Well, as I mentioned last week, I might've disappointed a couple of people by not preaching a Father's Day sermon, though I'm sure you were more than satisfied after you walked out of here hearing about the Lord Jesus Christ and the fact that in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Well, I decided today to do a Father's Day sermon, you could say, to address the fathers in one way. But as I mentioned to Pastor Ron earlier on, it's going to be more of a meditation on God as our Father, really. So I ask that you turn with me in your copy of the Word of God to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. What we're going to essentially do is review the Psalm briefly. And then we're going to discuss God and how he acts towards us as a father. And then we're going to take some of those principles and seek to learn from them for those of us who are fathers in this congregation. I'm going to read the entire Psalm, Psalm 103. This is the Holy Word of God. 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 iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Amen. Let's seek the Lord's help again as we look to understand and profit from His word. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. It is a treasure. So we ask that you would help us to rejoice even as we approach it. We thank you that we have this rich revelation. Lord, give us ears to hear it, eyes to see the truth, heart to believe it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. First, I want to go through a brief summary of the psalm. The focus of our study this morning is going to be verses 13 and 14, but I want us to have some understanding of the broader context of the psalm. In verses 1 and 2, There's a call to personally bless the Lord. The psalmist is writing it, David, and he is calling himself, essentially, to bless the Lord. 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. And then in verses three through five, five specific reasons are provided as to why the Lord is worthy to be praised. Why is it that my soul should bless him? Why is it that my soul should praise him? Well, he gives these five reasons, and the reasons focus on God's personal kindness and mercy to him, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. And then in verses 6 through 14, the psalmist focuses on the revelation of God's righteousness, justice, mercy, and grace to his sinful people. Especially as the psalmist contemplates his own sin, he rejoices in the fact that God forgives sin and forgives the sin of a frail people. And so we read that, for example, after accounting God's mercy and grace in verse eight, he talks about in verses 10 and 11, the fact that he doesn't deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. And this wonderful picture of forgiveness here in verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Then he goes on to describe God's compassion as a father to his children, because God knows our frame. He knows that we're just dust. And then in verses 15 and 16 describes our frailty, that we're here like a flower in the field, and then we're gone the next day. And then as we drop down to verses 20 through 22, the psalm closes with a renewed call to bless the Lord, a renewed call to bless the Lord. This time the psalmist is not just calling upon his own soul to bless God, but he's calling upon all creation, specifically the angels at the beginning, but at the end, it's all creation to bless God. This is a God who's worthy to be praised by everyone. Well, again, as I mentioned at the beginning, focus is going to be on verses 13 and 14. As a psalmist draws to a close his contemplation of God's forgiveness, especially as, as God considers the frailty of his children. We're going to study this passage under three main headings. First of all, our father's knowledge, our father's knowledge. And I'm going to be actually looking at these two verses in reverse order. So we're starting in verse 14 and then going back to verse 13. So we have our Father's knowledge. Verse 14 says that our Father God has a knowledge of us, specifically how we are made, how we are made. It says that He knows our frame. He knows our frame. The word frame here refers to form or shape. Essentially it's saying God knows how we're put together. God knows how we're put together. Turn with me to Psalm 139. It's a famous Psalm regarding how we are put together. Turn with me a couple chapters over to Psalm 139. In Psalm 139, we read of God's intimate knowledge of our being as he forms us, as he forms us. So follow with me as I read. I'm going to read verses 13 through 16 of Psalm 139, 13 through 16. The psalmist addressing God, this is David again, says, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." And so we see here that Psalmist declares, first of all, that God is the one who actually forms our inward parts. And we read about that in verse 13. You formed my inward parts. And it says there in verse 13, when it says, you formed my inward parts, that idea of forming is, it actually has the idea of buying. It's interesting. It contains the idea of acquiring or buying. It's almost the idea, I think what it's getting at is, especially in the second half of verse 13 where it says God knits us together, God gets the parts and then puts them