Please will you turn then this evening to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I'll read the first 14 verses. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Let's pray briefly once more. Father of heaven, our Father in heaven, we come and we plead now that this word may be very sweet to every heart, that whatever our present state may be, whatever our future needs may be, that you most gracious Lord would bless us indeed now and in days to come and give us grounds to hope in you as the God of our salvation. Amen. What is pity? What does it mean to have pity upon someone? Do you practice pity? Are you someone who pities other people? And perhaps, do they want what pity you offer? Flip it around a little bit. Do you want to be pitied? For many people, if I said, I pity you, it would probably sound more like an insult than anything else. We like to think of ourselves very often as strong, competent, self-sufficient, able to press on in our own strength. Perhaps you think pity is what you feel when you see some of those pictures on the television or on the internet of particular suffering. Perhaps it's the passing spasm that you feel because of some of the terrible news that is going around us. It's passing grief because something bad has happened to somebody else. It may be a temporary sorrow because someone else suffers, but very often it simply just rides past. But that is not the pity of which David speaks in Psalm 103. He speaks of the Lord pitying his children, as a father pities his children. The Lord pitying those who fear him, for he knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. It's a window into the very heart of God. It's a testimony to the real compassion that characterises Him who dwells on high in light unapproachable and full of glory. This is the tenderness of Him who made all things and who reigns supreme in the heavens. the tender mercies of our God. Is that how we think of him? The God who is full of loving kindness, is that how we think of him? The God who, to zero in on the sense of this language, is a God who both forgives and blesses, who is very ready to show good to those who are in need. Now that heart of God, if you want to see it shining bright and clear, is seen pre-eminently in the life and in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one of whom it was said that he went about doing good. And when preaching on this text, Charles Spurgeon, the great Victorian preacher, does what he occasionally does. He's not ignorant of the context, but he says, this is what this text means, and I am going to illustrate it from the life of Christ. And the entirety of his sermon then is to demonstrate from the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus in dealing with his disciples, in dealing even with his enemies, in dealing with the people for whom he came, in dealing with those who are sick and needy, that it is all a demonstration of the kindness of the heart of God toward those who are in need. And that ought to be a sweet comfort and encouragement to us as we gather here this evening. That the heart of God to us is revealed in this divine pity toward us. That the God with whom you and I have to do is a God who is primed to forgive us and to bless us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. We'll simply consider the people that the Lord pities, the way in which God pities, and the reason why God pities. Consider first of all how this psalm speaks of the people whom God pities. Now it is right that we should acknowledge the general compassion of God. God is kind and he is gracious to all in measure. Perhaps you remember that portion of Matthew's Gospel which records our Lord's teaching when he sits up on the mountain and he tells the people who are listening to him that if they are going to be like God then they need to remember to do good to all, for this is the God who sends the sun to shine and the rain to fall upon the wicked and the righteous, the just and the unjust. There are so many blessings in this world which everybody shares. Now they may not recognize those blessings as coming to them from the hand of God, But you can knock on any door, you can speak to any passer-by, you could ask them about their experience of life in this world, and they would be obliged to confess that even when it comes down to the very basic necessities of life, they have been given much. God then shows goodness to all in a proper measure. But while we acknowledge that, what we particularly need to recognise and appreciate is the way that David speaks here of what I will call covenant compassion. