18 The Mercy of God

 

18
The Mercy of God

하나님의 긍휼

 

Holy Father, Thy wisdom excites our admiration,

Thy power fills us with fear,

Thy omnipresence turns every spot of earth into holy ground;

but how shall we thank Thee enough for Thy mercy

which comes down to the lowest part of our need to give us beauty for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning, and for the spirit of heaviness a garment of praise?

We bless and magnify Thy mercy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

거룩하신 아버지, 주의 지혜가 우리의 경배를 불러일으키고,

주의 능력이 두려움으로 우리를 가득 채우며,

주의 편재하심은 이 땅의 모든 곳을 거룩한 곳으로 만듭니다.

그러나 우리의 재투성이 대신 아름다움을,

우리의 비탄 대신 기쁨의 기름과 우리의 지친 영혼에 찬양의 옷을 입히시려고

우리 필요의 가장 밑바닥에까지 내려오시는 주님의 긍휼에 대하여

우리가 어찌 다 주님께 감사할 수 있겠습니다?

 

예수 그리스도 우리 주를 통하여 우리가 주의 긍휼을 찬양하고 기리나이다. 아멘.

 

When through the blood of the everlasting covenant we children of the shadows reach at last our home in the light, we shall have a thousand strings to our harps, but the sweetest may well be the one tuned to sound forth most perfectly the mercy of God.

For what right will we have to be there? Did we not by our sins take part in that unholy rebellion which rashly sought to dethrone the glorious King of creation? And did we not in times past walk according to the course of this world, according to the evil prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience? And did we not all at once live in the lusts of our flesh? And were we not by nature the children of wrath, even as others?

But we who were one time enemies and alienated in our minds through wicked works shall then see God face to face and His name shall be in our foreheads. We who earned banishment shall enjoy communion; we who deserve the pains of hell shall know the bliss of heaven. And all through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited us.

When all Thy mercies, O my God,
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost
In wonder, love, and praise.
- Joseph Addison

 

오, 나의 하나님이여,

나의 솟아오르는 영혼이

주의 모든 긍휼을 두루 내려다 볼 때,

그 놀라운 광령에 황홀해져

경탄과 사랑과 찬미로 넋을 잃습니다.

- 조셉 애디슨

Mercy is an attribute of God, an infinite and inexhaustible energy within the divine nature which disposes God to be actively compassionate. Both the Old and the New Testaments proclaim the mercy of God, but the Old has more than four times as much to say about it as the New.

We should banish from our minds forever the common but erroneous notion that justice and judgment characterize the God of Israel, while mercy and grace belong to the Lord of the Church. Actually there is in principle no difference between the Old Testament and the New.

In the New Testament Scriptures there is a fuller development of redemptive truth, but one God speaks in both dispensations, and what He speaks agrees with what He is. Wherever and whenever God appears to men, He acts like Himself. Whether in the Garden of Eden or the Garden of Gethsemane, God is merciful as well as just.

He has always dealt in mercy with mankind and will always deal in justice when His mercy is despised. Thus He did in antediluvian times; thus when Christ walked among men; thus He is doing today and will continue always to do for no other reason than that He is God. If we could remember that the divine mercy is not a temporary mood but an attribute of God’s eternal being, we would no longer fear that it will someday cease to be.

Mercy never began to be, but from eternity was; so it will never cease to be. It will never be more since it is itself infinite; and it will never be less because the infinite cannot suffer diminution. Nothing that has occurred or will occur in heaven or earth or hell can change the tender mercies of our God. Forever His mercy stands, a boundless, overwhelming immensity of divine pity and compassion.

As judgment is God’s justice confronting moral inequity, so mercy is the goodness of God confronting human suffering and guilt. Were there no guilt in the world, no pain and no tears, God would yet be infinitely merciful; but His mercy might well remain hidden in His heart, unknown to the created universe.

No voice would be raised to celebrate the mercy of which none felt the need. It is human misery and sin that call forth the divine mercy.

“Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison!” the Church has pleaded through the centuries; but if I mistake not I hear in the voice of her pleading a note of sadness and despair. Her plaintive cry, so often repeated in that tone of resigned dejection, compels one to infer that she is praying for a boon she never actually expects to receive. She may go on dutifully to sing of the greatness of God and to recite the creed times beyond number, but her plea for mercy sounds like a forlorn hope and no more, as if mercy were a heavenly gift to be longed for but never really enjoyed.

Could our failure to capture the pure joy of mercy consciously experienced be the result of our unbelief or our ignorance, or both? It was so once in Israel. “I bear them record,” Paul testified of Israel, “that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” They failed because there was at least one thing they did not know, one thing that would have made the difference.

Romans 10:2

And of Israel in the wilderness the Hebrew writer says, “But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” To receive mercy we must first know that God is merciful. And it is not enough to believe that He once showed mercy to Noah or Abraham or David and will again show mercy in some happy future day. We must believe that God’s mercy is boundless, free and, through Jesus Christ our Lord, available to us now in our present situation.

Hebrews 4:2

We may plead for mercy for a lifetime in unbelief, and at the end of our days be still no more than sadly hopeful that we shall somewhere, sometime, receive it. This is to starve to death just outside the banquet hall in which we have been warmly invited.

Or we may, if we will, lay hold on the mercy of God by faith, enter the hall, and sit down with the bold and avid souls who will not allow diffidence and unbelief to keep them from the feast of fat things prepared for them.

 

Arise, my soul, arise;
Shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

My God is reconciled;
His pardoning voice I hear:
He owns me for His child;
I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.
- Charles Wesley

 

 

일어나라, 내 영혼아 일어나라.

죄책의 공포를 떨쳐버리라.

피흘리는 희생 제물

날 위해 나타난다.

보좌 앞에 내 보증인이 서 계신다.

내 이름이 그분 손에 기록돼 있다.

만족해 하시는 나의 하나님,

그분의 용서하시는 목소리가 내게 들린다.

그분의 자녀로서 날 받으셨으니

내게 무슨 두려움이 더 있으랴.

확신을 갖고 나 지금 가까이 나아가

"아버지, 아바 아버지"라로 부른다.

- 찰스 웨슬리

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.heavendwellers.com/hdt_knowledge_of_the_holy.htm