Psalm 36:7-9 “How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” This episode talks about how great God's mercy is and also how God is our refuge. It talks about how much He loves us and how we can spread His light to the world. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God’s Mercy Is Endless
Psalm 36:7-9 “How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”
I love the imagery in this verse. I love how it talks about God’s mercy. This is something I don’t think we talk about enough. We talk about God’s love but not always His mercy. I think the reason for this is because we have a hard time believing in His mercy. We have a hard enough time believing that God loves us. Believing that and believing that he forgives us for our sins, all of our sins is just too much to believe for some of us. Why is it so much easier to believe these things for other people than it is to believe them about ourselves? I can believe that God will forgive my kids for all their sins. That comes easily to me. I can believe he loves them with his whole heart no matter what they do. I find that easy to believe because I know I love them with my whole heart no matter what they do. If I can do it in my broken state, surely God can do it.
I know that God’s mercy is endless. This made me think of a prayer that is part of the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Here is the prayer, “Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us and increase Your mercy in us, that in difficult moments we might not despair nor become despondent, but with great confidence submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy itself.” I think the Holy Spirit brought this to my mind right now is because it talks about God’s mercy. Is this something you believe for others, but not yourself? Is it something that you think you believe, but then when you examine your actions, you realize you are not quite there yet? This is where I am at most of the time. I know God is merciful. I know God loves me and forgives all my sins, and yet at times I act like I am not forgiven. I strive to do all I can to earn God’s love when in actuality, there is nothing I have to do because I already have all His love. Do you do this too?
The beginning of this verse says, “The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” Isn’t that a beautiful image? When I hear that verse I picture a giant Eagle just standing on the ground and I am standing next to Him. I am holding on to his little leg and He has His giant wing wrapped around me in protection. We can take refuge in the Lord, did you know that? There are many places in the Bible where it talks about God being our refuge. When you need protection, when you need a safe place to rest, rest in the Lord, He will be your refuge.
The next line says, “They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” Sometimes we can think of God in terms of giving things up. We can think if we want to be a good Christian then we have to sacrifice all we have. We think we need to go without. This is not the case. God is a God of abundance. Yes, we are called to give and to sacrifice, but God will not be outdone in generosity. The more you give the more God gives to you. God knows what things you like, He knows the things you need and He is taking care of them for you. He is a God of abundance. He is not just taking care of the things you need, but the things you want as well. It says, you give them drink from the river of your delights. God is so good. He isn’t just in the big things in life, He is in all the little details of your life too. He shares His delights with you.
This verse ends with, “For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” God is our fountain of life. Everything we have flows through Him. We would have nothing without Him and we are nothing without Him. God is also our light. He lights the way for us and He is the light in the world that we see. What would be great is if we could get to a point where we that light for others. If we got to a place where God’s light shined so brightly though us that we could be that light for others. Now that I am saying that, I think we can be a light for others, even if we aren’t quite where we want to be. I am not sure we will ever be at a place where we think we have finally arrived. I don’t think this life is all about getting to the perfect place in life. I think this life is more about our journey to become the best versions of ourselves. I am not sure we ever arrive at that destination while we are here on earth. I think it is something we can continually work towards.
What came to my mind just after I wrote that we could be a light for others is all the ways we help to spread God’s love around this world. When you are talking about God or Jesus to those you meet, that is spreading God’s light. When you pray for someone, you are being a light to them. When you do something kind for someone, you are spreading God’s light to them. I know we probably don’t think of ourselves as spreading God’s light to others. We don’t think of ourselves as being a light to others, and yet, that is exactly what we are doing when we are talking about God, spreading His message, spreading His love. Sometimes we can spread God’s love, without even opening our mouths. There is so much darkness in the world, so much hatred and division. When we are the opposite of that, when we are love and light people can’t help but notice. We can be the light to others just by being different, just by being positive and not letting the world take our joy away. If we can do that, other’s will notice and they will want what we have.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Dad, we want you to be our light, we want to drink of the river of your delights. Dad, please help us to remember that you are a God of abundance. Help us to not be afraid that if we give to others we will be left with nothing. Help us to remember that you will not be out done in generosity. Father, your mercy is endless and we are so grateful. Please help us to remember and to believe this in our day to day life. Help us to believe that you truly do forgive our sins and that you love us always. We love you Dad and we ask all of this in accordance with your will an in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!