Read: Psalm 103:1-14; Hebrews 4:14-16
For he knows our frame . . . (Ps. 103:14)
Notice the little word For at the beginning of this verse. God treats us with such gentleness and compassion because he knows what we are like. He knows how fragile our self-confidence is, how brittle our ego, how easily seduced we are by temptation, how quickly we’re taken in by falsehoods. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,” as Jesus said of his sleeping disciples (Matt. 26:41).
But there’s something more to be said. Christians believe in the incarnation. In Jesus Christ, God really and truly became human. God doesn’t only know us, he knows what it’s like to be us. God has subjective knowledge from the inside, from personal experience. He knows what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty, to grow weary, to suffer pain. And most mind-boggling, he knows what it’s like to die.
There is only one God like that. In his book The Cross of Christ, John Stott’s testimony is relevant here: “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? . . . that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! . . . He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his.”
As you pray, thank God for humbling himself to become human.
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.
