Ps.103:17 – But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children,

The characteristics of the Lord are past finding out. How can mercy be from everlasting to everlasting? Obviously mercy is not based on us or any characteristic or accomplishment we may offer, mercy is the nature of our God. He has eternally extended mercy to all who fear Him. Think about the displays of mercy in the New Testament for a moment. The one that stands out to me first of all was Saul of Tarsus, he was raging with hate against the Lord and His people until mercy arrested him. Then there was the homicidal demoniac in the cemetery in Gadara, mercy freed him from darkness and broke the chains of sin and oppression from his soul. And of course there was Mary Magdalene, a life lived in sin was suddenly transformed by the mercy of God. Here is how Spurgeon describes it.

“Jehovah changes not, he has mercy without end as well as without beginning. Never will those who fear him find that either their sins or their needs have exhausted the great deep of his grace. The main question is, “Do we fear him?” If we are lifting up to heaven the eye of filial fear, the gaze of paternal love is never removed from us, and it never will be, world without end. And his righteousness unto children’s children. Mercy to those with whom the Lord makes a covenant is guaranteed by righteousness; it is because he is just that he never revokes a promise, or fails to fulfill it. Our believing sons and their seed for ever will find the word of the Lord the same: to them will he display his grace and bless them even as he has blessed us. Let us sing, then, for posterity. The past commands our praise and the future invites it. For our descendants let us sing as well as pray.”

Think about your story and the reckless life you were living before mercy came knocking on your door. For me, Christianity was never on my list. I would not have become a Christian in a million life times until mercy interrupted my world. Mercy brought me to Christ, mercy filled my life with the fear of God. So I would have to say that mercy introduced me to fear and caused me to drink from His eternal wells for the rest of my life.