Yesterday in my reading I was covering Psalm 78. This Psalm begins as if an older, wiser man was telling the younger generation a story. He begins with the glory and might of the Lord, telling how He "established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel." (verse 5) He goes on to tell of the shortcomings of Israel in spite of God's goodness to them. They forgot His works, they sinned against Him repeatedly, they were terribly ungrateful, and they spoke against God. After a rather depressing start to the Psalm, a real blessing came to me when I reached a special phrase in verse 38. It says "Yet He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them..." It was a perfect reminder of two very important things. First it was a reminder of what every Christian deserves. We deserve to be eternally punished for our iniquity by an infinite stream of destruction. We had offended a righteous God by repeating offenses without remorse. Here is the second reminder: He chose to be compassionate! He took totally undeserving sinners and looked on them with compassion. That compassion compelled Him to send His only and dearly beloved Son to atone for our iniquity. The depth of that compassion and mercy should never cease to overwhelm us. It should compel us to spend the rest of our lives serving a merciful, compassionate God. It should also drive us to tell the coming generations of the unmerited mercy that we have received at the hand of God.
