A God Who Is Present

It’s sometimes difficult to grasp that the Creator of the universe cares about us—that He bothers with miniscule people like us. Because we tend to forget about others and focus on our own tasks and needs, we’re prone to think that God isn’t concerned with the details of His creation—that He’s not intimately involved in every aspect of our lives.

Psalm 103 presents a different understanding of God. The psalmist describes a God who wants to know us and wants us to respond to Him. He illustrates a responsive love. Because of God’s love for him, he declares, “Bless Yahweh . . . all within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1). God doesn’t stop at forgiving our sins and redeeming us. He “crowns [us] with loyal love and mercies” (Psalm 103:4). Although we have greatly offended Him, He doesn’t hold it against us: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:10). As a father, He knows where we fail, and He pities us: “For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13–14).

We can easily forget that God is concerned about our existence and jealous for our praise. If we don’t realize His work and thank Him for it, we’re not bringing Him glory. Ultimately, He has shown His love through His act of reconciling us to Himself. When we forget where we stand with Him, we can look to that great testament of His love. Then we can be like the psalmist and respond with praise.

Adapted and modified excerpts from Connect the Testaments
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the Lexham English Bible, LEB © 2012 by Logos Bible Software.
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