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One of the most common images used to describe God in Scripture is God as “Father.” For some people, this allegory is great. For others? If God is like the father we had (or didn’t have, as the case may be), we aren’t interested. But that’s what makes this verse from the book of Psalms so powerful. The writer doesn’t just say God is like a father and allows our experience to fill in the blank. Instead, he tells us what a father is like in a best-case scenario and compares God to that.

So, what should that father be like? Compassionate. This is the core of fatherhood, parenting, and raising the next generation. And it is exactly what defines who God is as God “parents” us. That’s the good news. The bad news is not all of us had an experience with a father who defaulted to compassion. We may have experienced a father who was more authoritative, angry, distant, or cold. There’s no way around the pain that can cause. No one deserves that from a father. But while that may have been our experience with our dad, that doesn’t have to be the way we experience God. God has the characteristics of what a true Father should be, and that is something we can trust.

This week, when you think about the ways your father may have let you down or how the dysfunction in your family relationships may have hurt you, remember God is better than that. Compassion is in God’s nature as our Father, no matter what you have experienced from anyone else.