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We Who Thirst
Delve into the captivating tales of women from the Bible, exploring their lives within ancient cultures and historical contexts. These narratives reveal not only their stories but also the profound love and beauty of the God we worship.
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We Who Thirst
010 Psalms 102-103: Anxiety, Compassion, and Maternal Imagery
I have found solace in the ancient words of Psalms 102 and 103. This episode of the We Who Thirst podcast offers a compassionate exploration of these scriptures, revealing how their poetic expressions of suffering and divine empathy provide comfort during times of personal and collective turmoil. As the 2024 election looms and stress levels rise, we invite you to uncover the peace and understanding that these Psalms can bring to your own life.
Discover the profound roots of compassion woven into the linguistic tapestry of Hebrew and Greek, where it is intimately connected to maternal imagery. This deep dive into the essence of divine empathy illustrates how God's unwavering love mirrors a mother's instinctive care and responsiveness. We also explore the concept of prayer as an ongoing, honest dialogue with the divine, emphasizing how this child-like communication reflects God's readiness to be present in our suffering, offering hope and encouragement.
Through rich biblical symbolism and stories, I discuss themes of justice, righteousness, and God's covenant faithfulness. From the renewal symbolized by eagles and vultures to the call for kindness and justice towards the marginalized, we reflect on the broader implications of biblical compassion. As we journey through these texts, we're reminded of the steadfast love of God amidst life's chaos. Join us for a heartfelt reflection on trusting in His sovereign goodness, and let this episode be a source of renewal and peace in your own journey.
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Welcome back to the we who Thirst podcast. This is going to be a very different sort of episode. Normally we are talking about women, of the Bible in their historical context, but I'm pausing that for this episode to just walk through a couple of psalms. My goal is to bathe my own heart and yours in a couple of psalms that are incredibly precious heart and yours in a couple of psalms that are incredibly precious, because we are right in the middle of a very anxiety-laden season and I don't know when you are tuning in to listen to this particular episode. I'm recording it and posting it right before the 2024 election. Emotions are high, stress is high about the election, but everything we're going to talk about from these Psalms applies to any sorts of anxieties or burdens you might be carrying. I know for me personally, I've also been. I've started every day for the last couple weeks with a child or children having neurodivergent meltdowns and that's how I start my days and that is heavy and that is anxiety inducing and my cortisol levels are through the roof. So, whatever you are encountering marriage difficulties, election fatigue, trauma these psalms I just want to pause all the rest of the discussions we are having and focus on the Lord in these moments and specifically look at his compassion, as that theme comes out in these psalms. So what I'm going to do is I'm just going to read the Psalms and then comment on it as we go through. Again. This is a very different sort of episode, but I know it's what my heart needs today, and so I really hope it will bless some of you with whatever anxieties, worries, concerns you are feeling. I just hope this is a practice that will bathe your soul in scripture and help you see God in the middle of whatever you're going through and understanding his nearness to you.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Psalms we're going to be looking at are Psalms 102 and 103. Psalm 102, the little postscript heading in your English Bible that's actually part of the Hebrew text. It's verse one in the Hebrew text, but we have it italicized as the postscript or prescript, excuse me in the English Bible For Psalm 102, it says a prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord, and I love that because I don't know about you. I feel cut really deeply right now with everything going on. I read that this morning. I was just like, yes, lord, that's me, I need this.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And as we read the first part of this Psalm 102, listen for all the trauma language that is in this Psalm. He's using picture language, it's poetry. So it's not a medical textbook, but he's using picture language that describes the effect of suffering on a person's body and a person's soul in a poetic way. So listen to that and key into that and see where your heart and soul resonate with the psalmist's pain. He says, verse one hear my prayer, lord.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me when I call. Answer me quickly, for my days vanish like smoke. My bones burn like glowing embers. My heart is blighted and withered like grass. I forget to eat my food. In my distress, I groan aloud and I am reduced to skin and bones. I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake. I've become like a bird, alone on a roof. All day long, my enemies taunt me. Those who rail against me use my name as a curse, for I eat ashes as my food and mingle my drink with tears. Because of your great wrath, you have taken me up and thrown me aside. My days are like an evening shadow. I wither away like grass.