Thy mercy, my God, is the theme
of my song. But when the Lord appeared to
Moses on Mount Sinai, he described himself in this fashion. And
the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in
goodness and truth. The Lord would make it plain
to him that his mercy and longsuffering are etched into his character,
so much that it is impossible to speak of him apart from it.
If a man should fail to declare the mercy of God, he would present
a caricature of that one who rules in the army of heaven and
among the inhabitants of the earth. The word mercy, which
literally means loving kindness or goodness, appears in the scriptures
over 300 times. Most often its mention relates
to the mercy of the Lord, though sometimes as an exhortation to
the sons of God to demonstrate mercy even as their Heavenly
Father. The psalmist uses the term over 100 times in recounting
the abundance of kindness which the Lord demonstrates unto men,
most especially those who are the apple of His eye. The scriptures
indicate that there is a demonstration of His mercies to all creation.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger
and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all, and
His tender mercies are over all His works. The fact that He maketh
His Son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain
on the just and the unjust is a manifestation of His merciful
character to all creation. The Lord is not obligated to
provide anything at all for His creation, yet He even clothes
the lilies of the field and feeds both the thankful and the unthankful
according to His purpose. No man can ever say that he has
never enjoyed the mercy of God. Yet as we study the Scriptures,
it becomes clear that there is a mercy which is not general
in nature, but is particularly reserved for those who are in
a covenant relation with Him. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee, that we should be saved
from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, to
perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember
his holy covenant. Since the Lord has revealed himself
as one whose mercy endureth forever, most are confident that their
sinful ways will somehow be forgotten or overlooked by him who has
shown his provisional kindness towards his creation. In this
they do greatly err, since justice is as much etched into his character
as mercy is. There can never be any conflict
in this, nor is there ever any change that occurs in him. In
the same breath in which the Lord described himself as merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and
truth, he also said he 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. While
we are sure that He will show mercy, we are also convinced
that He will demand judicial satisfaction for the sins of
all who transgress His law. He has never forgiven any sin
simply by being merciful and overlooking it as if it never
occurred. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and
will not at all acquit the wicked. He does not simply forget about
sin by decree or act of kindness. Rather, his justice demands that
those who have sinned must die. This puts man in a great dilemma
from which he cannot extricate himself. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. He cannot even expect that
he shall influence the God of heaven in any matter. For he
saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. God has reserved the right to
bestow His mercy upon whom He chooses, since He is under no
obligation to forgive any, and all are equally worthy of destruction.
Yet even then He only does so in keeping with His own justice.
A broken law demands satisfaction, and an entrance into His presence
requires absolute holiness. None of Adam's fallen race can
supply either one. So we find that according to
his abundant mercy, he has provided a means whereby he declares his
own righteousness and is both just and the justifier of all
those he manifests as his own children by causing them to believe
in the righteousness of Christ. Truly mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other when the
Lord Jesus Christ was revealed from heaven as the surety and
substitute of all those whom the Father has loved with an
everlasting love. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. Have you heard that joyful sound?
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