together. Now, some of you may know this, there is a black market for organs, organ donation, very lucrative. And there is all kinds of crimes that surround us. But that's for people who aren't able to basically create their own organs, right? They have to go get them from somebody else. So while this psalm contains the idea of getting the pieces that God's going to use to put people together, we understand that he's the one who's also creating them. It's using, you can say, anthropomorphic language to give us a picture of what God is doing. God's gathering the materials, and then he's putting them together. And the process is intimate. It says God knits us together in our mother's womb, right? It's this idea of weaving and knitting. This word is really only used in Exodus to describe the work on the tabernacle, and the curtains that were made, and the priest's garments that were made, right? The clothing. It's knitting. It's intricate. It requires a plan. It requires patience. It requires time. That's what God is doing. He's, as it were, taking the materials and putting it together, knitting us together. So he obviously knows, because he made us, exactly how we're put together. God's knowledge was intimate regarding the psalmist's frame. And verse 15 says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. No human eye can trace exactly the formation of the baby in the womb, but none of it was hidden from God. Every, every little advance, every small development, God noticed. And the frame here, when it says, my frame was not hidden from you. The frame here has specific reference to the psalmist's actual skeletal construction, specifically the bones. Like my structure, my bones, my skeleton was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. God's knowledge was also personal. The psalmist is saying, God, you knew me, you understood me. It was connected. God's knowledge was connected specifically with the psalmist. And this is true of every one of God's people. God knows them intimately because he formed them intimately in the mother's womb. So God knows how everything goes together, but he also knows the ingredients that make us. Now we're going back to Psalm 103. He also knows the ingredients that make us. Well, he knows the ingredients that make us because he's the one who used the materials, you could say, to put us together. Now I say the ingredients because the next phrase in verse 14 specifically highlights the fact that we're dust. And just meditate upon that for a second. It isn't flattering. That's what we are. I'm looking at, yes, we're the image of God and the Bible doesn't say that we're not, but it also says, and this is very clear, I'm looking at a bunch of dust that's put together. That's humbling. If you ever attempted to think, well, I'm something great, I'm something amazing, you're dust that God has just put together in a certain way. Not a flattering picture of humanity, but it is a fact that the scripture emphasizes. The psalmist didn't just whip this out of nowhere. The psalmist didn't just say, well, you know, I really feel bad. Let me say something about myself and who I am. That's really an exaggeration of the truth. So in Genesis 2, verse 7, we read this. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. The first man God made, the first raw materials he got together, God goes and, as it were, scrapes up some dust from the earth and makes a human being. That's what we are. We're from the dust and then in Genesis 3 verse 19 God reiterates this when he curses man He says by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground For out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return And Abraham understood this, because in Genesis chapter 18, verse 27, it was his personal confession when he was pleading before God, trying to get God's ear, but he recognizes, who am I to have God's ear? I'm dust. And so this is what he says. Abraham answered and said to God, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. I, who am but dust and ashes. He had a recognition. When's the last time you went to God and said, Lord, I'm dust? Abraham did. Abraham understood who he was. I'm just dust and ashes. This was also Job's personal confession. This idea of dust, you can understand why Job would have been, his thinking would have gravitated towards this way. He thought he was one step from the dust. Part of him wanted to go back to the dust, right? I mean, his life was just laid low. This was Job's personal confession. He says to God in Job 10 verse 9, remember that you have made me like clay. And will you return me to the dust? That's where you're putting me, God. You're right back in the dust. Ecclesiastes 3, verse 20. Oh, go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. And I find it interesting, again, that in the Psalms, and in Job, and in Ecclesiastes, these books are the wisdom literature, trying to teach us what's right and true, how to live the best way. They're going to emphasize to us one of the things you have to understand in order to live the best ways. You're from the dust. You're from the dust. And then in the New Testament, We are once again reminded that we are of dust when Paul contemplates the glory of our future resurrected body. But he's gonna contrast that to our earthly body right now. So turn with me back to, actually you don't have to turn, I'll just quote a few. