MERCY, MERCY, LORD!
MERCY MERCY , LORD!
“The year was 1971, Marvin Gaye wrote of America through the eyes of a returning Vietnam Vet, he wove a tale of war, civil disobedience, drugs, the decline of our cities and the toll of environmental destruction and in the space of nine songs that lasted forty – six minutes and twenty – nine seconds, he embraced all of American life in a time of challenge and change. Sadly, decades later, the problems Marvin wrote of are still prevalent.” Usher; In Performance at the White House, 2016
The above words were spoken by American singer and songwriter, Usher, at the event, “A Celebration of American Creativity : In Performance at the White House” on January 8, 2016. {spot POTUS and FLOTUS 44 somewhere in the attached video ):}
Marvin Gaye himself had asked a question in one of the songs referenced above (Mercy Mercy Me, The Ecology) “What about this over crowded earth, how much more abuse from man can she stand?” He had talked about carbon emissions poisoning the air; oil wastage on the ocean leaving fish full of mercury; radiation from non-medical man-made sources killing plants, animals and birds found around them. In the original version of the song, Marvin Gaye kept pleading in the background: “Please have mercy Father, Help us Father, Please have mercy upon us.”
Now this was Marvin Gaye, in the seventies, an R and B singer and songwriter, (not a prophet or pastor) yet he understood that what was needed as a solution to America’s problems at that time was the mercy of God. Forty – five years later in 2016, Usher affirms in his above speech that the problems still prevail. It should be clear then, that God’s Mercy is indeed what we all need. Because incidentally these problems are not peculiar to America but to the whole world in general. Governments have come to power promising to make things better yet they have come and gone and things have not changed. If our collective governments worldwide have failed to make the planet a safer place for us to live, either because they have other more profitable agendas they are pushing or because it is honestly beyond them; then it is definitely time to cry out to God for mercy.
As we are headed down a road not travelled before, (with the COVID -19 Pandemic) fear could be the default reaction for some of us. In my opinion, fear will only make things worse. Let us instead focus on the power of God’s mercy that can turn any situation around to work for His people. When things have gone pear-shaped beyond what can be fixed by human hands, the only way forward is to turn to God and ask for mercy. The corona virus pandemic is clearly out of human hands. So now is a great time to start asking for God’s mercy. Quite frankly it should not matter who or what brought the world into this mess.“Do not hold against us the sins of past generations; may your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need.” Psalms 79 : 8 NIV but the mercy of God can bring us out of it. For “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” Lamentations 3:22 KJV
“Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.” Psalms 123:2 KJV
DEAR LORD, PLEASE HAVE MERCY!
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS ©