Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
        to you, O LORD, I will make music.
Psalm 101:1 ESV

God intermixeth mercy with affliction: he steeps his sword of justice in the oil of mercy; there was no night so dark, but Israel had a pillar of fire in it; there is no condition so dismal, but we may see a pillar of fire to give light. If the body be in pain, conscience is in peace,—there is mercy: affliction is for the prevention of sin,—there is mercy. In the ark there was a rod and a pot of manna, the emblem of a Christian’s condition, mercy interlined with judgment.—Thomas Watson, as quoted in The Treasury of David