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 47 through 49. Paul writes, the first man was from the earth, that's Adam, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. As is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as, and here it is, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Now there's a lot in this passage, but it's dealing with the future resurrected body, and I do believe that when Paul says there, we have borne the image of the man of dust, he probably means that in more than one way, but specifically in the way our bodies are put together. That's a context. As we look forward to the future resurrected body, we recognize that right now, we're of the dust. Now at present, we bear the image of the man of dust, Adam and all that entails. Now consider this. At some point, unless the Lord tarries, oh sorry, if the Lord tarries, unless the Lord comes back, we're going to be put into the ground And we're going to be rejoined, if it's long enough. I don't want to get too grotesque here. If it's long enough, we are going to be rejoined to the earth in such a way that we essentially become inseparable from other dirt. The psalmist in Psalm 103 verse 14 says, God knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. This is our Father's knowledge. Now, I mention that first of all, because this is the foundation of God's compassion. And that's what we find out in our second point here, point number two, our Father's compassion. Our Father's compassion. And we see the connection there in verses 13 and 14, right? The Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him, for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. In other words, it's saying one of the reasons God shows compassion to us is he remembers that we're dirt. He remembers that we're dust. The second half of verse 13 specifically says that the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. He shows compassion to those who fear him. And one of the reasons for the compassion was listed there in verse 14. Now, why does the fact that we are dust solicit God's compassion? Think about that. Why does the fact that we are dust solicit God's compassion? Well, I'm going to say there's probably two reasons we could give. First, because dust means weakness. Dust means weakness. We ultimately see man's weakness in the fact that he dies, and that's what verses 15 and 16 talk about. For as man, sorry, as for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind passes over it and it is gone and its place knows it no more. And this is again, highlighting the weakness of man, but because we're dust, we're weak. But bearing the image of the man of dust, as we read about in 1 Corinthians 15, means weakness in more ways than one. In 1 Corinthians 15 verses 42 through 44, the physical body that we have in this age is described not only as weak, but also as perishable and dishonorable. It's another way of saying that we are not men of steel. That might be one way. We're not indestructible. We're not men of steel. We're not impervious to the things that are going on around us. Man isn't iron or titanium or any other hard and indestructible metal. We are, you know, maybe we should have this form and have a big D, men of dust, right? That's not very flattering, but that's what we are, right? Instead of the big Superman S, right? D, men of dust. It, right? Our body in this age is not glorious. Our body in this age is not imperishable. This is what Paul's bringing out in 1 Corinthians 15. Our body in this age is not immortal. And it's not powerful. It's weak, it's mortal, it's perishable. It's not glorious. And Abraham's confession before God implied this very thing. Lord, I understand that because I am dust, I am nothing. I'm weak before you. I'm a nobody. I have no right. I'm mutable, I'm destructible, I'm perishable. I'm just dust and ashes. And it seems, in the context of this psalm, that David understands that this weakness, just human weakness, just the way we're put together, now in our sinful state, it makes us liable to sin. And how many of us have known something of this? We've known the weakness of our body, and our physical weakness, and how it ends up being, in one way or another, often, something that leads us into sin. doesn't excuse our sin, but shows that we're weakest human beings, and this weakness makes us liable to sin. And the weakness also makes it difficult to endure God's chastisement, as though it's a God, look, I'm weak, I'm small, I'm insignificant, I'm but dust and ashes. If you leveled all of your chastisement upon me for this sin, I couldn't bear it. And we're not even talking about punishment. We're not talking about God's punishment as in his eternal punishment, just chastisement. Lord, I'm weak. Dust means weakness and that weakness makes us liable to sin. The weakness makes it difficult for us to endure God's chastisement. But second right is the fact that we are dust solicit God's compassion as a father, right? This is the point here is our father's compassion. It's second because like a father, God is compassionate when confronted with weakness. In other words, when God sees that we are dust, he doesn't