The LORD is Merciful - Psalm 103

 

PSALM 103:8

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plentiful in mercy.

James 5:11

See how blessed we consider those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen the outcome from the Lord. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

Compassion: according to the Bible, means full of mercy. It is an accusative term applied to God's love, which He extends to us. Not accusatory, but accusative, which is, according to the dictionary: relating to or denoting a case of nouns, pronouns, and adjectives that expresses the object of an action or the goal of motion. And what is the object of God's action or goal of motion: GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:15-17). In His great love, He sent us His only begotten Son by wrapping His WORD in flesh and having It go through life like any other person....almost. For Christ is sinless, the only Person who never sinned against GOD. How could He? He was, and is GOD. An amazing feat which only GOD could accomplish!

    Here, both David and James write that God is reminding us that He shows us mercy, great mercy, and grace. The gods in the areas in which David and James lived were not. The gods being worshiped in those days are still being worshiped today. Yet, GOD is still extending His mercy towards us. 

    Our God is slow to anger (longsuffering, which is more than just being patient).  It's been nearly 2,000 years, since Christ ascended into heaven to be with His Father. That's more than patient; that length of time is, indeed, longsuffering. He has put up with people ignoring Him, mocking Him, hating Him, betraying Him, loving, then leaving Him. And, yet, GOD extends His mercy out into all the world. 

    Though every heart will not receive His Truth by their own choice, God being love, flows out into all the world like a winding stream, touching every person even if they refuse to be loved by GOD. Please don't be that person. GOD loves you and wants only the best for you. How do we know that? John 3:16,17 "For GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For GOD sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

    Again, in 1 John 4:15-17 - If anyone confesses that Jesus is The Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. GOD IS LOVE; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him. 

    The 'we' James is referring to is the believers, the ones who have confessed that Jesus Christ is The Son of God. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9, 10 "That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved." 

    This is the mercy which GOD extends to us all. This great and wonderful mercy is mine. Is it yours, too? 

THE CROSS - Anne Wilson & Chris Tomlin 

The Mercy of God - Never Fails

 

 

Lamentations 3:22

Because of the loving devotion of The LORD we are not consumed,

 for His mercies never fail. 

Psalm 103:10

He has not dealt with us according to our sins or repaid us according to our iniquities.

    Though The Lord could destroy us at any time for our great wickedness against His Word, yet He restrains Himself, for it is not His will that any of us should die in our sins. He wants us to repent of our unrighteous acts against Him and obey His Word, which He has given us through the cross. For Christ is The Living Word of God sent to die for each and every one of us. 

    Who are we that God should love us so? We are His sheep even though we were once lost in the darkness of our own hearts and minds. It is why He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross, so that us who were once lost sheep can be found sheep and placed in His pasture of love and mercy. 

    Exodus 34:7 says He extends His mercy to a thousand generations: " Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." 

    Numbers 14:18 tells us God is slow to anger and of great mercy. He wants us live with Him when we die. But unless we choose to live for Him now, there won't be a home in heaven for the unrepentant sinner. 

     1 John 1:9 tells us " If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." God wants us to confess our sins against Him to Him. No one else has the power to forgive us for the sins we have committed against God except God. 

    It's as if you did me wrong and went to a stranger for forgiveness for what you had done to me. Would that make the wrong you did to me right? Not hardly. It is the same when we have sinned against God. To sin against God is to break His Word, to disregard His Word and to deliberately ignore His Word. To sin against God is to disobey when He tells us to do something and we don't. And when He tells us not to do something and we do it anyway. These sins need to be repented of when we come to God for His forgiveness. 

    In His unfailing mercy God will forgive the sincere repentant heart and wash the sins from the seeker's heart. He promises:

Psalm 32:5

Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

Psalm 51:2

Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Proverbs 28:13

He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.