Hesed and Emeth
mmalanga | February 16, 2007The Traveler’s Advisory
Friday 16 February 2007
“Consider how I love Your precepts! Give me life according to Your steadfast love.
The sum of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.”
— Psalm 119.159-160
They are two of my favorite Hebrew words. That they appear in consecutive verses of the longest psalm is a bonus. The Hebrew words to which I refer are hesed and emeth. In the verses above hesed is translated steadfast love and emeth is translated truth.
In some ways, hesed is deliciously difficult to define. On the one hand, in addition to steadfast love, it carries the sense of mercy, kindness, and lovingkindness. On the other hand, when it is used of God in His dealings toward humanity, hesed describes the covenant loyalty or covenant-keeping faithfulness of God’s character. Some translators find the phrase unfailing love to be an apt definition of this word.
Thus when the psalmist prays, “Give me life (or, Revive me) according to Your steadfast love,” he is trusting God to answer his plea based on the character of God as the God who maintains covenant-keeping faithfulness toward His children. We must keep God’s word because, as the covenant-keeping, covenant-faithful God, He keeps His word, His covenant with us. Those who keep God’s word out of love for Him can expect Him to give them life when they ask for it.
An additional reason for keeping God’s word is, “The sum of Your word is truth (emeth), and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.”
Emeth carries the underlying sense of certainty, dependability, and faithfulness. When something is emeth it is as sure as the sunrise and as dependable as the ground beneath our feet. In the Old Testament (OT) emeth is used in several contexts, all of which relate to God either directly or indirectly, and is often applied to God as an attribute of His character, especially that which makes up His goodness.
As an attribute of God that is revealed to humanity, emeth is the means by which we come to know and serve God as our Savior. Because it is an attribute of God, which is revealed in our salvation, and life of service as God’s children, emeth is often used in association with hesed. Very often, since God’s truth and steadfast love lead to God’s peace toward sinful humanity, saved by His grace, emeth is often joined with “peace” (shalom).
In verse quoted above the psalmist speaks in absolute terms, “The sum of Your word is truth.” His meaning is as a clear as the blue sky of a crisp winter morning—there is no truth, in the biblical sense, outside God. All truth, all valid truth, comes from God because truth is connected to God. It is interesting to note that the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT, translates the Hebrew word emeth into the Greek word for truth, aletheia. This is the same Greek word used in the New Testament (written in Greek) by Jesus to describe Himself as “the Way, the Truth (aletheia), and the Life,” in John 14.6.
Thus in the NT, we encounter the sum of God’s word in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He is the Truth. He is the Word. In the OT truth was mediated to humanity through the word of God, which included His righteous rules. Under the OT, those who kept God’s word out of love for Him could expect Him to give them life when they asked for it. Under the NT, those who keep God’s word out of love for Jesus can expect Him to grace them with eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ who kept God’s word perfectly.
Thus the prayer of the psalmist is fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He it is who is the epitome of God’s hesed and He it is who is the sum of God’s emeth.
You think about that.
MM
