1 Chronicles 21:13
And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the LORD; for very great are his mercies: but let me not fall into the hand of man.
After sinning by numbering Israel, David was shut in by the consequences and set before a choice of punishments, feeling himself in a great strait. He chose to come under the hand of the Lord and to suffer punishment at His hand rather than fall into the hand of human enemies. His reason was trust that the Lord's mercies are very great.
Though he confessed his sin and humbled himself, his repentance came after the judgment had already been decreed. The choice belongs to the history of the sacrifice at Ornan's threshing floor, where David's offering turned aside the destroying angel's sword. God answered him there by sending fire from heaven, and the event made the place a consecrated temple site.
That sacrifice which turned aside the sword is a fitting symbol of the Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty people. Every mortal who has made mistakes should therefore choose to fall into the hands of the living God rather than into the hands of men. It is better to depend on God than on human judgment, because God is too wise to err and too good to do harm.
In contrast, wicked people show a cruel kind of mercy, and men scathingly and contemptuously pull to pieces work that is not wholly perfect even when the one who did it is doing his very best. Christ does not treat His erring disciples as their shortcomings deserve, and if He treated erring human beings as they deserve they would perish. The verse thus rebukes harsh judgment of brethren, warning that harshness by professing Christians drives away from Christ souls who might have been saved, so the work of those who make mistakes should not be contemptuously picked apart.