The Untranslatable Word
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. Psalm 103:11 NASB
Lovingkindness – hesed, of course. What else could David enlist that would cause YHVH to remain faithfully connected to such a sinner? Hesed has been thoroughly investigated by scholars. In fact, hundreds of pages have been written on this most critical word.[1] We know that it involves four interrelated idea and actions (which you can investigate on skipmoen.com). The additional insight that David provides is the relationship between hesed and yirat YHVH (fear of YHVH).
Ira Stone’s comment on yirat YHVH is important here. “To fear God is to be moved by a sense of awe, like that which one experiences in the presence of a great and awe-inspiring king. In every move that one makes, one ought to feel self-abased before the greatness of God.”[2] yirat YHVH is the foundation of praise, but it is more than experiencing awe. Ira Stone adds that fear of God is “the experience of overwhelming trepidation at the infinite nature of our responsibility for the other,” in contrast to “the experience of gratitude for the possibilities of infinite joy available to us in meeting that responsibility.”[3] Just as yetzer ha’ra and yetzer ha’tov are essential counterpoints for human living, so the praise of the Lord involves both yirat YHVH and ahavat YHVH (fear of God and love of God). Praise is the expression of that counterpoint, the living assertion of the infinite responsibility and the infinite joy surrounding life with YHVH.
David notes that this sense of overwhelming awe is fundamental to the covenantal mutual obligations of hesed. Would you imagine that “fear” of the Lord is essential for covenant relationship with Him? We might think so if we considered “fear” as if it were limited to awe, but Stone’s insight demonstrates that hesed and yirat YHVH are intertwined with obligation to other people, not just to YHVH. As we engage in hesed with those who we can see and touch and hear, we engage in yirat YHVH. And David reminds us that these acts catapult us into the heavenlies.
Is the hesed of YHVH so far above us that it is like trying to climb to the heavens? Not at all. In fact, the heavenly height of hesed is as close as promise-keeping with those at hand. Hesed is transported from heaven to earth in every compassionate act, in every fulfilled commitment, in every gesture of kindness. Hesed brings the character of God to men and covers the earth like water covers the seas.
Do you wish to feel the presence of the Most High, the yirat YHVH of heaven? Exhibit hesed here and heaven will arrive.
Topical Index: hesed, heaven, yirat YHVH, Psalm 103:11
[1] For example, see Glueck and Sakenfeld on my recommended reading list on the web site
[2] Moses Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim, p. 10.
[3] Ira Stone, commentary on Moses Luzzatto, Mesillat Yesharim, p. xx.
If I am the end-all-be-all of love, which my perverted yetzer ha-ra can maintain, then the buck is going to stop here. I am going to be the subject of all the sentences, and the object of all the actions. End of story.
I used to believe it when people made statements like “man is a rational creature: we know this because he can reason from cause to effect”. I then set out to see if that was so. What I found was that, more often than not, people get it just ass-backwards; they reason, all right, but because they need to rationalize their actions and choices after the fact ( a product of that legendary 20-20 hindsight), more often that not, they are going to attempt to extrapolate from effect to cause. I have caught even the most seemingly intelligent of people doing this – why, I have even caught myself doing it! Imagine that! My subscription to the so-called progress of man took a nose-dive after that.
I have a suspicion that the yetzer ha-ra is supposed to act as some sort of love barometer, which is a measurement of the proper transmission of love going through my neighborhood, sorta like an electron detector; we know that little sucker is going to be circulating through at some juncture; we are just not sure either when or where – you can take your pick, but you just can’t pick both at the same time- I mean, at the same place – I mean, well, you know what I mean! I think the problem starts when we do not, in fact, have that love circulating through. At that point, our hard-wiring goes bonkers, and red lights start flashing, and the sirens crank up. In an effort to shut things up, so we can go back to sleep (I mean, go back to death-by-proxy, as we are automatically shunted to artificial respiration – I do mean grace and mercy), we turn to our love detector and ask it to step in as love transmitter; as an origin for love, and that is where the trouble starts. I mean, the trouble- that-I-make-up starts, as trouble is already here. I am not a love source; I cannot generate the stuff; neither can I transmit it. Hey, if I have my receiver turned toward the wrong satellite, I can’t even GET the stuff!
In an attempt, then, to shut up the sirens of the curse of fear, and the flashing lights of the curse of pain, which my detector picks up on when I make a death choice, I turn to love substitutes, which can temporarily fool the system into thinking that love has occurred and that I am, therefore, actually alive in the true sense of the word; that I am ahead of the 8-ball instead of behind it; that faith instead of fear is at my wheel. But no, the barometer can only make choices that can further fool itself into thinking that it is, in fact, measuring correctly. As they say, if your only tool is a shovel, all your problems are going to look like holes. This is the basic bottom problem of the paradigm, as far as I am concerned. We believe we can invent our reality because we live in a world where the unseen (faith) is the true driver of the seen. I think we keep trying to insist that, somehow, what we can see; i.e. what has already occurred in the past, can be an accurate driver of the future, when, in fact, the past is only supposed to be the map of that future. Again, we ask that the effect create the cause. Thus is the insanity of sin.
