PLEASE LORD HAVE MERCY ON US

Proclamation:

“Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.  Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.  My soul is in deep anguish … Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of Your unfailing love.”  Psalm 6:1-4 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  This psalm is a plea for mercy and David begins this psalm by asking The Lord God not to punish him when He is angry.  He is suffering and he asks The Lord to have mercy upon him.  David also asks The Lord God to heal him, deliver him, and to save him because of God’s unfailing love.

Application:

We all know that we have sinned and done wrong repeatedly.  We know that we deserve to be punished for our sins, however, we do not want The Lord God to punish us when He is angry or upset.  We want Him to have mercy on us, to withhold our deserved punishment and grant us unmerited favor.  We want The Lord God to heal our bodies from our afflictions, to save our souls from our sins, and to deliver us from our troublesome situations.  We ask this of Him because of His endless, steadfast, and unfailing love because we ourselves are unworthy.  Because we are believers, we can be confident and know that when we pray this prayer that The Lord hears us and will intervene on our behalf. (Psalm 6:9)

LORD HAVE MERCY

Proclamation:

“Show me Your ways, Lord, teach me Your paths.  Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long.  Remember, Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are from old.  Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to you love remember me, for You, Lord, are good.” Psalm 25:4-7 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  He recognized that he was a sinner and that he needed God’s forgiveness and help.  David was a man after God’s heart. (1 Samuel 13:14)  This was so not because he was so good, but because when he sinned he frequently prayed and asked to be forgiven.

Application:

If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we have messed up a lot trying to do things our way.  We need help and forgiveness for our sins.  We really do not want to be reminded of all of our past sins.  We need God's grace and mercy.  We need His Grace because we want God to give us of His goodness that which we don't deserve.  We need His Mercy because we want Him to withhold the punishment that we do deserve.  If we would confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us of our sins and cleanse us for all of our unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)  That's why, like David, we need to pray and appeal to God's mercy and His tender loving-kindness.

GOD IS MERCIFUL AND KIND TO US

Proclamation:

"Praise The LORD, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of The LORD endures forever.  Praise The LORD."  Psalms 117:1-2 (NIV)  

"O praise The LORD, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.  For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of The LORD endureth for ever.  Praise ye The LORD." Psalms 117:1-2 (KJV)

Explanation:

The unknown author of this psalm packed a lot of power into this, the shortest of all the psalms.  This global invitation to praise The Lord is followed by a truthful explanation and justification for doing so.  He says that God is merciful and kind to His people and that His Truth and His Word are both eternal.

Application:

The Lord, our God, is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.  He is so great, so good, and so awesome that we ought to praise Him continuously. (Psalms 34:1)  The only time that we should not be praising Him is when we are thanking Him.  In more than 42 verses, the Bible encourages us to thank God, and the most frequent justification for giving God thanks is that He is good, and His love endures forever. (Psalms 136:1-3)  God shows His loving merciful kindness to us everyday, multiple times each day. (Psalm 68:19)  We ought to praise Him and thank Him multiple times each day.

Have Mercy On Us

"Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt."  Psalms 123:3 (NIV)

The unknown author of this psalm asked The Lord God to have mercy on His people who had suffered much at the hands of non-believers.  The exact situation which he was referring to is unknown, but it is clear that he and the people of God had suffered and endured much.

The Bible says that believers would suffer.  We suffer because we are born into this world of sin. (Job 14:1)  We suffer because we believe in The Lord. (Matthew 26:31, Mark 14:27, and John 7:7)  We suffer at the hands of non-believers when we speak up for Jesus. (Matthew 5:11-12)  That is not to mention the suffering we bring on ourselves. (Ephesians 5:6)  We need for God to have mercy on us.  O Lord God, have mercy on us because we are weak and sick. (Psalms 6:2)  Lord, have mercy on us because we are in trouble and suffering. (Psalms 9:13)  Lord, have mercy on us because we need help. (Psalms 30:10)  Lord, have mercy on us because we are in trouble and consumed with grief. (Psalms 31:9)  We need to pray, O Lord God, please have mercy on us, because we can't make it without You.  We need The Lord, for only He can supply all of our needs. (Philippians 4:19)

Mercy And Compassion Are Gifts From God

"For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'  It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy."  Romans 9:15-16 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul reported in his letter to the believers in the Church at Rome that God said to Moses that He will have mercy on whomever He wants and He will have compassion on whomever He wants. (Exodus 33:19)  The choice is His, and His alone.

It is not up to man to determine on whom God will have mercy, or whom He will bless and have compassion.  God is sovereign and does not have to answer to anyone.  He can do what He wants to do with us.  We belong to Him, He made us.  He can show mercy to whomever and whenever He wants to.  The same is true regarding His showing of compassion.  We may want it, but He decides who gets it.  He makes the rules and sets the standards, and He decides whom He will bless.  The righteous and those who follow His Word, are much more likely to be the recipients of His mercy and compassion. (Psalms 34:17 and Proverbs 15:29)  Blessings and salvation are gifts from God.  The only decision man makes is to believe or not to believe.

Mercy Mercy Mercy

"But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved."  Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Ephesus that they were just like the lost sinners in the world, "... gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts." Ephesians 2:3  But thanks to the love, mercy, and grace of God, Christ saved them from their sins.

