In the midst of an otherwise sobering book of consequences, Lamentations 3:22-23 stands out as the beautiful pearl of immeasurable promise:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.
— Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV
God is love: strong, faithful, compassionate, immutable, and eternal. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that His steadfast love never ceases. One of the ways this love is communicated is through the mercies extended to His own.
In the reality of a contrary world pressing against us, Yahweh’s hand is still at work pouring out divine mercy upon His Creation. Mercies—blessings we do not deserve—falling upon us from the sovereign hand as an expression of His faithfulness. Again, it is His steadfast love which generates these mercies.
In light of the words “new every morning,” most in the western world would interpret these verses as taking place in the early morning hours, perhaps at sunrise as rays are climbing over the surrounding mountains, or even when dusk gives way to shades of grey and white, or maybe when birds begin to sing to welcome the day. But I would hold those mercies are produced much sooner than that; and I would contend they simply continue to multiply upon us every day at 12:00:00 a.m., when we in the western world hold that a new day begins! Each added day is another day of blessing of life.
While minds are radically engaged in REM sleep and dreams, our first mercy is expressed in the days’ first heartbeat, the days’ first breath. Life is coursing through our veins and the Sovereign of all creation has seen to it that we are still engaged in this gift called life—giving life where only death was deserved. Before we wake, we have been met with countless mercies that have enveloped us—before we open our eyes.
The mercy of the bed in which we sleep. The mercy of the roof under which we sleep. The cosmological mercies at work in the world while we sleep. And the protection over us as we slumber. The mercies never sleep. Truly mercies from the hand of a living God; life in the care of the Good Shepherd.
Lest we errantly conclude these mercies reside solely upon us, we remember that His mercy rests upon those in the bed next to us, and down the hall in their beds, across town, and the nation, even across the globe. Our mercies!
Even before we are awake our cache is filled; we open our eyes having been the recipients of such immeasurable divine favor. In fact, all night and all day they have never ceased. I would contend those mercies have simply continued—from one day to the next. It is in our waking that we comprehend these additional mercies have been credited to us, and we process them as our reality of being in Christ.
Do we deserve them? Quite simply, no. But our receipt of such a blessing was never intended to score our own merits; rather, they remind us daily, by the hour, even by the second that something greater, someone greater than ourselves is at work.
As we are providentially endowed to cross the threshold to another day, God has had compassion; He has led the way to an entire day filled with mercies—repeated, and renewed every single day. And, like a string of unending pearls, subsequent mercies flow throughout the day into the next day. Minute by minute. Hour by hour. Day by day. Incessant mercies. Around the clock they descend like snowflakes.
Great is His faithfulness; vast and abundant. He is that way; He must be that way for it is in keeping with His character.
Is not His first mercy to us life itself?
The person who fails to recognize that he or she rests, in fact, that each is absorbed in the absolute mercy of God fails to ascribe to Him His faithfulness. But to those who follow Hi Son Jesus Christ, His faithfulness will usher us into a glorious eternity!
Never ceases? Never!
Never fails? Never!
New every morning? Yes, every morning.
Great is His faithfulness? Oh yes, great; greater than we will ever know!
“Thou changest not,
Your compassions they fail not,
Great is Your faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
[The Shepherd’s Echo is a reposting of a previously published TheShepherdsPen.]
