“As a father shows compassion to his children,

so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”

       -Psalm 103:13-14

The Lord has compassion on you, as a father has compassion on His children. Why?

Because He knows how badly we need it.

Because He knows how we are framed.

He is quite literally “mindful” of our “dustness.”

Hear these words from theologian Charles Spurgeon:

“We too often forget that we are dust, and try our minds and bodies unduly by excessive mental and bodily exertion… but our heavenly Father never overloads us, and never fails to give us strength equal to our day. Blessed be his holy name for this gentleness towards his frail creatures.”

Our Heavenly Father always takes our frailty into account. He never forgets. He is gentle.

David wrote Psalm 103, speaking truth about God and our humanity 1,000 years before the coming of Christ. David knew in hazy outline what we now know in true form. David had the grayish tones of prophecies, but we have in living color the reality of Christ our Lord. David knew that God made us in His image, but didn’t know that God would take on our image in the incarnation.

On this side of the manger and the cross, we have seen the One who is “from everlasting to everlasting” (v.17). His name is Jesus. He stepped into history, taking on flesh and bone. Our God is not a god who stood far off, looking sadly into the pit of our suffering. He came into the pit, suffering with and for us. He became like us so that we might become like Him. He took on our earthly frame that we might have His resurrected one.

What does this change? If we are in Christ, it changes everything.

I have felt very mindful of my dustness of late. I have seasonal affective disorder: major depression for the many winter months of the year. My “frame” is not what I wish. My body is broken. My mind is not whole.

He knows my frame.

Maybe you struggle with anxiety. Or chronic pain. Maybe you are riddled with grief over the loss of a child, a love, or a friend. Maybe relationships in your life desperately need reconciliation. Maybe you’re fighting a sin daily, trying to be faithful, yet every day feels like a battle.

In all these things, know this: He knows your frame.

We long for the day when our bodies and minds will be made whole. That day, as sure as the first coming of Christ to the stable, is coming soon. In Christ, God doesn’t just know our frame; through His life, death, and resurrection, He changed the frame game. It will not always be this way, beloveds. Our King will come again, and when He does, He will make everything sad come untrue.

Depression will not survive in the New Kingdom.

Broken bodies have a shelf life that ends when we see Him face to face.

Anxious hearts will disappear when we feast in the house of Zion.

Grief has an expiration date, and it is closer than we know.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

-Revelation 21:4

This is our hope: where our incarnate Christ has gone, we will go. The One who took on flesh, who was born bloody in a manger only to have His body torn for the love of us, is the Victor. Because the One who is everlasting experienced our frailties as Christ, our brother, we are forever linked to the eternity He won for His people. Because He took down the powers of death and hell, you are bound for eternal glory.

The One who formed us took on our frame and changed everything.

Because He became like us, we shall be like Him.

So what else can we say but this?

Bless the Lord, O, my soul, and let all that is within me—every bit of my frame—bless His holy name!

Now is a time for spontaneous prayer. Or answer the question: What do you notice from the Bible reading?