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So in these verses 1 through 11, I've just read and this is the NIV translation, these verses the psalm is describing poetically his experience. The psalmist is describing here, he's picturing for us deep loneliness, a deep disconnect from everyone around him. He's feeling the effects of affliction, of anxiety, of trauma deep in his bones. It's that weight you feel. I feel it often in my chest. It's just this bone, deep weight. Think about your body. Where do you feel the weight of trauma and pain in your body? Pause, breathe for a moment. Think that through. I feel it in my chest and in my shoulders, just the weight of the world bearing down. Or it's almost hard to breathe, not because I have a medical condition, but just because my chest feels so heavy. And the psalmist is painting his own picture of the body experience of affliction and suffering.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I want to also draw our attention, as we need to process, verse 10, where he says because of your great wrath, you've taken me up and thrown me aside, and I'm not going to get into this deeply, this is not the time or the place for it. But there's an age-old question how do we wrestle with God's sovereignty along with suffering. God is not the cause of evil. Lamentations is very clear. He does not afflict us willingly from his heart. That is not his heart from us.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But the worldview of the people of the Old Testament and we see this in Ruth with Naomi, we see it all throughout is that when bad things occur, god is behind it. They believed God was behind both the good and evil things that happen even when they don't understand. So that is the worldview he's coming from. And how sovereignty intersects with our suffering is a big conversation that lots of theologians have tried to answer. But I want to give you just a little bit of the historical context of how their worldview viewed this, and this wasn't just a Hebraic mindset. The Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites, all of them believed that when bad things happened to them, it was their gods doing those things.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And so he says because of your great wrath, you've taken me up and thrown me aside. He sees that God is somehow sovereignly overseeing around, aware of this pain and suffering he's in, and he says my days are like an evening shadow. I withered away like grass. Then, in verse 12, he shifts his focus. He says but you, lord, sit enthroned forever. Your renown endures through all generations.
Jessica LM Jenkins:If you remember back to the Genesis series I did on Instagram the enthroned language is the God who sits there above all the chaos of the world. God has not shifted from his throne. He has not given up his control. He has not given up his control. He has not given up his rule over the chaos. Yes, it seems like life is falling apart and we're just being tossed around and thrown aside willy-nilly, but the psalmist grounds his heart, and ours as well, that God is on his throne. No matter whether our children are screaming at five in the morning, no matter if whoever we believe is the wrong candidate gets elected as president, no matter the strife in our marriage, in our home, in our churches, god is still on his throne and we may not understand why he is allowing this suffering or these anxiety-inducing elements to be happening in our lives. But the psalmist grounds himself that, lord, you sit in throne forever. You are still in charge, you are still ruling. You are now and endure through all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, and compassion is going to be our key word throughout both of these psalms. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, and compassion is going to be our key word throughout both of these Psalms. You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her. The appointed time has come.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This word, compassion, I'm obsessed with it at the moment. I need to do a much deeper study. Looking at the Hebrew, the noun form of compassion, it can be used two ways. The Hebrew word, it can either and we often translate it compassion. The other way it gets translated and used is as womb. Womb and compassion are the same word and compassion are the same word. In Greek the term for compassion means entrails, intestines, so for both Hebrew and Greek it's a body term. It is centering an emotion of compassion and empathy for another person in the deepest regions of the body, that lower abdomen area. But I find compassion particularly interesting because in other places this Hebrew word is used for womb, referring to a woman.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So there is a motherly, feminine, overarching aspect of this compassion. That mother's instinct to care for a child is mother's instinct to care for a child is overshadowing this compassion that the Lord has. You will arise and have compassion on Zion. The text doesn't say this explicitly, but it's almost like a mother moved to action for her children. She can't help herself when her child is in pain, but to get up and do something. She's been sitting, she's been working. Her child is in pain and her innermost being connection with that child drives her to rise and act.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This is what the psalmist is talking about.
Jessica LM Jenkins:You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her.
Jessica LM Jenkins:That word, favor, could also be grace.
Jessica LM Jenkins:It's going to occur again in a minute.
Jessica LM Jenkins:It's time to show favor to her, for the appointed time has come For her stones.