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. He has a special regard for his own people. And that's perfectly natural and it's understandable. For when you love someone in a distinct way, you have a particular regard for that one or those people. Now, I am not accusing anybody here of some kind of selfishness, but if we were inside this evening and a fire were to break out, would you not expect that every husband or wife, every father or mother, while they might have a general concern that everybody should escape, would be making sure that my wife is safe, that my husband is safe, that my children are safe? There's a natural instinct and regard for those to whom we are properly attached and connected. And that's the kind of regard of which David speaks here. The particular love, the distinguishing blessing which God bestows upon those who fear him. And we've had it already in verse 11. As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God's mercy toward those who fear him. These are the people who enjoy this particular pity of God. And this is where we need to be careful. Because if we were to say, using perhaps the kind of ideas that are typical today, that someone pities those who fear him, You might imagine, we're saying, that someone looks down upon those who are terrified of him. And to think of God's pity toward those who fear him in that way would be entirely wrong. There is no disdain in this pity. There is no sneer in this pity. There is no oppression in this pity. And there is no unholy terror in this fear. It is not that God looks down then upon those who are terrified of Him. This is God's dealings with those who know Him as the true and living God, who understand His goodness and His glory and so respond to Him with reverent awe. These are the ones who treat God as their Father in heaven. They deal with Him as a child ought to with a Father whom he respects and reverences, so that there is trust, there is honour, and there is obedience which characterises this relationship. This is the Son who delights to win the Father's smile. This is the son who expects that the Father will be honoured by him, who wants to bring glory to his name, who wants to reflect the Father's goodness and kindness back toward him, who loves his Father and who therefore now loves his God. This is the language of reverent delight. This is the language of humble joy. This is the person who knows God as he has made himself known and has felt the impact of that revelation in his or her soul, so that God becomes all his or her delight, that you want to please him, that you want to follow him, that you order your life in such a way that you might win from him that smile of pleasure and that testimony of approval. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Well done, my son. So do you know God like this? Perhaps not perfectly, certainly not perfectly yet, not perhaps as you might wish, but do you know God with this disposition of holy fear, this fear of a son? this reverence, this awe, this sense of his majesty, this humble approach to him, this desire that he should be exalted, this concern that above all his name should be glorified in the earth. Have you seen His greatness and felt the weight of His glory? Have you understood His goodness and tasted the sweetness of His love? Have you discerned, as Mr Spurgeon would have had us done if we'd followed his trail? Have you discerned, seen, understood, enjoyed, and gone on experiencing the mercies of God in Jesus Christ our Saviour? that you have seen something of the holiness and the justice and the goodness and the mercy and the compassion of God toward those who call upon His name. Isn't that one of the great messages that rolls out from the testimony of Jesus Christ? Come to me, and I am ready to receive you. Come to me, and I am ready to bless you. I will not draw back, I will not turn away, I will not cast you out. Whoever comes to me, I will receive. And that receiving is not the servant crawling into the presence of the great monarch. But it's the one who comes broken and bruised and receives the kindness and the blessing and the favour and the mercy of Christ, who finds his sin forgiven and his soul restored. Do you know God like that, at least in some true measure? Do you bow the knee to him as a gracious and compassionate sovereign? Do you rest upon his love with true delight, and has it become your great concern to glorify his name in all that you do? because the Lord looks with favour upon those who have come to know him in this way, to those toward whom he has revealed himself as such a God. So the Lord then pities those who fear him. But how does God pity? In what way does the Lord pity those who fear him? And it really just flips around because they have this righteous fear as sons to a father and God's relation to them is that of a father to his children. They fear as children, he pities as a father. And by using this language of the father with his children, the Psalmist David is bringing us into one of the deepest relationships that we find on the pages of scripture, pointing always to the sweetness of the bond that binds the father in heaven and his beloved son, Jesus Christ. You notice that God doesn't pity the way a rich man pities a poor man. And heaven help us if it were the kind of pity that we looked at this morning, that drives past, that steps over, that completely disregards. Perhaps you know what it is to be poor and for someone to give you a gift. Perhaps there's some people who have a way of giving a gift that is just so condescending, And when it comes, you just sort of think, I know this is meant to be generous, but the way you've done it, everything in me wants me to say, I don't need this, and I don't want this, because you've established a pecking order here. You're stooping down from above, and you're the rich man who pities the poor man. And boy, do we know that you're rich, and boy, do we feel that we're poor. It doesn't say that he pities us the way someone strong pities those who are weak. Perhaps you've