And then, not only does he remedy the past and pull us back from destruction, he distributes his rich blessings to us: lovingkindness, tender mercies, and all good things. This focuses on what is really important; that we live in the awareness of God's infinite love and mercy for us and all mankind, continually being renewed in strength by the good things we receive from him.

What a pattern for the life of the believer! We are sinners like all men. But we are not trapped in sin. We are not saddled with the consequences of sin. There is forgiveness, healing, redemption and blessings from the hand of our loving Heavenly Father. Truly we should bless the Lord with our whole being!

6. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

But if the Lord cares about the oppressed, and works righteousness and justice for them, why are they still oppressed? Why is there evil? Same question. In this world of free and consequently good-evil beings (for we choose both good and evil), God's will is regularly thwarted. He "executes," but between the execution and the receipt of righteousness and justice there too often comes the evil or perhaps just the blundering conduct of human beings, and the result is justice delayed or denied.

Furthermore, we who claim to love him are the agents of his righteousness and judgment. He executes his will through us. If the oppressed are not delivered, it is not because God has not acted on their behalf. It is because his people are not carrying out his commands.

7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

God has revealed himself; he has not remained hidden. We know something of what God is like because of the way he has acted in the past. We have, then, a historical faith, one based on actual events that happened in history. This indicates several things: (1) We can test and evaluate our religion by examining its historical underpinnings. (2) When we doubt God, or are fearful about the future, we can be reassured and encouraged by looking back to see how faithful he has been in the past. (3) The fact that God has chosen to reveal himself tells us something about his character, his willingness to be known and to intercede in human affairs. He desires that we know him.

8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

What is God like? What are his chief characteristics or primary traits? Here the psalmist notes three of God's most important qualities: (1) mercy, (2) grace, and (3) patience. The fact is that God is tender-hearted. He is full of mercy, bestowing unearned benefits (grace), and slow to get angry.

9. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

How does God give both mercy and justice? We may be able to suggest some analogies, but ultimately this is a mystery; we must accept it on faith. But there is a lesson to be learned from it. Perhaps there are times when justice seemingly denied for us is mercy granted to our oppressor. Since we desire mercy and not strict justice for our own deeds, we can hardly complain when God applies the same standard to those who afflict us.

11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

This is the first of three references in this psalm to "them that fear him." In this verse and in verse 17 God's mercy is given to "them that fear him," while in verse 13 the Lord "pitieth them that fear him."

One further question arises. What does it mean to "fear" God? Does it mean that in order to obtain his favor we must be constantly cringing before him, afraid that at any moment he might strike us down in a blast of righteous judgment? It would be difficult to reconcile that kind of fear with what we know of God's nature. In other words, if that's the kind of God we have, then everything else we believe about him – his love, compassion, justice, etc. – is at least suspect and perhaps wrong.

Rather, to fear God seems to mean something quite different than fearing the neighborhood bully. Perhaps an analogy will help to understand the kind of fear the psalmist seems to be talking about here.

Two little boys are discussing how to put a penny on the railroad tracks in a forbidden area of town to have the train squash it flat. They decide to run to the tracks as soon as they see the train in the distance, lay the coin on the track, and wait until the train goes by to retrieve it. They know the train will not hurt them, just as the big trucks that pass in front of their house will never hurt them as long as they stay on the sidewalk.

The train appears and the boys run to the track. No sooner do they put the penny down when the earth begins to shake and a tremendous roaring and shrieking of machinery swells up and drowns out every other sound. The boys turn pale and perhaps begin to shake. They are absolutely terrified as the train rumbles by.

They simply had no idea what it is like to stand five feet away from a diesel locomotive pulling a load. They had always seen trains at a distance, winding their way through the hills at what seemed to be a snail's pace. Perhaps they had seen close-up pictures of trains in books. But nothing they had seen or experienced prepared them for the enormous throbbing vitality of a real train in action. Naturally they were fearful - full of fear.

This, of course, is a much different kind of fear that what we often think of. There is no sense in cringing and trying to ingratiate oneself into the good graces of an enormously powerful and dangerous machine, such as a locomotive or jet airliner. It will not pay the slightest attention, and if, for example, a finger is laid on the track instead of a penny, it will be ground to pulp regardless of propitiatory measures. On the other hand, the fear induced by a bully is altogether different. Then we fear not only his power, but also the irrational and unpredictable nature of the harm he can do, and the malevolence that motivates it.

So often our views of God are shaped by what we've seen at a distance, or the dim pictures we gather from our books or other secondhand sources. We have no real conception of how incredibly above and beyond us he is. God is not a machine - the analogy breaks down here - but we should truly be overwhelmed by our awareness of his immensity and his might.