Jessica LM Jenkins:We're talking about the city of Zion, jerusalem, here using picture language to describe God's people and God's temple, his holy place in the Old Testament. For her stones are dear to your servants. Her very dust moves them to pity. This word pity here is the same as favor, which is grace before there's. All of these words are entwined together deep in the body and heart of both the reader and God. The nations, this is, those outside God's people, the nations will fear the name of the Lord. All the kings of the earth will revere your glory, for the Lord will rebuild Zion and appear in his glory.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He will respond to the prayer of the destitute. He will not despise their plea. I underlined that verse as I was reading through this morning. God will respond. It may not look how we want. We may ask for one thing and he may know in his God-given grace and sovereignty that something else is needed. But he is not silent. He is not ghosting us, he is not avoiding us and he is not looking at our heart cries from pain, like what is your deal? He does not act like I do sometimes when my kids hurt themselves. As a parent If you're a parent or a babysitter or anybody who deals with kids you may have experienced this. Where you've warned your child, You're like don't run, you're going to fall, those shoes aren't good for running. And what does the child do? They run and what happens? They fall and they skin their knee and they're crying. And as a mom, this is where my compassion wanes, because it's like I told you not to do that. God is not like me. He does not despise our prayer from our agony, even when it's self-inflicted. He will respond to the prayer of the destitute. He will not despise their plea. And we see echoes of this further on in my blog. This week we're talking about anxiety. Look up that series on wewhothirstcom talking about anxiety and Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again rejoice, let your requests be made known to God, and his peace will overshadow you. Well, how does that fit into anxiety? What does that mean? What does that look like? And I talk about that on the blog. I'll be talking a little bit about that on my stories, but he will not despise their plea.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In this psalm it all ties together. God wants to hear our prayer without ceasing and the pray without ceasing. Injunction is not a command that you have to be on high alert, hypervigilant all the time to make sure you're praying enough. No, it's much more like a nagging cough or a conversation or a little kid. You know little kids, they're just like mommy, mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, daddy, mommy, mommy, mommy, all day long. It's a beautiful picture of prayer without ceasing. Mommy, look what I made. Mommy, can you help me? Mommy, did you know? Mommy, what about this? And that's a beautiful.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Bible says come to God as little children. It's that pray without ceasing. The little mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, that they're constantly doing that in our human flesh. We're like stop. I can't take another question. But God revels in that he doesn't despise our prayer. When we come and we're like, oh God, look a pretty flower. Oh Lord, thank you for an answer to prayer. Oh Lord, my heart hurts. I don't know how to keep going. Lord, I am worried about X.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The prayer without ceasing is a nagging cough, or like a child coming to the to their parent, not a list of rules that you have to be sure to pray three times a day for X number of minutes. It's the just the continual. It just it happens. It flows out of us because we have that relationship with God and we can have that relationship with God because we understand that he will respond to the prayer of the destitute and he will not despise our plea. Whether it is a question, whether it is joy, whether it is pain, god does not despise us coming Daddy, daddy, Abba, father, all day long, without ceasing. He loves that. The psalmist continues in verse 18. Let this be written for future generations, that's you, that people not yet created that's us may praise the Lord. Let this be written for a future generation that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. Let this be written for a future generation that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high from heaven. He viewed the earth to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.
