God Full of Compassion

But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.
Psalm 86:15*

King David viewed the Lord as the strong and powerful God who taught his “hands to make war” (Psalm 18:34), but He was also the God full of compassion who forgave him of his terrible sins. David certainly feared the Lord, but even when he faced the wrath and judgment of God for his willful transgressions, the king knew that God would not utterly abandon him if he cried out to the God who was filled with compassion and mercy.

This God that David knew was almost totally forgotten by the children of Israel at the time Jeremiah began to preach. The prophet begged the nation of Judah to humble themselves and repent so that God could hold back his wrath and show them mercy. They refused and the promised judgment did fall and the nation was destroyed. Only a small number escaped because they were taken captive. God is compassionate and yet He judges sin. This dual nature is hard to understand, so Christ was sent to be a clear and understandable object lesson.

Jesus saw the poor and downtrodden and reached out to  them. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, and raised the dead. But the problem is that people still get hungry the next day or fall victims to any one of the thousands of diseases on another day. Even the resurrected just live to die again. Since Christ as truly God full of compassion, He dealt with the core issue, the sin problem.

People need to totally get out of this sin-cursed world and into the presence of holiness, but that is not going to happen if people take their sin with them. For that reason, Christ took on Himself the sin of the world so that the sons and daughters of God could take on His righteousness. Now, when believers finally leave this planet, they can go to a place where they will never again be hungry, get sick, or face death, and they will live forever with their God full of compassion.

*see also Psalm 111:4