Psalm 143:1- Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
Yesterday we learned that our prayers should be made according to His will. Today we are looking at His righteousness and faithfulness as we continue to explore the subject of prayer this month.
Psalm 143 begins with an appeal to God to hear our prayers. God can rescue us in accordance with His righteousness. This verse points us to the promise that God DOES hear us when we pray. We can find comfort in the fact that our God is righteous and faithful.
But let’s take a look at another word in today’s verse and consider it. Do you cry out to God for His mercy? Most of us don’t. We simply beg God for the things we feel we need, the things we want (sometimes desperately), and we don’t consider asking for things like mercy or grace, though we don’t deserve either.
What exactly IS mercy? Mercy, as it is used in the Bible, is forgiveness where it is not deserved. We are undeserving of mercy as sinners, but because God is righteous and faithful, He made a covenant with His people, granting them mercy. We are now part of that covenant and have received forgiveness for our sins through the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross as payment for our sins. We escape punishment (receive mercy) because Jesus paid the price for us.
David prayed to God knowing He would hear his plea for help. But he also demonstrated an understanding of God’s mercy and the fact that we are undeserving to stand before Him. His psalm teaches us to turn to God with our struggles and burdens and to be confident in the fact that He hears us and delivers us according to His righteousness and faithfulness.
As God’s children, this psalm applies in our own lives. We can relate to David in our pleas for help because we face our own struggles and challenges. But we also have access to the God of David, the God who is faithful to answer our prayers according to His righteousness. Let this psalm become a part of your prayer life, humbly coming to God and asking for His mercy before presenting your requests.
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