Jessica LM Jenkins:As you carry concerns about the election, everyone I have talked to about the election on both sides, whether they, whichever party and candidate they are voting for here in the United States elections for those of you who are not in America they are concerned. The Christians I talk to on both sides are concerned about people who are weak and easily wounded. Some are concerned about immigrants and pregnant women. Some are concerned about unborn babies. There's a huge concern for the weak and the vulnerable on both sides and it's a needed concern. We should be concerned. That reflects God's heart. We can disagree strongly on which candidate is going to do the better job helping the country care for the weak and the needy, which candidate actually may or may not actually care for the weak and needy and that's a separate discussion.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But the Christians I talk to are concerned about the weak and needy. We may disagree with the extent and the how-fors, but that is a reflection of God's heart. God cares about the weak and the needy. He hears the groans of the prisoners and he releases those condemned to death. God, all throughout scripture, cares for the afflicted, he cares for the weak, he cares for the downtrodden, he cares for the marginalized and the abused and the hurting. This is the character of our God, who sits enthroned. We cast our votes, we pray, we participate or don't participate in the political systems we have, but ultimately our God, who cares for the weak and the needy and the marginalized, is in control and sometimes in his sovereignty. He allows people to be wounded and hurt and that is scary and that is hard, but his heart is for the weak and the needy. And how it all fits together we don't know. Nobody's been able to figure it out, but we rest trusting in his heart.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And I'm going to need to do a podcast on Saul, on Lamentations three, to take us deeper into some of that pain of what, how do we view God when he doesn't, when he allows the worst things possible to happen? How? How do you wrestle through that? And Jeremiah and Lamentations really walks us through that. Well, and we'll have to do another podcast on that.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But back to Psalm 102. The Lord looks down to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death. So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion. This is not talking about America. This is talking about his covenant people in the Old Testament. I just need to say that His name, the name of the Lord, will be declared in Zion, his praise in Jerusalem, when the peoples and kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Then the psalmist continues his own experience. He's going to end this psalm this way In the course of my life, the Lord broke my strength. He allowed my strength to be broken. He cut short my days. God in his sovereignty has allowed it great suffering and brokenness to happen in the life of the psalmist. I think many of us can relate to that deeply. So I said do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days. Your years go on through all generations. In the beginning you laid the foundation to the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like clothing. You will change them and they will be discarded, but you remain the same. Your years will never end. The children of your servants will live in your presence. Their descendants will be established before you. We are part of the children of his servants who live before the Lord, who will be established before him. We are part of God's people, and though the earth may fall apart and the psalmist isn't fully aware of new heaven, new earth, all of that he's way before those things are coming in in God's revelation, and so he recognizes how the earth is falling apart. He sees it, he sees everything disintegrating.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Romans 8 talks about the very creation groans, with God's people waiting for the redemption of our bodies, for God to come back and say new heaven, new earth. I am fixing this. The very ground we walk on is waiting for that day. And in the meantime, the children of God's servants will live in his presence. Dear one, remember you are united with Christ. There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We are united, we live in his presence. The descendants of his servants will be established before God. We are secure in him.
Jessica LM Jenkins:And so Psalm 102, the psalmist goes from the deep trauma and pain he's experiencing to remember how he is with God and established before God and securely attached to God in God's presence. And God reigns and rules over all. Allow that to bathe over your soul. Maybe you need to go back and spend some time in the beginning of Psalm 102 and really get into those pictures of pain. That's scripture. It is okay to dwell there and allow your body to feel the full effects and it's okay to walk back through and cling to the God who establishes us before him, who adopts us as legal sons before him, who carries us as dear sons and daughters in his heart and in the deepest regions of his body. Psalm 103 continues bathing us in these words.
Jessica LM Jenkins:This psalm, the pre-script simply says of David. We don't have much more context. David wrote it and he says praise the Lord, oh my soul In all my inmost being. I just love the body language in the Psalms. Because of my culture and my evangelical upbringing I'm often trying to sync my mind up with my body. I come from a faith tradition that's very intellectual and kind of ignores the body a lot of the time. So I'm trying to like sync those back together and have a whole more holistic. The Psalms doesn't have that super intellectual bias.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Hebrew people are very mind-body connected. They have not had that split apart by post-enlightenment, post-industrialism, puritanism, all of the things that kind of started intellectualism pulling it apart. The Hebrew people didn't struggle with that David, his mind-body connection. So much of this is body language. He says praise the Lord, my soul, in all my innermost being. Praise his name. He's recognizing that praise happens with words but it also happens with our bodies.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not his benefits. And David is a man who has suffered. He has probably intense trauma, ptsd, all the things he understands loss and suffering. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not his benefits. Who forgives all your sins. All the time you miss the mark and mess up and just can't get it right, god forgives that. He heals your diseases. Sometimes we wait in the already not yet where we're waiting for God to heal our mental illness, our sickness, our autoimmune disorders, our cancer, and sometimes he heals that in death. Sometimes he heals that in life. But God is the God who will bring healing to all.
