If you are wise, pay attention! Why is it so important for us to recognize God’s mercy in our lives, in creation, and in the lives of those around us? The psalmist knows something very true about human nature in a fallen world: we can be forgetful, prideful, selfish, anxious, and so on. Consider what we have been doing in this recent Lenten season, mediating on psalms of somber recognition of our wrongdoing and desperate repentance to God. It is only in this time spent in the depths that we are truly able to appreciate the utterly ridiculous and amazing love God showed to all of us through Jesus’s death and resurrection.
But alas, we live in the tension of the kingdom of God being here and not yet. Therefore, we are still in need of daily redemption. What we see in this psalm is the beauty of God’s restorative justice. The psalmist invites us into four scenarios demonstrating the goodness of God. To those who are lost and malnourished, He provides security and satisfaction. To those who rejected God and were enslaved by their own dark desires, He provides freedom and light. To those whose self-destructive deeds led them nearly to death, He provides healing and hope. To those who are afraid and anxious, He provides peace and a spirit of exultation. In each case, the people call out to God and He answers them. Notice in verse 41 how those God saves are described as “needy”. Everything in me (reinforced by a culture who loves to tell me “you are enough”) reads this word with distaste. Who wants to be described as “needy”? Ah, so this is why we should be paying attention, because when we lose sight of the source of all goodness we go back to how the people were at the start of each of the four scenarios. And God in his everlasting mercy will save us again, and again, and again.
Christ City, rejoice in your neediness to God! Give praise to the One who can fill a desert with springs of water, who delights in His people flourishing together and who blesses the work of our hands! Remember in those times of need, He is there and will always answer our call to Him for help. His love is more than we could ever as for and deserve. He is enough.
- Christine L