Journey through the Psalms: A 7-Day DevotionalSample

In Need of Mercy

If only I hadn’t . . . It’s the taunt of regret that nags us when the consequences of sin come home to roost. The suffering we bring on ourselves is uniquely bitter, as David knew firsthand. Although we don’t know specifically that a particular sin was the source of his suffering in this psalm, it is clearly a possibility. Either way, a choice for sin is a choice for weariness, sorrow, the breaking of good relationships, and entrapment in bad ones (vv. 6–7). Worst of all, sin mars our enjoyment of God and can lead to painful discipline (vv. 1–3). Even so, in the very midst of our sin-induced pain, we can cry out to God for deliverance (vv. 2, 4–5) and expect it with confidence and hope—not because we determine to get our spiritual act together or because we’ve found a way to justify what we’ve done but because God is loving and kind (v. 4). Deliverance begins before we’ve even finished praying for it, as it did for David (vv. 8–9), with a renewed awareness that God is for us, and because of that, everything aligned against us, including our besetting temptations, cannot defeat us.

Hope for deliverance from the destructive effects of sin is rooted in the saving work of Jesus, who took on himself the punishment for what we did. In his Son, God hears our pleas for mercy and accepts them (v. 9). For those in Christ, regret never gets the last word.