Jessica LM Jenkins:As I mentioned already, romans 8,. Creation groans with us for the redemption of our bodies. God will heal, but unfortunately his timetable is not always ours. He forgives your sins and heals your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love, chesed covenant, faithfulness and compassion, that deep, womb-like spurring on to act on the behalf of somebody you care about. God crowns you with love, covenant faithfulness. He will keep his promises. He will be faithful to his people. It is part of his character and he cannot help himself. And along with that bedrock, foundational covenant faithfulness, he has the soft, nurturing, womb-like drive to wrap up his people, to protect them, care for them and act on their behalf. And we are crowned with these things, as God acts this way, always on behalf of his people. The God who satisfies you verse 5, satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Our English translates this eagle. The Hebrew actually means vulture. Now, when I did research on this passage a while back and I was looking up pictures of vultures in the Middle East, their vulture looks a lot like an eagle, so it's a very similar bird. It's not vulture like our. In America we have these really ugly birds. If you're not in America, we call them turkey vultures. They're a black bird with this flesh colored, no feathered head, and they're just the ugliest bird you could ever see. The Egyptian vulture that I was looking picture at that, I think, ranges through the Levantine Israel region as well. It looks much more like a very light colored eagle. It's technically a vulture but it has the same head feather kind of stuff like an eagle does. I'm not a bird person, but the idea is that the eagle or the vulture in these cultures was a bird that soared and it could just stay in the air forever, because they have big wings and they can catch the air currents and just hover up there circling on those air currents looking, and then they transform death into life.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Vultures eat things that have died, that are not safe for human or other animal consumption, and they they pick this clean and they're they're seen almost like phoenixes and more um in other mythological thinking, but they, they bring life out of death and they they're the kind of I mean, it's a real creature, so it's not mythical, but there's kind of this mythical aura about them in the ancient Near Eastern mindset. So when he says your youth is renewed like the eagles, it's not like the American eagle, raw freedom, it's. Your youth is renewed like that which brings life out of death, hope out of anxiety, thriving out of pain, that which we don't fully understand because it just hovers way above us but somehow takes the smelly carcasses of death and disease and brings new life out of it. This concept fascinated the ancient people, and we find it here in verse 5. Our God satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles Life out of death.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Remember, as we go through this election season or as you are dealing with trauma and anxieties in your life, we can. My mentor reminded me of this recently. We can pray for justice, lord, let there be justice done. May those who need to be, may the government who wields its sword for the punishment of criminals, may it do that justly, and may criminals be punished justly. May those who are impoverished and beaten down and abused, may there be justice on their behalf. For those against whom misogyny and racism have been leveled, that our victims of misogyny and racism. May justice be done on their behalf. Our God is the God who works righteousness and justice for the oppressed, and my prayer for this election is that righteousness and justice.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Though no party or candidate is perfect, none of them do this well. All the candidates have major issues on some of these themes. But Lord you, our God, is perfect, god is perfect. So, lord, protect the weak and the vulnerable and work righteousness and justice as you can in our imperfect system and our imperfect government for the oppressed Work it in our personal lives, with our interpersonal situations, in our marriages, in our churches, that justice and righteousness would be what characterizes God's people, not in a I'm better than you kind of way, but in a way that it's looking out for the widow, the fatherless, the orphan, the sojourner, which is the immigrant. Sojourner in your Hebrew Bible just read immigrant it's the person fleeing famine, persecution, danger, sword and coming to where you live. And all throughout the Old Testament it says you care for the sojourner because you were sojourners in Egypt and Christians are sojourners on earth because our kingdom is not of this earth, it is not of America, it is of heaven and it is of God.
