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PSALM 119:132

“Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You always do to those who love Your Name.”

Here is the cry of an understanding heart. The Psalmist is acknowledging that life in all its fullness, the life God intends for us to live out here on earth is only found by God’s pursuit of us, His turning to us that we might turn to Him. The Psalmist knows that “Salvation is of the Lord.” He cries out for the Lord’s mercy to cover Him. He acknowledges that those who know the Lord, those who are known by Him and who love His Name, always find God’s mercy and grace to live out the life that God commands. God provides the wherewithal to do what He has commanded. He gives us the indwelling Power and Person of the Holy Spirit to BE Life within us. It is the Holy Spirit who conforms us to the Image of Christ Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who perfects in us the obedience of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit who makes God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He enables us to cooperate with Him.

Loving God’s Name is tantamount to saying that we love everything that the Lord is, more than we could ever imagine or conceive, that we are surrendered to Him in totality. The Psalmist is acknowledging that God’s ways are the only ways that make for life and peace. This utter dependency is the ground of his hope and trust, for God is faithful, having begun a good work in us through Jesus Christ, He will bring that work to competition. We will fully become whom God made us to be as new creations in Christ Jesus by God’s power, not ours.

Our Hope for peace, the Source of meaning and purpose in life, redemption, and restoration of any and every aspect of life comes from the Lord God alone. He is not reticent to nor remiss in responding to the cry, “Turn to me and have mercy on me, as You do to those who love Your Name.” He is eternally faithful. You can put the full weight of the whole of your life on Him and find life in Him that will never end.

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