This morning I read Psalm 136 in my daily reading plan. In it, the phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever” is repeated 26 times – once in every single verse. The psalmist is recounting the works and the wonders of God and he attributes all of God’s various actions to His steadfast love.
Why did God make the heavens? Because of His steadfast love which endures forever (vs 5).
Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt? Because of His steadfast love which endures forever (vs 11).
Why did God give the promised land to Israel? Because of His steadfast love which endures forever (vs 21).
Why did God rescue Israel from their foes? Because of His steadfast love which endures forever (vs 24).
And why does God give food to all flesh? Because of His steadfast love which endures forever (vs 25).
It is amazing to think of all these wonderful things that God does as being motivated by His steadfast love. But what really caught my attention this time was all the other works and wonders of God that the Psalmist also attributes to His steadfast love. Here’s a summary: striking down the firstborn of Egypt (vs 10), overthrowing Pharoah in the Red Sea (vs 15), leading Israel to wander in the dessert for 40 years (vs 16), striking down great kings like Sihon and Og along with their armies (vs 17-20).
It is less intuitive, less obvious, less understandable to me to think about these works and wonders of God, as also be motivated by His steadfast love.
And this made me wonder, what exactly does the phrase “steadfast love” mean? I suspected the term used in the Hebrew text was ‘hesed’ and it is. But what does that term really mean? I’ve always heard that it just means ‘steadfast love’. So I looked it up in the Bible translation software we use (called Paratext), and this is the definition it gave:
“hesed – state whereby humans or deities are committed towards fulfilling their obligations and show that by their actions; these obligations include responsibilities towards kinspeople, spouses, friends, covenant partners, and people to whom one is indebted as a result of favors received.”
I was surprised to see that the word ‘love’ does not appear anywhere in the definition. Instead, hesed has more to do with steadfastness – the word is often translated as ‘loyalty’ or ‘faithfulness’ or ‘devotion’. God is loyal. He is faithful. He is utterly and completely devoted to fulfilling his obligations. He never fails to fulfill them. Of course, God is not a man. He does not have obligations in the same way we do. He is indebted to no one. He does not receive favors from anyone. We cannot give Him anything to put Him in our debt. In fact, we have no relationship with God at all, apart from His initiation. Worse than that, apart from God’s intervention, we are His enemies. His only obligation toward us in our sinful state is one of judgement and condemnation.
But instead, He unilaterally chooses to enter into a covenant with us. He chooses to adopt us into His family. He enters into a relationship with us. And even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. Because our God is a God of hesed.
This is a strange concept for us in the West. In our case, it is because we do not feel bound by relational obligations. Abortion, divorce, abandonment, fatherlessness, and other broken relationships are commonplace. If you don’t like someone, just walk away. If you’re not happy, make a change. That is what our Western culture tells us. Of course, sometimes we do need to escape harmful relationships, but the point is that we are often far too quick to run away because we don’t feel the weight of relational obligations. I think this leads many people to think of their relationship with God in the same way. If God is displeased with them, he will just walk away from them. And since we all still sin, they live life believing God is always frowning upon them and ever on the brink of giving up on them.
The idea of a God of hesed who unilaterally enters into an eternally binding covenant relationship with us is strange to Western people.
But this is also a strange concept for people living in more relational cultures too. Here in PNG, for example, relational obligations almost define who you are. In these cultures, your obligations to your family, to your clan, to your ‘tok ples’ (your language group), run very deep. They are part of who people are. In fact, people rarely use each other’s given names, instead they refer to each other in terms of relationship. Jenny is not ‘Jenny’, she is ‘mama bilong Charlie.’ And the idea of reciprocity, of giving now so you can take later, of keeping relationships on an equal footing, is a huge part of these relational cultures. People expect that any gifts given will eventually be repaid. I think this leads many people to think of their relationship with God in the same way as their relationship with other people. If God gives them something, then they are indebted to God and must repay that debt. Or if they give something to God, then God is indebted to them and must repay them someway.
The idea of a God of hesed who unilaterally enters into an eternally binding covenant relationship with us, even when we have not and cannot give him anything in return, is equally strange to non-Western people.
And something strange and difficult to comprehend for all people from all cultures is the idea that our God of hesed remains eternally committed to fulfilling his self-imposed obligation to us even when things look bleakest to us. When we feel like we are wandering in the desert, or we feel hounded and chased by enemies, or we see death and destruction surrounding us, our God is still at work. He is, in and through these difficulties, mysteriously working all things together for our good. Why? Because He is full of hesed. Because He is loyal. He is faithful. He is devoted to our good. At all times, in all places, in all circumstances. And this is very good news indeed. It will be interesting to try to translate the word hesed into the Domung language when we get to that point…
moefamily 