Hesed
I was reading through chapter 5 of Wenham's The Psalter Reclaimed, on ethics in the psalms, and not finding it particularly interesting, until something brought me up short.
Of the 245 occurrences of hesed in the Old Testament, 127 are found in the Psalter. p127
Wow, 51.8% of the references to hesed are in the Psalms. That is significant. Now, perhaps you are not so familiar with hesed, so here's a little post. (And here's a cool video by Bible Project: Loyal-Love)
Hesed could perhaps best be described as God's faithful covenant-love. It is a combination of his love towards humans with his fidelity. It's
more than kindness. It has an element of reliability and dependability. It is a permanent feature of God’s character. There is a sense of grace about God’s willingness to forgive. p128
So it's not just loyal-love that has a limit, it's faithful-constant-love that extends even to grace, mercy, and forgiveness. That's the kind of love God has and exhibits and reveals the character of God.
Wenham points out that hesed is rarely predicated of humans in the Psalms, with one notable exception in Ps 109:16
For he did not remember to do hesed;
and he chased an oppressed and needy person,
and the broken-hearted, he killed
Earlier in the same psalm the psalmist prays for judgment upon this person (v12)
May no-one show him Hesed,
May no one extend compassion to his fatherless children
I'm not planning to go into a long discursion into imprecatory psalms (another time I will), but I can't help think of Matthew 7:1-2, 'by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive', which is the principle that underlies the forgiveness-rider after the Lord's prayer in 6:14-15, if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins. There is a dynamic at work here, which we can abstract and lay out something like this:
God shows unmerited hesed to people.
The hesed received by people is to be expressed by extending hesed to others.
Failure to extend hesed brings with it an expectation that God will treat you the same way.
Judgement is expressed on the graceless in terms of gracelessness.
For those who reject God's standards as a means by which to be righteous/judged, God doesn't need to judge them by his own standards. Francis Schaeffer has this illustration: imagine you had a tape-recorder strapped to you recording every time you said, "Other people ought to do X", and then God would just review your life and play your own tape-recorder. The direction of our sinful tendencies is to excuse ourselves and to condemn others, but the transformation that hesed brings to us is supposed to make us people likewise characterised by hesed towards others. And in fact this is why I think we sometimes fail to understand the Golden Rule, "treats others as you would want them to treat you". What I mean is, so often when this is taught (to kids, in particular), the logic is pragmatic - if you want others to be kind to you, you be kind to others first. Yes, that makes sense, but what happens when others aren't kind to you? What happens when this 'doesn't work'? Jesus' Golden Rule is undergirded by a deeper logic, that is not ultimately pragmatic. The way God treats you is meant to be the way you treat others, because that is how you want them to treat you, but also because that's how you want God to treat both you and them, even when we ourselves fail to perform hesed.
Wenham elsewhere points out how Psalm 103, which speaks much of hesed, identifies two main events that demonstrate God’s hesed in the life of Israel - v1-5 probably referring to God’s forgiveness of David’s sin with Bathsheba, and v6-10 pointing to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the desert, especially the golden calf. At those two decisive moments, God’s hesed was shown in merciful forgiveness. No wonder the Septuagint translators so often use eleos (mercy/compassion) to translate hesed. God's covenant-love is expressed in faithfulness when we are unfaithful, forgiveness when we sin, compassion when we are in need.
If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself. 2 Ti 2:13.
Wenham gives a reason, though, why hesed is so rarely used as a human virtue in the Psalms. Because he says, the adjective hasid (and thus the plural hasidim) is used instead, "one who practices hesed". But this term escapes our notice, because of its varied translations. But it makes sense - we are to be shaped as practitioners of hesed because God is a God whose character is indelibly and forever hesed. Hence Psalm 103's depiction of God's hesed:
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with hesed and mercy.
And Psalm 136's endless refrain:
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his Hesed is forever.
His hesed is forever. Let ours be likewise.
I love hesed in the Psalms. I often feel like the weight of all the hope that the Psalms express and sing -- the hope of all things made right, of the merciless out in their place, of justice and mercy under messiah-- rest on this word, or rather, on the character of Yahweh that the word signifies. It is like a rock. Our hope too is in his active, victorious, always-following, always-redeeming, always-available, hesed. Praise Yah!