Psalm 103:7 "He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel."
I love this verse. When I first read it this morning, I thought, "Yes,
this is the verse for today!" But then my eyes roamed down through
the next several verses and I realized this was an even more incredible
verse. God opened Himself to Moses. We understand we cannot see God
in His fullness in this flesh; yet, He did reveal Himself to the extent that was
possible for Moses to be able to comprehend.
My first thought when I read verse 7 was when the Lord gave Moses a greater
insight into His name. He told Moses, "And I appeared unto Abraham, unto
Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was
I not known to them." (Exodus 6:3) He revealed Himself in a
more personal way to Moses and to the children of Israel, and to us today. Not
only would He reveal His power to them (parting of Red Sea, Manna from heaven,
Water from rock, etc), He would show them a personal daily care in providing
all their needs in a miraculous manner.
But then as I began to read the next verse, I saw a deeper meaning to Jehovah
than just providing our daily needs. Sometimes, we might be guilty of only
thinking of Him as the One Who provides all our material and physical
blessings, but our relationship with Jehovah goes so much deeper. Let's
look at some of His blessings that flow into our hearts and minds. He is
full of mercy. His anger does not last. His chastisement for our sins is
tempered with grace and mercy. Our sins truly deserve eternal punishment; yet,
His grace has washed our sins away through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
His mercy is greater than we could even begin to imagine. He has removed our
sins as far as the east is from the west. Why did He not say as far as the
north is from the south? There are two places where the north and south
meet. But if you start traveling east, you will never at any point begin to
travel in a westerly direction. The two never meet. God has cast our sins
behind His back, never to be remembered again. He looks upon us with
fatherly pity and compassion. He remembers the frailty of our lives. (Psalm
103:8-14)
I asked myself the question as I read these verses, "When did God allow
Moses to see and know His ways?" It was at a time when Moses was at
his emotional low point. He had been upon the Mountain receiving the
commandments of God. When he came back to the camp, the people had formed a
golden calf and were bowing down to worship it. Moses was angry and he was
discouraged. God came down to speak to him as a friend speaks to a friend. God
placed Moses in the cleft of the rock, covered his face, and passed before
Moses. He allowed Moses to see his hind parts. He was blessed to see some of
the attributes of God. You can read this in the book of Exodus, chapter 34.
When we can understand that God remains the same today, we can read with better
understanding of God's mercy and grace, "Bless the LORD, O my soul: and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. (2) Bless the LORD, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits." (Psalm 103:1-2)"