Our Merciful and Gracious God (Psalm 103:8-10)

Today's scripture: Psalm 103:8-10

God is holy and righteous. He is perfect. He is all-good. He created the heavens and the earth, and they too were perfect. Even the first man and woman were created without sin.

However, where there is capacity for good, there is capacity for evil. When Satan, who himself had fallen from perfection, tempted Adam and Eve, those created beings chose evil. Sin entered the created world.

God cannot abide sin. When man rebels against the goodness of God, he chooses a life apart from his Creator. God has every right to judge and to punish.

Yet, because He is merciful and gracious, He offers salvation. He gives each and every one of us the opportunity to repent of our sins and come back to Him, to choose to follow Him. And when we do, He forgives us and offers us grace. He does not “punish us according to our iniquities.”

Praise God that He is “slow to anger.” Because if He weren’t so patient with us—so loving, so gracious, so merciful—each of us would receive what we deserve: judgment. Instead, each of us can receive what we don't deserve: salvation. Each of us can be in relationship with our loving, merciful, gracious God.

Such is amazing grace!