In the text we read on Sunday, Psalm 89, two distinct themes are apparent: that God is powerful and that God is faithful. It may seem contradictory to praise God's eternal mercy while also praising God's heavy right hand.
The question I keep returning to is this - what kind of power does God have? What kind of might?
In a recent discussion about this psalm, someone mentioned to me that there are many things that have power but are not destructive. Love, for instance, is incredibly powerful. Sacrifice, too, is powerful and, of course, forgiveness. And all those things we do not like about power - when people in high positions lord over the lowly - God can redeem those, too. God redeems power.
Sometimes we overgeneralize that the Old Testament is all judgment and wrath and the New Testament is grace and forgiveness. Not so! The character of God from the beginning is mercy and steadfast love.
It's not as if God tried the law and judgment and that did not really work so now let's try mercy. Jesus is not a plan B. God's action in Jesus is eternally the goal, the end, the seal of all the acts of God.
When we say "God's steadfast love endures forever" we proclaim that God has always chosen redemption over judgment, mercy over sacrifice, hope over despair. Faithfulness is in the groundwater of God's character, seeping up into all aspects of God's action, never to be separated from who God is.
God is faithful still.