Post 12 in Lifting up the Soul
Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old. Psalm 25:6
David had a great need for God’s mercy, as do we. One poignant time when he called on God’s mercy was to save alive his and Bathsheba’s first child. David trusted that God knew best, and while the child was alive, he hoped. When the child died, he dried his eyes and gave God praise for being just. This is a very hard concept: that there is mercy in death. Was the death of David and Bathsheba’s first child a punishment for David’s sins of adultery and murdering Uriah the Hittite? Certainly, it wasn’t the baby’s fault. Nor was it a punishment for the child to be relieved from suffering in this life by God. God took the child to be with Him, and David acknowledges this by saying, “But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). Sometimes mercy looks harsh when it is truly the best for the souls involved. David trusted God and spoke of His mercy. David understood that God was not trying to hurt him but help him. David continued to love God and serve him.
God’s mercy, or “tender mercies” in some translations, is defined as compassion. Its word picture is that of a womb cradling an unborn child. There is an instinctive feeling for a pregnant woman to cradle her child within her. She will hold her abdomen protectively, stroke her belly, and talk to her child lovingly. It is her body working to develop and nurture this life within her, a life she has never seen or known to whom she gives infinite care. She thinks about the baby constantly, noting its movement and growth. She protects it and sacrifices her activities for the baby’s well-being. Is she being unmerciful when the child’s heart races at delivery? Delivering a child doesn’t seem like a very gentle introduction into life, yet it is. The child has to go through the process of being born to prepare him/her to come into the world. God’s mercy is protective, considerate, and compassionate, yet He is preparing us for a new birth.
Job begged God for mercy. He was brought by the Adversary to the lowest low in the eyes of his wife and friends, and he didn’t know why. He looked for the reason. His friends were adamant with him that he was sinning against God (Job 15:13; Job 34:37). He combed through his life, ready to quit whatever sin had brought such suffering and debasement on him. He begged his friends to tell him what it was he was doing against God so that he could correct it. They became more determined to condemn him because they couldn’t fathom the idea that such loss and suffering could happen to someone who was behaving uprightly and truly pushing away evil, as God says Job was doing (Job 1:8). Job grew angry and frustrated with God, but he did not give up. He was in torment, in shame, and powerless to change his circumstances. Instead of cursing God and dying, as his wife urged him to do, he begged God to relieve him. He knew his God. He knew Jehovah’s mercy, and He did not quit begging God to come to his rescue.
David ties God’s mercy and love together in this passage. These are two traits of our God that show us why we can trust in Him. His compassion overflows, and He is full of good intentions toward His children. His intentions are never evil. He wants us to grow in Him and be the best He created us to be. While one waits on God’s hand to help her, she is leaning on Him and her soul is being lifted up. She is drawing the eternal person closer to Him for guidance and relief. And He will give that guidance and relief. When a Christian is angry because of hardship, she can find herself angry with God. Even though God does not want us to be in pain–He doesn’t want His daughters to suffer!–He sees the end goal in what she is enduring. Sometimes one lashes out at God in the frustration because of the hardship. But God does not abandon His children. He is steadfast in His love. The steadfastness, or constancy, of his love doesn’t change or shift with time or circumstances.
The term “steadfast love” is also translated as “lovingkindness.” The picture of this emotion is vast, deep, and wide. His love is unending and pours forth without limit. When we lift up our souls to God, He cradles us in His embrace. He takes special care to see that we can thrive and grow within His presence. He sees Satan’s snares and carefully guides us from harm. He never stops caring and protecting. When hardships come—whether they are the result of our bad choices or not—He brings us through them, always with the goal of bringing us closer to Him in the eternal sense.
Precious daughter, God’s love is different from any love you’ve ever experienced. It never wavers in intensity or duration. It is unchanging. The most loving parent cannot have the same fine-tuned, pure love that God expresses toward you. He wants you to come to the full knowledge of who He is and how He holds your soul in the palm of his hand. As a daughter who is going through trials, you have your Father’s favor. He will never let you go. Know that you can always hold onto Him and trust in His salvation. He delights in helping you grow and teaching you His ways and His love. There is joy in His presence, even in the worst times of life. He has compassion on His children, and He will respond to your pleas for help. He knows before you ask what you need. His response isn’t always the one you think you want or what you were looking for, but the Father knows what His daughter needs most to thrive eternally.
Listen as He describes Himself in the role of a Father and caregiver:
Like as a father pitieth his children, So Jehovah pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. Psalm 103:13-14
It is of Jehovah’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
and ye have forgotten the exhortation which reasoneth with you as with sons, My son, regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, Nor faint when thou art reproved of him; For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. It is for chastening that ye endure; God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12:5-7
This is the twelveth post in the Lifting Up the Soul study from Psalm 25. Subscribe to WomEnCourage to be notified as this study continues.