Sandy’s Devotional

DEVOTIONAL

Your CHESED (loving-kindness), Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.

How priceless is your CHESED (loving-kindness), O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Continue your CHESED (loving-kindness) to those who know you,
    your righteousness to the upright in heart.  Psalm 36:5,7,10

That wonderful word CHESED, appears 246 times in the Old Testament – can hardly be translated into English because of its vast semantic range, so translators had to create a combined word – Loving kindness. There is no word like CHESED – God’s mercy, love, kindness, abundance, undeserving goodness, and more. 

Spurgeon describes a beautiful image of God’s CHESED:  Like the ethereal blue, it encompasses the whole earth, smiling upon universal nature, acting as a canopy for all the creatures of earth, surmounting the loftiest peaks of human provocations, and rising high above the mists of mortal transgression. Clear sky is evermore above, and mercy (CHESED) calmly smiles above the din and smoke of this poor world. Darkness and clouds are but of earth's lower atmospheres: the heavens are ever more serene, and bright with innumerable stars. Divine mercy abides in its vastness of expanse, and matchless patience, all unaltered by the rebellions of man. When we can measure the heavens, then shall we bound the mercy (CHESED) of the Lord. Towards his own servants especially, in the salvation of the Lord Jesus, he has displayed grace (:  Like the ethereal blue, it encompasses the whole earth, smiling upon universal nature, acting as a canopy for all the creatures of earth, surmounting the loftiest peaks of human provocations, and rising high above the mists of mortal transgression. Clear sky is evermore above, and mercy (CHESED) calmly smiles above the din and smoke of this poor world. Darkness and clouds are but of earth's lower atmospheres: the heavens are ever more serene, and bright with innumerable stars. Divine mercy abides in its vastness of expanse, and matchless patience, all unaltered by the rebellions of man. When we can measure the heavens, then shall we bound the mercy (CHESED) of the Lord. Towards his own servants especially, in the salvation of the Lord Jesus, he has displayed grace (CHESED) higher than the heaven of heavens, and wider than the universe. O that the atheist could but see this, how earnestly would he long to become a servant of Jehovah! Far, far above all comprehension is the truth and faithfulness of God. He never fails, nor forgets, nor falters, nor forfeits his word. Afflictions are like clouds, but the divine truthfulness is all around them.