Even today, we occasionally give in to our sin-sick nature, just like the people in Biblical times.  Thankfully, God has mercy on us and does not give us the punishment that we deserve for our sins.  The love of God and the blood of Jesus saves us.  We need to thank God for His loving kindness and His mercy.  When we pray, we need to thank Him for what He has done, is doing, and will do for us.  "God have mercy and help me, believer and sinner that I am." (Author unknown)

Lord Have Mercy

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight ..." Psalms 51:1-4 (NIV)

David sinned, he knew that he had sinned, and he prayed for mercy and forgiveness. He wanted God to cleanse him and take away all of his sins (stated here and repeated in verse 7).

It has been said that David was "a man after God's own heart," not because he did not sin, but because his heart was in the right place. David prayed to God for forgiveness, mercy, and God's help after he sinned, and he did not continue to repeat the same sin over and over again. We need to sincerely pray like David did. We also need to ask God to help us, and to remove from us the desire for our sins, to create in us a clean heart and mind. We cannot become more Christ-like without God's help.

Confession Is Good For The Soul

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Blessed is the man who always fears The Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble." Proverbs 28:13-14 (NIV)

This Proverb of Solomon is one of several that deals with man's relationship to God. While we all commit sins, those in good standing with God will admit that they have sinned. He who conceals his sins through lies and deceit is not a wise man and he will be in trouble with God.

Sin should not be covered up or lied about. It is better to confess ones sins unto The Lord, and to ask for forgiveness and help in avoiding them in the future. There will be a price to pay for being less than truthful. God does not expect us to be perfect, but He does require that we are truthful and honest with Him about our behavior. When we mess up, we should "fess" up.

The Blessedness Of Answered Prayer

"To You, O Lord, I called; to The Lord I cried for mercy ... Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me; O Lord, be my help." You turned my wailing into dancing; You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to You and not be silent. O Lord, my God, I will give You thanks forever." Psalms 30:10-12 (NIV)

With a renewed perspective after a near death experience (Psalms 30:3) and a period of arrogance (Psalms 30:6), David recognizes that "all he is and all he has is due to God's unmerited grace." (John MacArthur) Here David expresses thanks to God for answering his prayers and blessing him.

Only God can turn our situations around and take us sickness to health, from "wailing" to "dancing", from sorrow to joy. We ought to recognize when God has answered our prayers and be thankful. We may not have all that we asked for, and we ask for a lot, but God has blessed us and given us some to the things that we asked for, in addition to some things that we did not mention, and we should give Him thanks.

The Worst Of The Sinners

"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that He considered me faithful, appointing me to His service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on Him and receive eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:12-16 (NIV)

Paul thought that he was the worst of the sinners. Given our sinful thoughts, in addition to our sinful acts, most of us could compete with Paul for that title. "The Lord detests the thoughts of the wicked ..." Proverbs 15:26 I cannot even begin to count the number of sinful thoughts that I have each day, and I am sure that I am not alone.

God is blessing us abundantly in spite of our sinful nature. We are living examples and proof
of the fact that Christians are not blessed because we are perfect or sinless. It is because of our faith in Him that He uses us to be living examples of His Word in an effort to save the lost souls. None of us is so great a sinner that God cannot use us, we just have to believe and offer ourselves for His service. Hopefully, we can all repeat Paul's words here and know that they apply to our lives as well.

Look To The Lord For Help

"I lift up my eyes to You, to You whose throne is in heaven ... Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt." Psalms 123:1-3 (NIV)

We should look to The Lord to mercifully meet our needs. Only He can bring us through all that we endure. We must pray and petition Him to get us out of whatever distressing situation we find ourselves in.

We must continue to exalt Him, and trust in Him, and know that He can help us with every one of our problems.

God's Wrath

"And The Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous ... we will destroy this place ... Then The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from The Lord out of heaven ..." Genesis 18:20 & 19:13 & 19:24

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because their sins were very grievous, the prevalence of homosexuality throughout the land.

Given the recent propositions and laws related to this issue, where are we as a country and culture headed? Are we witnessing the beginnings of our destruction because of our lustful and perverse nature?

We need to pray that there are at least ten righteous among us so that we might be speared. Genesis 18:24-32

According To His Mercy

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us..." Titus 3:5

The apostle Paul's letter to the young preacher, Titus, told him what to teach the old men and women and the young men and women. It give us insight into how we should behave.

While our behavior is important and reflects our inner beliefs and principals, our salvation is not based upon our behavior because we still sin between the few righteous acts we perform. It is because of His mercy and grace that we are saved.

We ought to thank God daily for what he has done, is doing, and will do for us.

Our Ways And Thoughts Are Not His

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return unto The Lord , and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith The Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:7-9

We need to repent from our sinful thoughts and deeds and follow Christ. No matter what we have done, He will forgive us, if we sincerely ask Him. Given our limited mind and capacity, we cannot conceive, describe, or comprehend Him. God's "thoughts" and "ways" are so much more nobler and more magnificent than ours.

Like a grain of sand compared to the vastness of a beach, His vastness more than dwarfs our insignificance when compared to any of His qualities. Our God is just awesome.

O Give Thanks Unto The Lord # 4

"O give thanks unto The Lord; for He is good and His mercy endureth for ever.

O give thanks unto The God of gods; for His mercy endureth for ever.

O give thanks unto The Lord of lords; for His mercy endureth for ever.

To Him who alone doeth great wonders; for His mercy endureth for ever...

O give thanks unto The God of heaven; for His mercy endureth for ever." Psalms 136:1-4 & 26

I hope and pray that all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving Day and that you will be blessed throughout the rest of this season of giving thanks.