Good morning and welcome into day. Today we’re in take a look at some scripture from Psalms 145:8-9
8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
Gracious means courteous, kind, and pleasant. Somebody who is gracious is tender and mild and gentle, along with being kind and thoughtful.
Psalms 116:5
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
Psalms 111:4
He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
Ps 103:8-11
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Have you ever cooked up a meal, and then realize after you cooked it, that there was way too much to eat! Plenteous means abundant. If you have an abundance, you have plenty of it. You don’t even think twice about having seconds because there’s so much food on the table. Our God is plenteous in mercy, and he is filled up with mercy and Grace that is available to us. And all we have to do is access it through humility and confession of sin.
Psalms 86:15
15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
If you have the quality of compassion, it means sympathetic pity, and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Compassion is described as a feeling that arises when you’re confronted with another persons suffering, and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Being a true neighbor to other people, is to be merciful and compassionate towards them.
Luke 10:25-37
25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34 And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Likewise, Our Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great mercy. Mercy means that you have a disposition to show kindness or compassion to others. Mercy implies compassion that forbears punishing, even when justice demands it. Mercy is a disposition to be kind, and forgiving. Our God is a very merciful God.
And that’s why he warns in…
James 2:13
13 For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Luke 6:36
36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Matt 5:7
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Colossians 3:12
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye
Our Scriptures teach us today that God is of great mercy. Great means of an extent, amount or intensity considerably above the normal or the average. It says very large in size or huge like a great mountain. It’s unusually or comparatively in size and dimension. That’s how much mercy God has for each of us. Our scripture teaches us today that the Lord is slow to anger.
It’s been 2000 years since Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and God is still patient and long suffering with us all, waiting for people to repent. In God’s righteous anger, he could have destroyed this world years and years ago, but the reason why any of us are here is because of his mercy.
When you think about being slow to anger, it’s not immediate. I’ve always taught my family at home, that slow to anger means not getting upset quickly.
At one little infraction, a child may drop an egg on the floor. Slow to anger means that you don’t get upset with them immediately. When we were children, we used to light off firecrackers. Firecrackers don’t always have the same length of a fuse, and sometimes they burn really fast.
Sometimes before you even had a chance to throw them, they would almost go off in your hand. I kind of rethink about that when I read this verse. Slow to anger means that God has a long fuse. He allows himself to go through a lot of suffering before he punishes.
Ultimately, judgment is going to happen when God casts people into hellfire, but look how long suffering He is.
Ephesians 4:31
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:26
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
……9 The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
I want you to think about something for a moment. God’s mercy and forgiveness is not extended to just a certain group of people. He extends it to everybody who desires it. The reason why I say this, is the Scriptures teach that God wants all men to come to a place of repentance. There is nobody in this world that God doesn’t want to save.
What’s required is confession of sin. What’s required is an admission of fault. What’s required is turning away from the things that are wrong, and coming back to Christ. God doesn’t want people to perish. God does not desire that.
What dad likes to come home after work and punish his children? That’s not something that a parent looks forward to. Neither did Paul when he had to punish things that went on in the church. That’s not something that he looked forward to.
Punishment has to happen because of justice. God wants each of us to simply come to him and apologize because is full of compassion. His tender mercies are over all his works.
When you are tender it means that you show gentleness, concern and sympathy for others.
Sometimes I think about chewing on a really really hard steak that’s tough. I like a tender steak or tender hamburger. It’s very easy to cut into and chew. When you are filled with tenderness, it means that you are soft or delicate in your substance. You’re not hard or tough. Tender means you’re easily damaged, vulnerable and sensitive.
Over all the things that our God does to us, His works are filled with tender mercies. Mercy is compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom is within one’s power to punish or harm.
Even though each of us have sinned in the presence of God, even though each of us have come short of pleasing God completely, He’s waiting for us to apologize. It’s just an admission of truth. It’s simply saying I was wrong. You’re right. God cares for us. God wants all of us to repent. God wants us to acknowledge the truth.
God’s ways is a better way. The problem is when we’re caught up in sin, each of us are deceived. God wants to save us. He is a God of mercy. We can come boldly to the throne of grace in time of need. Do you need forgiveness? If so, I think it’s time for you to jump in the boat with the rest of us.
Think about that for today and Lord willing, we’ll talk some more tomorrow. Till then, bye Bye, everybody.♥️
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