Have you ever been at a loss for words because of something so beautiful? The first time my family drove through Zion National Park in Utah, I was completely overwhelmed by what I saw. Growing up by the beach, the towering rock faces seemed like something from a distant planet. We took hundreds of pictures, but not one of them captured the grandeur of what we were seeing with our eyes. As I attempted to describe the scene to friends after our trip, I couldn’t articulate the wonder we felt. You just have to see it for yourself!
Some things are too marvelous for words, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give a description our best shot. A biblical word that has proved characteristically inexpressible is the Hebrew word hesed. In fact, musician and theologian Michael Card’s book, Inexpressible, spends twenty chapters exploring the depth of hesed. By itself, the word has been translated as love, lovingkindness, merciful love, steadfast love, unfailing love, covenant love, everlasting kindness, persistent faithfulness, immense favor, unswerving love—and that’s just a small fraction of English Bible translations. Scholars have struggled to define this word due to its breadth of meaning. Card writes,
We might say that hesed is a word with an enormous mass. The greater the size of the object, the greater the gravitational pull it exerts. … One of the fascinating features of hesed is its tendency to draw other words to itself by meaning of its “linguistic gravity.” It’s as if in struggling to express the inexpressible, the original writer was forced to enlist other words besides hesed to help convey its meaning.[1]
Because of its gravitational pull, other Hebrew words often accompany hesed, like covenant (Deut. 7:9), justice (Jer. 9:24), goodness (Ps. 86:5), and most frequently, truth or faithfulness. An entire family of words tries (somewhat unsuccessfully) to capture the full meaning of this Hebrew noun. Frequently, it’s used in contexts describing God’s gracious interactions with humanity—times in history where he made loving promises with people who had not earned his hesed. It’s associated with guidance (Ps. 23:6) and preservation (Prov. 20:28). God’s people throughout the Bible longed for his hesed (Gen. 24:12; Ps. 89:49), and fortunately for them, he gave it abundantly! When the LORD revealed himself to Moses, he identified himself as, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love [hesed] and faithfulnesss.” (Exod. 34:6)
What an amazing thing to experience! Who wouldn’t want someone to love them with unswerving mercy? God says, “That’s the kind of love I have for my children”—a love that’s inexpressible.
The Incarnate One, Full of Hesed
If you long for this love, there’s good news. God didn’t just show the Old Testament believers his hesed, he revealed it to all humanity in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. When the apostle John described the incarnation of the Son of God, he said, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14, emphasis added). John was a Jew, writing in Greek. When he says that the Incarnate One, Jesus, is full of grace and truth, he’s echoing the words of Exodus 34:6. This Jesus is abounding in hesed: He’s “full of steadfast love [grace] and faithfulness [truth].” Not only is John identifying Jesus as God, he’s also giving us the best definition and clearest sight of God’s inexpressible love. Everything else is just a polaroid, but in Jesus we see with our eyes the towering face of glory. We witness this steadfast love in his unflinching mission, from the cradle to the cross, for his people. That’s hesed!
[1] Michael Card, Inexpressible, p. 11.
