he does not give us what we truly deserve for our sins, but look’s on Jesus’ righteousness which now clothes us (v10). For his children, the infinite height of the heavens is the only right comparison to his great love (v11).

And finally, two of the most comforting promises are these, stated here in Psalm 103. By Jesus, all the condemning violence of our sin is removed from us–infinitely far away. We cannot be reunited with them (v12). But also, God is compassionately mindful of our sin-weakened state. He will faithfully prevents us from undertaking so much temptation that we can no longer bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13, Palm 103:14).

In the armor of God, I believe this is the stuff the Sword is made of.

This week’s scripture meditation came from Luke 12:32. I came across it not as I was reading the bible (that probably won’t be until around June), but while I was finishing up John Piper’s The Pleasures of God. The verse goes like this:

“Fear not little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

This verse is steeped in the kind of encouragement a soul needs to keep moving in the midst of difficulty and sin.

Most probably won’t be familiar with this verse from the get go–I know I wasn’t. When you read it in the Gospel narrative, it comes across as something of a footnote. But that couldn’t possibly be farther from the truth. Consider the verses leading up to this one.

Luke 12:22-31 are the verses from the Sermon on the Mount in which Jesus’ tells his listeners, “Consider the lilies!“. They’re the verses where he reminds them not to worry about what they’re going to eat, or drink or wear, because God is going to take care of them. But all of these things in verses 22-31 are temporal blessings, it isn’t until verse 32 that Jesus brings out the promises of everlasting value.

It’s in verse 32 that Jesus hits the pinnacle of his beautiful string of thought. He, in essence says, “Yes, you will be provided for here–but, do not fear your eternal well being, because it brings your Father great joy to bless you eternally with life!”

If you have ever felt like your blessings in Christ are a kind of begrudging gift from the Father, this verse will calm your fears. It’s easy to get stuck thinking of Christ as the compassionate one and the Father as the vengeful task master. In that line of thinking, our justification because of Christ begins to look like a loophole we’ve exploited. Like, God is paying out salvation, but only because we caught him in a technicality–if he had it his way, we’d all burn.

This verse assures us of the opposite. Salvation, from beginning to end, is the pleasure, not only of Jesus, but of the Father as well.

If that’s not good news to a weary and heavy laden soul, I don’t know what is!

The past seven days have been the beginning of a new scripture memorization effort. The goal is not to fill my head with an index of scripture, but to apply and internalize relevant scriptures to my daily life according to my heart’s need and the Lord’s leading.

The plan has been to select a single relevant passage–one that speaks directly to my current weakness or trouble in my walk–and memorize it through daily, reflective repetition. This week, I have been closing all of my prayers with a calm and thoughtful recitation of the verse and it’s reference number.

This first week, I chose Philippians 1:6:

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.”

I will say plainly, that the recitation of this verse is powerful in the face of discouragement and self-pity. Not the recitation of it, but the believing it and reminding yourself that it’s true.

Indeed, our lives may not go as planned. We might not be comfortable. We might not even live, but the effectual grace of God will never let his blood-bought children go. We who have been elected, were call, we were justified, we are being sanctified and we will be glorified. The good work God is working in each of his children, through the cross and resurrection of Christ, will not and cannot be nullified by anything here on earth.

Which brings to mind another, equally powerful verse. Romans 8:38-39:

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Whew.