I was reading this morning Psalm 103 and since it is Father’s Day, verse 13 called my attention. It says,
“As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”
Here is a comparison that we often find in Hebrew poetry. The fact that a father shows compassion called my attention. The word “compassion” can mean tenderness, love or kindness. It is obvious that the passage doesn’t intend to say that all father’s are compassionate, kind or tender. But it does focus on a father who is compassionate, tender, loving and kind. In a patriarchal society such as the Hebrew culture the father had an important role in the family as we can see in the Old Testament. It was a family-centered culture. The father took seriously his God-given role. They were to instruct their children in the ways of the Lord (see Deut. 6). Their role as a father required them to model for them what it meant to fear God. A God-fearing father would understand that his role was also to be a compassionate, tender, loving and kind. He knows his children will make mistakes. Children will make mistakes and since the father knows his children well, he will have compassion on them. Not once but many times. Yes, there is a role a father has in discipline but never to the expense of being compassionate, tender, loving and kind. A good father, a God-fearing father, knows this well. This requires that he not only learns how compassionate God is, but also to know all his children well. This requires spending intentional time with them. A father may do everything help his children be what God wants them to be and yet not have these results. But this shouldn’t make him less compassionate.
God elevates this type of father as one worthy to compare the way He responds to those who fear him. God knows we all are frail and need his compassion. There lies our motivation to be a compassionate father.
Happy Father’s Day!
