Our need for God’s Mercy.

Psa 102:13  Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

You would be forgiven if you read the topic and decided that it could not apply to you. You may have been tempted to read the heading and say am sure he wants to talk to sinners but that is not the case here.

The above scripture tells us that the time to favour Zion has come, or as the King James Version put it is come. This is a very definite word of fact! It was so strong a promise that was so sure of fulfilment that the writer cries out that’ Yes! That appointed time is come’.

Please note how emphatic or forceful the writer is about this. Also note that the KJV says ’is come’. What does ‘is come’ mean? This phrase puts things in a present tense. It indicates to us that the time has come for the fulfilment of this promise and it is not for a future date! It is for NOW! The promise is not something that will suffer any delay. It is time for the fulfilment.

I know you too have experienced this in your life. You have come to a point in time when you felt God was about to honour his word in your life. In fact it was so strong that you have gone ahead to declare it and you knew with all your heart it would come to pass. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Remember that God needs to first arise.

In the Scripture above, the writer starts talking first of the fact that God needed to arise. Oh! May God arise for our sake! May God rise up to fight on our behalf! May he rise up to fulfil His plans for our life! We need God to arise and put our enemies to flight. May God move into action on our behalf in Jesus name!

The next few words tell us, what will be first on God’s agenda when He arises. He will arise first of all to have mercy on Zion. That’s where my problem started.  I was ok with God getting up and that my season of favour had come but why the mercy part first?

Why mercy first? Why not move things along a bit and get to the ‘good’ stuff of favouring us?

Does it mean that they were sinners in Zion? That may not necessarily be the case.

We have come to think that we need mercy only when we have done a wrong thing but read the scripture below:

Psa 147:10-11  He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man. The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

When it comes to the things of God, our abilities are our greatest undoing! Our greatest handicap is not what we feel helpless to achieve but what we can do without God’s help.

 Paul said having therefore this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not-2 Cor. 4:1. The reason we are not fainting is that we received mercy, not because we are strong in our selves.

Think about this, If Samson was well built or looked very strong; would his enemies have asked Delilah to find out the source of his strength? Just a thought!

We are too wise to be fools for Christ’s sake. We are too educated to subject ourselves to some stupid fanatical belief, too self sufficient to ask for help, too well connected to men to seek to be connected to God. Our resumes are too impressive that if we did not get the job, who would have got it?

In some instances we put aside God’s help or determine that we can do it so no need to bother God.

There is an adage in my place, it goes like this ‘the one whom I can beat, there is no need to ask God to help me when it is time to fight him’. A very wise saying, right? Very insightful, but I wonder if Goliath thought that way when He saw David. Forget the outcome we now Know, if you were to bet on the fight between David and Goliath who would you pick? If you said David, then you have more faith than I do.

Goliath had abilities, He had years of military training, he was already a champion who had won several battles in the past, he had a sword, a spear, a shield, was well built and an armour bearer while David had a sling, five stones in a bag and pimples (just joking).

In a fair fight, David was dead meat but mercy isn’t fair. Mercy gives a man what he does not deserve. It lets a man escape the consequences of his action and allows him have more than he deserves.

In the fight between David and Goliath, each man however carried something else that we could not see but proved to be the deciding factor in the battle. One trusted in Jehovah, the other trusted in his gods. One obtained mercy and favour from God while the other did not.

Do you trust that with what you have, that you can do the work of God? Are you looking to your various connections to make it? Is your PHD the source of your confidence? Has your accomplishment blinded you to your need for help? Do you see now that you have no need for God’s help?

If the above is your case then can I say that I don’t envy you. David says it well: Some trust in horses, others in chariots but we will remember the Lord our God.

That day on the battlefield men praised David but David knew in his heart that without the help of God he would have been a dead man! I can picture him coming out of the battlefield with Goliath’s head in his hand and goose bumps, after the adrenaline rush had gone, while thinking ‘what did I just do?! This could have been my head if not for God’s mercy’.

Back to our first scripture, it says even though it was time to favour Zion. God needed to intervene not just because it was time but out of mercy.

Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

It is not about any religious activity or based on how holy or prayerful you are or your fasting ability, though these are very important. You will still get it based only on the mercy of God

You still need God’s mercy! You never come to a place where you have made it and become too big for God. Some people who don’t realise this soon enough end up in a mess that only God can get them out of! 

Ask Nebuchadnezzar and he will tell you all about it in his own words in Daniel chapter 4.

Can I give you an advice you? Please take that promise to God and ask him to show you mercy because it will only come to pass based on God’s mercy Daniel knew that.  So when he started his prayer to God he asked for mercy. Again I will end with this scripture

Heb 2:16  For it is clear that it is not the angels that he helps. Instead, he helps the descendants of Abraham.(Goodnews version)

 

Michael