Have Mercy On Me, O God – David

 

Conviction. Deep guilt. Profound humility. That was what David’s insides looked like, and what cried out from within “Have Mercy On Me, O God” in the aftermath of being confronted by Nathan (2 Samuel 12) about his multi-sin episode with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. (See this painting [date sometime between 1866 and 1931] by Eugene Siberdt, The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David.) How many of the Ten Commandments had David violated? Perhaps some group might debate just how many and which ones, but certainly at least three or four of the ten (6^th, 7^th, 9^th, and 10^th) were cast aside by David in just a few moments. This ‘man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) had acted like a vile sinner – an adulterer, murderer, and liar -- and he knew it. His actions made his execution, even by stoning or some other shameful method, justified in God’s law. Had David managed to do anything right in this episode? Think about David’s response.

 

The lack of excuses was, someone might say, the only thing David did that was right in the immediate wake of the confrontation with Nathan. This king didn’t choose to try explaining away his behavior, didn’t try to shift blame, or diminish what his sins had made so horribly true. In the following days, one might say that David accomplished something else that was positive, representing a continuing struggle with the guilt he bore. Psalm 51 and its 19 verses have resonated through the 30 centuries since this king first wrote them (around 1000 B.C.), producing dozens of renditions of David’s remorse. Perhaps the most well-known is the Miserere, versions of which began to appear in the 1400s and which have continued to emerge through the early 21^st Century. Besides ‘Have Mercy…’, which completely captures the first two verses of David’s psalm, ‘Create in Me’ (see 6/20/2020 post on this blog) is another contemporary worship prayer that encapsulates verses 10 through 12 of Psalm 51. David never fully compensated for his sins, but had he known that so much music would arise from this one episode, would his mortified conscience have been somewhat less stricken? Will there be other additional contemporary songs from the 14 remaining verses of Psalm 51? If David were here to express his preference, what would he say about more songs to remind him of his grievous affair with lust? Perhaps David and the rest of us who are vulnerable to the same sin should remember that even while he was confessing, he was receiving some measure of mercy. In the same verse (2 Samuel 12:13) where David says ‘I have sinned against the Lord’, Nathan is reassuring him that ‘You are not going to die’. Even so, David’s unborn son inside Bathsheba would die, and this king’s family would be riven with strife for the remainder of his days, and beyond (vv. 10-12 of same chapter). Sin has consequences, but God is also merciful, even before we know we need it. Given what he’s told about the awful after-effects of his sins, one wonders if David might have preferred his own on-the-spot execution, versus having to endure God’s punishment in ‘broad daylight…’.

 

What David says in the rest of Psalm 51 – especially Psalm 51:3-4 – indicates he realized God’s ‘verdict…(was) justified’, and that his sentence was to look at ‘transgressions and my sin always before me’ for the rest of his days. Does this put a different tint on ‘Have Mercy…’? When he penned these words, he’d already received some mercy from the Lord – his own life having been spared. Was David instead asking for further relief, a parole from the rest of what Nathan told him to expect? ‘Blot out’ his sins, and clean up ‘all his iniquity’ – that’s what David asked from God. Can you see David shuddering at the thought of all that would transpire over the next several years? David’s contrition here is a blunt warning…sin is a mess, and regret over it can last a lifetime. That’s both David and God talking to you and me.  

 

 

See here for brief information about the Steve and Annie Chapman couple that reprise David’s words in their version of the song: The Mitchell Group – Steve and Annie Chapman

 

See NIV Study Bible for notes/thoughts on David’s Psalm 51.

 

See here for discussion of Psalm 51, including its musical results since its original composition:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_51

 

See here for information on the image/painting of David being rebuked by the prophet Nathan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Siberdt_-_The_Prophet_Nathan_rebukes_King_David.jpg  (Public domain status of the image -- This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

Revelation Song -- Jennie Lee Riddle

 

She’d been praying for a decade, and this was the result. Jennie was having more than just ‘one of those days’ when she envisioned “Revelation Song”, and though she says her thoughts were indeed a prayer, she didn’t want any more of the ‘I’ and ‘me’ to emerge from that inner stimulus that she had to write something new. Instead, what she saw as the focus was the throne and the mercy seat upon which He would be sitting, a vision perhaps as awesome and terrifying as it gets, brilliant and stunning in the light surrounding its Creator-Judge. (See the Mercy Seat shown here, as illustrated in the 1890 Holman Bible, representative of what is described in Ezekiel 1:26-28 and Revelation 4). That’s the way to lift the church up off the ‘daily… rubble…and worry’, as Jennie described herself and those with whom she worshipped in the early 2000s (Revelation Song was written in or about 2004).

 

Jenny Lee Riddle was a young mother taking care of her son one day, perhaps an otherwise ordinary day, with the exception that some feeling had been building in her consciousness for some time. From her own words and the story behind ‘Revelation Song’, we can guess that she might even have been humming or listening to another song (Gerrit Gustafson’s I Hear Angels, written in 1989) with the same scenery that she would use for her own lyrics, because she appreciated its awe-inspiring imagery. She fervently wanted to see Him in all this glory described by Ezekiel and John, this God arrayed in ‘rainbows of living color’. Not only sight, but sound will testify about Him, in ‘thunder’ and ‘a new song’, as exotic creatures surround His seat on the throne – His mercy seat (Hebrews 9:5 and Revelation 11:19) -- to utter His praises. ‘Holy, holy, holy…’ is He, this ‘Lamb who was slain’. To ‘adore You’ is the only proper response, as Jennie reminds us. Just let yourself be filled with ‘awestruck wonder’, watch the ‘flashes of lightning’, and join with ‘all creation’ to sing to the ‘King of kings’. The only ‘I’ and ‘me’ in this episode is the one in which I am overwhelmed, and yet loved, in His very presence because His merciful judgement contains compassion mingled with righteousness. ‘You are my everything’ is the only way in which I can momentarily contemplate myself, and it’s only because I’ve been drawn into final one-ness with Him, He  ‘who was, and is, and is to come’. In fact, in that moment He’s no longer in the past or future tense; think of when all of history will culminate into an eternal present. That’s where Jennie was that day, when she set her son down and picked up her guitar and vocalized some words, words she expected to come true. Look at Him upon His mercy seat, and see if you can imagine what the ancient prophets and this 21^st Century songwriter could see and hear.