Love is only there when it is passing through. If I try to start it or stop it, the Wind-from-beyond-us winks out of my existence. I do mean, my existence is what winks out, and the divine Hand of hesed has to catch me once again. I have to turn my face to the Sun of my righteousness, for there is where it originates, but it only works if I am acting as either a conduit or a mirror. If I start thinking I am either a black sink hole, that can suck love in the giant vacuum of my need, or, worse, that I can actually generate it, like some asteroid that gets the illusion that it can be a star, the trouble starts up all over again., for love is not love until you not only give it away, but go-get-it-for-the-purposes-of-giving-it-away. Wait. That’s hesed again.
Skip, This truth is timely for me this morning as I didn’t sleep well last night after I was about to “write-off” a family member who has once again caused much hurt and chaos to the family. As I read this, YHVH lovingly brought me to tears reminding me of my times of causing hurt and chaos to His plans in my life, but He has shown me hesed. This brought me to yirat YHVH, and I pray I will function properly toward this family member through the hurt feelings. As I am writing this, the heaviness in my chest is lifting and I praise YHVH who is sovereign. I praise YHVH and thank Him for His faithful servant, Skip Moen. Blessings.
Several years ago, I was trying to understand ‘the fear of the LORD,’ because in all the places I found it – it did not make very much sense to me in the way we typically hear it defined. Then I found a site that said that the “yirat YHWY” is in the Hebrew construct state! Their example paired it with other phrases found in this grammatical form such as the ‘eyes of the LORD’, the ‘voice of the LORD’,,,, the ‘hand of the LORD’.
This concept turns the whole phrase upside down in that it means HIS… eyes, HIS… voice, HIS… hand and then HIS…. FEAR!!! It is not ‘MY’ fear OF Him, it is HIS FEAR! This then asked the question – is HE AFRAID?? NO! Not in the sense that we understand fear. The basis of yirat has to do with something that shoots, pours or FLOWS, making this phrase better understood as ‘the flowings of YHWH”….. i.e. what flows from Him is His character and His instructions! So when I went back to all the places where “Yirat YHWH” is found and read with this new concept it made much more sense! For example, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” (Understanding ) the flowings from YHWH (his character and his Instructions (Torah)) is the beginning of wisdom!) I see that in the Ps 103:11 Yirat YHWH is not used, but I am asking if this idea is valid?
For Jonathan’s Sake
There is a word for “lovingkindness” (plural- loving kindnesses!) – the – or better yet, an illustration. David and Jonathan were “blood-covenant” friends. David declared “Lovingkindness” or “friendship” for Jonathan’s sake. And today God shows or demonstrates His “Lovingkindness” unto us, for Jesus’ sake [in His Name].
~This is the new “covenant” in My blood ~ (Luke 22.20)
~ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you ~ (John 15.15)
Yes, this is quite a claim. The Messiah has revealed “everything.” Nothing [we need to know now] has been “held back’ or reserved. He HAS given unto us [what?] “ALL THINGS that pertain unto life and godliness.” (2 Peter 1.3)
There are only two options here. Either His words are true or He is a liar. What do the Scriptures say? What was the testimony of Thomas? What does the empty tomb declare?
Here is my conclusion. Here is my concrete, bedrock conviction. Here is my firm faith and foundation. Here is my Hope (blessed assurance) and here is my fealty, my loyalty and my love:
– “You are the Christ, (the Anointed, the Messiah), the Son of the Living God and.. – (I will add my words) – You are the Living, Active, Ever-interceding, Ever-near, Always Present, Ever-blessing, Ever-blessed Son of Man and God the Son. You are the crucified, then buried, and now resurrected and reigning Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world. You now live, with “all power and all authority given unto You to “ever make intercession for us according to the will of God!” “You are worthy, our LORD and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were [and are] created and have their being.” “”You [alone] are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Blessed IS the Name of our LORD and our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from this time forth and forevermore!
[It is so] – (thanks to Calvary!) Amen.
The LORD redeemed Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He transformed these obscure children into a treasured nation by fear and love. A generation later, Moses instructs parents to disciple their children following the same principle.
David writes, “As far…;” affirming the unimaginable distance between the King’s kingdom and the place you and I dwell. After so many generations of Jacob’s descendants living enslaved to a claustrophobic existence, they too must have struggled to comprehend just how they could one day walk free in wide open spaces. Anyone parenting a challenging or at-risk child has also wondered how can their kid possibly come to thrive.
“As we engage in hesed with those who we can see and touch and hear, we engage in yirat YHVH. And David reminds us that these acts catapult us into the heavenlies.”
Hesed is the means; by which we leave Egypt and enter the Promise; by which we trade closed in places for panoramic vistas; by which we train undisciplined urchins to become men and women whose heart is inclined towards the LORD. Without ahavat YHWH, discipline becomes punishment. Without yirat YHWH, love becomes entitlement. Only as parents learn to ballast the two – fear and love of the LORD – will raising children become heavenward.
Commentary by John E Hartley in “ The Book of Job” p67:
Job: 1:1 …”this man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil”
“The fear of God stands for a solid trust in God. One who fears God loves Him devoutly. Therefore he approaches God reverently, filled with awe and deeply conscious of God’s contagious love. In daily life he expresses his fear by striving to please God in faithful obedience inspired by love.
The Wisdom literature places the highest value on fearing Yahweh, asserting that it is the very foundation of wisdom {Prov. 1:7 9:10}
Whoever fears God avoids the very appearance of evil ( ra cf Prov. 16:6b).