Psalm 145
Verse 8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.
We leave the discussion about the next generation and come back to Who we are to be praising, the Lord of all creation.
David goes back to his initial theme of praise for the Lord and His mighty works. The qualities that he is praising in today’s verse are the Lord’s graciousness, compassion, His being slow to anger and His being rich in love. We will take a quick look at each of them so that we can see them so clearly we can praise Him in the purest fashion.
Graciousness is something that we easily connect with the Lord. His grace is something that we need and willingly accept and yet is that all there is to His graciousness? His saving grace is wonderful, without a doubt, but how often do we think about how gracious He is? If we were think about all the sins we have committed in our lifetime, knowing He graciously covered them all, we would see the magnitude of His graciousness.
Next David talks about Lord’s compassion. There is no compassion as wonderful as that of Christ. Who lovingly stooped to heal a lame man, healed a woman with a bleeding issue and raised a dear friend from the dead. And is there a more compassionate moment then as He hung on the cross, His lovingly providing safety and care for His mother? He was surely compassion personified.
David continues his praise list with the Lord’s quality of anger. It is so easy to come to anger, we can get to the boiling point in a hot minute, ready to give a piece of our mind and maybe even our fist, but not our Lord. No, He takes His sweet ole’ time getting there. And while we may blow our lid without thinking it through thoroughly, He calmly reads the whole situation from every point of view and only gets angry when it is truly warranted, like with the money changers in the Temple. And this is good that He is slow to anger or He would likely hand us exactly what we deserve and we would surely die.
David closes this verse with one more reason to praise the Lord – His richness in love. There is no love as great as His. No love so lavished as His on us. We don’t deserve it and yet He pours it out on us because He is love. How can we not praise knowing these things about His character?
Making It Personal
How has He shown His graciousness and compassion to you personally? Do you reflect His being slow to anger? How do you live out your love for Him?
Making It Personal Kids
Has Jesus shown you His compassion or graciousness? How good are you about being slow to anger? What are some ways you can love like Jesus?
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank You for all the ways that You care for us. We can’t praise You enough for Your amazing graciousness, tender compassion, Your being slow to anger and last, but definitely not least, Your love which is boundless. Help us live out these qualities to those in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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