Prayer: Lord, we still worship You. We worship You as the One who has all the realities of God. Lord, thank You. You are the embodiment of the fullness of God, You are the Word, and You are the Spirit. Lord Jesus, we give You all the glory, and we trust in You for tonight's meeting. Lord, You know we can do nothing. We trust in You for Your speaking. Lord, You are so living, and You are even living within us as the living Word and as the life-giving Spirit. Lord, honor Yourself, honor Your name, among us. Lord, bless everyone who is here in the meeting. Give us a heart that is seeking after You, and give us the eyes that we could see You. Lord, remember Your enemy. We accuse him. We hand him over to You. Cover us. We hide ourselves under the precious blood that is prevailing against the enemy. Amen.
The all-inclusive Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, is the sure mercies of David (Isa. 55:3b-4). History tells us that David was a marvelous king. It is difficult to understand how an excellent, marvelous, and majestic king would need mercies. According to our concept, poor people, low-class people, need mercies. David may be considered as the top king in human history. How could such a high person need mercies?
David wrote many marvelous psalms. It is hard to believe that such a writer murdered a person and took that person's wife (2 Sam. 11). Murder and fornication were committed by this one king. Did he not need mercy? Among all the good psalms written by David, there is Psalm 51. This is a psalm of David's repentance and confession after he had committed fornication and murder. This psalm shows that even David was a person who needed God's mercy. This indicates that everyone in the human race needs the mercy of God.
The books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles speak of the history of the children of Israel and their kings. To a great extent the record of the citizens of the commonwealth of Israel with their kings is terrible. Few of the kings were good; most of them were bad to the uttermost. In such a bad situation, there was the need of God's mercy.
The book of Isaiah is full of Isaiah's condemnation of the children of Israel. He compared them to the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah (1:9-10; 3:9). Jeremiah was also strong in his condemnation of Israel. Jeremiah shows us how much the kings of David's family needed God's mercy. Jeremiah speaks of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. He was warned by Jeremiah to the uttermost but he would not listen. Eventually, he was captured. After Jerusalem fell, he attempted to escape, but he was captured by the Babylonian soldiers and brought before Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. Then Nebuchadnezzar slew his sons, put out his eyes, bound him with chains, and carried him away to Babylon (Jer. 39:1-7; 52:1-10). This shows the pitiful situation of the Lord's people at that time. In such a pitiful situation, they needed God's mercy.