Last year I looked at the Top 10 Most Shared Bible Verses from 2013 in their context. They have recently posted their 2014 list and to my surprise there are ten new most shared verses, so I figured I’d look at these ten popular verses in their context again this year. Today we will look at Psalm 103:17-18, which is the ninth most shared verse of 2014.
The Verse:
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. (Psalm 103:17-18 ESV)
The Context:
Psalm 103 is perhaps my favorite Psalm. It recounts all of the benefits of the LORD and encourages the soul to “bless the Lord”. Honestly, I’m surprised that of all the wonderful verses in Psalm 103 it is verses 17 and 18 which are the most shared. But that is also understandable because these verses are the climax of the entire Psalm.
In these verses we see that the steadfast love of the LORD which “made known his ways to Moses” is the same steadfast love available today. This is contrasted (notice the “but” in verse 17) with the transience of life in verses 15-16.
Sir Richard Baker, who wrote a history of the Kings of England, commented on verses 15-16 by saying:
Man, once turned to dust, is blown about by every wind, from place to place; and what knows the place, when dust falls upon it; whether it be the dust of a prince, or of a peasant; whether of a man, or of a beast? And must not man then needs be very miserable, when time and place, the two best helps of life, do both forsake him? for what help can he have of time, when his days are but as grass? What help of place, when his place denies him, and will not know him?
It is only when we really grasp the transience of mankind that we really grasp the significance of the enduring and steadfast love of the Lord.
The Meaning:
The verse in Psalm 103 which shook me out of a deep depression about ten years ago was verse 14. I was feeling the weight of verses 15-16. I felt so frail and weak and dare I say worthless. I felt every bit as nothing more significant than a mite of dust. But it was truly worse—I was a wretched mite of dust. How in the world could the Lord be pleased with one such as I.
And then I read Psalm 103. Here I saw that the Lord knows our frame and He remembers that we are but dust. It was here in the contrast between 15-16 and 17-18 that I found refuge. Yes, it was true that I was but dust as Psalm 103:15 declared. But I was so much more because of the steadfast love of the Lord.
To think that the son of God would come to earth and die a criminals death for those who are but dust. That he would redeem and rescue such transient creatures. And now my dustiness took on a whole new meaning. (I’ve reflected on this in the past).
Conclusion
I suppose this is why this verse is so often shared. Hopefully it is not shared to brow beat. I assume that one could read the latter half of this verse and make God’s love about as fickle as a dandelion in a tornado. But the phrase “those who fear him” is not something to do as much as something that people are. These are believers. We aren’t those who “keep the covenant” but we are connected to the One who has kept covenant on our behalf. And so because of Christ and our union with Him all the promises of Psalm 103 are certainly ours.
We are fickle. He is faithful. And his steadfast love will carry us through all generations.
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