The Word Is Mercy

Several weeks ago I picked up a CD in Lansing, MI by the Christ Church Choir from Nashville, TN. It has some lush orchestrations of several great Southern Gospel songs. The one that struck a responsive chord in my spirit was entitled The Word Is Mercy. I hadn't heard it before and I kept playing it over and over again. As I listened I thought of friends and loved ones whose lives have seemingly been put on hold due to devastating reversals and heart-breaking circumstances. They, like the bird in the song, are crying and slowly dying, shattered and broken. They feel that they can no longer be used by God because of what has happened. Then the loving, forgiving hand of Abba reaches down and mends a life and, as the hymnwriter so fittingly penned, "chords that were broken will vibrate once more." O the mercy of God! We can't fathom it! Even after He has reached down and touched our lives, we marvel that He would love us so. Today allow Him to breath His peace and forgiveness into your wounded spirit. He longs to walk with you in a fresh, new way!

Here's the song! I only wish I had an audio clip so you could hear it:

THE WORD IS MERCY

If you could just imagine a bird without a song
Fallen to the barren earth, wounded, left alone;
And then with just a motion of a kind and loving hand,
A broken wing is mended, the song restored again.

CHORUS:

The word is mercy, the word is mercy
Nothing else describes what He did for me,
On a hill called Calvary, He cast in the sea
All I used to be, the word is mercy.

No poet’s pen could ever write
The pain one heart can feel;
Of trying to be worthy, knowing you never will,
No dreamer’s word could quite describe
The beauty in that tree
Where Jesus showed that God is great
So I don’t have to be.

Words and music by Phil Johnson and C. Aaron Wilburn