MAY 23, 2014
More
Than We Deserve
Read: Psalm
103:6-18
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us
according to our iniquities. —Psalm
103:10
Sometimes when people
ask how I’m doing, I reply, “Better than I deserve.” I remember a well-meaning
person responding, “Oh no, Joe, you deserve a lot,” to which I replied, “Not
really.” I was thinking about what I truly deserve—God’s judgment.
We easily forget how
sinful we are at the core of our being. Thinking of ourselves more highly than
we should diminishes our sense of deep indebtedness to God for His grace. It
discounts the price He paid to rescue us.
Time for a reality
check! As the psalmist reminds us, God “has not dealt with us according to our
sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities” (Ps. 103:10). Considering
who we are in light of a holy and just God, the only thing we truly deserve is
hell. And heaven is an absolute impossibility—except for the gift of Christ’s
sacrifice on the cross. If God never does anything more than redeem us, He has
already done far more than we deserve. No wonder the psalmist says, “As the
heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear
Him” (v.11).
Knowing ourselves for
what we are, we can’t help but say, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!” He
gives us so much more than we deserve.
Lord, thank You for
not dealing with me according
to my sins. I am
indebted to You for the love and
grace that You
demonstrated on the cross to
purchase my pardon and
forgiveness—far beyond what I deserve!
If God never does
anything more than redeem us, He has already done far more than we deserve.
Insight
Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote eloquently of
Psalm 103: “[This psalm of David] is in his own style when at its best, and we
should attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the
preciousness of pardon, because [of] a keener sense of sin, than in his younger
days. His clear sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as
also does the very [fullness] of his praiseful gratitude.”
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
