Crowned with Lovingkindness and Tender Mercies
Fall 2024
Meditating on God’s Word brings joy and peace to Christian hearts amid our busy lives and a treacherous culture. As Christian women, we especially need to tune out social media and the news and turn our hearts to God’s truth. Psalm 103:1-5 instructs us to bless the Lord and not forget all His benefits. One benefit is that God crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies (v.4). To live in awareness of such lovingkindness and tender mercies crowning or encompassing us brings calm and stability to our hearts and lives!
God’s lovingkindness is His favor or grace toward His people. My husband says that grace is getting what we don’t deserve; that is, we receive God’s undeserved gifts for every need we have—saving grace, sustaining grace, strengthening grace, sanctifying grace, satisfying grace, and sufficient grace (Spurgeon). How loving and kind is our God to bestow upon us what we need when we cannot provide for ourselves. Mercy, on the other hand, is not getting what we deserve, which is any misery in this life and eternal punishment in hell for our sins. We are all sinners by reason of the Fall and by our own sins, but because of God’s mercy, our miseries are less than we deserve. “All our past mercies are tokens of future mercies” (Spurgeon).
The gospels show us that the Lord Jesus Christ cared for women of all ages—children, young girls, single women, married ladies, mothers, middle aged women, widows, the worst of characters and the best, foreigners, and mothers-in-law. These women provide a vignette of Christ’s lovingkindness and tender mercies, which are as unchangeable and vibrant now as then.
Luke 13:10-16 records Jesus’ grace and mercy to one poor woman. She certainly looked quite deformed, being bowed over for eighteen years, having a spirit of infirmity, and being bound by Satan. Although she was quite unattractive, she came to the synagogue to worship on the Sabbath Day, and Jesus was there teaching that day! Imagine yourself in such a case—her infirmity bowed her over physically, but we all have stressful problems that weigh us down—maybe in a physical sense, or perhaps in mental, emotional, or spiritual ways, so that we can identify easily with this dear woman. Ingratitude, anxiety, depression, impatience, bitterness, or something else triggers a heaviness that bows us over and bends us out of shape! Just as the poor woman could not make herself stand upright, neither can we free ourselves. But she bravely came to the synagogue on the Sabbath Day! Too often, when we feel bent over with care, we want to avoid going to church, thinking that “I’m not good enough” or “I have to clean up my act” thereby isolating ourselves. However, we need to be like this woman and go to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of worship! Notice what Jesus did—He saw her, He called her, He spoke to her a good message, He laid His hands on her, and she was made straight and glorified God! The Lord Jesus lovingly cared for her and healed her! How beautiful! Jesus did just what Isaiah 61:3 said of Him: He came to give her beauty for ashes!
The reaction from the ruler of the synagogue in front of the people was angry criticism because Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath Day! Again, Jesus demonstrated His lovingkindness and tender mercies toward this woman by defending her, “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” (Luke 13:16) She was one of God’s chosen daughters, who had been bound by the enemy of her soul. The Savior freed her from the bonds, causing the people to rejoice while Christ’s enemies were ashamed.
The Lord Jesus sees us bowed down with care, and He knows that Satan capitalizes on our weaknesses to defeat us. But God calls and speaks to us by His Word and Spirit. He comes to meet our need and brings us to Himself. He takes our burdens and sets us free! He defends us from our adversaries, calls us His daughters, assures us of forgiveness, and accepts us in the Beloved. May we trust Him more and more!
Although our outward circumstances may not look very glorious, if we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are His daughters. For our miseries, He gives mercies so tender and His grace to help in time of need. Even Jesus in His sufferings was comforted with the thought of who He really was. In Luke 22:69, Jesus said before the council of the scribes and chief priests, “Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.” Regardless of present circumstances, we are God’s beloved daughters who will be with Christ forever in Heaven one day!
God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies truly do crown our lives (Psalm 103:4). The beauty for ashes in Isaiah 61:3 means “a fancy headdress.” Our God dignifies us with the beautiful gifts of His wonderful lovingkindness and His abundant tender mercies, as if they were crowns! May we remember these precious truths in our everyday living for our own good and for God’s glory!
Mrs. Barbara Mooney | Trinity FPC, Trinity, AL