View an in-depth discussion of Your Mercy Reaches Unto the Heavens in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.  
Click on the image below to view the video:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Daily Lesson for Thursday 15th of February 2024

Psalms 103:1-22 enumerates the Lord’s manifold blessings. The blessings include “all his benefits” (Psalms 103:2) for a flourishing life (Psalms 103:3-6). These blessings are grounded in God’s gracious character and in His faithfulness to His covenant with Israel (Psalms 103:7-18). The Lord “remembers” human frailty and transience and has compassion on His people (see Psalms 103:13-17).

Image © Jeff Preston at Goodsalt.com

Remembering is more than mere cognitive activity. It involves a commitment that is expressed in action: God delivers and sustains His people (Psalms 103:3-13). The powerful images in Psalms 103:1-22:11-16 illustrate the immeasurable greatness of God’s grace, which can be compared only to the infinite vastness of the heavens (Isaiah 55:9).

How, then, should people respond to God’s loving-kindness?

First, by blessing the Lord (Psalms 103:1-2).

Blessing is generally understood as an act of bestowing material and spiritual benefits upon someone (Genesis 49:25, Psalms 5:12). Because God is the Source of all blessings, how can human beings bless God? An inferior can bless a superior as a means of thanking or praising him (1 Kings 8:66, Job 29:13). God blesses people by conferring good on them, and people bless God by praising the good in Him; that is, by revering Him for His gracious character.

Second, by remembering all His benefits and His covenant (Psalms 103:2, 18–22), just as the Lord remembers the feeble human condition and His covenant with His people (Psalms 103:3–13). Remembering is a crucial aspect of the relationship between God and His people. Just as God remembers His promises to the people, so the people are indebted to remember God’s faithfulness and respond to God with love and obedience.

With this idea in mind, these famous words of Ellen G. White are so appropriate: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.”—The Desire of Ages, p. 83.

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Daily Lesson for Wednesday 14th of February 2024

Psalms 113:1-9 and Psalms 123:1-4 praise both the majesty and mercy of the Lord. The Lord’s majesty is revealed in the greatness of His name and in the exalted place of His throne, which is above all nations and above the heavens (Psalms 113:4-5; Psalms 123:1). “Who is like the Lord our God” (Psalms 113:5, NKJV) is a statement of faith that no power within or outside of the world can challenge the God of Israel.

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

The unapproachable heights where the Lord dwells are illustrated through the fact that the Lord is willing to “humble Himself” or “stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth” (see Psalms 113:6, NIV; emphasis supplied). God’s abiding on high does not prevent Him from seeing what is occurring here below. The Lord’s mercy is manifested in His gracious readiness to be involved with the world and to save the needy and poor from their troubles. His generous hand is obviously not hidden from His servants though His dwelling place is in the distant heavens.

God’s greatness and care, which cannot be fully discerned in God’s amazing transcendence, becomes explicit in God’s deeds of mercy and compassion. The needy, the poor, and the oppressed might experience firsthand God’s sovereign power in the remarkable reversals that He can perform in their favor. The exalted God manifests His greatness by using His power to exalt the downcast. The people are free to approach the Lord because His sovereign majesty and supremacy do not change the fact that He is their gracious Creator and Sustainer and that the people are His servants, His beloved children.

Worship is, thus, motivated, not only by God’s magnificence but also by His goodness. Praise is not limited by time and space (Psalms 113:2-3). God’s greatness and mercy are best manifested in Jesus Christ, who was willing to stoop down from heaven and be brought as low as death on the cross in order to lift up fallen humanity (Philippians 2:6-8). Here, in the Cross, we have the greatest reasons possible to worship and praise God for what He had done for us.

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Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1 NKJV

Psalm 136 goes on to describe all the many ways that God’s mercy has endured forever, but my favorite illustration of God’s incredible mercy comes from Joshua 9 and Joshua 10.

