Read: Psalm 103:1-8; Romans 2:1-4
The LORD is . . . slow to anger. (Ps. 103:8)
Many of the expressions we use for human anger combine the ideas of heat and speed: “He’s got a short fuse.” “She’s very quick-tempered.” “That guy is really hot under the collar.” The Hebrew language is similar. In The Bible Project podcast, Dr. Tim Mackie points out that the Hebrew idiom for an angry person is to say that they have “a hot nose”; conversely, God is “long of nose”—that’s the literal expression in Psalm 103:8.
The New Testament word for patience is makrothymia, a combination of “long” or “great” + “anger.” We might say that God has a long fuse. Some like to think that God is just waiting to zap people at their first misstep, as if he were touchy or grumpy. Nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to wrath and judgment—and for those who refuse him, it will come to those things in the end—the Lord is wonderfully slow and patient.
There is a reason for this. The apostle says that God’s patience is meant to lead us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). The Lord is patiently waiting for people to come to their senses, turn away from sin, and come back to him. And when we do, then we are called to practice the same sort of patience. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved . . . patience, bearing with one another and . . . forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you” (Col. 3:12-13).
As you pray, thank God for his patience and ask him to grow patience in you.
David Bast is a writer and pastor who served for 23 years as the President and Broadcast Minister for Words of Hope. In his more than 40 years of devotional writing and preaching, he has been encouraging believers around the world to be shaped by God and his Word.
Prior to his ministry and work at Words of Hope, Dave served as a pastor for 18 years in congregations in the Reformed Church in America. A graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, he is the author of nine devotional books and Bible studies, including God of My Days,Why Doesn't God Act More Like God,Christ in the Psalms, andA Gospel for the World.
Dave and his wife, Betty Jo, have four children and eight grandchildren. Dave enjoys reading, growing tomatoes, and avidly follows the Detroit Tigers.
