Psalm 103 (4)

“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.” Psalm 103:7 – 8.

There is a linkage between verses 7 and 8. In fact, verses 8 – 14 flow from verse 7. Can you see this relationship? We’ll explore this in the next few posts on Psalm 103, including  how this relationship can help us understand  intercessory prayer and intercessory living. Can you see how verses 7 and 8 provide a foundation for intercessory prayer?

But let’s first consider that God made known His ways to Moses and His acts to the children of Israel.

It is one thing to know what a person does, to see a person’s actions, and another thing to know a person well enough so that you know his or her ways. An element of friendship is when we accept another person for who he is and we come to understand that he has certain “ways” about him…and usually those ways are not likely to change, especially as we advance in years. This confronts us with a choice, if this person is truly my friend then I will choose to live with his “ways”, especially those ways that I don’t care for – but I realize they come with the package, they are part of who my friend is, so I get on with life and with our friendship.

Of course with God, since His ways are perfect, if I have a problem with His ways I had better ask Him to search my heart and conform me to His image and His ways – because somehow my problem with the ways of God is rooted in my sinfulness and in the effects of sin on my soul and cognitive abilities. The problem is never with God, it is always with me.

This does not mean that we do not speak with God about our struggles to understand and accept His ways; Moses had conversations, perhaps even arguments, with God about God’s actions and ways – if we won’t talk to our Father and listen to Him how will we grow? This is a process because it is a relationship, a relationship that God initiated and that God sustains through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But…let us remember, let us always remember, that our Father is holy; Moses was denied entrance into the Promised Land because he did not remember that God is holy, he did not sanctify, hold holy, God in the presence of the people of Israel. Let us not be foolish, let us learn from Moses…both the good and bad. The fear of the Lord remains the beginning of wisdom.

God made His ways known to Moses. In Deuteronomy 34:10 we read, “Since that time no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom Yahweh knew face to face.” In Exodus 33:11, “Thus Yahweh used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend.”

Abraham was called “the friend of God” – 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23.

Jesus says, “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you,” (John 15:14 – 15).

Friends know the “ways” of friends. It is one thing to observe the acts of someone, it is another thing to know the ways of someone.

We can live our lives standing afar off from God and observing His acts, or in Christ we can enter into the Holy of Holies, into an intimate friendship with God in Christ…and in doing so we can learn His ways. As we learn His ways we will find that His ways become our ways in Christ.

In this time of uncertainty, let us ask our Father to draw us ever closer to Himself through Jesus Christ so that we can learn His ways and reflect His love, mercy, compassion, truth, and glory to the world.