Psalms 107 – Beating My Head Against A Wall

Oh, give thanks to the LORD for He is good, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. Psalm 107:2

It has taken me awhile to get this next post up because, wow, I have never encountered a word whose definition was so incredibly abstract that no one seems to know the definitive definition. The word in Hebrew is חֶסֶד translated above as “lovingkindness.” However, a quick look at how it is translated in other versions or even just different places in the same version of the Bible, you are going to find that the translators offer several different translations of the word: lovingkindness, enduring love, mercy, and faithfulness – I think that just about covers it.

Now, before anyone flies into a panic, let me just say that these are all good translations of the word. They are all valid, and they convey an aspect of the Hebrew word that is right and correct. The problem I was having with the word is the fact every time it has been translated into English we make this jump from a concrete action, the basis for Hebraic thought, into the abstract, and what can possibly be more abstract than love? Or kindness? Or even faithfulness, for that matter?

I have spent hours and days exhausting every Bible commentary, Hebrew dictionary, and tool I had in my personal library. I broke it down into the paleo-Hebrew components. I read pretty much every verse in the Bible where this word is used, and eventually, I turned to Google. From there I read article after article, some that pretty good, most fairly shallow, and even stumbled into a few that I am certain were nothing more than recipes for witchcraft. It was at this point that I had to admit, I was beating my head against the wall, and I did what any good Bible scholar does when they are stumped. I went to sleep.

As I was drifting off, I prayed the most righteous of prayers – “A little help would be nice.”

Ok, so maybe more of prayer with a touch of an attitude, but God knows my heart and I don’t have to worry about making it all pretty for him.

I had this really cool dream, which I can’t remember most of, but I do remember thinking I need to remember this because it is cool. The one thing I do remember is using tweezers to put pale blue stones into settings on a golden garment that was flung over His shoulder. (I told you it was cool.) The second thing I remember was that as I woke up and my feet hit the floor, I was mumbling to myself without being fully aware of what I was saying. When my yet-to-be-caffeinated mind finally grabbed onto the words, I heard myself saying, “It is all about keeping the right things in, and the wrong things out.”

This sent me scurrying to my notes, because Rule Number 32 of Biblical translation says, “Personal revelation never trumps what is written.” If you ever want to screw your theology up to the point that you need seven and a half miracles to straighten yourself out, start relying on the things you think God is telling you more than this Word he has given you.

So I went back to the verses where we can find this word.

And he said, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.” Genesis 24:12

This was the prayer of Abraham’s servant as he searched for a bride for Isaac, Abraham’s son. So far so good, this prayer is all about keeping the right things in and the wrong things out. In other words, the definition given to me works, but once is never enough, so I moved on.

If I am alive, show me steadfast love of the LORD, that I may not die; and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the LORD cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. 1 Samuel 20: 14, 15

Here it was used between Jonathan and David as they worked to preserve their friendship in the face of Saul’s wrath towards David. Again, the definition works. Jonathan knows that David would only be doing what was expected of him if he chose to kill all of Saul’s heirs as they had a perceived claim to the throne God had promised David. Jonathan asks that life be protected and death be denied entrance into their friendship.

When my life was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. But with a voice of thanksgiving I will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD. Jonah 2:7-9

This is the prayer of Jonah, and his capitulation to God’s call on his life. The statement he makes about how those who “pay regard to false idols forsake their hope of steadfast love” is interesting. Can we forsake the hope that the right things will be kept in and the wrongs things be kept out if we fail to remain faithful to our God? It certainly had to look that way to man who was on the verge of becoming fish vomit, but he is acknowledging that God is still there, responsive to his prayer, and God still has the power to act on his behalf, to save him.

Jeremiah speaks of God’s “everlasting love” in chapter 31 as he describes how God will change their mourning into joy, and again we see how even in the punishment of exile, God is protecting and purifying his people. In other words, he is keeping the right things in and forcing the wrong things out. Ezra identifies God’s “steadfast love” as the reason the king allowed him to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city. He specifically states that God “put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD God.” Did you get that? God put the right thing in the king’s heart to accomplish his purposes, and Ezra identifies the cause as God’s steadfast love. We could spend months going over the Psalms and all the ways the word is used there, but let’s just look at the one at hand.

In Psalm 107 alone, the writer uses the word חֶסֶד six times in verses 1, 8, 15, 21, 31, and 43. Four of those times it is used in a refrain:

Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works for the children of man!

The only variation of its usage occurs in verse one and in the final verse which states:

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things, let them consider the steadfast love the LORD. 

If you go through Psalm 107 you will find that is a list of various examples of God’s steadfast love. Notice how concrete they are, and how they extend over every aspect of human existence. The examples pull from physical circumstance, the oppression of others, things we do to ourselves, the risks in work life, natural disasters, and spiritual battles. All of it pointing to God’s direct action to protect, to educate, to provide, and to deliver.

This is not a word that denotes some type of detached benevolence.  This is God stepping into the pages of history, in the realm of our existence so that we might know his love, so that we might experience his personal care. It is a picture of him surrounding us with a love that only allows the right things in and is actively working to keep the wrong things out. We are being shown that we are participants with him, receiving his faithfulness to move on our behalf as we respond in kind. There is nothing abstract about this concept, and nothing passive in his love. It is a vital force that inspires and empowers us to join with him in removing those things in our lives that do not honor him. We operate in חֶסֶד when embody God’s love through acts of kindness and mercy. When we invest of ourselves, become active participants in alleviating and suffering, when aid in another’s deliverance, and when we are willing to get our hands dirty so that another might know our Lord, we are helping expel the wrong things in this world and inviting in the right things in the form of God’s lovingkindness.