seen somebody and they're struggling, perhaps there's an imperfection in their bodies and maybe somebody else comes along and says, don't worry, I've got this for you and they just trample their way in and they're sort of walking all over somebody and there's no dignity in it and there's no blessing in it. It doesn't say that this is the pity of the great for those who are small and insignificant. All of those things so often involve this kind of power game that is going on. How can there be a power game when God is involved? He is God! He is already the great God of heaven and earth. It must be then the pity that a father has for his children, and consider again, my friends, that this is precisely the language and the imagery that our Lord Christ reaches for when He wants to communicate what God is like toward those who come to Him. Do you remember the father in that parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin and the lost son? His delight in his son, his compassion towards him, his readiness to bless him. When Christ wants you to understand what it's like to truly enjoy this kind of compassionate love, it's the love of a father for his child that he reaches toward. It's Christ's own sense of God's own character and who knows the Father better than the only begotten Son and who better reveals Him, more brightly, more beautifully communicates His compassion than this Son who both speaks in His name and reveals His heart to men. It is paternal patience, paternal tenderness and paternal generosity that is being set out here. And this my friends is why it is so important and I have had this conversation over and again with various people over the course of my labours. that we do not hear the language of God as a father and say, my experience of being fathered was this, so God must be like that but bigger. For so often we then end up projecting our griefs and our shames, the failures of our human fathers upon God. And that's the wrong way around. We ought to look to God and say, this is what a father is like. This is what it's meant to be. This is what it's meant to look like. This is how God is with regard to his children. And when other fathers then fall short, it is their falling short of the glory of God. We ought to be working down from God rather than up from man. And so our Lord Christ sets before us the fatherhood of God as this model of compassion. And so it is a picture here of an affectionate heart. The Lord pities as a father. Love animates our God. He is inclined to bless. May I ask you, how do you perceive God's disposition toward you? Do you think of him as unyielding, harsh, distant, perhaps cruel, or at very least, uncaring? that God can dispense good with one hand, but he dispenses his anger and his wrath and his judgments very quickly with the other. That when you read, for example, of the chastening of the Lord, that you see that as some kind of vengeful man rushing down upon you, rather than the affectionate and loving disposition of a father who wants to secure what is good for you. My friend, the heart of God overflows with affectionate love towards his people. He will never treat you in any other way than to do you the truest and the highest good. And you may never understand in this world how that works out, but what faith does is it lays hold upon the God who loves, who makes himself known as the God who dispenses his good gifts, who is ready to forgive, who is quick to bless in accordance with our particular needs. God pities those who fear him like a father pities his children, and that means an affectionate heart. And it also means an attentive eye and ear. Those of you who are fathers with children, or remember what it's like to be a father with a young child, you know how your eyes and your ears are alert to the needs of your children. And it's not just reactive, it's proactive. If you're walking through a busy environment and you've got a little son or a daughter there with you, you are constantly aware or trying to be, given their ability to disappear at incredible speeds and phenomenal distances, you're constantly trying to be aware of precisely where they are. And there's that awareness then, there's that concern. I've got one over there, I've got one over there. I'm aware of what's going on. And as well as that proactive regard, there's that reactive concern. So that when you hear the particular cry of your child, and you sometimes see it in a crowd, perhaps it's at the school gate, and a child has fallen over. And I'm not saying this is the way you necessarily want it to be, but every parent sort of goes like this. And then you see most of them go, it's alright, it's not mine. That's not the one I need to worry about. But there's that one parent, or those few parents, that could be mine. And it's their ear that pricks up, and it's their eye that scans now to see where their child is who is in trouble. primed to care for our children in tune with their needs and their circumstances. The affectionate heart, the attentive ear and eye and the active hand. A father's love for his children is not sentimental but it is engaged. A dad is ready to move and he really wants to bless Again, do you remember the language that the Lord used to describe the way you can call upon God and receive His blessings? What father of you, if you had a son