just note it and move on. He sees that we're dust, and that elicits in him compassion. You see, the unrighteous and the wicked, when confronted with weakness, they're insensitive to it. They might even say, here's my, now I can take advantage of this. Now I can trample the weak. Now I can crush the weak. Now I can use them for my own ends. And those who are struggling are praying for those who have power and authority. But when God sees the misery of our condition as our father, it induces him to show us fatherly love. The psalmist especially points to the human father as a picture to invoke an understanding of God's perspective on his weak and erring children. Now we know human fathers are not sinless and there's a lot of human fathers who are not compassionate and a lot of human fathers who don't care about the weakness of their children. But generally speaking, we understand and most people in the world even would understand that this is a great image to use, and that the father, generally speaking, is kind and compassionate to his children. Now, the psalmist could have utilized a lot of images, right? He could have said, as one man is compassionate to another man. Or he could have said, as a master could pity the slave. Or the way a rich man may pity a poor person. Or a strong man might pity a weak person. And these we would have sort of gotten what he's thinking of. But the image utilized by the psalmist here, as one man says, is the greatest of all. A father to his children. The good father, far from turning away from his child when his child is weak, will often be found to be even more engaged in helping his child. and for sacrificing for his child. This past week, Lee and I went to the New York Botanical Gardens. Leah's idea. I was happy to go. It's in the Bronx. We went there. And at one point, my mind was drawn. And this happens all the time. You see it all the time. But there was a father, older father, probably looked around 70, pushing his son in a wheelchair. Sun looked maybe around my age, right? And it just made me think about this. How often? They might not even be converted. They might not even have the love of Christ in their heart. But when they see the weakness of their posterity, when they see the human, physical frailty and weakness of their children, they will engage in greater amounts of sacrifice and greater giving and greater service to their child just to help their child when they see the weakness. And this is among the people of the world even. The good father, far from turning away from his child when his child is weak, will often be found to be even more engaged in helping his child. And I thought to myself, how many hours and weeks and years has that father given to his son? Doing things like this, pushing him around, or in other acts of selfless service. Well, it is God's relation to his people as a father to his children that evokes his pity and his mercy. And when he sees his children in their weakness and in their frailty, he says, I want to help them. I want to do good to them. I want to be kind and compassionate to them. One man says this regarding this, this idea, fathers feel for their children, especially when they are in pain. They would like to suffer in their stead. Their sighs and their groans cut them to the quick. It means cut them to the heart. And it is this sensitivity towards us that our Heavenly Father displays. We do not adore a God of stone, but the living God who is tenderness itself. That's a good way of describing God. God is tenderness itself. So now how is God's fatherly tenderness reflected? So we see that God, his compassion is evoked when he sees our frailty. He knows that we're dust. He sees our weakness. Compassion rises in his heart. How is his fatherly tenderness reflected? Well, I'm just gonna point out a couple of things from this psalm. It's reflected in many, many ways. But in this psalm, we could say a couple of ways briefly. It's reflected in forgiveness. It's reflected in forgiveness. It's reflected in not keeping his anger forever. It's as if God knows I've been angry enough with them. I've prevented the light of my countenance from shining upon them long enough. I'm gonna have mercy. I'm gonna be kind and compassionate to them. He doesn't repay us according to our sins. He gives us good things to restore to us youthful vigor and strength. We read about that in verse five, he satisfies us with good so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. He heals us of our spiritual diseases so that we don't continue to sin. These are just a couple of ways in which God's fatherly tenderness is reflected. This is our Father's compassion, our Father's compassion. And I think there's a couple of lessons that we can learn from this. Before we move on to consider how this is an example for earthly fathers to imitate, here's a couple of lessons. And I think I wrote them down in your notes. But first of all, recognize, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, your constitutional weakness. Now some of you may be like, you don't have to preach this to me. You're preaching to the choir. I know I'm weak. I'm frail. I feel like I'm falling apart at the seams. But this is a reminder maybe for some of the younger of us, right? We are dust. We're going