Photo by William Earnhardt

The Gibeonites used deceit to trick Israel into letting them in on the covenant God had made with them. Even though Israel was not supposed to make a covenant with anyone living as close as the Gibeonites, they did. Later when the Gibeonites were under attack, they called upon Israel to save them, and even though the Gibeonites had used deceit to secure this covenant, God was so relentless in keeping His promise of love, that He caused the sun to stand still until the Gibeonites were all rescued! God fought for Israel as Israel fought for the mischievous Gibeonites. Let that soak in.

The Gibeonites were in no way worthy of any of God’s blessings, but God was still so loving and faithful to His promise that He made the sun stand still until they were all rescued! Talk about a love that moves heaven and earth! And this powerful love was given to the most undeserving people! So, scientifically speaking, the greatest power in the universe is not gravity or the suctioning power of the black hole. God’s love overruled all those powers and made the earth stand still. Imagine what this love can do in your heart!

God’s powerful promises and love are also for you and me. In Hebrews 13:5 God promises to never leave us or forsake us, but the Amplified Bible is the only English version that even begins to grasp what God is actually promising.

for He has said, “I will never under any circumstances desert you nor give you up nor leave you without support, nor will I in any degree leave you helpless, nor will I forsake or let you down or relax My hold on you- assuredly not!” Hebrews 13:5 AMP

Friends, God does not love the Gibeonites any more than He loves you. His mercy did not stop with the Gibeonites.

For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.  Psalm 100:4 NKJV

God’s mercy and truth endures throughout all generations. If God loved naughty Gibeonites enough to make the earth stand still for them, you know God’s love and mercy will do everything supernaturally possible to save you as well.

Friends, let’s not spurn or take God’s great mercy for granted.

how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?  Hebrews 2:3-4 NKJV

Let’s talk of God’s enduring mercy, Exercise our faith in His enduring mercy, and contemplate His enduring mercy until we are changed into His image or mercy and truth.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  2 Corinthians 3:18 NKJV

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Daily Lesson for Tuesday 13th of February 2024

The psalmist’s great affliction is related to his own and his people’s sins (Psalms 130:3,8). The people’s sins are so grave that they threaten to separate the people from God forever (Psalms 130:3). Scripture speaks of the records of sins that are being kept for the Judgment Day (Daniel 7:10, Revelation 20:12) and of sinners’ names being removed from the book of life (Exodus 32:32, Psalms 69:28, Revelation 13:8).

Image © Phil McKay at Goodsalt.com

The psalmist thus appeals to God’s forgiveness, which will eradicate the record of sins (Psalms 51:1,9; Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19). He knows that “God is not angry by nature. His love is everlasting. His ‘anger’ is aroused only by man’s failure to appreciate His love. . . . The purpose of His anger is not to wound, but rather to heal man; not to destroy but to save His covenant people (see Hosea 6:1-2).”—Hans K. LaRondelle, Deliverance in the Psalms (Berrien Springs, MI: First Impressions, 1983), pp. 180, 181. Remarkably, it is God’s readiness to forgive sins, and not to punish them, that inspires reverence of God (Psalms 130:4, Romans 2:4). Genuine worship is built on admiration of God’s character of love, not on fear of punishment.

God’s children are called to wait on the Lord (Psalms 27:14, Psalms 37:34). The Hebrew qawah, “wait,” literally means “to stretch,” and is the root of the Hebrew word for “hope.” Thus, waiting for the Lord is not a passive surrender to miserable circumstances but rather a hopeful “stretching” or eager anticipation of the Lord’s intervention. The psalmist’s hope is grounded not in his personal optimism but in God’s Word (Psalms 130:5). Faithful waiting on the Lord is not in vain because after the dark night, the morning of divine deliverance comes.

See how the psalmist’s personal plea becomes that of the entire community (Psalms 130:7-8). The individual’s well-being is inseparable from that of the whole people. Thus, one prays not only for himself but for the community. As believers, we are part of a community, and what impacts one part of the community impacts everyone.

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