“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.” Psalm 145:8,9
In the book of Jonah, we find him speaking to the Lord after the people of Nineveh repented, turned to God, God forgiving them and turning away His wrath. Jonah was displeased with the outcome of his preaching, and of the Lord’s working to save the Ninevites, as they were the sworn enemies of Israel. Jonah told the Lord that the reason he fled from the Lord’s presence was that, “…I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.” (Jonah 4:2) In spite of the fact that Jonah had spent three days in the belly of a fish, preached God’s message to the Ninevites, who believed and repented, being spared, Jonah remembered something concerning the Lord, something that had a definite effect on him with regard to his existence, but also to his enemies. It was that God, regardless of nations, and the needs of men, change and difficulty, even the reaching of one’s limits to survive and serve God, God remained at all moments, and in every situation a God of grace, mercy, “full of compassion,” willing and desirous to exert His tender mercies over ALL His works. For Jonah this knowledge would serve him well in the belly of a fish, for it was there that against hope he cried out to God to save him. He would pray, “I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.” Why would Jonah pray unless he knew something of the nature of God, and His ways, and that he was praying to a God of mercy and grace, who though holy, is good, and hears the cry of the repentant sinner? He went on to speak of the mercy of God, and how he had turned away from that mercy, but was coming back. When this was resolved, God commanded the fish to vomit him up on dry land.
Jonah also believed God concerning His mercy and grace with regard to the Ninevites. He knew that if God was calling him to go to Nineveh, and preach to the city, that the God of nations, not only of Israel, but the world, was seeking to save that which was lost. Jonah, being embittered by the suffering the Ninevites had imposed upon his people, did not want God to spare, but to destroy them. He was certain of God’s grace and mercy to all who would receive it.
When David wrote Psalm 145, it was not because he had just a slight grasp of the nature and ways of God. Not only did David receive from God a great and enduring revelation concerning His goodness, mercy, and grace, but David would throughout his life appeal to that mercy and grace for God’s intervention in his life. When he sinned against God, he sought God on the basis of His mercy. When he would speak of Christ being his Shepherd, he would speak of His goodness, and MERCY. When we get to the New Testament, in particular revealed in the letters of the Apostle Paul, we are faced with the fact that God is gracious, and merciful, not only present with the believer, but Christ dwelling in the heart by the Spirit, has become the very source of this mercy and grace. Christ has come to BE in the believer light, life, and power in and through the believer to a lost and dying world, the basis for their cry unto Him for salvation. The God of mercy and grace who retrieved a way-ward prophet from the menacing ocean depths, also spared over eighty thousand people from certain destruction because of their godlessness, is the God of David, who writes of the same truth and hope that all of the authors of the Bible declare: God is gracious and merciful to all.
Dear Father, Love through us today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.