let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us; the mercy of God is rich, plenteous, and abundant; many are the acts, and manifold the instances of it; and there is a heart of compassion, and a tenderness expressed in it; and which is free, and comes before the merits of men, goes before them, and is not caused by them; and the phrase denotes the early and timely application of it, the case being desperate, and requiring haste, and the danger such that nothing but mercy could prevent; and indeed it is mercy that prevents both our temporal and eternal ruin.
The reason given for this request is,for we are brought very low; sin brings men into a low estate, and only the grace and mercy of God can raise them up, and that exalts to an high estate; or are become very "weak" and helpless; sin strips men of their strength, leaves them without any, and incapable of helping themselves out of that estate into which it has brought them: or are quite "exhausted" and dried up, no good thing in them, no comfort left them; but are poor, and wretched, and miserable.
T Hieros. Taanioth, fol. 68. 3. wnl rkzt la "ne memineris nobis", Montanus, Michaelis; so Cocceius. wnwld "attenuati", Pagninus, Montanus, Tigurine version, Vatablus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.