Five-minute study · Day 367 · Psalms 143
Psalm 143:8
A word worth stopping on: lovingkindness / covenant loyalty חֶסֶד chesed
'Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.' The Hebrew word for lovingkindness is chesed. It means covenant loyalty, steadfast love, the kind of faithfulness that persists because a promise was made and the promiser will not break it. David asks God for chesed specifically in the morning, at the start of the day, as the first thing he encounters when he opens his eyes. The request is precise: cause me to hear it. He wants chesed to be audible, the first sound of the day, before the noise starts, before the demands begin, before the enemies listed in the previous verses press in again. David is asking for his morning to begin with a word from someone who has promised never to leave.
Word study: lovingkindness / covenant loyalty
- Hebrew
- חֶסֶד
- Pronounced
- chesed
- Strong's
- H2617
- Definition
- Steadfast love, lovingkindness, covenant loyalty, mercy, faithful love. The untranslatable word that describes God's character in relationship: love that persists because of a covenant commitment, loyalty that endures because it was promised.
Chesed appears 248 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB defines it as 'goodness, kindness, faithfulness' and notes two primary semantic domains: (1) kindness between humans (Ruth 3:10, Boaz to Ruth) and (2) God's covenant loyalty toward his people (Exodus 34:6-7, the foundational self-revelation: 'The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness (chesed) and truth').
Goldingay's commentary on Psalms 42-89, though covering a different range than Psalm 143, provides the framework for understanding chesed throughout the Psalter. (The word appears in Psalms more than in any other book: 127 of its 248 occurrences.) Goldingay identifies chesed as the defining attribute of God's relationship with Israel. Chesed is covenantal commitment, love that persists because God bound himself to a people and will not walk away. The word contains obligation, faithfulness, and tenderness simultaneously. No single English word captures it. 'Lovingkindness' (KJV), 'steadfast love' (ESV), 'unfailing love' (NIV), and 'mercy' (Douay-Rheims) each capture a facet.
Psalm 143 is classified as one of the seven penitential psalms (along with Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, and 130). David writes from a position of distress. Verse 3: 'The enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground.' Verse 4: 'Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.' Verse 7: 'Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth.' He is exhausted, hunted, spiritually depleted. Into that depletion, verse 8 makes its request: let me hear your chesed when morning comes.
The timing is significant. Morning in the psalms is frequently the time of divine intervention. Psalm 30:5: 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.' Psalm 90:14: 'O satisfy us early with thy mercy (chesed), that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.' Psalm 59:16: 'I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy (chesed) in the morning.' David's request in 143:8 belongs to this tradition. The night belongs to the enemy. The morning belongs to God. Chesed is what God sends at dawn.
Historical context · c. 1000 BCE - 1st century CE
Morning Prayer in Ancient Israel
The association of morning with divine encounter runs deep in Israelite religion. The daily sacrificial system at the temple included a morning offering (the tamid) performed at dawn (Exodus 29:38-39, Numbers 28:3-4). The lamb was slaughtered, the incense was burned, and the priests began their service as the sun rose over the Mount of Olives. The first official act of Israel's worship each day was an offering to God at first light.
David's request in Psalm 143:8, 'Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness (chesed) in the morning,' reflects this daily rhythm. Even outside the temple, Israelite piety oriented itself around morning prayer. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), Israel's central confession, was recited twice daily: at morning and evening. By the Second Temple period, formal morning prayer (Shacharit) was established as one of the three daily prayer times. The Mishnah (Berakhot 1:1-2) discusses the proper time for reciting the morning Shema, pegging it to the first visible light.
The psalms are saturated with morning imagery. Psalm 5:3: 'My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.' Psalm 88:13: 'in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee.' Psalm 119:147: 'I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried.' The pattern is consistent: the faithful person rises before or at dawn and directs speech toward God.
The cultural background illuminates David's specific request. He does not ask to think about chesed in the morning or to remember it. He asks to hear it. The verb shama (to hear) implies an external communication. David wants God to speak. He wants the chesed delivered to his ears as sound, as a word, as something that enters from outside himself. The morning is when the temple sacrifice began, when the prayers rose, when God's people turned their faces toward him. David asks for that same morning to carry God's voice directly to his ear, announcing: I am still here. The covenant still holds. My loyalty has survived another night.
For reflection
David asked God's chesed to be the first thing he heard in the morning. Before the problems, before the enemies, before the weight of the day landed on him. Think about what your mind encounters first when you wake up. Is it anxiety? A to-do list? The phone screen? What would change if, before any of that, you asked God to let you hear his covenant loyalty? Try it tomorrow. Before you look at your phone, read Psalm 143:8. Make chesed the first word of the day.
The verb is 'cause me to hear.' David does not generate the chesed himself. He asks God to deliver it. Your job is to be listening.
Sources: BDB; Goldingay, "Psalms 42-89"