to the ground. That's the path and the trajectory that we're taking. We need to have the mindset of our father Abraham. Right? Do we reflect the mindset of our father Abraham? I'm dust and ashes. And does this mean evident in our interaction with God? Lord, I don't plead to you in my prayers because I'm somebody great. I plead to you and I'm confessing I am dust and ashes, even as your child. We must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. Next time you're tempted to charge into God's throne room thinking you're something special, which in one sense we are because we are the children of God. So this is a balance to that. Remember, you're dust and ashes. And we hold both of these things in balance with each other, right? Well, first of all, recognize your constitutional weakness. That's what the psalmist is doing. And it was healthy for him to do so because it drew his mind then to the compassion of God. But secondly, be encouraged over the fact that God knows your constitutional weakness. What good is it if you know it, but God didn't? Maybe you've been in a situation where you've gone to work, and you had a terrible night's sleep. And you can't concentrate. You can't do anything. But you don't tell anybody. And so your boss or your supervisor, they're laying it on you. I need you to do this. And I need you to do that. Accomplish this. Accomplish that. And you're like, I'm never going to be able to do this. If they knew, they might have treated you differently. And maybe they do that sometimes. It's, hey, is something wrong? And you say, you know, whatever it is. Maybe not the sleep. Other things are affecting me. I have these health issues. And they're like, you know what? How about this? Instead of doing that, let's make it easy on you today. Do X, Y, Z, right? And that's wonderful when they come to an understanding of your weakness, your constitutional weakness. Well, the psalmist is saying, God knows that we're dust. Even when we might not feel like it, or even when we may not be acknowledging it, God knows it. And He's going to treat us accordingly. We don't have to go and beseech Him and petition Him. He knows it. And we need to be encouraged by this. So God's never going to deal with us in a way which is too difficult and too hard for us, where we'd say, well, Lord, if you only knew that I'm but dust. No. God says, I'm dealing with you this way. I know you're dust, my dear child. But don't permit your weakness, your constitutional weakness, to be an excuse. Says here in verse 13, the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Not those who try to take advantage of his gentleness and compassion. And again, you've probably come across these people, right? They play up their injury. They play up their sickness. They play up their weakness to get out of everything. Like, they don't want to do anything. Oh, I can't do this. Can you do the dishes for me? Or can you take the garbage out? Or can you do this at work? And they leverage their weakness. And they want everybody to know, I'm sick, I'm hurt, I'm this, I'm that, right? That's not the Christian. The Christian acknowledges it. But says, I still need to be obeying God. The Lord has compassion on those who fear him, meaning those who actually recognize his authority in their lives and seek to submit to it. Not those who try to take advantage of his gentleness and compassion. And then fourthly, be encouraged by and rejoice in the fatherly heart of God. That's what the psalmist is doing. As a psalmist reflects upon his own sin, as David reflects upon his own sin, and the forgiveness that's offered by God to him, he's encouraged by the fatherly heart of God, and it results in a hymn of praise to God. He's saying, bless the Lord, O my soul, and hopefully you came in here with this type of attitude on your heart. I need to be praising and blessing God, maybe among other things, for his compassion to me, his fatherly heart towards me. Bless and praise God for this, as the psalmist does. Be encouraged by and rejoice in the fatherly heart of God. And I'm going to close with something that isn't exactly in our text. It's in the Bible. Maybe you, at one point in your life, your Christian walk, you thought to yourself, doesn't really feel like God's being compassionate right now. Does God really, you might be tempted to think, does God really know my weakness? Or is it just words that he said? Is he really aware of the fact that I'm dust? Turn with me back to Job 19, and we're gonna read about someone who kind of felt this way. Job 19, oh sorry, Job 30, verse 19. Job 30, verse 19. And the point is we need to remember the truth of God's word, the fact that he's compassionate, even when it may not feel like he's compassionate. Job 30 verse 19, follow with me as I read, he writes, God has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me. I stand and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me. With the might of your hand, you persecute me. Does not sound like compassion. You lift me up on the wind, you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. It's almost like, God, you're taking me, you're throwing me into the middle of the tornado, and I'm just being, you're like watching me being thrown around in the middle of the