who asked for bread, would give him a stone? Or if he wanted an egg, would give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask and seek of Him? The father's heart is primed to do good. The father's eye and ear are upon his children because he wants to know their circumstances and their needs. And he does not have his hands tied behind his back and he does not have his good things kept on the high shelves away from anybody's ever touching or enjoying them. He is a God who delights to bless, who is swift to move. Again, there's no disdain and there's no contempt tent. We who are fathers, so often we grieve and we go to our children and we have to ask them forgiveness because we haven't spoken to them or responded to them in a way that is Christ-like and righteous. Here is a father who never despises his children, who never doesn't have time for his children, who never crushes his children. It is model parenting. and it is how God cares for those who fear him. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. Why? What is it in God's children that calls forth this pity and compassion in a distinct way? It is that he knows our frame. and he remembers that we are dust. Now in the first part of that you might think it was going in any number of different directions, God knows our frame, he knows how we're put together and perhaps we might once have hoped that therefore he would know how deserving we are, how capable and competent we have become, how worthy we are of his favour. And that's not remotely what David has in mind. And remember that David is the man after God's own heart. David is the king in Israel. If anyone might have said, he knows what I'm entitled to, it might have been David. But no, David remembers that the Lord took him from following the sheep to be the one who is to rule over Israel. David understands something of his own frailty and his own dependence and so it is the God who knows our frame and who remembers that we are dust who pities us even in this moment. Again, do you like to think of yourself as somebody who needs pity? Until you grasp that that's what and who you are, you will never fear the Lord and you will never obtain from him the blessings that you need. This is a testament that this child of God who writes these words knows himself and knows others like him and understands that we are by nature frail and feeble and finite creatures. That is the reality. That's who and what we are. We are not strong. We are not omni-competent, we are not capable of doing whatever needs to be done, we are not worthy, we are not deserving, we haven't got it all together, we cannot make our own way through this world, we cannot provide for ourselves, we cannot take care of ourselves and we do not know the way to go. But we have in heaven a God who pities his children, who has compassion upon those who fear him because he knows our frame. Why? Because God put us together the way that we are. It is God who has made us and not we ourselves. And that's true of us as a race. God made humanity. Who knows this humanity better than the God who made us? And furthermore, God knows us individually. Who knit you together in your mother's womb? Who made you what you are? Who gave you that distinct colouring? Who gave you that strength or weakness? Who gave you that capacity or lack of it? Who made you the person that you are and are becoming? Who was the potter who put together the clay in the particular way that makes you to be you? It was this God who is in heaven. The potter understands the brittleness of the clay. He knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. Now that doesn't mean that God sometimes forgets that we are dust and then has to say, oh, hang on a minute, they really can't cope with this, I'd better step in and do something about it. This is the God who takes account of the fact that we are dust. This is the God who constantly bears in mind our mortality. Again, go back to the very beginning. God formed Adam out of what? Out of the dust of the ground. And he breathed into Adam that breath of life and Adam became a living being. And Adam, as the head of our race, sinned against God. And the judgment came down upon those who are descended from Adam by ordinary generation, that dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Now, you may be pretty tall dust, or you may be relatively short dust. You might be pretty ugly dust, or you may be reasonably good-looking dust. You may be fairly well-endowed dust, or you may be very poor dust. You may be dust that is impressive to the rest of the dust, or you may be dust that the rest of the dust doesn't think very much of. But dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Frail creatures of dust, and feeble as frail. And the Lord knows it. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field so he flourishes, for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. Your God made you. He knows you. He knows all that there is to know about you. He knows every feebleness, every frailty, every folly. every failing. He knows your wickedness and he knows your weakness. He knows what you would do and he knows how often you fall short of it. What would I have liked to preach this evening? Perhaps instinctively I would have liked to have preached a back to work for September sermon. It's the end of the summer and you're all back from holiday and you've had an absolutely wonderful time and you are all just pumped up and raring to go. We're all fighting fit and in the finest fettle. Our minds are clear. Our bodies are strong. The whole congregation has gathered together as we come to the end of the holidays looking forward to the opportunities and the privileges that lie before us as we go back to work and back to school and things settle down. We're looking forward to all of these things and aren't we all ready to go? And won't it be wonderful? And you understand that there's not a single drop of criticism in the fact that I lose track of the number of names that I have to record on the list for prayer that goes out. For those who are tired, and those who are tried, and those who are tempted, and those who are troubled. Some of you come back from holiday with more woe upon your shoulders and more weariness in your bones than you went. Some of you have come back to difficulties and distresses. There are those who are sick. God has his sorrowing children. God sometimes has his stroppy children and still he looks upon them with pity. We are injured, we are confused, we become downcast, we can be oppressed, we are afraid, we are stumbling. Now it's still true that there is much to be done. And it's still true that God calls his people to serve in this generation for the glory and the honour of his name. And it's still true that because we are those who fear the Lord, our great desire is to glorify his name and to exalt him in all things. But have we not been reminded God's strength is made perfect in our weakness? And is there a one of us, either because of burdens that we bear ourselves or burdens that we share with others who are burdened, who can stand here this evening or sit here this evening and say, you know what? I've got the future sorted. I can take care of myself. I know what's going to happen. I've got it all planned out. I have all the resources I need at my disposal. I have everything that I require ready to hand. I can see the way things are going to go. There is no one there who can trouble me. There is no obstacle that can overcome. It sounds like some kind of ridiculous puff piece. What do we say? not with a kind of despair, but knowing really and truly, I am dust. And the Lord knows it. Praise God, I don't have to pretend to be anything but dust, because the Lord knows our frame, and he takes account of our very nature. And when we are tired, And when we are grieved, and when we are afflicted, and when we are confused, and when we are cast down, and when we are tempted, and when we are restless, and when we can be a pain in the backside, our Father in heaven pities us the way a father pities his children, because he knows who and what we are. And what does that pity mean? That seeing every need you have, taking into account every burden you bear, grasping every sorrow that you face, understanding every challenge that comes in, appreciating every desire that you have for what is good and right, and understanding that at the same time that lies not in you. Here is a God who is ready to forgive all your transgressions. so that you don't have to hide from Him your sins and your weaknesses, your failings and your follies, but you bring them to Him and you say, Father, this is what you've got to deal with. And your Father, because He loves you, forgives your sins, not because you don't think they matter and not because He thinks that they're not important, but because he has made provision in his love to put away your transgressions, that you should not be condemned on account of your sins. And you bring to him all your weakness, all your feebleness, all your confusion, all your distress, and you lay it all before him. You come to him like a little child battered and bruised and scabbed up who's fallen over and messed up and is just tired out and doesn't know where to turn. You come and you lift your arms to your heavenly father and your father stoops down and he picks you up and he holds you close and he carries you and he cares for you. and He watches over you and He blesses you so that there is nothing which you will face in which your Father who is in heaven will not supply you with your every need at that moment. Why does God give you what you need? It's because He pities you. He knows it and He gives it. Now are we ready to acknowledge that for ourselves? Or is there still that pride that says, no, I got this covered. I can do this by myself. I can run my own course. I can walk my own way. I can take care of myself. I can manage without any help. My friend, Have you not yet learned that God knows how to teach you other than that? He will never overburden you. He will never oppress you. He will never overload you. But if you say you can do it by yourself, He may let you try until you learn that you are dust and are ready to acknowledge your dependence upon Him. Imagine going on a trip and you put your pack together, and it's got all the food and all the drink and all the clothes for all the family for a 10-mile trek. And your five-year-old comes up to you and says, Daddy, I'll carry the bag. And you might say, well, really, that's going to be a little bit tricky. No, no, Daddy, I can do it. I'll be fine. And you might see the dad and he sort of leans