TRUST in the MERCY of GOD ‘ALWAYS’!
June 8
Bible Reading: Psalms Chapters 10-17
TRUST in the MERCY of GOD ‘ALWAYS’!
"But I have trusted in Your mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Your
salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with
me." (Psalms
13:5-6)
Psalm 13 is similar
to many of the tests that God sends our way: they begin with a sigh but end with a song! King David believes
that his answer is on the way and does not doubt the outcome at all. Mercy is a
covenant term, specifically, gracious
devotion, which is the love by which God has bound Himself to His people.
Trusting in the mercy of God, David knows that he will live to celebrate
deliverance from his adversary. In anticipation of this salvation, he can sing
praises to God in faith.
This psalm
is descriptive about the inner turmoil of a person who is unable to sense the
presence of God. In this psalm, at least
four times David pleads to God, “How
long?” (vv. 1, 2). Why does it appear
that God sometimes hides His face from His children during times of distress?
We can find many replies from God’s word itself: prevalence of sin (Isaiah 59:1-2; 1 Cor. 11:31-32); lack of wholehearted devotion (Jer.
29:13); and sometimes to encourage spiritual growth (2 Cor.
12:7–10; Heb. 12:10-11; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6-7).
It is true
that sometimes it is hard to see how God is working, but despite that we need trust
God’s plan for our lives. God doesn’t reveal all His mysteries to us (Isaiah
55:8), but we must recognize and trust God’s ‘unfailing love’. The final two verses (5-6) reflect the turning
point as the tone of this psalm abruptly changes from despair to hope. David
recalls his commitment to trust God completely in His “mercy”, which can be described as God’s loyal love teaming with
His faithfulness to His commitment to take care of His people. Based on the
assurance that God will deliver him, David resolves to tell the people about
it—this is the essence of praise (see Psalms 40:1–3).
Faith does
not always give us answers, but it does give us encouragement. No matter how
successful the enemy appears to be, we can always
trust God, rejoice in Him, sing to Him and know that He will always deal
bountifully with us. Trust in God is always
rewarded by salvation; salvation always provides
the opportunity for us to sing unto God, and joyous praise to God always brings
increased blessings from God!
At the end,
we can always say: “I will sing to the
Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me”. The circumstances in our
lives may seem random and unplanned, but someday we will see how God had worked
the difficult situations in our lives to make it a beautiful tapestry of praise
to Him. We surely cannot control the
events that happen in our lives, but we can definitely control our attitudes
towards those events by trusting in the mercy of God always!
