September 1, 2023: Psalm 139:18 - How Precious is God's Mercy to Me

“If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.” - Psalm 139:18

Here David, the author of this psalm, continues with the previous verse which read, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!” God loves us with a deep, deep love that we can know from no one else in our lives. He knows, He loves us, and He has a plan for each and every one of us. Let us consider what He said to the prophet Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope, Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

Just as God had a plan for Jeremiah, so He has a plan for us. But as with Jeremiah’s life, that doesn’t mean our lives will be trouble-free and will only be filled with roses and perfume. God called Jeremiah for a specific reason: to proclaim to the people of Judah what was going to come upon them because of their deep sin against God and that they must repent and return to Him. At the time of Jeremiah’s life, Judah and Israel were a divided kingdom, with Israel in the north and Judah in the southern part of the kingdom. Judah had already seen Israel undergo calamity because of their rebellion and sin against God. During the time of Jeremiah, Judah was also undergoing God’s judgment, primarily because of its idolatry and immorality. God had delivered Judah from destruction before, but His mercy was at its end because His people chose to continue in their idolatry. As any loving father does, God sends us warning after warning so that we will correct our ways and stop sinning against Him, but when we refuse to listen to Him, He will send judgment upon us and that judgment’s intent is to cause us to see the error of our ways and return to Him.

Of Judah, Jeremiah wrote:

“O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction, They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return. Therefore I said, ‘Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the judgment of their God.’” (Jeremiah 5:3-4)

Jeremiah continued, saying:

“They have lied about the LORD, and said, ‘It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. And the prophets become wind, for the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.’” (Jeremiah 5:12-13)

Jeremiah was called by God to prophesy of the coming judgment that would befall Judah, that Jerusalem would be captured, and their beloved temple would be destroyed. However, Jeremiah’s message was not well-received by Jewish leaders to put it mildly. Instead of taking it as God’s word fitly spoken to Jeremiah, they took it as a message of “gloom and doom.” Instead of heeding Jeremiah’s warnings to them, they chose to ignore them and had Jeremiah arrested, imprisoned, and plotted to kill him. Jeremiah was all alone without any close family, as God forbid him from getting married and having a family because of the horrors that would come upon the land and to them. But through it all, with God as his strength, Jeremiah continued on with his mission given to him by God, no matter the cost to himself.

In the temple, Jeremiah proclaimed to the Jewish religious leaders and the people of Judah:

“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ‘Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house [the Jewish temple in Jerusalem], and proclaim there this word, and say, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!”‘ Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.” For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment [justice] between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, “We are delivered to do all these abominations”? Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,’ says the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 7:1-11)

Though Jeremiah spoke these words many years ago to the people of Judah, his own countrymen, does this not sound like the attitude of people in America and in most of our world today? We also have forgotten God and replaced Him with idols and worship them instead of the one true God. Are we not worshipping “Mother Earth” and other false gods? Do we not have false prophets in our “churches” today who do not speak truth, do not speak the word of God, and ignore what the true prophets of God foretold long ago? How many false pastors and teachers are in professing churches today who are speaking lying words, making acceptable that which God calls sin, and expecting God to approve because they are sitting in a “church” that really is a “den of thieves,” just as what happened in the Jewish temple in the days of Jeremiah? Just as the people of Judah chose to remain in their sin, their pride, their worship of false gods, and they ignored God’s repeated warnings to them, exactly so are we doing today. As judgment came upon them, exactly as God said it would, so will the prophesied judgment come upon us.

For forty years Jeremiah preached messages from God for them to repent and return to the Lord and that if they did, God would restore them. Jeremiah’s heart was broken for his people and for his land. He was known as the “weeping prophet.” It was very difficult for Jeremiah to speak to the people and repeatedly be shunned by them; he felt dejected, even crying out to God, saying:

“Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.” (Jeremiah 15:10)

“O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, as waters that fail?” (Jeremiah 15:15-18)

The Lord heard Jeremiah’s appeal to Him; the Lord knew His heart and that it was right with him. The Lord then reassured Jeremiah:

“Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘If you return, then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, but you must not return to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and deliver you,’ says the LORD. ‘I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.’” (Jeremiah 15:19-21)

Let us read what more about what God told Jeremiah to proclaim to the people of Judah as to the reasons why His judgment was about to come upon them:

“‘Nevertheless in those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, “Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?” then you shall answer them, “Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.”’

