Last night at Awaken, I taught from Psalm 136. It was the second-to-last message in a series called HeartBlog, a sampling of the book of Psalms in 15 weeks.
Psalm 136 is a unique Psalm – it repeats the phrase “His mercy endures forever” in every single verse (26 of them!). The phrase may seem a little repetitive, until you think about how much mercy you really need. When you grasp the depth of your sin, that phrase will become one of your favorites!
26 uses of the phrase made me think of the 26 letters of the English alphabet. I realized that for every letter I could use to describe sin, there is mercy to cover it.
God’s mercy covers us from A-Z!
Although the Psalmist did not have this in mind as he wrote, it applies to us today. Here’s a sampling of sin and a side dish of mercy to go with each one…
Adultery
His mercy endures forever.
Blasphemy
His mercy endures forever.
Complaining
His mercy endures forever.
Deceit
His mercy endures forever.
Envy
His mercy endures forever.
Fornication
His mercy endures forever.
Gossip
His mercy endures forever.
Hate
His mercy endures forever.
Impure thoughts
His mercy endures forever.
Jealousy
His mercy endures forever.
Kidnapping
His mercy endures forever.
Lust
His mercy endures forever.
Murder
His mercy endures forever.
Neglect
His mercy endures forever.
Offending little ones
His mercy endures forever.
Partiality
His mercy endures forever.
Questioning God
His mercy endures forever.
Resisting the Holy Spirit
His mercy endures forever.
Slander
His mercy endures forever.
Teaching another Gospel
His mercy endures forever.
Unbelief
His mercy endures forever.
Vanity
His mercy endures forever.
Watching evil
His mercy endures forever.
eXtortion
His mercy endures forever.
Yielding to temptation
His mercy endures forever.
Zeal without knowledge
His mercy endures forever.
God HATES sin.
I’m NOT saying that God just winks at our sin, supplies the appropriate amount of mercy to cover it, like Aloe Vera on a sunburn, then moves on. God HATES sin – it put His Son on the cross. However, because Jesus died on the cross, there is mercy to cover every sin.
Repent from your sin from A to Z, recognize that if it weren’t for mercy, you wouldn’t even be alive to repent, then receive mercy with confidence!