 

Step into the bright sunshine, an invitation that we all accept here below without even a second thought. Put on the sunglasses, so you don’t have to squint so much, and so your eyes don’t strain with effort. They didn’t have such protection when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (Exodus 34), and a veil was placed over his face to make the people less afraid, so they’d be less apprehensive in the presence of one who had talked with God – they were warned not to look upon Him, after all. I will have an unveiled face to look upon Him. You and I get that now, even as Paul told the Corinthians and all believers in a post-resurrection reality (2 Corinthians 3:7-18). It’s just a warmup for what Jennie wants us to see, and I won’t be given sunglasses to shield my eyes. I’ll see Him completely. Get ready for that rainbow of colors, and Him who will bestow His gift from where He sits.   

 

See the song’s story told here by the songwriter: Bing Videos (story from beginning through 1:25)

 

See a brief blurb here about the song’s genesis: Stories behind songs that changed the way we worship | ChristianToday Australia

See some of the song’s background her Revelation Song - Wikipedia

 

See here for a description of the place where God sits: Mercy seat - Wikipedia

 

See the image information here, and its public domain status: File:Holman The Mercy Seat.jpg - Wikimedia Commons …This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1928, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation. This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.

All My Hope -- David Crowder and Ed Cash

 

He recounts that it was a most unusual party, with a theme that resonated very well with a song he and his friend were preparing to introduce. That’s how David Crowder remembers “All My Hope” and a prodigal party to which he was invited one day in the 2016/2017 period (perhaps the scenes from the party looked a little like the one shown here in this image of a J.J. Tissot late 19^th Century painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son). How many people have parties for convicts released from prison? How many convicts have given themselves to a new life, walking in a totally different and new direction because they’ve seen the consequences of hedonism? David Crowder and Ed Cash can probably name at least one, now that they’ve observed or heard about this one prodigal that gave such potent life to the lyrics they’d shaped into a song. His name was Wilson, and though he had lived in despair and had then felt the exhilaration of physical freedom after decades of incarceration, his redemptive story is not unique. His life’s a metaphor. God didn’t come to die and rise again for people who were already in good shape – all humanity has need of Him, and we’re all prisoners without Him.  

 

David Crowder says he was traveling (place unnamed) and some friends coaxed him to go to the party, to help provide the celebratory musical environment for the event. David’s curiosity was piqued, once he heard the story about the guest of honor and realized that some of his and Ed’s lyrics for ‘All My Hope’ were so fitting for the occasion. This fellow named Wilson was ‘no stranger to prison’ (v. 2 of the song), and he’d worn real ‘shackles and chains’. Something in his prison life had stared him in the face, however – could it have been something like Prison Fellowship (founded by Chuck Colson), which has worked for over 40 years (since 1976) to help fellows like Wilson experience hope in a new direction? David and Ed, however, don’t provide those details. Instead, their focus is on the work that God does on a person…’yesterday’s gone’ (chorus) they write, a recognition that the fresh start is real in that person’s life who reaches out to Him for redemption. Being ‘forgiven’ and ‘washed by the blood’ (chorus) is that ‘salvific action of the one and only son of God’ (David’s words in the video interview). You can be a ‘prodigal returned’ (v.1), just like the once-profligate son (Luke 15:11-32). An amazing thing, isn’t it, to have the guiltless, divine, and eternal God do something like this! David recounts that he’d never heard people sing and rejoice with such energy, as he did at that party. Perhaps that’s because we rarely have such a stark view of someone’s body that has been in a ditch, covered with filth, only to see that same person lifted out of the muck and cleansed to a spot-free condition. This person has ‘been to the river’, and ‘felt fire from above’, and is ‘held by the Savior’ (v.1). That’s the lens through which God sees all those He made in His image – His creation, with self-inflicted wounds, and covered with grime that threatens to infect our insides and kill us with gangrene-like effect. He’s there with the cleansing agent – Himself.  

 

We’re all reclamation projects. Fresh Start was a ministry that had real impact where I live, initiated by a now-departed Christian sister to reclaim people for God’s original purposes for them, and based on what one of the first century’s apostles said. (Thank you, Candace Strother for helping others get in touch with 2 Corinthians 5:17!) Her efforts still echo today, and there may be other Wilsons that you know that help keep you grounded in how rescue happens, and what it looks like. It’s really not a ‘how’, but a ‘who’, right? The who is Jesus. That’s what David Crowder and Ed Cash want us to tell others – it’s ALL about Him, in big capital, italicized letters. ALL My Hope emanates from Him. Nothing can shake what He’s accomplished for you and me.   

 

The song story in brief form is found in this article: All My Hope - Wikipedia

See and watch/hear the more complete story here also, and hear a really rich rendition of the song: Behind The Song: Crowder Shares The Heart Behind His Single “All My Hope (feat. Tauren Wells)” | Freeccm.com

 

See link here for image information, including public domain status: File:Brooklyn Museum - The Return of the Prodigal Son (Le retour de l'enfant prodigue) - James Tissot.jpg - Wikimedia Commons . This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.

 

See link here if you want to know more about how a convicted prisoner’s life can be transformed for Christ: Prison Fellowship