Hesed

Hesed: The Love That Endures Forever

My mom has trained her family to sing a prayer before every meal:

Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for His love endures forever.
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for He is good.

Amen.

And I've trained the family to really stretch out the word forever.

Maybe that's better—or maybe not—than Psalm 136, where we hear essentially the same refrain over and over again:

“God's love endures forever.”

Again.

And again.

And again.

It might begin to feel repetitive.

But I don't think the Psalmist is being lazy.

I think the repetition has a purpose.

Scattering Seeds

Imagine a farmer walking through a field scattering seed.

Some lands on the path.

Some on the rocks.

Some among the weeds.

Some falls into good soil.

The farmer scatters extravagantly, trusting that enough seed will eventually find good soil, take root, grow, and bear fruit.

Psalm 136 feels a little like that.

Every time the Psalmist says:

“God's steadfast love endures forever.”

It's like another seed is being tossed.

Looking for somewhere to land.

Maybe it lands on a memory.

Maybe a hurt.

A fear.

A celebration.

Perhaps the goal isn't simply for us to memorize the phrase.

Maybe the hope is that eventually those words will connect with something meaningful in our own lives.

That somewhere along the way, one of those seeds will find good soil.

A Disposable World

There's a problem, though.

We live in a disposable world.

We eat on disposable plates and use disposable forks. Things are literally designed to be thrown away.

And apparently, it's not just the milk in your refrigerator that has an expiration date.

Even your refrigerator has one.

A furnace technician recently told us that 16 years was a pretty good run for a furnace.

So sad.

Things wear out.

But it's not only things.

Companies reorganize, and jobs disappear.

Friendships disappear.

Marriages disappear.

Neighborhoods go away.

Even things that require incredible amounts of work to build—like peace treaties between nations—can sometimes seem disposable.

And eventually, the disposable world begins sending us a message:

Don't get too attached. Don't invest. Nothing lasts anyway.

When “Nothing Lasts” Shapes Us

If we hear that message long enough, it begins to shape us.

Disappointment becomes part of our experience.

We start assuming relationships won't last.

We assume commitments will fade.

So we begin living defensively.

We protect ourselves from hope.

And eventually, something inside us starts saying:

Everything breaks.

Everything wears out.

Everything falls apart.

How do you argue with a heart that has experienced enough loss to believe that?

Maybe you don't.

Maybe instead, you plant seeds.

Again and Again

The Psalmist seems to understand how our hearts are shaped.

And rather than trying to win an argument, Psalm 136 simply keeps planting.

Again:

God's steadfast love endures forever.

And again:

God's steadfast love endures forever.

And again.

Maybe one of those seeds will finally take root.

Psalm 136 walks through Israel's entire history.

Creation?

God's steadfast love endures forever.

The Exodus?

God's steadfast love endures forever.

The wilderness?

God's steadfast love endures forever.

The Promised Land?

God's steadfast love endures forever.

Victory.

Loss.

Defeat.

All of it can be held within the same refrain.

Circumstances go up and down.

But God's steadfast love remains.

Hesed

The Hebrew word used here is hesed.

It's difficult to translate neatly into English.

Sometimes we call it steadfast love.

Sometimes faithful love.

Or covenant love.

Mercy.

Loyal love.

But underneath all of those translations is this idea:

Nothing can stop God's love.

Not because we deserve it.

Not because life is easy.

Not because everything is shiny and going according to plan.

God's love endures because this is simply who God is.

Maybe that's the seed our hearts need planted again.

And again.

And again.

Place Your Story Inside the Psalm

There's a simple practice we can try.

Take out a piece of paper and finish these statements:

One thing that did not last in my life...

One of my greatest joys...

One of my greatest sorrows...

My best day...

A persistent fear...

Don't try to explain your answers away.

Don't try to solve them.

Simply name them.

Then take each memory, experience, joy, sorrow, or fear and place it inside the refrain of Psalm 136.

After each one, pray:

“God, Your steadfast love endures forever throughout all my days.”

Not as a way of pretending the sorrow wasn't painful.

Not as an explanation for why something happened.

Simply as a way of placing the whole story of your life inside something larger and more enduring.

The things that lasted.

The things that didn't.

The best days.

The worst ones.

The celebrations.

The persistent fears.

All of it.

God, Your steadfast love endures forever throughout all my days.

Maybe we need to repeat it.

Maybe our hearts need another seed.

And another.

And another.

Until somewhere along the way, one finally finds good soil.

May this little practice root us once again in the soil of God's love.