Let us live in his love but ever mindful that his love is not a cloak for weakness or impotence. God does not love us because that's the only way he can deal with us. He loves because that is his very nature. Or, to use another metaphor, we dwell safely in the shadow of a volcanic mountain, but we do well to keep our eye on the peak.

As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

This is hard for some of us to accept. We may be willing to concede that God does, as he says, forgive our sins, but unable to believe that he is not keeping them handy for later reference. Not so, says the psalmist; our sins are gone forever, shipped away "as far as the east is from the west."

Sometimes, of course, the difficulty is that we cannot forgive ourselves. After we have once asked God to forgive a particular sin, we may go back and ask for forgiveness again. We cannot quite believe that God has really forgiven it, since we have not forgiven ourselves. And if we do not catch ourselves at that point, we will quickly negate the teaching of this verse. For if God needs two petitions to completely erase sin, why not three? Or five, or fifty?

No, when we pray, "Lord, again I ask you to forgive me for such and such a sin," the Lord (because he is patient, remember?) replies, "My child, I have no record whatsoever that you have committed that sin. But if you insist that you have committed it - and I see that you are trying to tell the truth - you are running the risk of committing a quite different and much more serious sin, the sin of unbelief, which is idolatry. For by saying, 'I have sinned,' when I Myself have no knowledge of such sin, you are refusing to accept the forgiveness I have granted, preferring to lash yourself with the memory of sin confessed and forgiven, as though in some way that would make you more worthy of forgiveness. In such a way I become secondary to your efforts to redeem yourself, and that, my dear child, is idolatry."

13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

What do we do about the besetting sins, the sins that we repeat over and over again? We know that we must go to the Father for forgiveness, but we shrink back. It was only yesterday, or last week or month, that we committed the same sin. How can I go back and ask forgiveness again?

The question has already been answered - he removed those earlier sins as far as the east is from the west, and has no record of them. And here is a second answer. God knows what we are like. He understands our frail nature, our weaknesses, our vulnerability, just as we understand the limitations of our children. When our three-year old cannot maintain our pace, we pick up and carry the child. When the tired youngster throws down a playmate's toy in anger and frustration, we do not approve the behavior - we may require an apology to the playmate - but we understand. We do not condemn, even if this happens every time the child misses a naptime.

15. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

Human life is short. When we are young, we think we will live forever. Each birthday is such an important milestone. But the tempo picks up, and soon we are asking, "Where did it all go? It seems like just yesterday I was going to school ... starting my first job ... getting married .... Where did it all go?

These verses remind us that we need an eternal perspective on life. We bloom for such a brief moment. And soon, all too soon, we too will be history, dimly remembered for a time, and then forgotten.

17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18. To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

The last phrase of verse 17 seems to indicate that God's favor on his people is so great that it spills over to their descendants. Does this mean that our children automatically inherit or absorb our faith? No, verse 18 makes clear that it is those who obey God who are the recipients of his mercy, and there is no indication that this limitation does not apply to the children and grandchildren of God's people.

What, then, is the meaning of the phrase "his righteousness unto children's children? If only those who fear and obey him receive mercy, what advantage do believer's children have over those whose parents are athiests?

The advantage seems to be one of opportunity; God's grace is surely available to all, but not all are equally positioned to receive it. In our schools, for example, merit scholarships are open to all students, but those whose parents are doctors, lawyers or teachers surely have a great advantage. Aside from whatever intellectual bent is transmitted biologically, in those homes books are more likely to be treasured than television, homework comes before hobbies, and the child absorbs an orientation to scholarship that is rarely found in working class homes.

19. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

If "his kingdom ruleth over all," why do we see evil, rebellion and chaos everywhere in the world?

The answer is that God "ruleth" but man "doth not obey." The sovereignty of the Lord has no limits. His commands apply everywhere, among all peoples. But just as an earthly sovereign may find it difficult to enforce his rule among remote and rebellious subjects, so too God's reign is not everywhere effective, especially because he has chosen to rule by love and not by force.

20. Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

21. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

22. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.

Because God - this God who has conferred on us so many blessings, who is kind and patient and forgiving, who loves us more than any earthly father loves his children - is Ruler of all, all should praise and bless him forever.

And so the psalmist summons this praise. Beginning with the highest and most obedient subjects - God's holy angels, strong obedient servants, eager to hear and do His word - and moving to all those who serve him - including evanescent man - and then to all created beings and things everywhere, and finally whispering again to his own soul, the psalmist calls forth a universal paean of praise to our Maker and King: Bless the Lord!