Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord:
Quicken me according to thy judgments (Psa 119.156).
A well-founded hope for the future seems in short supply these days. Just last night, a mother in New York seems to have deliberately driven her van with all four of her children aboard into the Hudson river after a domestic dispute. Only her ten-year-old son escaped drowning and was able to tell the authorities what had happened.1 Who knows exactly what were her motives? Still, she clearly did not have a well-founded hope for the future.
Do you think to yourself, “I could never do something like that.” Oh, please don’t be so naïve and self-confident. Except for the grace of God, you could. Of course you could!
This tragedy underscores how critically and practically important it is to know the living and true God as he really is, and to respond to him in complete faith and ardent adoration. Such believers are blessed now and for eternity, and assurance of this makes life in this miserable world much more bearable—even joyful in the midst of severe trials.
The psalmist’s perspective and prayers are a testimony of exemplary Christian experience. He was a prophet filled with the Spirit of God, and his was the pen of a ready writer, preserved from error by infallible divine guidance. He also speaks the very sentiments belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ while he was a man upon the earth. Psalm 119 is a graciously-given disclosure of a godly man’s heart and conduct for our imitation.
THE PRAISE ARISING FROM GOD’S COMPASSION
In our pluralistic time and culture, the word “God” means many different things to many people and has almost been reduced to meaninglessness unless we explain the reference. Paul lived in a similar religious environment and wrote,
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him (1 Cor 8.4-6).
“To us,” above, is not an endorsement of relativistic subjectivism, but a confession of what Christians know to be objectively true. There actually is but one God who really exists, and there is no excusable doubt about his identity. He is none other than the one called “Lord” (Yahweh, Jehovah) in the Old Testament, and revealed more clearly as the Triune God in the New Testament—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Zeus, Vishnu, and Allah are mere idols. The Lord alone is the one to whom David’s praise arises in Psalm 119.156a.
Now God’s self-disclosure is of an infinitely glorious One who is the spring of all the greatness and goodness reflected in his creation, and yet infinitely exceeding it. His attributes are all praiseworthy, but the psalmist singles out one in this first line: his tender mercies. The original Hebrew word is in an “absolute plural intensive,”2 fitting for the celebration of it in this exultation. Its basic meaning is “compassion,” and it is rich in connotation, including ideas like very tender affection and feelings, especially love.3 It seems to comprehend both the merciful saving acts of God for his chosen people, and the internal divine virtue which prompts him so to act.4 It implies a covenantal relationship between the ones delivered from distress and the Lord who saves them. It was through confidence in the Lord and his mercies that David was enabled to yield himself confidently to Providence (2 Sam 24.14).
This worshiper does not feel it is enough simply to assert the reality of the Lord’s tender mercies, but he further insists they are “great.” This is a word which has the sense of much or many,5 and so further intensifies the thought. The Lord of the Old Testament is one renowned for his indescribable, ineffable, infinite love and compassion for people in misery and trouble, and he has proven this to be his character by the countless and stupendous deliverances he has wrought for his people. Even David in his day had known and seen enough to be completely persuaded of these things about God.
At this late date in human history, we have a much greater revelation of God’s love and great compassion, for he has come to us in Christ, and redeemed his people from their sins at such a great cost, even the sacrifice climaxing in Jesus’ crucifixion. That “Calvary love” is overwhelming to us when we begin to grasp it, and as long as we do not harden our hearts, we can never cease to be amazed by it, but our wonder grows ever greater. Indeed, O Lord, great are your tender mercies!
Scripture greatly emphasizes the compassionate nature of God, no doubt, because we are slow to appreciate and hold onto a sense of it. Such is the sinfulness of our hearts—our cynicism, ingratitude, and self-absorption—that we fixate instead upon our own sufferings with a resentment, if silent and repressed, toward Providence that has appointed and executes all the details of our life circumstances. What can we do to escape this vortex of self-induced spiritual darkness? By God’s grace, believe his testimony of compassion and praise him for it, even before the darkness lifts. Praise will stimulate your faith, and faith, your praise. We may tend to think that if he would bless us, then we will believe in him, and praise him, but this is utter folly. God’s way is that we must tend to our responsibilities of faith and worship, and then he blesses us.
Can you, then, and will you, join in with the psalmist and all God’s people? “Great are thy tender mercies, O Lord.” Yes, even at my lowest points in life, when I am afraid and confused and tempted to despair, God remains infinitely, unchangeably, and indescribably loving and compassionate. And for that reason alone, if for no other, I don’t need to drive into the river, or do anything comparable.
THE PLEA ARISING FROM GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
“Quicken me according to thy judgments.” The psalmist’s true and ardent faith did not exempt him from sensing his natural deadness and sinfulness. Too often we imagine these great heroes of the faith were fundamentally different from us, but human nature and our propensity to sin and aversion to the holy God are still the same. “Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (Jas 5.17). The eminent prophet Elijah, who prevailed with God in prayer for such judgments, and relief of them, was a man, as we say, “who put his pants on one leg at a time.” The greatest saints were not any more naturally spiritual than you are. They came into a state of salvation and greater sanctification gradually and by grace alone, just exactly in the same way that we may.
And so with David, here praying for an increase of spiritual life and for personal revival. He took no small comfort from his previous meditation upon the greatness of the Lord’s tender mercies, and this prompted his plea. Surely the Lord looks upon me with compassion—me in my remaining unbelief, pride, and laziness. Sin has truly made me miserable, and now I am especially miserable as one who has tasted that the Lord is gracious, and has finally realized how much more happy I could be with the fullness of his presence and blessing. Oh, Lord, it would be just like you to lift up one who has sunk to my depths, and to forgive one so guilty as I am, and cleanse one who has so shamefully polluted myself and profaned your name.
But more than God’s compassionate nature inspired David so to pray. He also called to mind God’s faithfulness to his promises. Oh, Father, “according to thy judgments,” according to your openly-declared and firmly-established Word, thus I pray, quicken me! I know that you will never go back on this glorious gospel. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23.19). And Lord, have you not said that your anger endures for a moment, and in your favor is life? That weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning? (Psa 30.5). Even so, with all confidence I rest in You, Lord, and pray for the dawn. You are compassionate, and you are faithful.
Brethren, let us enter in David’s spirit, join his praise, exercise his faith, and hope in his Savior. Then we will truly be blessed! Amen.
Notes:
1 http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/13/chief-mom-drives-ny-river-killing-3-kids/
2 Enhanced BDB Lexicon.
3 Gesenius.
4 DBLSD.
5 Enhanced BDB Lexicon.