Remembering What We're Made Of

Read: Psalm 103 

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
(Ps. 103:13-14)

As humans, we generally don’t like to think about, or be reminded of, our own weakness, vulnerability, and ultimate mortality. When I teach university classes on Disability Studies and Disability Ethics, I introduce the term TAB—that is, Temporarily Able-Bodied—in order to make students consciously think about the fact that, if they live long enough, they, too, will acquire some sort of  disability in the course of their lifetime. From time to time, I've had one or another of my twenty-something-year-old students express resentment at my assumption that they will acquire some kind of disability at some point in their life. It has often seemed to me that such objections say less about the tendency of young  people to believe that they're indestructible, than they reveal about our basic human aversion to dealing with the reality of our vulnerability and our inevitable physical death.

The Psalmist tells us that God has a very different attitude towards our physical weakness and mortality: “he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” It is because God is mindful of both our physical frailty and our spiritual weakness, which leads us into sin, that He sent His son, Jesus, to be our great high priest. To thus fulfill his role as our great high priest, Jesus “had to be made like [us] fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17-18).

This is why those who have put their trust in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour need not fear either their physical or spiritual weakness. God remembers that we are dust, and has made the ultimate provision for our spiritual and physical weakness by sending Jesus to be our great high priest, who sacrificed Himself for our sin so that we can be forgiven and have eternal life.

Gracious Heavenly Father, Thank you for remembering our physical and spiritual weakness, and for sending your son, Jesus, to be our great high priest. Grant us an ever-deepening knowledge of the completeness of the salvation we’ve received by trusting in Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf, so that we need no longer fear times of either physical or spiritual weakness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.