Unrestrained Mercy

“I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me
    beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
    and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
    my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, ‘Aha, Aha!’

But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, ‘Great is the Lord!’
As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!” Psalm 40:10-17

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

What is the nature of God is always present and at work. Every divine characteristic is infinite and in complete balance, perfect, and righteously expressed. Our sins and needs, inconsistencies and weaknesses are great, yet His mercy is more, and sufficient. What do we suffer, long for, or ruin that He does not take thought for, help, and preserve us, that His mercy is not enough or cannot redeem? (Lamentations 3:22-23; 1 Peter 1:3)

The unrestrained mercy of God secures us in a wicked whorling world and against every foe. It adjusts focus in turmoil and invites our trust. As it moves toward us, it should elicit unrestrained praise from us, and unrestrained testimony to all around. What continually flows into us cannot be hidden or stopped from flowing through and beyond us. The grateful recipient of God’s graces will tell of His deliverance, faithfulness, salvation, and steadfast love. (Romans 9:15-16)

What is my interaction with the mercy of God? How has it met me, freed me, remade me, kept me? And thus, how gladly, how joyfully am I expressing its goodness to others and my gratitude to God?

“What love could remember no wrongs we have done?
Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum.
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!

What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
What Father, so tender, is calling us home?
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!

What riches of kindness Christ lavished on us,
His blood was the payment, His life was the cost!
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!

Praise the Lord! His mercy is more!
Stronger than darkness, new every morn,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more!” ~Matt Boswell and Matt Papa (2016)

Lord, may I ever appeal to, delight in, and joyfully proclaim Your unrestrained mercies, to the honor of Your name.