As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
✙ Ps 103:13-14
✙
The word compassion literally means suffering with. I have no idea what was going on in the psalmist's head when she or he wrote Psalm 103:13-14 over 3000 years ago, but as a Christian, I cannot help but be overwhelmed when I spare even a moment of thought for what I'm reading here. God suffers with God's children because God remembers that we're dust. Did the psalmist have any idea what that would come to mean?
The God of the universe whom I rightly fear, indeed suffers with me because God took on a body of dust, and wept and toiled and mourned and died for love of those who loved him not [Wm. How, 1872]. I can complain to God, I can ask God Why? I can even get angry with God... but I can never say to God, You don't understand what it's like to be me—for in Jesus Christ, God quashed that claim for all time and for all people.
The God of the universe whom I rightly fear, indeed suffers with me because God took on a body of dust, and wept and toiled and mourned and died for love of those who loved him not [Wm. How, 1872]. I can complain to God, I can ask God Why? I can even get angry with God... but I can never say to God, You don't understand what it's like to be me—for in Jesus Christ, God quashed that claim for all time and for all people.
Amazing Love! How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? This is my prayer, prayed in the Name of the Answer, the very One who taught me to pray: Our Father...
