Who's Your Valentine

The month of February is always adorned with hearts (paper hearts, hearts on balloons, heart shaped boxes full of chocolate) and the colors of white, red, and pink. The location of Valentine’s Day on February 14th, the holiday commercialism has given the greatest prominence to among those celebrated in the month, makes us think of romantic love when we think of February. Originally the day was associated with two early Christian martyrs by the name Valentine from the 3rd century. It had no association with romantic love until the 14th century, and even then it wasn’t until the 1800’s in England when it began to take on a form familiar to what is celebrated by most today, with the exchanging of letters, poems, or cards, i.e. “valentines.” But since it has us thinking about the topic of love, let us continue. However, I want us to think about a different love. Rather than the romantic love, cheapened as it is by our culture, I want us to think about a loyal, steadfast love, the love our Creator has for His people.

Many of you are now anticipating a discussion of the Greek verb agapao (or its cognate agape), which so many writers have invested with special meaning as the unconditional love of God. This is opposed to another Greek verb for “to love,” phileo. But D. A. Carson has already shown in his book Exegetical Fallacies the errors of such distinctions. He adds the following footnote that is helpful for our purpose here, "Perhaps I should add that I am not suggesting there is nothing distinctive about God’s love. The Scriptures insist there is. But the content of God’s love is not connected on a one-to-one basis with the semantic range of any single word or word group. What the Bible has to say about the love of God is conveyed by sentences, paragraphs, discourses, and so forth; that is by larger semantic units than the word" (53).

Having received Carson’s wise hermeneutical counsel let us see what we can learn about God’s love for His people by studying that love described by the Hebrew noun hesed in the context of Psalm 103. Hesed occurs 246 times in the Old Testament, over half of which are found in the Psalms (NIDOT Vol II 211). It is used 4 times in Ps 103 and we learn at least 4 things about the lovingkindness of God here.

Ps 103 expresses praise for the benefits, the blessings of God. The first paragraph, vv. 1-5, focuses on God’s benefits for the individual. All those who can say with David “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is with in me, bless His holy name, bless the Lord O my soul, and forget none of His benefits,” those who have put their faith in Him, have received the benefits enumerated in the next three verses. One of which introduces us to our word hesed, “lovingkindness.” Verse 4 tells us that we are crowned by God with His lovingkindness. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB) informs us that the basic meaning of the word is “goodness, kindness” (338-339). When you survey its occurrences differences emerge when it is used of men or of God. When used of people it can refer to favors shown to another, a kindness. It can be used especially of a kindness shown to those who are lowly. Rarely will it describe a person’s affection for God, or of something’s lovely appearance. When used of God, as it is all four times in Ps 103, it refers to God’s “lovingkindness in condescending to the needs of his creatures.” It is used of God’s lovingkindness; “in redemption from enemies or troubles,” “in preservation of life from death,” “in quickening of spiritual life,” “in redemption from sin,” and “in keeping the covenants.” It is also sometimes “grouped with other divine attributes,” and that is what we find here in v.4, “Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion.” We also can see here the lovingkindness of God as redeeming us from trouble, if not actually preserving us from death, since VanGemeren (Expositor’s Vol. 5 652) and Calvin (127) see the lovingkindness and compassion (v. 4b) as the means by which we are redeemed from the pit (v. 4a).

The next three uses in Ps 103 teach us more about the lovingkindness of God. First it is abundant. Verse 8 says, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.” In this, the second section of the psalm (vv. 6-14), David has moved from the benefits to the individual to the benefits received by the community of God’s people. Second, also in this section we learn that not only is God’s hesed abundant, it is also great in its extent (“extent” is BDB’s word, but “degree” seems a better description here). Verse 11 says, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.” Calvin says of this verse that, “The form of expression is equivalent to saying that God’s mercy towards us is infinite” (135). The third quality of God’s hesed is found in its use in the third section of the psalm, in v. 17, “But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” God’s hesed for His people is abundant, great, and everlasting, it will never run out.

There is a forth quality of God’s hesed we see manifest in Ps 103 (explicitly in the last two uses, though evident from the context in all four) which we learn from the objects of His hesed. In v. 11 it is said that His hesed is “toward those who fear Him,” and in v. 17 it is “on those who fear Him.” VanGemeren says, “The love of God is not indiscriminate. He loves those ‘who fear Him’” (Expositor’s Vol 5 654). The Hebrew word here translated “fear” is yare. The basic meaning is “fear,” but the semantic range goes from terror, to “standing in awe of,” and in its three uses here in Ps 103 (vv. 11, 13, and 17) it is translated by “fear, reverence, or honor” (BDB 431). It is “clear from the cultic context of the Psalms that this use of fear is more closely associated with worship than terror. It is recorded [of those who “fear” God] that they praise, glorify, and stand in awe of YaHWeH” (NIDOT Vol. II 531). Only those who reverence, worship, praise, and glorify God, will receive His lovingkindness. When we learn to value God supremely, we will enjoy His hesed.

As this month reminds us of love, let us remember how God loves, how He loves each one of us, and let us endeavor to show that kind of love to one another.