Jessica LM Jenkins:There's a sign in my neighborhood. I'm going to get a little political here for a minute. There's a sign in my neighborhood it must be Christians and the sign says it's like a political sign, one of those ones that's in yards all over America this week and it just says Jesus Christ 24. And I want to ask I have no idea who lives there and I just want to ask these people did you not, I mean, jesus, had this conversation with Pilate? Pilate was like they say you're king of the Jews. And Jesus said my kingdom is not of this earth. He's not running in our election, he's already ruling his kingdom and it is not of this earth. He doesn't want to be president, he doesn't want to rule this kingdom. We are sojourners on this earth.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Old Testament is very clear how sojourners should be treated. In fact, the exile partly came about because Israel was not treating sojourners, slash immigrants, the way they were supposed to. The Bible says I saw somebody mentioned this on one of the socials yesterday the Bible says to entertain strangers, and it talks about that, not that some of them might be criminals or bad, but because some of them might be angels. Radical hospitality is to be the heart attitude of God's people. That is righteousness and justice. That is God's heart. Because we are sojourners, because we were lost and in pain and suffering, and God has been radically hospitable to us to take dead corpses and animate them to spiritual life, to bring us not just into our home, into his home for a warm meal, but to adopt us as heirs. We are co-heirs with Christ. Heirs, we are co-heirs with Christ. Think about that for a minute. Co-heirs with Christ. Little brothers legal. I'm talking legal here, not gender, because legality in the ancient world women normally didn't get inheritances but a girl could be adopted, sometimes as a legal son, because they didn't have a legal daughter inheritance line. It's a whole thing, another podcast worthy. But we are adopted as little brothers, legal sons of Jesus and God's family.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Because of God's grace, because of his compassion Psalm 103, verse 6,. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. Oh that I could emulate that. Abounding in love, in chesed, in covenant, faithfulness.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. God does get angry and he should. Things like internment camps, the Holocaust, murder of unborn children, the needless death of pregnant mothers because they can't get health care, racism, misogyny, needless death of pregnant mothers because they can't get health care, racism, misogyny these things, I believe, make God angry. He is not okay with humans mistreating other image bearers, but he is slow to anger and abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. And he does not treat us. That us is not America, it is his people. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, you can go east forever and ever and ever and you're never going to start going west. It's not as high as the. As far as the north is from the south, because you can go north and eventually you're going to start going south, but you go east, you're never going to go west. As far as the east is from the west, they never touch, can't happen. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Now let's think about this. It says he does not treat us as our sins deserve. Sin is missing the mark. Sin is just your general. I aimed at the target, or maybe I didn't aim at the target. It doesn't specify whether you're aiming at the target or not aiming the target. It simply describes you're not hitting the target. You failed to hit the middle of the target. You could have been trying. You could have been not trying. Fact is, you didn't make it.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So he does not treat us as our missing the target deserves when we do not live up to his character and goodness, nor pay us according to our iniquities. That's our guilt the fact that we haven't lived up, the fact that we can't, the fact that we are fundamentally broken inside because we live in a sin scarred world and we carry the effects of sin in our mortal bodies. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. But now we get to transgressions. As far as the east is from the west. This is verse 12, verses 10 and 12. As far as the east is from the west. So far has the Lord removed our transgressions from us Transgressions. However, these are willful rebellion against God when we say you know what? I don't care, I'm going to do my own thing.
Jessica LM Jenkins:A sin might be a sin of omission. It might be an accidental sin. It could be I got overstimulated and screamed at my children. It could be all sorts of things. Iniquity can just be that brokenness we carry, the guilt we just carry by being alive in a sin-scarred world. It may not be tied it might be, but it also may not be tied to a specific action we've done. A transgression is a specific action that we have done individually, and corporately it is a rebellion against God, and corporately it is a rebellion against God. This is not an accident. This is not a sin of omission. This is a flat out bleep. It I'm going to do what I want that for God's people who are united with him is removed as far from us as the east is from the west. How great is God's love for?
Jessica LM Jenkins:For as a father has compassion on his children, you see both the father, mother elements here, whole family dynamic. God presents himself as a father in scripture, which is why it's a father has compassion, not a mother has compassion, even though compassion is linked to the womb and is very feminine. In that way, as a father has compassion on his children, so the lord has compassion on those who fear him, and this is assuming healthy fathers. There are fathers who don't have compassion, so don't picture that, but picture the father that should be the friend who cares for you, the one who always is like I'm here, Even when you're having a rough day, I'm here. It doesn't necessarily have to be a father, but the one you know in your life who has compassion on you, no matter what. A father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him Deep down in. He doesn't have a body, but the Hebrew people had a body and they're using their own body language to try to talk about God.
Jessica LM Jenkins:The Lord has compassion on those who fear him. He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust and this is not an insult, this is not a oh you worm, you dustful worm. This is God saying I remember how weak and frail you are. I am not expecting you to be something you're not. In parenting circles we talk about having age-appropriate expectations of our children. I'm not going to expect my three-year-old to have the intellectual capacity or self-control that I would expect from my 12-year-old.
