“Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.” (Psalm 85:7,8)
There are times when the troubles of our heart are enlarged. (Ps. 25:17.) We need help. We cry out to God: “Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.” (Ps. 25:16) We want to know that God is mindful of us and cares. Perhaps there have been things we’ve let create a distance between our soul and God. We want nothing to get in the way of God having mercy on us and we pray: “Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins.” (Ps. 25:18)
The Lord is good and His mercy endures forever. He sees where our straying from Him has taken us. He is the Shepherd that goes out into the night to rescue the one, errant sheep. He is ready to pardon and bring us out of the distresses we’ve gotten ourselves into. But then what? Do we want a “quick fix,” a “bail out,” so we can go back to our old ways? Or do we want to return to the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul to walk in His ways from here on out? Do we want a short or long term solution?
David got himself into a mess. He was trapped in a bad situation. He needed help, real quick. But he knew not to look to God for only temporary relief. He said: “Mine eyes are ever toward the LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.” (Ps. 25:15) God knows how to extricate us from our current predicament; but He wants to do more than that. He wants to put our feet upon a rock and establish our goings in Him. He will speak peace to us; but will we learn from the experience, letting Him be the close Shepherd and Guardian of our soul; or, will we return to folly? God help us – today, tomorrow, and forever.