Hesed Love

Without a doubt, one of the most personally influential books I read in 2020, and possibly ever, is Michael Card’s Inexpressible, which explores the theme of hesed love—God’s covenantal love and faithfulness, promised to Israel. It’s basically the heartbeat of the Bible. God’s hesed (covenental faithfulness and love) endures forever, and we are to show hesed (mercy) to others, because reflecting his hesed is even more important to God than completing the proper sacrifices. Today’s poem was written for the April 2020 Poem a Day challenge and is all about it.

Hesed Love

Originally written April 21, 2020

O Lord, how can I speak of hesed love?
Your faithfulness—which stretches from the deep
Cold blackness of the sea to skies above—
Which grants to me Your favor when I slee,
And when I go about and face the day,
Absorbed in my own temporary deeds,
And when I fail to follow Your great ways?
Your hesed, Lord, is one great mystery
Of kindness and compassion, given to
We feeble humans, so prone to forget.
Your very self is faithful and is true.
O Lord, I beg You: Please do not regret
Your kindness to us sinful fallen ones,
Who cursed and wounded Your own precious Son.

Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash