Week 5: Chapter 4 — A Tender Father

1.Ortlund focuses on Psalm 103:13–14: "As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust." What does it mean that God's compassion is rooted in his knowledge of our weakness — not despite it, but because of it?

2.The phrase "he remembers that we are dust" could sound patronizing — as if God is simply lowering his expectations of us. But Ortlund reads it as tender, almost protective. What is the difference between those two readings? Which one feels truer to your experience of God?

3.The chapter argues that the Father and the Son share one heart — that when we see Christ's gentleness, we are seeing the Father's. How does this correct the common (but mistaken) picture of the angry Father being appeased by the gentle Son?