There are numerous individuals in the Old Testament and New Testament who walked with God and experienced His love, grace, and compassion in a very personal way. For instance, just to mention a few, heroes of faith like Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24), Noah (Genesis 6:5-9), Abraham (Genesis 17:1; 24:40; 48:15), Isaac (Genesis 48:15), Jacob (Genesis 48:15), Moses (Exodus 33:11-16), David (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), the apostles of Jesus Christ, including Apostle Paul, all lived their lives faithfully before God and experienced His love, grace, and compassion in their lives. Even today, about four to five thousand years after Enoch’s time, we, in the latest generation, worship the same God, who is loving, gracious, compassionate and forgiving. God never changed from who He was (past) to who He is (today) or who He will be (future), but He is the same forever. For God, the past, the present, and the future do not make any difference. Malachi 3:6-7 states that I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. Even in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews states that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Though the world and people in it change from time to time, God never ever changes. Always, during the Old Testament time and during the New Testament time, God is the same. God is always loving, gracious, compassionate, and forgiving. To know God more and more, one needs to experience the goodness of God in a very personal way, like the writer of Psalm 34:8 says, Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Therefore, let us trust in the Lord with all our heart (Proverbs 3:5a), and Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30); and He will never let you down.

Thus, the God whom you and I worship is a God who is compassionate and gracious and abounding in love and faithfulness, as Moses stated in Exodus 34:6 … He [God] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. The passage we chose for the Scripture for the week is from Psalm 103:8-12, where God’s goodness and mercy is well explained. The attributes that are used in Psalm 103:8-12 are neither to flatter God to make Him happy (as mentioned in Psalm 78:36-37), nor to boost our faith in the Lord through false testimony, but it is the testimony of king David (the writer of the Psalm 103) based on his personal experience with God.

• King David, being the man after God’s own heart, realized that he had committed sin against God
• King David, being unworthy of obtaining pardon from God, received God’s forgiveness in his life 
• King David, being undeserving to receive God’s mercy, experienced God’s love, grace, and compassion in his life
• King David, being an undeserving person who is justified by God’s grace, acknowledged the goodness of God in his life

This Scripture passage (Psalm 103:8-12) plainly reveals some of God’s attributes and relates those attributes to humanity. The Psalmist (king David) who had personally experienced the faithfulness of God in his life is able to state such a wonderful testimony about God’s faithfulness in his life. God took David from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed him ruler over His people Israel (2 Samuel 7:8), yet David still sinned against God’s will. However, when he repented of his sins, God had compassion on him and forgave all his sins. In one way or another, we have all wronged God because there is no one righteous before God. According to Psalm 53:2-3 (also, refer Psalm 14:2-3), God looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if any understand, if any seek God. All have turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Apostle Paul said, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). So, every one of us, being sinful and falling short of the glory of God, are under God’s mercy for our survival because He is compassionate and gracious compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103:8).

Similar to David’s experience, many of us have also have gone through similar situations. Like God showed compassion to David when he repented, God shows compassion to us all and, thus, we are all saved by His grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. Apostle Paul says, … we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). This is why we can trust the Lord God Almighty whom you and I worship and serve today, for He is a loving, gracious, merciful, and compassionate God.

The Psalmist points out a few things from his own experience in the Psalm 103:8-12, which are mentioned below. The Psalmist encourages us that God …

• … will not always accuse us (v.9a)
• … will not harbor His anger forever against us (v.9b)
• … will not treat us as our sins deserve (v.10a)
• … will not repay us according to our iniquities (v.10b)
• … His love for those who fear him is so great (v.11)
• … He removed our transgressions from us (v.12).

The Scripture is filled with numerous references, in addition to what we mentioned above, that reflect on and reassure us of God’s love, grace, compassion, mercy, and faithfulness. A few of them are mentioned below for our benefit:

Exodus 34:5-7a Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished …

Deuteronomy 4:31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath

Nehemiah 9:17 … You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love

Nehemiah 9:31 … You are a gracious and merciful God

Psalm 86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness

Psalm 111:4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate

Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love

Psalm 145:9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made

Isaiah 54:8 … With everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your Redeemer

Jeremiah 3:12 Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord, I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful, declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever

Lamentations 3:22-23 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness

Jonah 4:2 … You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity

Matthew 9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd

Luke 1:50 His [God’s] mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God