Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy,
and teach me thy statutes (Psa 119.124).

Some divorces are fatal. Spiritually, that is the case when one tries to rend asunder God’s mercy and his mentoring. Those who imagine they enjoy the former and have no interest in the latter are self-deceived, presumptuous fools. Likewise, it is utter folly to fantasize about acquiring divine wisdom apart from forgiveness of sins and the gift of the illuminating Holy Spirit. God frustrates his enemies who twist grace into a license to sin, and who think to barge into his kingdom unhumbled.
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Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live:
for thy law is my delight (Psa 119.77).

The Bible’s clear teaching about God’s compassion is diametrically opposed to what we initially assume about it because we tend to think he is as we naturally wish him to be—one like ourselves only better—and that his ways must and would meet with our approval (Psa 50.21; Isa 55.8-9). Yet when by his self-disclosure and grace we apprehend his true, exalted, and glorious nature, and when we begin to appreciate his holy ways (expressions of his true self), we also realize to our shame that our former thoughts were totally unworthy of him and that he is far greater and more wonderful than we ever could have imagined (Job 42.5-6; Eph 3.20).
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The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy:
Teach me thy statutes (Psa 119.64).

The airwaves are full of commentary on the earth—its origin, state, and end. Thoughts on the earth convey a “worldview” and ultimately, one’s religious beliefs, often even if the particular topic seems completely unrelated. Popular ideas today include evolution as a theory of origin, “the fragile earth” with man having alleged power to keep it going or ruin it as a theory of environmentalism, and for a prediction of final disaster, a nuclear holocaust or gradual “extinction of man.” These views all fundamental reject of a biblical worldview and espouse an anti-Christian secularism, even though many who hold them are professing Christians who strenuously deny the religious implications. What Paul wrote of God-dishonoring pagans also applies to modern secularists.
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