Mercy

“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” (Psalms 25:10)

It isn’t some, or half, or even 99.9% of them, but rather it is “ALL” of the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Everything of the Lord is done in truth because it is impossible for God to lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). In Him there is, “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God is truth. Truth is a constant or it wouldn’t be the truth.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

The constancy of God is so absolute that everything God says either is or becomes. In other words, there is no difference between what God says, in what God does, and in what is. Because of which, God is always true to all of His promises.

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent (change): hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

It is interesting that mercy and truth are put in context of a path in this Psalm. Because the New Testament definition of sin is to, “wander from the path of uprightness and honor” (Thayer’s). The Old Testament definition is, “to stumble in the path of rectitude” (Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon).

In both cases, righteousness and salvation are expressed as a path. Since the Psalmist says all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, then to sin could also be defined as wandering away from the mercy and truth of the Lord.

Aren’t we glad that mercy and truth are God? How else could we be saved if we happen to wander? Mercy and truth “are” God in that God doesn’t possess mercy and truth as an attribute or as some part of a whole. God is mercy and is truth in the same way that God is love (1 John 4:8,16) and God is light (1 John 1:5).

I know it sounds like circular logic, but when we sin, we fall out of the path of God. Since all the paths of God are mercy and truth, then we fall away from mercy and truth. The only way we can return to the path of God is through the mercy and truth that is God! Mercy and truth are the attractant that keeps drawing us to the way (path), the truth, and the light.

Let’s expand our thinking and see where mercy and truth resides. Mercy and truth are in love. Mercy and truth are in faith. They are in joy, forgiveness, judgement, righteousness, forbearance, patience and temperance. In short, if it is of God, then you will find His mercy and truth in it.

Conversely, look at where mercy and truth cannot be found. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and more. All these things are works of the flesh and not of the spirit. Mercy and truth can’t be found in them because you can’t find God in them. But, through the mercy and truth that is God, we can return to God’s holy way.

Mercy is a love, a kindness and leniency afforded to those who don’t deserve it. It is the love expressed as favor of God when wrath is due. Sometimes mercy is transliterated from the Bible into English more appropriately as the word, “lovingkindness”, as for example in Psalm 51.

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1). In this verse the Psalmist is asking for God’s mercy according to His mercy.

Grab ahold of just how important the loving kindness that is mercy, is to us all.

“Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name” (Psalm 63:3-4).

Wow! The Psalmist says that God’s mercy is better than life. In fact, there would be no life without the loving kindness mercy of God because, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

No one deserves mercy, and that’s exactly the point. The very nature and essence of God’s mercy is that the receiver of mercy doesn’t deserve it. This is why mercy from man can only come from a man of God, for mercy requires man to rise above his carnal self.

Mercy is strength expressed as love and kindness for the edification of another and the betterment of circumstance. Punishment, no matter how just, simply terminates. It ends the story where it is at with no potential benefit to the convicted or possible improvement to the situation. For a man to be all punishment and no mercy can only come from the ungodly, for there is no mercy and truth in him. And because there is no God, no mercy, and no truth in this type of punishment, then the punishment itself is nothing but sin.

Mercy allows the repentant spirit and soul to live and flourish past the condemnation and to influence others in mercy and truth as well! Punishment hinders, hurts, and sometimes kills that very loving kind spirit.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalm 103:2-4)

Bill Hitchcock