MULTITUDE OF MERCY

“But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the MULTITUDE of Your MERCY…” – Psalm 69:13a

The Mercy of God is multifaceted. Scriptures speak of the MULTITUDE of His MERCY! The Mercy of God does not flow in trickles; it flows in fullness. His Mercy is never scarce. His Mercy comes in such diversity and variety that can minister to every conceivable need of humanity. A few days ago, we meditated on the Manifestations of God’s Mercy, including the Mercy in His Provisions. Psalm 103:2 shows that God’s Mercy makes the following benefits available:

The provision of forgiveness: “Who forgives all your iniquities…” (v.3a)

The provision of healing: “…Who heals all your diseases” (v.3b)

The provision of redemption: “Who redeems your life from destruction…” (v.4a)

The provision of Dominion: Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (v.4b).

The provision of Satisfaction: Who satisfies you mouth with good things…” (vv.5a).

In His Mercy, God provides forgiveness, healing, redemption, dominion, and satisfaction. He does it all because He is merciful.

The Psalmist sang, “But as for me, I will come into Your house in the MULTITUDE of Your MERCY; in fear of You I will I worship toward Your holy temple” (Psa.5:7). David had been used to enter into the tabernacle of Moses in times past; and though he was now in a kind of exile from it, he was confident he should again enter into and determined so to do in a particular manner – “in the multitude of Your mercy”! What does this mean to us? It is not enough to ‘go to church.’ We must come into the house of God in faith, trusting His Mercy. There is a multitude of Mercy, love, and grace in God’s Heart, stored up in His covenant, and displayed in His Son as the Saviour of lost sinners, the Healer of hurting souls and ailing bodies, and the Redeemer of degenerating souls.

One upon a time, the Psalmist turned to Jehovah in prayer: “But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the MULTITUDE of Your MERCY, hear me in the truth of Your salvation” (Psa.69:13). He described the season as “the acceptable time”: It was a time of rejection with man, but of acceptance with God. Sin ruled on earth, but grace reigned in heaven. There is to each of us an accepted time, and we must never allow it to slip away unused. God's time must be our time, lest it comes to pass that, when the veil of time is drawn, we look in vain for space to repent!

This Psalm is actually in-part, a prophetic Psalm of the Messiah pleading with His Father. It is the Crucified One alone who could so describe His experience on the cross: “They also gave Me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink” (v.21). How noteworthy, that even the perfect One made His appeal to the rich Mercy of His Father-God; much more should we. No attribute is sweeter to misery than mercy, and when sorrows multiply as they did on Calvary, the multitude of mercy is much prized. When enemies are more than the hairs of our head, God's mercies are altogether innumerable to defeat them all.

The sixteenth verse reads: “Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; turn to me according to the MULTITUDE of Your tender mercies”! It is to the covenant God, the everlasting God of Righteousness that he appealed with strong crying. It is always a stay to the soul to dwell on the pre-eminence and excellence of the Lord’s Mercy. Elsewhere, scriptures highlight the danger of forgetting the multitude of mercies: “Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, but rebelled by the sea – the Red Sea” (Psa.106:7).

The multitude of Mercy includes the countless pardons, innumerable promises, and abundant deliverances available in Christ. In Him we find: everlasting, covenant mercy (Jer.31:31-34); sin-atoning, redeeming mercy (Rom.3:24-26); effectual, saving mercy (Mic.7:18-20); immutable, preserving mercy (Mal.2:6); and daily, providential mercy (Rom.8:28).