Psalm 103:8 –
The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
David does a great job in this Psalm giving thanks and describing God. This verse gives many of God’s attributes in a few words. Think about God in your life and see if these are true. First has God been compassionate to you? The answer is yes for me, and more than once has shown compassion. When I really down God comes and “rocks my word” with something that relieves me. Just this week the stress of life was piling up and it just happened that yesterday’s chapter was almost identical to my prayer. It helped lift my spirits and I must believe God knew the timing.
God has shown mercy on all of us more than any wants to admit. Think of a time you really “stepped in it” and God did not give you what you deserved. I can think of one time I was drinking and at the U-turn to my apartment I did a brake turn … the only car on the road was a police officer. I got a reckless driving ticket, but did not go to jail. God punished me, but placed mercy on the heart of the officer to let me slide. I learned a lesson and started to behave a little.
In the same instance God was very slow to get angry towards me, since I still disobeyed Him. That was a time in my life I think God could have really “taught me a lesson” but was slow to get upset. Don’t you kids wish I was that way? This is an attribute many of us, especially me, should learn from God. Anger is something that sends us in the wrong direction. We get upset and flip out sometimes over little things. How many times have you seen a poor clerk get yelled at over a wrong order or a broken item? Good thing God is slow to anger or we would all be in trouble!
Finally God is LOVE and his love is unfailing. Out of all the “attributes” of God this is one that Jesus talks about as the greatest commandment. Think about it if we all had God’s love think of how smooth things would be in life! Interestingly in researching this many interpretations use “mercy” and not love. So to the Hebrew to find the word is “checed” which means kindness … which is love and mercy. I like this interpretation to English since it shows more of God’s character.