The Mountains Sing

The earth is full of Your goodness, Lord; teach me Your statutes.  Psalm 119:64  NASB

Goodness – There’s hardly a more insipid translation of ḥesed than the crop of English expressions in Bible translations.  We have “love, unfailing love, steadfast love, loving devotion, mercy, goodness, lovingkindness, faithful love, mercies, constant love, kindness.”  None really capture the depth of ḥesed, but then, how could they?  I have two books on my shelf, each several hundred pages, on the meaning of this word.  If you search my web site, you’ll find dozens of articles on ḥesed.  So, when the psalmist employs ḥesed, you can be fairly sure he hasn’t restricted it to “goodness” or any of the other English attempts.

But before we comment on his vocabulary, let’s remind ourselves about ḥūqqê’ (“statutes”).  You’ll recall that this word is primarily about engraving.  Metaphorically, it’s about a decree, that is, something permanent, cut in stone.  And, of course, that is a reminder of the tablets engraved by God Himself.  Once you see the connection, you might ask, “Why would the psalmist need to be taught these?  Didn’t every Jew know the Ten Commandments?”  Of course, the answer is “Yes, they all knew them.”  He’s not asking for a memorization lesson of Exodus 20.  He’s asking for an insight into application.  “I want to know how to live according to these.  What to do in my everyday world.”  That is the avowed purpose of the Oral Law, that is, how to take what’s written and make it work.  That’s why the psalmist uses the verb lāmad rather than one of the other eleven verbs about instruction.  Lāmad contains the idea of training as well as education.  It’s the verb of apprenticeship.  Kaiser notes: “The principle use of this verb is illustrated in Ps 119. Here is repeated the refrain, ‘Teach me thy statutes’ or ‘thy judgments’ (vv. 12, 26, 64, 66, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171).”^[1]  It’s one of the psalmist’s favorites.

What is the connection between training in application and the ḥesed of the earth?  Perhaps we can start to answer this question by answering another.  Why is the earth “full of ḥesed?”  Think about the full range of ḥesed.  First, relationship—some kind of firm connection.  Could be family bond, treaty, tribe, covenant, but for sure it involves creation.  There is a permanent and unbreakable bond between the creator and the creation.  Artist to painting.  Author to novel.  Musician to score.  God to everything.  Second, reciprocity—the divine IOU.  Humanity has it in terms of obedience.  All the rest of creation has it in terms of existence.  Everything responds in affirmation to God because God made it all.  The rivers clap hands, the mountains sing, the sea shouts.  Reciprocity.  Then transitivity—the “pass it on” element.  The heavens declare the glory of God, but not for themselves.  They pass it on.  “When I consider your heavens,  the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars,  which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them,  human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8).  One leads to the other.  And finally, action.  ḥesed is always about doing something about it, and in this case, learning how to apply ḥesed in everything we do.

Topical Index: Psalm 8, Psalm 98, ḥesed, lāmad, training, application, Psalm 119:64

^[1] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1116 לָמַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 480). Moody Press.