Psalm 103 Devotionals: v. 14

For he knows our frame;

he remembers that we are dust.

Psalm 103:14

Part of the reason God shows compassion and forgives sin is due to what the psalmist identifies in verse 14, namely His knowledge of us and our weakness. The story of man’s beginning is told by Moses in the creation narrative (Gen. 1:27). God spoke everything into creation and made it out of nothing, but He formed man from the dust of the earth (Gen. 2:7). We are composed by an incredible combination: the power of God and the dirt of the earth. Therefore, He knows our frame because He made us, and He dignified us by making us in His image (Gen. 1:27). The prophet Isaiah penned the metaphor that God is the potter, and we are the clay (Is. 64:8). This portrayal helps elevate God to His rightful place of honor as our Maker, and we are reminded that humans rely on God for everything to maintain life. Instead of thinking more of ourselves than we ought, we join the psalmist in expressing gratitude and wonder, for “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:4).

We are sadly living in an era when man is not struck with awe and wonder when it comes to how we are made. The sanctity of life is not cherished when unborn babies are killed by elective abortions. The development of movements such as transhumanism and other ideologies demonstrate a growing dissatisfaction with the nature of humanity. The believer has a ministry to the world, and a significant part of this ministry begins by affirming how God designed each of us individually, each with a unique fingerprint, and with the responsibility to live for His glory. Our very breath is from God. When we breathe our last, Scripture reminds us that our earthly bodies will disintegrate back to dust (Gen. 3:19). Today, I rejoice that, as an adopted child of God, although my fleshly body turns back to dust, my spirit, upon death, ascends directly to heaven to be in the presence of God. Even greater, I go to the grave with the hope of future bodily resurrection just as Christ was raised from the dead.

Our frailty reminds us that we are not God—we are not unchanging. Moses’ prayer reiterates this, “Before the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. You turn man back into dust” (Psalm 90:2-3). Even though God designed us for better things than what we have chosen, He still has compassion and love for us because He knows our origin and frailty. In Christ, this reality is richly developed. Jesus took on our flesh, yet without sin. In Him, God knows our frame in experience, and He can sympathize with us in our weakness (Heb. 4:12).

We are not without worth even though our origin is dust and our remains return to dust. It is my hope that all who read this would know the God whose hand made you and sustains you. He alone gives meaning and purpose to our life and to our death.

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