Fatherly Mercy || Psalm 103:13 || Mid-Week Midrash #50

“The Lord has mercy on those who fear him, as a father has mercy on his children.” – Psalm 103:13

I’ve mentioned this before, but remember that fearing God more times than not when written in the Bible refers to a healthy respect for God. It does not mean fear, as in being afraid of something. What does it mean to have mercy on someone? In a biblical sense, it refers to forgiveness or withholding punishment. You may have gotten in trouble before and probably faced punishment or consequences for those actions. It could have been getting grounded, detention, having to do some community service work, or something along those lines. It’s not the best feeling to experience the moment of punishment and consequence. You may have also faced those moments when you got to have a conversation about what you did wrong.

You got to acknowledge that moment and talk about how you can do better the next time. It involved such anger or frustration, but instead, genuine care and concern get voiced—those moments when mercy shines. God has mercy on us. We all do things that don’t align with God’s plan for us or that align more with the earthly desires of our humanness. God doesn’t get upset at us for it. He encourages us not to do it from the beginning but again doesn’t get mad at us. God instead has patience with us. He encourages us to have that conversation, acknowledging what we did that was wrong and learning with and from him how we can do better in the future. God cares for us as a good father cares for his children. We may not have had a good father or father figure in our lives, but there is a good father that has loved and cared for us since the day we were born.