How We Imagine God

We often project onto God our perceptions of our

.
A good thing to remember as a parent: “These children are going to

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God the way they experience me.”
Some people think of God like a parent who is always farther up a

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, looking down in disapproval.
Is God really a God of

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expectations?

Psalm 103

1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not *treat* us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the Lord, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the Lord, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Reflecting on Psalm 103

It is worth paying attention to God’s

in Psalm 103 and how they define him.

God places a

on his children’s heads of love and compassion.

In recognizing that we come from

and will return to

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, God’s response to our fragility is his compassion. It is his

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that lasts from generation to generation.

This Psalm begins with the Psalmists inmost being and expands out to everywhere under God’s

.

What About God’s Frustrations?

Frustration, even anger, can be tied back to God’s

. The opposite of love isn’t hate, but

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. God can be bothered because he cares about us and our wellbeing matters to him.

Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9

1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

Even in his moments of greatest anger, such as in Hosea 11, God still says that his

is changed, and that his

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is aroused within him.

When we are tempted to ask one question: “How could God still love me?“, God is asking us a different question:
“How can I

you up?”

We do not serve a God of impossible expectations. We serve a God of

.

Questions for Discussion and Reflection

1. Do you ever feel burdened by God’s holiness compared to your own limitations and flaws? What do you think God would say to you about this?
2. Psalm 103 invites us to begin as personally as our own inner heart and to think as big as the universe and the throne room of God. In every place, we only find more of God’s goodness and love. What are some times and places in your life where God’s love has surprised you in a delightful way?
3. How might a person’s frustration be linked to their love? How is this also true of God?
4. When you think of or imagine your own children or grandchildren, what can your compassion for them teach you of God’s love for you?