- Send salvation, mercy, truth
Psalm 57: 3
He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
The Unconditional Promise is that “God shall send…” God sent Messiah to fulfill this promise; God gave His Son; God sent forth His Son; Christmas happened. It is finished; it is over: salvation and mercy and truth have come to earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Savior, the Son of the living God.
But salvation and the need for mercy and truth is ongoing, and we continue to need and to trust in God’s sending every day. Thankfully, God’s fulfilled promises also apply to daily need and He continues to fulfill His promise for specific situations and present day issues. Today He sends from heaven and saves me from a particular problem. A typical problem may be the reproach of him that would swallow me up. This reproach could be from the mouth of a person or people used by Satan to devour me. The reproach could be from a disease or injury that comes from Death that seeks to swallow me up. God sees the reproach and sends salvation.
God also promises to send forth mercy and truth: “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Mercy and truth are characteristic traits of God, but they are pictured here as personified entities like angels sent to certain people for a specific purpose. And God promises mercy and truth for us when we need to hear and receive it. The “truth” is that we have sinned against a holy God and deserve eternal punishment; the “mercy” is that the Son of God died for our sin and took the punishment on Himself. Sometimes we need one message more than the other, but most of the time we need to hear both messages clearly and sharply applied to our present situation and human condition. In other words, “Repent and believe the Gospel.”
The Lord “sends” the Holy Spirit through people who speak the Gospel to us so that He can apply it to the need of the day. Thereby God saves me daily; and we can be sure God will do this; He said so.