tornado. For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand, and in his disaster cry for help? I mean, right, you're reading this. If you went to Job right now and said, Job, rejoice in God's compassion, Job would have been like, it does not feel like God's being compassionate right now. I mean, the depths of anguish and pain and suffering, internal and external, that Job was brought to. But here's the point. This does not cancel out God's revelation in Psalm 103. When God says that he is compassionate, Job needs to remember, and we need to remember, God is compassionate even when it doesn't feel like it. And I guarantee, as we see the revelation at the end, Job would testify to the compassion of God even in the midst of his suffering. And so I want to acknowledge the fact that it may not feel at times like God's being compassionate. but God is being compassionate. If we understood the end from the beginning, we would say, yes, God is being compassionate to me. Well, that brings us to our last point this morning, point number three, our father's compassion. Now you might be like, wait a minute, it's the same point as before. Well, notice I made it small letters here, right? So to differentiate it, we had our father's, right? God, our father's compassion. Now we have our father's and the apostrophes in a different place also. meaning our father's compassion, the compassion that the fathers in this place should be exhibiting. We read in Psalm 103, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. Now, it's interesting, the psalmist is not in this psalm arguing from the way God acts to the way we as fathers ought to live. He's not saying fathers, because God is compassionate, we need to be compassionate. The psalmist is actually, interestingly enough, arguing by asserting what everyone would generally acknowledge, that earthly fathers have compassion on their children, and then applying that to God's own dealings with his children. He's saying something like this. Listen, we all know how earthly fathers are compassionate to their children, right? Well, God is compassionate to his children in the same way. That's what the psalmist is saying. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. But when it comes to how we're supposed to live, we recognize that God is not the one imitating us. We are called to imitate him. We read about this in Ephesians 5 verse 1. be imitators of God as beloved children. We're the children. We're called to imitate God. And this is one of the ways that we as fathers can imitate God by having compassion on our children the way God has compassion on his children. So there are lessons here for how we should imitate God as fathers as we reflect on how God conducts himself as a father. First of all, Remember the frame of your children. Remember the frame of your children. Remember that, like you, they are also dust. Right? You're all the same. They are dust. This means that they are weak. With all the weakness we described earlier that applies to you, that applies to them as well. They're weak. They're frail. And that weakness will often make them susceptible to sin. And that weakness will also make it difficult for them to bear up under your chastisement at times. Remember the frame of your children. You know, take a look at them. Be like a God. When you deal with them, have it consciously in your mind, they are dust. God never forgets it. May the Lord help us never to forget that. So that's first of all, remember the frame of our children. Remember that they are dust. But secondly, don't excuse their sin because of their weakness. But be compassionate. When we talk about compassion, there's nothing here that says, well, God considers sin not significant. He forgives it. Trust me, forgiveness is costly for God. It costs the death of his son. Forgiveness is not, it's free for us, it's not free for God. Don't excuse their sin because of their weakness, but be compassionate. Using words in this Psalm, be long-suffering. God doesn't, at the first rising of sin in the heart, strike us. He's long-suffering. Don't keep your anger forever. There is a proper time for anger. God says, there is a proper time for my anger, but I don't keep my anger forever. Now listen, we sin enough. If God wanted to be angry with us always, at every moment, He could. But there's times when He graciously and compassionately puts it away. And we need to praise him for this. And this is a lesson for us as fathers. There is a time for anger. If we're never angry as fathers, there's probably something that's wrong. But don't keep the anger forever, forgive them. And to help you with this, remember God's compassion towards you. Recall your own sin in the face of God's kindness and mercy. Recall how God is not always angry with you and how God shows compassion to you. And that will be an incentive for you to show compassion towards somebody else. Don't excuse their sin because of their weakness, but be compassionate. Thirdly, This doesn't mean you don't discipline, and discipline in a way that brings real and memorable pain, I might add. But it does mean that you shouldn't be a father who only disciplines and never is long-suffering. This is talking about balance in the Christian life as a father, right? Yes, there's a time for discipline, a