{"id":14502,"date":"2026-08-31T08:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?post_type=oyb&#038;p=14502"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T12:15:31","slug":"not-our-merit-but-his-mercy","status":"publish","type":"oyb","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/oyb\/not-our-merit-but-his-mercy","title":{"rendered":"NOT OUR MERIT, BUT HIS MERCY"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cRise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!\u201d (Psalm 44:26 ESV).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Psalm 44 was written as a communal lament for God\u2019s suffering people. The psalmists remembered how God had given Israel victory in the past, yet they now found themselves defeated, humiliated, and oppressed. What made their suffering especially confusing was their insistence that they had not abandoned God or forgotten His covenant. Their suffering was not the obvious consequence of some particular act of rebellion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yet when they reached their final appeal, they did not say, \u201cRedeem us because we have been faithful.\u201d They prayed, \u201cRedeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.\u201d Their ultimate confidence rested not in their merit, but in God\u2019s mercy. As Spurgeon summarized it, \u201cThe favour is redemption, the plea is mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New Testament gives this psalm an even deeper significance. Paul quoted Psalm 44:22 in Romans 8:36 to describe the suffering of believers. Yet he immediately declared that suffering cannot separate us from \u201cthe love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord\u201d (Romans 8:39). In Christ, God has given the supreme demonstration of the steadfast love to which the psalmists appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We may sometimes suffer without understanding why. Faithfulness does not exempt us from pain, nor does suffering necessarily mean that God is punishing us for some particular sin. When we cannot understand what God is doing, we can still trust who God is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We do not come before Him claiming that our obedience has earned His help. We come through Christ, appealing to God\u2019s steadfast love. Our confidence is not that we have been good enough or faithful enough. Our confidence is not our merit, but His mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>PRAYER<\/strong>: Dear Father, when we cannot understand what You are doing, help us trust who You are. We do not depend upon our own faithfulness, but upon Your steadfast love revealed perfectly in Christ. May Your mercy always be the ground of our confidence and prayer. In Jesus\u2019 name, amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cRise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!\u201d (Psalm 44:26 ESV). Psalm 44 was written as a communal lament for God\u2019s suffering people. The psalmists remembered how God had given Israel victory in the past, yet they now found themselves defeated, humiliated, and oppressed. What made their suffering [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"audio":"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Aug-31-2026-at-8_10_52AM-esv2-50p-bg-10p-music-10p.mp3"},"categories":[],"tags":[],"scripture-book":[1286],"scripture-chapter":[1377],"oyb_day":[1770],"class_list":["post-14502","oyb","type-oyb","status-publish","hentry","scripture-book-psalms","scripture-chapter-1377","oyb_day-august-31"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb\/14502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/oyb"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14502"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=14502"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=14502"},{"taxonomy":"oyb_day","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/oyb_day?post=14502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}