[Read Psalm 103]
A question for us coming out of this psalm today (103:4):
What are YOU ‘crowned’ with? What is YOUR LIFE ‘crowned’ with?
Before we get to that what does it mean to be ‘crowned’ with something?
Because we’re in the Psalms today we’re going to do some word studies > as we know sometimes the words we use today have different meanings or intentions to the original language and wording of scripture, so we need to uncover some of that as we let the words of this psalm wash over us this morning.
Focusing in on the second part of verse 4, we’ve got some important words that come up:
Being ‘crowned’ is one.
‘Love’ is another one.
And ‘compassion’ is the third one.
Put it all together > being ‘crowned with love and compassion.’
What does that mean for us, how are we understanding what that actually means?
Word number one, CROWNED.
To be crowned here means to ‘encircle,’ to ‘surround.’
Examples of being crowned? When a king or a queen is crowned what does that mean? A crown can symbolize authority, honour, victory, a divine right to rule even. We don’t usually have a king or a queen without some notion of divine right going on – a king or a queen usually has to be blessed by the religious authorities of the land they are set to rule over. And the crown stays in the family doesn’t it, it is passed down the generations, a birthright is the most basic qualification for being crowned.
Has anyone ever been to see the crown jewels in the Tower of London? I’ve been there, I’ve seen these historic elements, special symbols of authority and influence not only within the United Kingdom, but across the commonwealth of nations that we’re still part of today.
So we might think of being ‘crowned’ as only for certain people, only for royalty, for the royal family. Not for everyone else, because they wear that crown on behalf of the people, those are some of the ideas behind it anyway.
Next word, LOVE.
The word used here means loving kindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness, goodness. Can mean all of those things! ‘Kindness’ is the most common translation throughout the OT, ‘loving kindness’ is the most common expression of this.
We know what love is, what kindness is. Also mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness. Good things, all things God is about and things he helps us with.
Third word is COMPASSION.
Also translated as ‘tender mercy’
There’s also a connection to a parental instinct in this word, the affection a parent gives to their own child. There is life-giving protection and nurture going on here, we can understand compassion from God as life-giving protection and nurture.
Tender, intimate, personalized, knowing and loving. Also safety and security in our most vulnerable points.
God goes deeper than the surface doesn’t he!
He didn’t just make us on the outside, what everyone else sees > he made us on the inside too, the parts of no one else sees, even the part of us we don’t see ourselves.
So now we’ve got a fuller understanding of this verse > we could do this for each and every verse of this psalm, but we would be here all day so we won’t do that! Always an interesting one to explore.
Here’s our fuller understanding of this part of this verse:
Surrounded by God’s loving kindness and tender mercy.
To be CROWNED with LOVE and COMPASSION is to be surrounded by God’s loving kindness and tender mercy.
We have a God who would crown us, surround us > not surrounding us with fear or anxiety or stress but with love, loving kindness, compassion, tender mercy.
That’s our God right there, that’s what he does > and that’s only half of this one verse in Psalm 103, half of one of this psalm’s 22 verses in total, we get to know who our God and what he does for us in the space of only a few words. Powerful stuff there.
So back to our original question > we know what we’re CROWNED with, what our lives are CROWNED with > love and compassion, loving kindness and tender mercy. Good things.
But what was Jesus crowned with?
Was he crowned with the crown jewels, rolled out and bestowed upon him so he could take up his rightful place as King Jesus, as our ruler, as our Lord and Saviour? Was this a wonderful occasion of celebration?
We know the answer to that one.
Nope. Jesus wasn’t crowned with a crown made of gold and precious jewels.
Jesus was crowned with thorns.
The worst idea of a crown you could have, yet given to the best idea, the best personification of humanity who’s ever lived, the Son of God himself.
The title given to him was a joke, the ‘King of the Jews’ who was made to suffer a criminal’s death.
This wasn’t a celebration, this was a nightmare, a horror show.
He was welcomed into the city as we know, but not to sit on the throne and rule in peace and prosperity like Israel’s kings of old.
He was welcomed in to be put to death, to suffer and die, as we know in our place. Dying the death we deserved.
He wasn’t surrounded with love and compassion, with loving kindness and tender mercy was he. Quite the opposite.
So that’s what happened for Jesus, compared with what we get as we hear and consider the words of this psalm today.
Why did Jesus do that, why did he go through that, why did the perfect human being and the Son of God cop the worst of human treatment?
We know the answer to this too:
He did all that, so we didn’t have to.
He was crowned with thorns, so we could be crowned with love and compassion, with loving kindness, with tender mercy.
His crowning was our crowning, but we receive the direct opposite of what Jesus did, the direct opposite of what we deserve.
Jesus did act on behalf of his people, like a king does, but not gaining anything for himself > actually giving it all up.
And Jesus changed the game here > by his death and sacrifice for us, we are made children of God. He changed the game, he even changes our birthrights doesn’t he as we are welcomed into his family by water and the Spirit.
We’re talking about a king who would make the people his own family, not by making them do what he says but by giving himself to them, giving himself for them.
Now everyone can be crowned, but not with thorns > because Jesus has already taken care of that.
Not with thorns but with > love and compassion, loving kindness and tender mercy. And all this coming a little verse in the psalms, written many years before any of this took place. God’s time and God’s work right there.
So where to from here, what does this mean in our daily lives, that we are crowned, we are surrounded by God’s love and compassion, by his loving kindness and tender mercy, we get the love of our heavenly Father simply because we are his children.
It goes with us. We don’t hear this stuff on Sunday then forget it by Monday. We load up on it here and now so we can take it out there as we go today.
LOVE and COMPASSION is not optional for us!
It has been given to us, it has been won for us on the cross and the Holy Spirit brings it to life in and through us. Loving others, having compassion on others is not optional > if we’ve got this love and compassion given to us, that’s what we have to give others! It will be happening, God will do that good work in and through us.
So we respond to others in love and in compassion. We are ‘crowned’ with these things that go before us, they surround us, encircle us, protect and empower us. And even if we don’t feel that love or that compassion for other people, God can make it happen anyway > he’s bigger than our feelings or our circumstances.
So our heads are crowned, we could say our lives are marked, by love and compassion.
The love and compassion Jesus has given and won for us, the love and compassion we live by here in church, out there in the world, in our conversations with others on and in our own thoughts > we remember God didn’t just make us on the outside, what everyone else sees > he made us on the inside too, the parts of no one else sees, even the part of us we don’t see ourselves.
He sees us, he knows us, he is with us. His love and compassion, his loving kindness and tender mercy are with and for his people.
So in the words of Psalm 103, verse 1:
Praise the Lord my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Amen.
Lord we thank you for your love and compassion, your loving kindness and tender mercy that surrounds us, that is with us and for us. Help us to share what we’ve been given with others, that our heads would be crowned, our lives would be marked by your marks of love and compassion that doesn’t run out. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
//
Tom Kitson 