- Mercy and Faithfulness
Psalm 89:2
For I have said, Mercy shall be built up forever:
Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
Chesed and Emeth are once again joined together in the same promise. The Hebrew words are heavily freighted with meaning and used very frequently of God. The words mean; steadfast love and faithfulness, or Mercy and Truth. In the Gospel of John “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Jesus brought the mercy and truth of God into human life on earth and applied it to our lives.
The OT believers and the Psalmists knew that “steadfast love and faithfulness” are joined together as two sides of one coin delivered from God’s heart to the human heart for our tremendous benefit. The NT believer sees these qualities in human flesh in the person of the Son of God become Jesus of Nazareth. By believing in Jesus he is infected with God and His essential characteristics “Love and Truth.”
The promise is that these two shall be built up and established in such a strong and solid way that they are eternal in the heavens. God is faithful to His Love, which cannot be stopped, and faithful to His Truth, which cannot be shaken. The Truth comes through Jesus Christ and bores into our hearts: I deserve death and hell because of my sin and guilt: this is absolute and I cannot deny it or ignore it; this truth cannot be broken or shaken no matter if I stop my ears and don’t want to hear it. But the second truth then crashes into my inner being with even more powerful force: God still loves me and therefore Jesus died in my place and earned forgiveness for me and because of Christ alone I deserve life and a place in heaven; this truth is also absolute and cannot be denied: and it is more powerful than the other truth: Love overcomes and overwhelms Sin and Evil, Death and Hell. This is how mercy is built up forever and faithfulness established in the heavens.
This Promise is so rock solid one can life and die, suffer and thrive on it.