Parenting has taught me a lot about this idea of mercy. I think children need both discipline and mercy. Of course they need to learn obedience, but they also need to be shown mercy sometimes when they fail. They need to be shown mercy if for no other reason that to get a fuller picture of the God that created them. Mine need mercy so they won’t spend 4 hours in time out each day.
I am a daughter. I have a merciful heavenly Father. I am so thankful that he shows me great mercy every day. How often do I speed without getting a ticket? How often do I say something out of anger or spite to a family member only to be shown radical mercy and not what I deserve? How often do I sin and am not struck down dead like some in the Bible?
I think if we realized the holiness of God and the sinfulness of our hearts than we would always start every prayer with mercy pleas.
David knew a trusted communion with God and he know he had sinned greatly. That communion was broken. The only was David was going to be in a right relationship with God again was if that just God showered mercy down on him. So, he opens his heart wrenching psalm with this plea.
This mercy that God showed to David didn’t stop there. All of God’s mercy toward us was brought to completion on the cross. Christ took all of the wrath of God for us – in other words – he got no mercy from his just Father. He got penalty, he got death, he got the absence of His Father’s presence.
In Christ, let us also rejoice and plead for great mercy.
Psalm 51:1 ” Have mercy on me, O God.”
Other readings: Psalm 86:5; Psalm 145.9; Ephesians 2:4-5, Hebrews 4:16
