I don’t know if you’ve noticed but relationships can be fickle.  Through my nearly 67 years of life, I have seen too many close relationships fall apart due to betrayal, rejection, neglect and disagreement.  My natural inclination is to guard myself from future hurts and begin to believe that you can’t REALLY count on anyone. BUT GOD!  The Old Testament, written in Hebrew, reveals a God who can be counted upon no matter what.  The Hebrew word chesed occurs 246 times in the Old Testament. At its root it describes a promise-keeping loyalty that is motivated by personal care.  It is most often translated as mercy but 30 times the translators used the word “lovingkindness”.  

 

Lovingkindness can be shared on the human level, from man to man but most often in Scripture, the lovingkindness is from God to us.  Our God is fiercely loyal and loving, even when we are at our worst.  When Joseph found himself cast into prison because of false accusations, the Lord showed him lovingkindess (chesed translated “mercy) and gave him favor in the eyes of the prison keeper (Gen. 39:21).  When Naomi lost her husband and her sons and returned with one daughter-in-law to the land of her ancestors as a bitter woman, the Lord revealed a close kinsman redeemer because He had not forgotten his lovingkindness (chesed translated as kindness, Ruth 2:20).  

 

Years ago when my struggle with same-sex attraction and my desire to serve God spiraled me into a deep depression (“a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” James 1:8) I found myself in a psychiatric hospital.  The first week I was angry, confused and despondent.  My wife brought me my Bible, which I ignored that first week.  Finally, one night I crept out into the hallway with my Bible and turned to the Psalms, desperately seeking hope.  I found Psalm 40:11, “Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord: Let your lovingkindness and truth continually preserve me.”  That one word grabbed ahold of my heart.  In spite of my sin, my struggles, my past… God’s love, mercy, kindness were present and would be … continually.  In the 30 plus years since that night, I have found it to be true.  He extends toward me a promise-keeping loyalty that is motivated by His personal care for ME!

 

I don’t know who may have hurt you, abandoned you, rejected you, betrayed you… but I do know “His lovingkindness is better than life” (Ps 63:3) and His mercy (chesed) endures forever!