A Prayer for Mercy
This is one of the Psalms David wrote during a difficult time in his life. In it, he prays and looks for God to extend His hand in which David hopes to find a palm full of mercy. David ends this Psalm with a declaration that he anticipates God will save him from his enemies. Why does David have this kind of confidence?
Maybe we should begin by stating what is not the basis for his confidence in God’s help. He doesn’t think God will help him because he is the best of men, a holy saint who has earned the favor of God. In verse two, he explicitly asks God not to deal with him on that basis: Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
So, why should he anticipate mercy? What is his claim upon it?
He believes God will show him mercy because:
1. God is faithful (verse 1).
2. God is righteous (also verse 1).
3. God’s love is steadfast (verse 8).
4. God is David’s God, to Whom he has fled for refuge and in Whom he trusts (verses 8 and 9).
In other words, David’s confidence in deliverance rested not on his own goodness, but on the nature and character of God.
We can believe for and rely on God extending His hand of mercy to us because when we look at that hand what we see are the scars from the nail that once pierced it and demonstrated for all time God’s intentions towards us. Our greatest claim on the present mercies of God is the past mercy and grace of God given through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Paul, using a rhetorical question, framed it this way in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
