Editorial June 5, 1978 Issue

In gratitude for God's mercy

Naomi Price

Sometimes we look back over the past, or review certain incidents in our lives, and feel wonder and gratitude for the way we were saved from danger, or led through deep waters of indecision, by a power apparently beyond ourselves. Some people call that influence "luck" or "chance." Some look upon it as human coincidence. While others are intuitively convinced it was through the mercy of God, divine wisdom, that they were helped. As one Bible writer commented, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not."^{Lam. 3:22;}

Mercy is a very precious attribute of God's nature. The Bible refers to it many times in adoring terms, often coupling it with divine grace. "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name," sang the Psalmist. And he continues farther on, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy."^{Ps. 103:1, 8;} Such grateful thought of God's grace and mercy is repeated in the books of both the Old and New Testaments.

The ancient people valued God's mercy and grace most highly and relied upon them heavily. They were deeply aware, in their more enlightened moments, of their need for God's help and conscious of His readiness to give it to them despite their frequent disobedience and backslidings. They were often in awe of the way in which God gave them needed aid even when they felt themselves to be unworthy. They had caught glimpses of God's unconditional goodness, and they were grateful that they could rely upon it as a child relies upon a parent's love. Indeed, they had experienced divine mercy so often that they felt they must be God's chosen people and that God had special interest in caring for them.

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