Jessica LM Jenkins:God remembers that we are dust, not in a oh you're dust, ew. Kind of way, but in a I understand who they are and that they are weak and I bring myself to them and I cradle them because I know the fiber of their inmost being and I understand who they are and I know their weaknesses, I know their mental illnesses, I know their traumas, I know their pains, I know their capacity. I know them. Remember he's viewing us like this as a father, not as a judger. It's oh, you're just a three-year-old, I get it. The car door slamming was scary. It's a loud noise to a three-year-old that can be terrifying. It's that attitude, not a you are a worm who deserves hell attitude.
Jessica LM Jenkins:God has compassion on those who fear him because he knows we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. He's not like well, you should just be able to handle it. No, he remembers that we're dust. The life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like the flower field. The wind blows over it and it's gone, and its place remembers it no more. We are not aware of our own mortality, but God is in the gentlest, kindest way possible.
Jessica LM Jenkins:But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him. That's such a contradiction. God remembers that we are dust. We are a flower, we are a weed that we. God remembers that we are dust. We are a flower. We are a weed that we just blow away into the wind. We are finite, we are mortal. We are transient, we are temporary. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him. Our physical life may be transient and temporary, but God's love for us isn't, and there is more than just this life. God is everlasting to everlasting and he brings his people eternal life into that with him. From everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear him verse 17, and his righteousness with their children's children. Again, that's us, with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. Now, again, this isn't a you have to do these things to be part of God's family. Today. That's not what it's saying.
Jessica LM Jenkins:In ancient Israel, those who were part of God's covenant would obey and keep the commandments. That's their sign of the covenant was that obedience? And we see echoes of this in James in the New Testament. We are united with Christ. That does not depend on our obedience. It does not even depend on prayers being right with Christ. This is language talking about the covenant, keeping people of Israel under God's covenant, with the children's children who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
Jessica LM Jenkins:Poetic language talking about those keeping his covenant. Israel, the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord all his heavenly hosts, you servants who do his will. Praise the Lord all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord.
Jessica LM Jenkins:O my soul, dear one, as you end our time together today, I pray that these psalms would bathe your soul, giving you a measure of peace to help in your anxiety over everything in your family, your life, the country, the world. We have people being murdered by rogue governments, we have children dying from bombings, we have divisive elections, we have people wrongfully enslaved. I mean, the world is a mess and we wait for the day. God will come and he will solve all the problems and he will wipe away every tear from every eye. And he will solve all the problems and he will wipe away every tear from every eye. But know now, today, that you are safe in him, that safety. He may allow physical things harm, disease, illness to happen in our lives, but our souls are safe in him.
Jessica LM Jenkins:He is working all things for his glory and our good, and that that doesn't make sense and it can seem trite, but it still remains true because we walk in this already, not yet In this. How is God sovereign and how does evil still suffer? But we can look past the world and its suffering and our pain and we can join with the psalmist and say praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, all ye people. Praise the Lord, you heavenly hosts, because I may not be able to understand how it all fits together, but I can trust that my God is good. I can trust that he holds me in his arms. I can trust that he will someday bring perfect righteousness and justice into the world and he will rule as the good, gracious, kind creator over all things.
Jessica LM Jenkins:I don't know exactly what that's going to look like, but I know that he is good, he is in control and no matter who wins the election or, if you're listening to this, after next week, who has already won the election, god is in control and he is working towards plans we cannot see and we cannot fathom, and we can trust his heart in that.
Jessica LM Jenkins:So I hope these psalms were a blessing to you and I pray that God will uplift your heart and soul and draw you close to him these next days and weeks.
Jessica LM Jenkins:May the Lord be with you, may he hold you, may he keep you, may he give you peace and may he remind you again and again that he removes your sins and your transgressions as far from you as the east is from the west, that there is now therefore, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and nothing can separate you from his love neither death, nor governments, nor cancer, nor autoimmune disease, no neurodivergent, nor children screaming in your face, nor assault or abuse, or bad governments, or misogyny or racism. None of this can separate us from God's love, and his love is higher and deeper and wider than we can ever fathom. And may God instill in our very flesh an understanding of his love that transcends our intellect. Sometimes we try to understand it with our brains, when it's our bodies that need to understand it, and may he do that. My prayer is in your life, go in peace.
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