{"id":22461,"date":"2014-10-24T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-24T04:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=22461"},"modified":"2014-10-23T22:29:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-24T02:29:33","slug":"compassionate-merciful-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/10\/24\/compassionate-merciful-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Compassionate, Merciful God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
\nslow to anger and plenteous
\nin mercy and loving-kindness.
\nPsalm 103:8<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

There is one word in this passage that stuck out to me\u2014compassion (or merciful). In verse 8, we read that the Lord \u2018is compassionate\u2019 (merciful) and in verse 13, it says that He \u201chas compassion\u201d (or mercy or pity). I often find it so very helpful, when studying the Scriptures, to read a particular verse or passage in a number of different Bible versions. (Do you find that true, too?) It always brings about a more complete understanding…at least to me. I would like to let you experience this in reference to one of the verses in the section we have been focusing on this week here on the Seeking Him devotional blog. My favorite version for studying is the Amplified Bible version; so I\u2019ll start there…<\/p>\n

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness.<\/p>\n

NIV
\nThe LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.<\/p>\n

NLT
\nThe LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.<\/p>\n

ESV
\nThe LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.<\/p>\n

NASB
\nThe LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.<\/p>\n

KJV
\nThe LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.<\/p>\n

HCSB
\nThe LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love.<\/p>\n

ISV
\nThe LORD is compassionate and gracious, patient, and abundantly rich in gracious love.<\/p>\n

ASV
\nJehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness.<\/p>\n

DBT
\nJehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness.<\/p>\n

Webster’s
\nThe LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in mercy.<\/p>\n

YLT
\nMerciful and gracious is Jehovah, slow to anger, and abundant in mercy.<\/p>\n

Each of these versions (and, of course, there are more!) communicate basically the same thing…but some add just a further bit of information or inflection. \u00a0After reading through these, I was left praising God Who is \u2018compassionate and merciful and gracious\u2019 and abundantly rich in steadfast, unfailing, in loving-kindness\u2019! \u00a0How great is our God!!!<\/p>\n

The Strong\u2019s concordance uses the following words to biblically define \u2018compassion\/merciful\u2019 as used in verse 8: \u00a0to love, love deeply, have mercy, be compassionate, have tender affection, have compassion. And listen to this tidbit of insight: \u00a0this word (rachuwm, pronounced \u2018rakh-oom\u2019) is used only 13 times throughout the OT and<\/p>\n

Here is the very first occurrence of this word in the Bible.<\/p>\n

And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed,
\nThe Lord! the Lord! a God merciful<\/em> and gracious,
\nslow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness and truth.
\nExodus 34:6<\/p>\n

Almighty God declared Himself \u2018…the compassionate and merciful God…\u2019 during His encounter with Moses on Mount Sinai.<\/p>\n

No doubt God had already proven Himself VERY compassionate, merciful, and gracious towards the children of Israel! \u00a0Remember this is the account where He allows Moses to redo the two tablets on which had been the commandments which God had written and given to Moses. \u00a0(Here\u2019s a link<\/a> to go read this passage.) \u00a0While Moses and Joshua were up on the mountain receiving God\u2019s commands, the people had chosen to turn back to their idolatrous ways and had made a golden calf and were worshipping this idol. \u00a0 Upon his return, Moses became so disgusted and angry with them that he threw the tablets on the ground and broke them to smithereens! \u00a0(NOT good!) \u00a0Moses pleaded with the Lord and interceded on behalf of the Israelites. \u00a0And \u2018the compassionate and merciful God\u2019 relented and gave them yet another chance to repent and obey. \u00a0This shows the magnitude of the Lord\u2019s mercy, compassion, and grace!<\/p>\n

So what does this mean to us…some 3,000+ years later? It means every<\/strong>thing…because God does not, can not, will not change. He is the same \u201cGod of compassion and mercy…slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness\u201d as He was then.<\/p>\n

For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed…
\nMalachi 3:6<\/p>\n

I pray that each of us would hold fast and cling to this truth, and give much praise to our great God Who is the God of compassion and mercy!<\/p>\n

\u00a0 * \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u271e \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a link<\/a>\u00a0 if you would like to study this verse and the usage of \u2018compassionate\/merciful\u2019 in describing the Lord God Who IS oh-so-very merciful and compassionate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy and loving-kindness. Psalm 103:8 There is one word in this passage that stuck out to me\u2014compassion (or merciful). In verse 8, we read that the Lord \u2018is compassionate\u2019 (merciful) and in verse 13, it says that He \u201chas compassion\u201d (or mercy or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[235,7616,3367,7618,1287,425,4531,7615,3174,7617],"class_list":["post-22461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-coleen-hayden","tag-compassionate","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-exodus-chapters-32-34","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-merciful","tag-psalm-1038","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-study-bible","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5Qh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22461"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22481,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22461\/revisions\/22481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}