God’s Mercy and Compassion

Today, we will be talking about another aspect of God’s goodness - that is His mercy.
Mercy is an incredibly important attribute to understand because of the condition of the world we live in.

As Christians, how should we respond to these real dilemmas? 
How does a righteous, holy and just God respond to people who call out to him in despair?
He responds to them with mercy. God is not only a God of mercy, He is the Father of mercies, He is rich in mercy and the God of all comfort who expresses His mercy through compassion.

Let us read Psalm 145:8-14:

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!

11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, 12 to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. 

13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. [The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works.]
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

Psalm 145 is one psalm in a group of psalms of praise (< hallel) that were recited every month by the people of Israel at the time of the new moon as well as during certain, important Jewish feasts.

The psalm commemorated God’s dealings with His people during their journey to the Promised Land. Here the psalmist is talking about:

●       Who God is

●       His Mercy Displayed

●       His Mercy Relayed

Who god is

Psalm 145:8 and 9 is taken almost verbatim from Exo 34 where God reveals His name to Moses which speaks of his nature, character, person (Ps 20:1; Lk 24:47; Jn 1:12), and teaching (Ps 22:22; Jn 17:6, Jn 17:26).

The Psalmist is reflecting on God’s greatness - about His splendor, about His omniscience and omnipotent. He’s recalling God’s inherent goodness, which are expressed through His grace, compassionate mercy, patience and steadfast love. Today we want to focus on God’s mercy.

Despite how the first generation of the nation of Israel responded to God, He genuinely cared for their welfare throughout their journey. Time and time again God revealed His mercy.

He was slow to anger, in other words He was incredibly patient with them and waited a long time before having to deal with their sin.

The Apostle Peter reminds his readers that God’s patience was expressed even during the days just before the flood. God is patient (1 Pet. 3:20) because he does not want anyone to perish but wants everyone to repent and turn to Him (2 Pet. 3:9; cf. 3:15).
God is the only One who perfectly sees the actual condition of mankind.
He waits for people to respond to His initiations, to His calling, to salvation. He waits to be gracious (Is 30:18,19).

Even though the Psalmist had continually strayed from God and gotten themselves into trouble because of their sin and pride, each time they humbled themselves and cried out for forgiveness God showed compassion, which brings us to our second point.

God’s Mercy Displayed

In verse 9 of Ps 145 David said: The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

This means God’s mercy is not passive but active.
He displays his mercy by acting to relieve the misery of people. When the first two people on the earth sinned against God, He did not give them what they deserved, but removed them from paradise and promised them that one day Someone would come to pay for their sin.

God’s mercy has actively been on display since the beginning of time.
God’s mercy was displayed through His plan to redeem mankind from sin.
Even knowing that the world that He created would reject Him, God sent His Son to become the perfect and blameless sacrifice so we could be forgiven of our sins.
In the OT, God met the high priest in the holy of holies at the mercy seat and that is where God meets us today – at the mercy seat.

Moreover, God’s mercy is displayed in the cross of Christ, a direct reflection of His love for us. God sees our condition, what sin has done to every person in the human race, the destruction it causes in people’s lives.

Christ did not come to the earth to get revenge, to condemn us to give us our just desserts for all our wrongdoing. He saw our condition and came to bring us what none of us had - eternal life.
On earth He expressed His mercy through acts of compassion, through His forgiveness.

He didn’t come to give us what we deserve but took everything we deserved on Himself making it possible for those who responded to His call to be redeemed and saved for all of eternity. What a merciful Savior!

We need God’s mercy every day -the writer of Hebrews said let us come boldly to the throne of grace and receive mercy in our time of need. God’s mercy gives us hope. The question is “What do we do with God’s Mercy,” which brings us to our third point.

Mercy Relayed

In Verses 11-13 of Psalm 145 the Psalmist response to God’s mercy and compassion- was to tell others of the glory of His kingdom and the great things He has done - the power of his goodness, kindness and his forgiveness and His mighty deeds.

Even the apostle knew he had received unending mercies from the Lord Jesus. Some doubted Christ claims to be the Messiah, they doubted Jesus’ resurrection, denied and deserted Him during His trials, but Paul actually blasphemed the name of Christ and attacked His people with incredible zeal.
Why didn’t Jesus get revenge on the disciples or take Paul out? It was because of His mercy and loving kindness. 1 Tim 1:13-16 was Paul’s testimony.

Next, notice the progression of increasing humility in Paul’s life. He went from “the least of the 12 apostles,” a few years later to “the least of the saints” (compared to other Christians), and a couple years after that to “the worst of sinners” (comparing himself to all humanity).

The more Paul got to know the Lord, the more he recognized his actual state - his own depravity. Understanding who the God of the universe is and understanding the depth of His unending mercy, changed Paul's life so dramatically…that Jesus would use him as a trophy of God’s incredible mercy displayed.

And through Paul’s life, others would realize that God could save the worst of the worst of sinners, that He could redeem anyone’s life and then display His power through that person.

God’s mercy filled Paul with faith and love that comes from Christ and gave him a heart of gratitude. Paul was grateful and humbled by God’s mercy and he recognized God’s calling to relay this mercy to everyone around him.

I would like to encourage right now to take some time to talk to the God of all comfort, the Father of mercies. Whether you already know God or would like to know Him, take time to give Him the burdens of your heart.

I pray that you get a revelation of God is, of His mercy toward you. May you know just how gracious, patient and loving He is, and no matter what you bring to Him, He is ready to forgive.