Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!
Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.
Great is your mercy, O Lord!;
give me life according to your rules.
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.
Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Psalm 119: 153-160 (English Standard Version)
The Psalmist in this Resh section of Psalm 119 seems particularly negative towards non-believers. He seems almost fanatical when he says, I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. What’s this all about? Aren’t we supposed to love as God loves? This is when an understanding of the Hebrew letter resh is helpful. It will help us make sense of the section Psalm 119 – Resh and show us why in the middle of such a negative diatribe, the Psalmist declares, Great is your mercy, O Lord!
Rabbi Raskin (2003) says the resh is the unholy counterpart to the holy daleth. Both letters are similar in design, but the daleth Psalm 119 – Daleth has the yodh Psalm 119 – Yodh stroke, which makes it holy, whereas the resh does not. Both letters mean poor, but not in the same sense. The daleth speaks about a poor person needing help from others to get by. This person has a little bit, and is not completely 
destitute. The meaning of poor for the letter resh is more of a spiritual poor, as resh has the meaning of being far away from God. The person who is resh is so far removed from God that he is evil and really only thinks and speaks evil. This is why I think the Psalmist used such strong language when he describes how he feels about the faithless. However, the resh person is not eternally lost. If a person who is resh repents of his evil ways, he may be saved. In the Jewish sense, that is, this person can become a good Jew and a Believer of God. In the Christian sense, this person would accept Jesus Christ as his Savior and have eternal life.
And this is where God’s mercy comes in…
Mercy without justice = is weak and subversive of moral order.
Justice without mercy = is moral severity, revolting to both God and humans (Bibleinfo, 2021)
I am so glad God is our judge and is merciful. He is perfect in His mercy and His judgements. The thing is, without Jesus, who died for all of our sins, we are all like the resh. We can never live a perfect life. We all sin, even when we don’t want to. Even the Apostle Paul struggled with sin. In fact, he wrote a great explanation concerning the person of resh in Romans 7:15-8:11. Through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God’s mercy is shown to us. When we call Jesus our Savior, His blood covers our sins committed in the flesh, so that we are able to appear unblemished and holy in the presence of God and His mercy is then fully realized. In other words, God’s justice, that we all deserve, is covered with His mercy because His Son, Jesus, took God’s judgement for all our sins, when He died on the cross.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24 (English Standard Version)
Thank you God for your great mercy, there is no way we can repay you. You are holy and awesome!
Resources:
Bibleinfo. 2021. What is the Mercy Seat? Retrieved on September 14, 2021.
Raskin, A. 2003: Letters of Light. (audio book). Sichos Publishers.
Photo Credit: Tamar, S.C. Published March 18, 2016 updated January 2, 2017. God’s Mercy Wallpaper. The Southern Cross: The Catholic Magazine for Southern Africa. https://www.scross.co.za/2016/03/gods-mercy-wallpaper/. Retrieved on Sept. 15, 2021.
Photo Credit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hebrew_letter_resh_freefonts.svg
