"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."
-Psalm 136:1 ESV
God warmed my heart this week. When reflecting on Psalm 136, I realized that the psalmist reiterates this phrase twenty-six times, " . . . for his steadfast love endures forever." You can't miss it. He includes the phrase in every verse. In the context, he is saying that we should give thanks to God because he is good, and the psalmist goes on to list numerous reasons why we should give thanks to God.
But the repetition worked. I started thinking about that phrase. Then I suddenly realized that the root Hebrew word for "steadfast love" is חֶסֶד (ḥeseḏ). My mind immediately went back to a sermon that I heard on this word from a mentor of mine named Charles Williams.
In the sermon, Charles labored to show the significance of this Hebrew word in the Old Testament. It is a common word; it shows up 251 times. However, it is a notoriously difficult word to translate into English. Why? Because it seems like no single English word captures the idea. Barry Cooper explains,
In different versions of the Bible, you may see it translated as “mercy,” “kindness,” “goodness”, “faithfulness,” “loyalty.” There’s no single English word that quite gets it, which is why some translators have used more than one word: “steadfast love,” “loyal love,” “loving-kindness.” (Barry Cooper, "Hesed")It is a steadfast, continuing, faithful, covenant love that God has towards his people.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says, "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." And this is precisely the idea that is picked up in Psalm 136 and repeated twenty-six times. Cooper comments,
According to that psalm, in which every phrase ends with “his hesed endures forever,” God even made the heavens, the sun, the moon and the stars, because of His hesed. He gives food to all flesh for the same reason. He delivered His people from slavery, overthrew kings who opposed them, and gave them land to live in—all because of His hesed. He remembered His people in their low estate, because of His hesed.
And Christ went to the cross because of His hesed . . . our hope that God will love us to the uttermost, and forever, is not founded on our ability to keep His commands but rather it’s founded on God’s ability to keep being God. (Barry Cooper, "Hesed")How did God warm my heart? I thought about this steadfast, patient love that God has for me despite my failures. But it didn't stop there. The next part of the phrase is: "endures forever." I began to feel overwhelmed as I tried to comprehend the idea of eternity. But the sense of being overwhelmed was pushed aside by the comfort that rushed in to take its place when I considered this thought: "God will patiently, kindly, and steadfastly love me forever."
Hopefully that warms your heart today too.
Bibliography:
-Check out this transcript of an episode from Simply Put by Barry Cooper titled, "Hesed"