Psalm 119:77

We continue considering the prayers of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Jod.  We are in a stretch of prayers that all begin with the word let. 

Psalms 119:77  Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.

In this verse the psalmist makes the same request he did in verse 41, in which he requested the Lord to “let thy mercies come also unto me.”  Again, the psalmist prays God to let His mercies come to him.  God’s mercies are something that must come to us, rather than we coming to them.  And they can only come to us, if the Lord’s lets them.  He is sovereign over His mercies.  God’s mercies are shut up from us unless He is willing to bestow them.  We are in a sinful and low estate with absolutely no claim to God’s compassion or kindness.  For us there will be no relief unless the good Lord be pleased to let His mercies come to us.

In the verse we consider today the psalmist adds the word tender to describe the mercies of God.  Consider the meaning of the word tender when used to describe God’s mercies.

Tender – Of persons, their feelings, or the expression of these:  Characterized by, exhibiting, or expressing delicacy of feeling or susceptibility to the gentle emotions; kind, loving, gentle, mild, affectionate.

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.  The Lord delights to let His mercies come to us.

Micah 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

Now we need never worry that we have exhausted these tender mercies of God for they have been available and abundantly bestowed from ancient time; there are a multitude of them; and they are great.

Psalms 25:6  Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

Psalms 69:16  Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

Psalms 119:156  Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD….

The psalmist, like every believer, was beset with many transgressions and sins all and any of which were exceedingly displeasing to a holy God and deserving of His wrath.  Therefore, the psalmist needed tender mercies (plural).  Many sins need many tender mercies.  And it is God’s tender mercies that provide the remedy for sins and transgressions.

Psalms 51:1  A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.>> Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Psalms 79:8  O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

And, like the rest of us, the psalmist had his share of troubles in this world.  As it was with Job, so it is with us.  The ultimate relief for our troubles is the tender mercy of God.

James 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

So when you are enduring a tribulation, just hang in there.  Endure!  Tender mercy is on the way. 

Because of his sins, the psalmist deserved to die.  And his troubles were such that they threatened to destroy him.  Most any tribulation causes us to despair of life, if it presses down on us hard enough.  This is why he prays that the Lord’s tender mercies will come to him, that I may live.  Without God’s tender mercies our sins and troubles would be the destruction of us all.  But instead, our God redeems our life from destruction and crowns us with His tender mercies.

Psalms 103:4  Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies….

Now the psalmist advances this reason for wanting to live:  for thy law is my delight.  Why do you want God’s tender mercies to come to you to spare your life?  Is it that you may have your way?  Or is it that you may do the will of God as expressed in His law?  Is the law of God your greatest delight?  Does it give you your reason for living?  Because the psalmist so delighted in the law of God, he craved the tender mercies of God to pardon his transgressions against that law and to strengthen him to keep it.  The following quote from the pen of William Cowper sums it up quite well:  “It is a great mercy of God, which not only pardons evil that is done, but strengthens us also to further good that we have not done; and this is the mercy which David here seeks.” 

As we think of the tender mercies of God by which we live, let us not forget the greatest display of God’s tender mercy in sending His only begotten Son to die for us “that we might live through him” (1John 4:9).  Tender mercies came to us in Jesus and because of this we live.

Luke 1:77  To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,

78  Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us….