In many ways the world is not a pretty place. The effects of the sin of the human race are manifold but the greatest treason of the heart is fundamental: we abandon God, our Creator and Sustainer. Because of his imprint on us, however, we have a sense of justice and judgment but are unable to get life right because most of the world tries to live without him. In the face of general human behavior God still extends mercy, and that mercy is incredibly deep and wide. He waits for each one to make a decision: to know him or deny him. So the “race” continues to misbehave toward God and to itself, but in the environment there are people who humble themselves and say, “God, please help me…I am a sinner and I need your salvation”. For each one who makes that call, David, the Psalmist and a man after God’s own heart, has a song for you that is encapsulated in Psalm 136. The repeating line is simple: His mercy endures forever.
Verses 7-9 are summarized to the left of the sketch. I think of God’s mercy when I see the summer haze on a calm evening. It turns the moon orange but it is more. The moisture comes from undulating waves of low and high pressure that cross the globe. In my locale they are responsible to the moisture that keeps plants alive and provides water for our thirst. The design of the water cycle, the atmosphere, and the earth are so precise that temperatures stay in a very small range; water is abundant; and we can live comfortably on a completely unique planet, whose conditions are statistically impossible to self-evolve. Rather, God’s mercy made the planet intentionally habitable–ready for a people, for every person, to choose Him or deny Him. And he waits with unmeasurable mercy to permit each one to make that choice.
Choose wisely. And, if you deny he has anything to do with created environment in which you make the choice, be careful because it is part of his extended mercy.
