student of mercy

 I echo David in Psalm 27: ONE THING I ask and seek, to muse the beauty of the Lord. During fall break we camped at the Smokies. I had plenty of time to muse and drew this sitting around the campfire. My journal still smells like smoke.

I am a student of mercy. 

If I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned my need to continue to gaze at the mercy of Christ in order to live a merciful life. As we have pondered and grappled with mercy over at Mercy Mondays with Jenn LeBow, all of us have been changed. That’s because when we gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, we are changed. Some facet of our lives reflect more purely the character of Jesus.

Mercy exists because our God is merciful. He has more attributes than I have words. In my finite mind, I like to boil His character down to Mercy and Strength. We humans are usually stronger in one of these character traits than the other. But God holds them both equally.

Psalm 18:35 says, “You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.” This stooping down is mercy. In fact, as I looked at words used to translate this psalm, I found words like gentleness, humility, help and mercy. Our God, Yahweh, the Most High God, stoops. He bends down on one knee and looks me in the face. Staggering.

Surely the ultimate stooping came in the form of Jesus. He sent His Son. Jesus is the exact representation of God. He expressed his supremacy in compassion. Over and over we read that Jesus felt compassion (mercy). Matthew 9:36 tells us of his compassion. “And seeing the multitudes, He [Jesus] felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.” The Message says that he went about healing their diseased bodies and their bruised and hurt lives (verse 35).

I am a student of mercy. Yes. As I studied, Psalm 51 came up. Verse 1 alone has three words for mercy. David wrote this psalm after Nathan visited him and called him out on adultery and murder. David cries out for mercy. 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your great compassion, blot out all of my transgressions, and wash away all my iniquity, cleanse me from sin. 

I just typed that from memory. As a child I attended Camp Soaring Hawk. Heno Head is one of my heroes and is now a saint serving Jesus in Heaven. Often when I am reading the Word, a song comes to mind. Heno taught me these songs at camp. So as I read Psalm 51, the song just came back clear as a bell. And I sang it. Over and over today. 

Have mercy (chanan). Let me find favor. Grant me grace.

According to your steadfast love (checed). Your lovingkindness draws me. I am desperate for your goodness. You are faithful, O God!

According to your great compassion (racham). Womb. You are a Womb, O God. Let me crawl up into your lap and be fed and rest. 

May mercy’s song keep playing in my life and yours.

Comments

[Heidi Noelle Petak]

I LOVE picturing the womb of God as a place I can crawl into to experience His compassion. Thank you, Gigi!

[gigi]

Me too! The Hebrew language is so literal. Love that mercy and womb mean the same thing. I feel like I have a whole new dimension of mercy unexplored!