#DailyDevotion Our Only Hope Is The Mercy Of God In Christ Jesus
Psalm 6 4Come back, O LORD, rescue me; save me because of Your mercy. 5Once a person is dead, he can’t remember You. Can anyone in the grave praise You?
David, in the midst of his repentant prayer, calls upon the LORD to rescue him. The basis for this prayer is the mercy of the LORD. That mercy is what the LORD reveals about himself in his name in Exodus 34:6. Today we can may the same cry based on the name of Jesus who is God’s mercy incarnate. Indeed, we can always appeal to the LORD for help based on his mercy. Notice for the most part David has nothing in himself upon which he can base his request for mercy. He does not appeal to his own past good works.
But David does here begin to bargain with the LORD, which I think we all get around to doing when we get desperate. He tells the LORD if he is dead, then he can’t remember him anymore. If he is dead would he be able to praise Him? Now this can throw us for a few theological loops. Of course we could easily say David is referring to an Old Testament state of the dead. We could say he isn’t speaking theological truths here but praying in ignorance (the problem here being the Holy Spirit inspired this prayer). Jesus tells us God is not a God of the dead but of the living, referring to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Perhaps David is speaking of a truth here, but a spiritual one. When Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead, the living are those who have faith in Jesus and the dead are those who have not been born from above. Those who are dead, but appear living to us, don’t remember God. They do not offer any prayer and praise to God, whether in this world or the next. David here is speaking of himself who has fallen out of the grace of God by his sins. The life of God has departed him. He is praying here, like Psalm 51 to have his spirit restored to him. He wants to rejoin the living, those who have faith in the LORD.
When we sin, especially when we commit mortal sins we need to confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, of forgiveness, preferably from the mouth of our pastor so we can be certain God has heard our prayer for mercy. Mortal sins are those sins that grieve the Holy Spirit and make our bodies an unfit abode for Him. While we get into the seven deadly sins, I would prefer just to refer to the Ten Commandments. Mortal sins are those we commit willingly, i.e. we put not fight against them when tempted and we do them intentionally. That is to say we know an action is a sin, we don’t care, we intend to do it and we do it willingly. This is opposed to sins of weakness. These are sins we struggle with. We fight against them. We don’t want to do them but we end up committing them anyway. Some of them we are even aware we are doing. These can become mortal sin if once we are aware of them we treat them as something trivial and something we don’t need to repent of or need absolution. The Christian’s life is one of daily contrition and repentance. Confessing our sins, exposing them to the light of the Father and receiving forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
David thought he could hide his sins from the LORD and was not restored until he confessed his sins and looked to the LORD for mercy. You may have committed your sins in the dark or behind the scenes and think no one has seen you. God the Father has most certainly seen them. Nothing is hidden from him. Therefore confess your sins to God your Father. Return to your baptism and believe what Jesus has said there. Receive absolution from your pastor and have your heart, mind and spirit restored. He will do it.
Heavenly Father, our sins are not hidden from you. Give us such upright hearts that confess our sins to you and for the sake of Jesus receive absolution from his hands. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.