Psalm 119:156

Once again we take up a verse from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Resh.

Psalms 119:156  Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.

This verse like the rest is a prayer to God.  In this prayer there is a confession of what God’s mercies are like and then a request. Three things in this verse describe God’s mercy.  Firstly, there are multiple instances of God’s mercy.  Hence, the word mercy is in the plural, mercies. Secondly, God’s mercies are great.  And thirdly, God’s mercies are tender. 

Thanks be to God for multiplied mercies.  As we pointed out when we dealt with Psalm 119:41, our sins are innumerable (Psalms 40:12) and our soul is full of troubles (Psalms 88:3).  Each sin and each trouble calls for mercy.  So mercy toward each sin and in each trouble amounts to mercies.

Then when you consider the multitude of sins and troubles of each individual child of God and then multiply that by all the innumerable children of God, the word great most fitly describes God’s mercies.  Great sinners in great troubles need great mercies.  And thank God He has them to dispense!  So great are His mercies that they are quite past our reckoning.

Psalms 103:11  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalms 103:17  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18  To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Psalms 40:5  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

God’s great mercies are also tender.  I commented on the expression tender mercies when I dealt with verse 77 of this psalm.  I repeat what I wrote then:  “The Lord does not bestow His mercies upon us begrudgingly.  His mercies flow out of a gentle, kind, and loving disposition.  God bestows mercy because He loves to and wants to.”  Therefore, we need never fear that we are wearying the Lord when we beg for mercy.  He has plenty of mercies to pass out and He dispenses them quite readily.

Psalms 86:5  For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

The psalmist then attaches this request to his acknowledgement of the greatness of God’s tender mercies:  quicken me according to thy judgments.  This is the second time in this octave that the psalmist prays to be quickened.  In verse 154 he prayed to be quickened according to God’s word.  Here he prays to quickened according to God’s judgments.  We noted in the introduction of this psalm that this word judgments refers to God’s decrees, ordinances, laws, and statutes.  God’s word, singular, is a collection of His judgments, plural.  And the Lord’s judgments, plural, so interconnect that they can also be called His judgment, singular, as they were in verse 149:  “quicken me according to thy judgment.”  The psalmist craved no revival, no added or restored vigour but such as was in keeping with the judgments of God that he read in his Bible.  Never expect the Lord to enliven your drooping spirits if you ignore or break His ordinances and laws.  So you feel down, so down that you do not feel like going to church and worshipping God in His house according to His holy judgments.  So you feel depressed, so depressed that you neglect to pray, give thanks, or read your Bible.  So you are sulking because you feel shunned or crossed by another, so much so that you would rather pout in your sullen mood that deal with the issue according to God’s law.  Well, down, depressed, and sullen you will remain until you bow to God’s judgments and handle things His way.  And when you yield to God’s judgments, you can be assured that the Lord, whose tender mercies are great, will lift you up, dust you off, put His strength in you, and set you on your way rejoicing.  That is, He will quicken you according to His judgments.