The Lord’s mercy year in and year out!
Psalm 90:14-15 Satisfy us in the morning with your mercy, so that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. (EHV)
We have concluded another year. How would you say your year went? Was it full of joy beyond joy? Or are you struggling to pull yourself across the finish line of this year with the hope tomorrow, your new year, will be better? We seem to approach the change of the year with the idea that the next year will be better than the last. But what seems to be the reality? It is just as bad or even worse. As we end this year, there is a yearning to find satisfaction in the coming year that will take the bitterness of disappointment and pain that we experienced this year. But the new year will take on its own bitterness and disappointment. It seems that every year begins and ends with trouble. Some worse than others.
The temptation we face from the enemy, the devil, is that all the troubles we experience year after year come from God. He is punishing us for all the sins we commit. And who would blame him for treating us this way? Each year our debt of sin grows with no end in sight. In view of our sin, this is only trouble, misery, and affliction year after year, and day after day!
Where can we find any satisfaction, comfort, and hope leaving this year and going on to the next? We certainly cannot find it within or from ourselves. We look where Moses found his joy! It is God’s mercy which is new every morning and every year. God chose to have mercy on his people, and we are still benefiting from his mercy. Isn’t that what we just celebrated last week? In mercy, God send his own Son into this world to carry our burden of sin for every year we have been guilty. He carried it all the way to the cross and died in our place because of God’s mercy. This mercy can only produce joy! Tonight, as we say goodbye to another year, let us sing for joy for the Lord’s mercy is new year after year!
Dear Jesus, thank you for satisfying us with your mercy and love. Help us hold onto this every day and every year. Renew our hearts and let us sing for joy for the payment you made to make us your own. In your name we pray. Amen!