over and that little five-year-old is standing there in the webbing of the pack and they think they're okay. Dad's got all the weight. And just ever so gently, he lets it drop and you see the child's knees begin to buckle. Daddy, I can't do that. No, I know. No, daddy will carry the pack. I've got all the supplies. I've got everything that you will need. And when you get hungry, I will feed you. And when you get thirsty, I have something for you to drink. And when you are cold, I will cover you. And when you are distressed, not only will I carry the bag, but I will carry you also. Do you acknowledge this about yourselves? And perhaps sometimes even more significantly, do you accept it with regard to others? Is it not a marvel that having received so much mercy ourselves, we can be so lacking in compassion toward others? Perhaps even when we acknowledge our own need and our dependence upon God, when someone else has a need, well, that's just stupid. And that's just annoying. And why can't they pull up their socks? And why can't they get their act together? And what's wrong with them? I'm not saying then that this is a recipe for some kind of wrong expectation that everyone else will carry the can for us. But I am saying this, that if you have received such compassion from God because you are dust, then should we not be more ready to take account of the fact that everyone here is dust? Do you look with pity, with compassion, with Christ-like concern upon the men and women, the boys and girls who are around you? because every one of us is feeble and every one of us is frail and every one of us is depending as a creature and as a sinner upon God and every one of us has been put together in order that we might be the means whereby the mercies and the compassions of a tender-hearted God are displayed toward one another. And some of us have no idea what anybody else is going through. And we can be very dismissive and very careless. Some of us do know more about what one or the other might be experiencing. You know what's perhaps even worse? We can be just as dismissive and just as careless. This then is not sentiment. This is the recognition that as a people we depend upon God and we need to face that for ourselves and we need to face it together and we need to come for our comforts and our blessings to the God who will not overload us or crush us. Yes, most of us have got to get back into the swing of things. You boys and girls, school's going to come regardless of what else is happening. Some of you have got jobs you've got to get back into. Some of you are thinking, how am I going to manage with this? What am I going to cope with with regard to that? I've got this particular difficulty. I've got this operation. I've got to contend with this sickness. I've got to deal with my family. I've got this. I've got that. And time keeps rolling on. the opportunities roll in and the burdens need to be carried and the battles need to be fought. Look at us. Are we the hand-picked team of spiritual commandos who are going to carry everything before us? Or are we the children of God who will depend upon the pity of our Father in heaven to hold us up and to help us on, because he is good, because he is full of tender mercies, because he is all compassion, because he has shown his faithfulness and his goodness toward us in his Son, Jesus Christ. As we go forward, even from this very moment, our confidence does not lie in our own strength, it does not lie in our numbers, it does not lie in our building, it does not lie in our grounds, it does not lie in our wisdom, it does not lie in our wealth. It lies in the pity of God. We rest upon the compassions of our Father who is in heaven. And perhaps at this very moment, You and I need to go to this God who knows your frame. And perhaps this is the moment when you need to maybe stop pretending or start confessing or simply acknowledge what is simply true, that you are dust. You know, the God of heaven has always taken that into account. He has never imagined that you are anything more or other than what you really are. At every step of the way, taking account of your particular circumstances and need, God has been pitying you the way a father pities his children. Forgiven. blessed, kept and sustained through the very darkest paths and along the deepest and most painful of routes, through every challenge, in the face of every need, under every burden and into every battle. That is and must be the confidence of this Church of Jesus Christ and every true believer here. It was David's and it can be yours. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. That's why we've asked the question, do you fear God? Do you know him as he is? Have you seen his majesty? Have you tasted of his mercy? Have you known his glory? Have you enjoyed his compassions? Have you seen his heart as it is made known in Christ the crucified Saviour of sinners and come to him and trusted in him and put yourself and all that you are and all that you have in his hands as Christ's Father and yours? As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. Brother, sister, he knows our frame. What relief, what peace, what joy, what calmness, what comfort. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. and he deals with us accordingly with all the love of his infinite heart. Amen.