This Day All His Mercies Are New

I’ll return to the series on calling soon, but as I watch the sun rise this morning, I’m again reminded, as I so often am at the beginning of the day, of God’s great love and mercy toward us.

When I see a sunrise, I think of hesed, the Hebrew word for God’s loyal love and covenantal kindness toward His people, so often expressed in the Old Testament when we see the “LORD” (the all caps LORD in the OT indicates a reference to Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God revealed to Moses by four consonants, YHWH, the tetragrammaton).

Read these well-known verses:

Lamentations 3:23-25 “Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” (NKJV)

The sunrise reminds us again of the mercies, compassion, and unfailing love of the LORD that are new every morning. Praise the LORD! As I type, the sunlight rests on my hands, and I am praising the LORD for hope, a new day, His faithfulness, His steadfast love, His mercy, and His compassion toward us.

It also brings to mind the verses in Luke 1:78-79, where Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, is prophesying. The whole prophecy (verse 67-79) is worth reading, but I focus here on verse 78-79:

“Because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (NAS, emphasis mine)

What beautiful prophecy of the coming Messiah, Jesus, who was and is the “Sunrise from on high” – what a picture! – bringing light to darkness and guiding our feet in the way of peace.

As the sun rises and shines on me even now, I ponder His love and mercy and remember the Sunrise from on high who brought light to our dark world, salvation in His coming. Praise You this new day, Jesus! In You I hope and wait and receive with joy and thankfulness your love and mercy.