And his lovingkindness endures forever! It is everlasting! He will never cease to be the one standing between us and the world, us and our enemies, even when that enemy is ourselves. He was, is, and always will be that wall of protection around us, and he is inviting us to play a part in what he is doing in this world. For he desires that all may know him and experience his love, and what better way than for those of us who have received it to demonstrate its redeeming power than following the example of his work in our lives? In doing so we proclaim that his love will never run out, never be used up, and never wear thin, it is abundant and everlasting, overflowing out of our lives into the world as proof of its enduring nature. What more do need to be inspired to thank him?

To get in at the beginning of our look at Psalm 107 start here: O, Give Thanks To the LORD. The second in the series is Digging Deeper Psalm 107, third What's In A Name?, and fourth For He Is Good

For He Is Good - Psalm 107

Well, I haven’t totally forgotten our study of Psalms 107. If you are just joining us or if you need to refresh your memory, here are the links to the past three posts: Oh, Give Thanks To The LORD, Digging Deeper Psalm 107, and What's In A Name?

Oh, give thanks to the LORD for He is good, for his lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the LORD says so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy say so. Psalms 107:1, 2

Today, we are going to take a part the phrase “for He is good.” The first thing you want to do when making a serious study of anything is to define your terms, and let’s face it, good is a rather subjective term. Often we tend define “good” as anything we like and bad is anything we don’t like, but when we are studying Bible we need to define our terms according to how they are used within the Bible. We do this by finding other passages of the Bible where the same word is used.

The easiest way to do this with your English translations is to look up the word good in a Strong’s Concordance. If you do not have one, don’t worry it is available for free online, but if you are going to do any amount of serious Bible study I recommend you grab one for your library. When you do this, remember our rule of first mention, and go to the first verse where we find this word. You should be turning to Genesis 1:4.

“And God saw that the light was good.”

Obviously, we are in the creation account. God is going to continue creating the universe and after each creation he is going to see that it is good. From the dry land and the creatures that inhabit to waters and the skies and beasts that will live there, all of it will be seen and all of it will be found good. Then we get to the creation of man, (Genesis 1:26 – 31), and you see that there is no declaration that man is good.

This leads to an interesting question, why is everything else God created good but man isn’t?

Really, stop there and think about the question. Consider the possible answers. When you encounter something like this in the Bible don’t just rush by it and say, “That’s just the way it is.” Remember this book is crafted with the intent and purpose to hold as much truth as possible in very finite space, everything in here was included to teach us something. While you are rolling that around in your mind, let’s skip ahead a millennium or more, or few books as it may be, to the story of Jesus and the
Rich Young Ruler found in Luke 18: 18--30. As always, go look it up and make sure I am not ripping anything out of context because I am only including the key verse here.

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Did you catch that? “No one is God except God alone.” Go on and read the rest, and you find that Jesus is making a point about what is required to follow him. Sure there are some rules like honoring your mother and father, and not bearing false witness against your neighbor, but the it all boils down to one final step – you have to follow him. Nothing in this world must come between you and being in his presence for when you are in his presence you are in the presence of God, (John 1:1-7, John 14).

Jump on over to see one instance of how Paul uses this word good:

And we know that all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. Romans 8:28, 29

We could go on with other examples, but for the sake of time, space, and the average adult attention span, let’s just put together the pieces we have collected so far.

God calls his creation good, with the exception of man, but why is it good? To answer that question we have to look at the purpose of creation. God did not need an earth. We did. Everything he placed within this grand creation we inhabit was perfectly designed to house, feed, and shelter us. Everything he called into existence fulfilled its purpose perfectly and without flaw.

Man, on the other hand, is created with potential and that potential lies dormant within each of us until we choose to activate it by become conformed to the image of his son. And we don’t do this by works, we do it through relationship, by coming to know him, and through a process of renewing our minds through the words of truth. The earth was given to us as place to walk through this process and deeper into this relationship, even in its fallen state it still serves this purpose.

God’s greatest desire is to be known by humanity. The wonders that he done so that we might know span throughout history and continue today. Jesus declares that no one is good except God, and when we look at the things that God calls good we see that they are the very things that facilitate our ability to know him.

When I realized this a few years back, I tried to redefine my understanding of good. I came up with this working definition:

Anything that draws me closer to God is good. Anything that drives me from his presence is evil.

This radically changed my perspective of everything. Because when I step back and look at this world, I see how so many of the things we call good are driving people away from God. Money, health, relationships, family, technology, work, and leisure have lured people away from him. At the same time, how many times has disease, heartbreak, and hardship driven us to our knees to seek him? I realized that I have the authority determine what is good and evil in my life by my choice to draw nearer to him or to reject him, and in making that decision, I am also defining my intentions to be good or evil.

The only thing outside of my ability to redefine by this choice is God. For his intent is always that I draw nearer to him, he never changes, and he never waivers in that desire. Everything he has done or will do is for the singular purpose of knowing him. In this he proves that he is always good, and for that reason, giving thanks is the appropriate response in all things.