Mercy Above the Sceptred Way

Image via Mercy and Truth Blog

'Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our Land. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.' (Psalm 85:9-11) 

Mercy and truth or mercy and justice are often very difficult to reconcile. They can often seem so contradictory. However, this what God has done in saving us. We deserve justice for our sins, but in God's Son, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, mercy triumphs. Praise the Lord for His great love and mercy! 

Oliver Cromwell

Psalm 85 was one of Oliver Cromwell's favourite psalms. He repeated it often in many of his speeches, especially the ones he gave at the end of his life. He often referred to it as he championed religious freedom (one of his favourite causes - even when he was attacked for it) and he clearly saw it as a vision for the spiritual welfare of his nation. He was very concerned that many Christians were often over zealous with the truth, being  self-righteous and concerned with justice bu with very little mercy for one another. That grieved him very much throughout his life. One cannot fail to see this when reading his personal letters and his public speeches.  In one of those speeches to one of his parliaments as Lord Protector, he encouraged the new MPs to apply this psalm to their lives and in their governing of the nation. He said:  

"Mercy and Truth shall meet together" [Psalm 85]. Here is a great deal of "truth" among professors, but very little "mercy"! They are ready to cut the throats of one another. But when we are brought into the right way, we shall be merciful as well as orthodox: and we know who it is that saith, "if a man could speak with the tongues of men and angles, and yet want that, he is but sounding brass and a tingling cymbal!" [I Corinthians 13:1] 

Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches: With Elucidations, (London: Chapman and Hall, 1894), Vol, IV of V, pp. 210-222. 

(Read full speech here)

We still need this today as Christians with one another, in the home and in Church, and with those around us. We must not hold onto justice and truth without mercy. I think this quote from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice puts it very beautifully: 

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown;

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;

But mercy is above this sceptred sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,

It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore...

Though justice be thy plea, consider this,

That, in the course of justice, none of us

Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render

The deeds of mercy. 

 Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I

Yes, Lord, gives us hearts of truth and mercy always. Help us remember that it is Your mercy that saves us. 


God bless,