Frames

 November 20, 2022

“For as the heavens are high above the earth, 

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 

As far as the east is from the west, 

So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 

As a father pities his children, 

So the Lord pities those who fear Him. 

For He knows our frame; 

He remembers that we are dust.”

—Psalm 103:11-14

Psalm 103 begins with a wonderful paean of praise to the LORD: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name,” and continues with reasons to worship and bow before him. In the middle of the psalm, David speaks not only of God’s mercy in forgiving our sins, but also revealing God’s heart by telling us that he is merciful because he understands our weaknesses. God sees our sins not only as rebellion or disobedience, but as a weakness that plagues us in spite of our best intentions.

In speaking this way, David chooses an interesting word to describe our condition. He says that God “knows our frame.” The framework of a building consists of the components that holds it together, giving it size and shape. The framework of our bodies is our skeletal system, without which we would be mere flabby blobs of tissue, muscle, fat, organs, and skin. We would be like worms and slugs without our “framework.”

A building’s frame is hidden away inside walls, floors, ceilings. We never see it unless we have to tear out a wall for some reason or other. We only see what is external, which can be deceiving. Many a person has bought a house that looked good on the outside, but closer inspection revealed rotting sill plates, punky studs, or termite infested framing. So when it says that God sees our frame, we are being told that he sees beneath the exterior trappings that we spend so much time making sure it is looking good.

And when God looks at our framework, what he sees is cause for alarm—we are dust, the most unsuitable stuff for supporting the structure of our lives. No wonder we so easily crumble when life’s storms break upon us! We thought we were strong, that we built a good character, laid a solid foundation, but it turns out we were building with dust.

The only adequate foundation, Paul tells us, is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). There is no shortage of “good” people, who are educated, upright, kind, even religious, but who have no foundation, no framework that will withstand that last storm life hurls our way—death. I talked recently with a friend who is a good man; whose integrity I would place above my own. In our conversation, he confided that he hopes it will be enough to see him through to the presence of God, but doesn’t have the certainty that I enjoy. The framework is a bit dusty. 

Hurricane Ian devastated large swaths of Florida last month. A friend posted a photo of a section of Ft. Meyers where he had a winter home. He had drawn a circle around what looked like nothing net to a large block structure. “That circle is where my house once stood.” I’m sure the framework wasn’t exactly dust, but in the face of such a storm, it might as well have been. I’m sure before the storm that house looked nice, vinyl siding, manicured lawn, very tidy. But the storm revealed the frame, just as the storms of life reveal ours.   

I am grateful that God knows my frame; he isn’t surprised by how feeble and frail it is, and because he understands, he mercifully and freely forgives, and offers us a new start, a new foundation, sturdy and trustworthy. That frame is Jesus Christ, who enables this dusty frame to stand firm in the strength he alone provides.