273. Saturday after Third Sunday after Trinity.
Psalm 103, 8-14. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
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Last Sunday we heard of God’s great joy in the salvation of sinners. It humbled us, and it raised us up, to learn that no shepherd can seek one of his lost sheep, and no poor woman one of her lost pieces of silver, as diligently as the Lord seeks sinners who have gone astray. Tomorrow we will be met by the demand: “Be ye merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Thus he surrounds us with words of mercy. The Bible lesson just read is, then, especially appropriate on this day. The Lord wishes to force upon us the truth, that he is the God of tender mercy. It is his will that his gospel of mercy shall fill our souls, in order that our lamentation may be turned into thanksgiving, and our sighs into songs of praise. When Moses for the second time went up to Sinai, after the idolatry of the people had broken the covenant and its tables, the Lord introduced his declaration in regard to the just punishment of sin with these words: “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” (Exodus 34, 6. 7). Even on Sinai he proclaims himself the God of mercy! In Nineveh he reveals a mercy so great that his own prophet is angered by it and says: “I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.” (Jonah 4, 2). “As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.” This makes even our greatest sins shrink into nothingness. The distance from earth to heaven cannot be measured. The distance is the same from the highest mountain and the deepest valley; the difference is infinitesimal, because heaven is so high! In like manner, though your sins rise mountain high, the mighty grace of the Lord can take them away as easily as it can take away the least of the weaknesses of the saint who is nearest perfection. What does the power of men, or angels, or devils, amount to as against the Lord’s all-powerful mercy? — “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” What can this mean but that he has removed them so far from us, that they nevermore can harm us? But how can they have been removed to such a distance? He has done it; he laid them on his Son, and the Son has carried them so far from us.
Lord God, our heavenly Father, how shall we thank thee for thy mercy! Teach us the lesson by thy Holy Spirit; teach us to fear thee, to believe in thee, to love thee, and to praise thee forevermore. Amen.*
Come, ye weary, heavy-laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.
Not the righteous,
Sinners, Jesus came to call.
[suggested tune: Guide Me, TLH 54; listen here]
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.