5 Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.

6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast You save, O LORD.

— Psalm 36:5-6

35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

— Luke 6:35-36

21 “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

22 Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

24 But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

— Amos 5:21-24

Thoughts on Today’s Reading

Grace, mercy and salvation from Christ to you.

God perfectly executes justice while extending incomparable mercy. Davie wrote, “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the skies…Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, Your justice like the great deep.” The divinely balanced rhythm of God’s justice and mercy echoes throughout His Word. Both the Old and New Testaments herald the balance and beauty we strain to understand but delight to enjoy. God’s people will live securely forever in the perfection of God’s justice and His powerful mercy. We can rejoice in His comforting presence. In mercy and love, God disciplines His children when they sin to lovingly teach, nourish, and protecting them.

The mercy we receive from christ should compel us to show mercy to others. God’s people are called to mirror His heart and ways as they interact in this world. Our merciful God experts us to mercifully extend lovingkindness, compassion, and forgiveness to others. Micah 6:8 succinctly captures God’s mandate for His people: “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” God desires both just and mercy to be active in the lives of His children.