“‘Declare this in the house of Jacob and proclaim it in Judah, saying, “Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: Do you not fear Me?” says the LORD. “Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’ Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you.”‘

“‘For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend. Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the LORD. ‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such as nation as this?’

“An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:18-31)

Notice that God told Jeremiah to tell the people, “‘Nevertheless, in those days,’ says the LORD, ‘I will not make a complete end of you.’” (Jeremiah 5:18) This was a prophecy of God given to Jeremiah, that after Judah is judged, God would save a remnant of His people and bring them back from their captivity in Babylon back into the land that He gave them. God had Jeremiah expound on it:

“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.” (Jeremiah 23:3)

“For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:10-11)

The prophet Daniel, who had lived in Judah and was taken into captivity in Babylon in his teenage years, along with three of his friends, remembered God’s promises to Jeremiah:

“…I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the LORD through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, ‘O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments. Neither have we heeded Your servants the prophets who spoke in Your name to our kings and our princes, to our fathers and all the people of the land.” (Daniel 9:2-6)

Daniel appealed to the one true God, acknowledging his and his peoples’ sin against Him, and God heard his prayer. Just as God promised Jeremiah, after seventy years in captivity God released them and He brought a remnant of His people back into His land of Judah. God keeps His promises. He promised His people that He would preserve a remnant of them and bring them back into His land, and that is exactly what He did.

Just as God kept His promise to Judah, so does He keep His promises to all of us, both Jew and Gentile. Within the words of Jeremiah’s prophecy to bring a remnant of Judah from their captivity in Babylon back into God’s land, there is also prophecy of the first coming of Messiah, Jesus Christ:

“‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: ‘

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

“‘Therefore, behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that they shall no longer say, “As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,” but, “As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.” And they shall dwell in their own land.’” (Jeremiah 23:5-8)

Once again, God’s promises were fulfilled when Jesus came the first time. However, the first time He came, it was to offer salvation from sins to all who choose to believe in Him as Messiah, as the only one who can save us from our sins. Jesus was crucified, died, rose again on the third day, and ascended to heaven at the right hand of God, where He is today. As stated in the Scriptures above, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will one day reign and prosper and will execute judgment and righteousness in the earth, and I believe, based on the word of God, that day is coming soon. He will reign for 1,000 years, and His people, a remnant of the Jews who chose to believe in their Messiah, will be back in their land that God gave them and they will finally dwell safely, as God promised them.

Before this millennial kingdom of Christ is set up, God will send judgment upon the earth. Just as God foretold the judgment that would come upon His people long ago in the days of Jeremiah, so did God foretell of a coming judgment that will come upon not only His people, the Jews, but also the whole world, and it is written about in many books in the Bible, including the books of Daniel and Revelation. All the signs that Jesus told His disciples to look for that would indicate this time of judgment, His second coming, and the end of the age are present.

Prior to His second coming and millennial reign will be a 7-year time of tribulation never known to mankind. The good news is that all who put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, who saved us from our sins once and for all, saying, “It is finished!” when He gave up His life and died (John 19:30), will be spared from this time of horror upon the world, the time when Jesus will send His wrath upon a wicked and evil world who chose to love and remain in their sin and reject His free gift of salvation, paid for with His precious blood.

God’s thoughts to me are truly precious, for He had a plan of salvation all along, from the beginning, and His name is Jesus. Oh my God, how thankful I am to You for Your mercy and love, that you would save a sinner like me! Thank You for loving us so much that You would send Jesus to save all who would believe in Him:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:16-18)

If there is something stirring in your heart that tells you that this world is desperately sick and evil, it is the Holy Spirit convicting you “of sin, righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit is prompting you to consider your eternity and where you will spend it. We are quickly speeding to the time of judgment that will come upon the world, just as it came upon Judah, exactly as God said it would. Are you listening to God, or is His word falling on deaf ears, as it did to those who lived in Judah during the time of Jeremiah? May you heed the words of Jeremiah that he spoke when he pleaded with the people to turn from their sins and to turn to God:

“Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you.” (Jeremiah 26:13)

May you heed the words of Jesus and turn to Him and be saved, before it’s too late:

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand hand.’” (Matthew 4:17)

“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Jesus Christ; Luke 12:40) ✝️