January 30, 2023
Daily Devotion:
"God's Mercy"
Psalm 91:1-2
God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because You are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs. Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again.
Even the great heroes of the Bible had serious character flaws and were in need of God's mercy. Jacob, the son of Isaac and one of the fathers of our faith, tricked his twin brother and even his beloved father, in order to "steal" the family birthright (Genesis 25-27).
Moses, who led the Hebrew slaves from the Pharaoh's Oppression in Egypt, murdered a man and lived as a fugitive for forty years (Exodus 2-3). David, perhaps the most beloved and popular of Israel's Kings throughout history, performed many acts of courage, faith, and mercy-slaying the giant, Goliath, and sparing King Saul, a sworn enemy to him, to name just two-but also had a litany of sins and shortcomings strewn along his past. His greatest crime was what he did to Uriah the Hittite, one of his bravest and most loyal soldiers. David coveted and then "took" Uriah's wife, Bathsheba, to be his own. To make his evil act even worse, he had Uriah killed to try and cover up what he had done. (See 2 Samuel 11-12 for the whole story.) Throughout the Psalms, and especially in Psalm 51, David Cries for God's mercy. He knows that being the king doesn't get him off the hook. He knows that no act of contrition can undo his evil deeds. Only God's mercy can enter a darkened heart and make it pure again.