time for bringing pain into the life. That's what God was doing with Job. But that's not the only way that God dealt with Job. God knew right now at this point in time it's wise, it's the best thing for my glory and for Job as my child to bring these difficulties into his life. But God also knew when it's time to stop. And when it's time to change course, not that God was changing his mind, but now time to implement part B of my plan with Job. God didn't treat Job the way he did in chapter 30, the way Job was describing in chapter 30, the whole of Job's Christian life. Job saw the smile of God's countenance later on in the book, and he enjoyed it for years and years. So you could say, overall, God's chastisement of Job was really small and narrow even, time-wise. We don't want to be those fathers that only and always discipline and are never long-suffering, gracious, kind, and compassionate. And may God give us wisdom to know when it's time, when it's time to bring the pain and when it's time to be long-suffering and forgiving and compassionate. And again, fourthly, I've kind of covered this already as I went away from my notes a little bit. I wrote, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be righteously angry with them, but it just means you don't keep your anger forever. There are some dads who can fall into a trap of always being angry. It's anger, anger, anger. Anger has its place. But we don't serve a God who's primarily an angry God as a father. He's a kind and compassionate and merciful father. And so we must not keep our anger forever. And then lastly here, it doesn't mean that you ignore their sin and don't notice it, but it does mean that you don't always chide, and you don't always deal with them according to their sins. I mean, you were a child. If I want to just focus on the sins of my kids, always, and just always have an eye out, and maybe they think sometimes, but dad kind of sometimes does this. Right? Parents have a way of noticing the sins. But if that's all I ever did, I'm just going to look for the faults. Just look for the sins. Just get them when they've gone astray a little bit. That could dominate my life as a father. It could. They sin. They sin in plenty of ways. In the way I sin before God. If God wanted to focus on my sin, trust me, He could do it. And he would be kept busy focusing on my sin, my whole earthly existence if he wanted to. But he doesn't. He's kind and compassionate at times. Always we could say, even when he brings chastisement, he's compassionate. And so it doesn't mean we ignore the sin. And those of you, I'm preaching here to people who've been in this church. We've heard many sermons on discipline and using the rod and rebuke, right? So this is meant to be a balance to that. We sometimes should not deal with them according to their sins, the way God deals with us. And may God give us wisdom on how to exactly implement that and carry that out. And I'm just gonna leave you with this concluding thought. I put it in the notes. If the only idea of the fatherly activity of God was your kid's life with you, what would your kids think about God as a father? And I say that to myself. If the only idea of a father, of the way God acts as a father towards his children is the way I act towards my children, would my children say, I want God as my father, or would they say, I don't want that kind of God? Well, we need to confess our sins, and may the Lord help us to be more like him, better imitators of him as dearly beloved children, so that we reflect at least in some small way the fatherhood of God in the way that we father our children in this way. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Amen. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. Our great God in heaven, we praise and we thank you for your kind and compassionate fatherly dealings with us. Lord, you do not keep your anger forever. You do not deal with us according to our iniquities. You're long-suffering, and you forgive. You separate our sins from us as far as the East is from the West. Lord, we thank you for this. And we ask that you would help us to glory in the fact that you are our Father, and to rejoice in it, and to exclaim like the psalmist does, bless the Lord, O my soul! and all that is within me, bless his holy name as we consider the way you father us. Lord, we do pray also for the fathers in this congregation, young and old, for the future fathers, that you would help us to reflect clearly your fatherhood in the way that you father your children, that we would reflect that in the way we father our children, the way that we parent our children. There is a place for discipline, but according to the Psalm, you and your wisdom have determined that there is a place also for compassion, for long suffering, and for not dealing with people according to their sins. So Lord, help us to do that with our children as well, and to know the balance, and to learn from you, and to study you, that we might reflect you better as we father. Lord, we ask that you would save our children despite our failings and our frailty and our sin? Or do we know that we do not reflect you perfectly? May our children turn not to us, but to you, that they might be saved. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.