The Quality of Mercy

“Have mercy on me, O God, in Your goodness; in the greatness of Your compassion wipe out my offense.” Psalm 51:3

In High School I had to memorize a portion of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, the part where Portia proclaims, “The quality of mercy is not strained; It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown: His sceptre shows the force of temporal power...But mercy is above this sceptred sway; It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's when mercy seasons justice.” 

Here Portia, disguised as a lawyer, is telling the court that Mercy must be freely given. It should not be constrained or forced. When we show mercy we not only bless the recipient, but ourselves as well. And when a powerful man shows mercy, he becomes most like God. 

Indeed all of us have greatly sinned against God by rebelling against Him. We were created in His image and to be in effect, mirrors of His glory. When we sin, we smudge that mirror. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." 

But no matter how smudged and dirty, and even broken our mirror is, God in His mercy can restore it for us. So great is His compassion and love for us, that when we come to Him for restoration, He will remove our transgressions “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).