Easier Said Than Done

“In God [is] my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, [and] my refuge, [is] in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God [is] a refuge for us. Selah.” (Ps 62:7-8 AV)

That’s a hard thing to do, especially when it is us who messes up!  God is better than we will ever deserve.  He truly is.  Prophet after prophet has declared the goodness and mercy of God.  Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentations, has correctly observed that God is totally within His rights to consume us, yet it is His mercy that keeps His wrath from just that. Job, after losing all that he had rightly observed that he did not deserve anything from God and that he was a totally and completely fallen man.  The poor sinner who came to the temple and had nothing by which he could every offer a holy and righteous God accurately cried out, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

 Although the context of this Psalm is the trial of faith David endured while escaping from Saul, the thought of David’s claim to integrity and righteousness continues to course through my mind.  He claimed righteousness.  Yet he was a sinner just like the rest of us.  His righteousness was still by the mercy of God, but verified in the law.  He was by no means perfect.  Far from it.  However, the LORD provided the means by which he could be seen as righteous.  And that was the law.  For us, it is by the blood of Christ.  That is our claim to righteousness.  However, that doesn’t seem to easy the struggle of faith in God at all times.  Especially when we have failed Him!

All we can do is pour out our hearts to the LORD and plead with a merciful and loving God that, in spite of our failures, He will have mercy on us.  The world does not understand this.  Carnal Christianity does not understand this.  But this is the nature of our relationship with the LORD.  Confession and conformity.  In return, a Spirit enabled faith that will trust the LORD to respond according to His nature.  He is too good for us!  But He delights in His mercy, love, forgiveness, protection, and provision for those who will cry out in humility and faith!