While reading Psalm 103, I grow in encouragement. One of my favorite lines is this one: “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
But I wonder why I’m so encouraged by this phrase. There are times when people remind me of my “dustiness.” Recently one of my sons confronted me in a sin, and immediately I went on the defensive to say that wasn’t true. But as I thought about it, I realized he was right. Sometimes friends and my wife will address a sin in my life, and I don’t want to admit it. I can recall times when I’ve confronted others in their sin and they deny. With my own children, I remember a time when I told a child that they were being a fool. To that, they said they thought I was making fun of them. But I said, “I’m not making fun of you. You’re sinning and that’s foolish, and the Bible then says you’re being a fool if you embrace that.”
I give all of these examples because I wonder if we try to sterilize the Bible when we read it. God says that we are dust, and we think, “Oh yes, he knows I’m weak and frail! Praise God.” And it should be a reason to rejoice. But when others tell us that, we think, “How dare you!” Why can we take it from God and not from others? Of course, there are times when people say things out of spite whereas God always speaks to his children in love. But I also think that we can “take it” from God because we think of our weakness in generic terms. We don’t think we’re really that weak. And as a result, we’re not that needy. Yes, we’re dust. But we’re trying hard. We’re doing relatively good.
But Psalm 103 reveals we’re completely needy. Our sin, our behaviors and even our created, built-in weakness reveals that we need God absolutely. And guess what? Instead of this making us angry, we should rejoice. God sees us more clearly than we want to see ourselves, and you know what he says to us? His love is vaster than the heavens. His forgiveness far exceeds the distance between east and west. He is the eternally loving Father. He sees and knows our frame and he loves us! We see this most clearly in the cross of Jesus. While we were weak, Christ died for us. At the cross of Christ, we see the love of God. So, instead of covering up your weakness, praise God in your weakness today. Admit your weakness and rejoice in the God who sent Jesus to rescue you and also makes you strong in the midst of weakness!