There is a word in the Hebrew Bible that appears over 250 times in the Old Testament, and yet no single English word can fully capture its meaning. That word is chesed. It is the word behind phrases like "steadfast love," "mercy," "loving kindness," and "faithfulness." And once you understand what it really means, it has the power to completely reshape how you see God and how you see yourself.

Psalm 136 is known in Jewish tradition as the Great Hallel, meaning the Great Praise. It is a hymn of thanksgiving that was used in congregational worship by leaders like Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Ezra. The worship leader would declare a truth about God, and the congregation would respond with the same line, repeated after every single verse:

"His steadfast love endures forever."

Twenty-six times. That repetition is not accidental. It is intentional. It is Israel rehearsing who God is so they would not forget in the middle of their daily struggles.

The psalm moves through three major themes: the character of God, God as Creator, and God's faithfulness throughout Israel's history from Egypt to the Promised Land.

Before diving into the history of Israel, the psalm pauses on creation. And it is worth pausing there too.

There are an estimated 50 billion known galaxies in space, and we live in one of the smallest. Astronomers estimate there are 10,000 billion trillion stars, a number written as a one followed by 25 zeros. God calls each one by name.

In 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft turned its camera back toward Earth from 3.7 billion miles away. The photo, called the Pale Blue Dot, showed our entire planet as a tiny speck of light in a vast beam of sunlight. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote: "That's here. That's home. That's us. Everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you've ever heard of, every human being who ever was, on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."

When life feels overwhelming, remembering the scale of who God is puts our circumstances in a different light. That is exactly what Israel was doing in Psalm 136.

The psalm walks through some of the most dramatic moments in Israel's story.

• God brought Israel out of 400 years of bondage in Egypt with a strong hand.
• He parted the Red Sea, and an estimated two and a half to three million people walked through on dry ground.
• He led them through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night so they were never lost and always knew He was near.
• He defeated powerful kings and giants, including Og, King of Bashan, who stood approximately 12 feet tall and whose bed measured thirteen and a half feet long.

These were not small obstacles. These were real, formidable enemies. And yet God's faithfulness carried Israel through every single one of them. That is the point of the rehearsal. When you remember what God has done, it builds confidence in what He will do.

The phrase "steadfast love" in Psalm 136 comes from the Hebrew word chesed (pronounced kheh-sed). It is translated in different Bible versions as steadfast love, mercy, loving kindness, and faithfulness. The reason no single English word works is because chesed holds all four of those meanings at the same time, equally.

• Steadfast Love: A love that endures and does not give up, even when things get hard and even when people fail.
• Mercy: The limitless well of not receiving what we actually deserve. Israel rehearsed how many times God withheld judgment they had earned.
• Loving Kindness: A goodness that always shows up, exceeds expectations, and is not driven by feelings or moods. God does not wake up on the wrong side of the bed.
• Faithfulness: A commitment rooted in truth and bound by covenant promise. God keeps His word.

In Exodus 34, when Moses asked God to show Him His glory, God did not respond with signs and wonders. He responded by declaring His character. He passed before Moses and proclaimed:

"The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." - Exodus 34:6-7

That is chesed. And it is how God primarily wants to reveal Himself, not through spectacular events, but through His character displayed in and through people.

Chesed shows up throughout Scripture in powerful ways.

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness (chesed), and to walk humbly with your God." - Micah 6:8

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." - Lamentations 3:22-23

Even Jonah understood chesed, though he was frustrated by it. When God showed compassion to the people of Nineveh after they repented, Jonah said:

"O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish, for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster." - Jonah 4:2

Jonah knew God's chesed would win. And it did.

One of the clearest pictures of chesed in the entire Bible is the story of David and Mephibosheth found in 2 Samuel 9.

Years before David became king, he and Jonathan, the son of King Saul, formed a deep covenant friendship. Jonathan, who had every right to the throne, yielded to God's plan for David. Before they parted, Jonathan asked David to remember his family when David came into power.

Fifteen to twenty years later, David remembered that promise. He searched for anyone remaining from the house of Saul and found Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth. On the day his Father and grandfather were killed in battle, Mephibosheth's nurse had dropped him while fleeing, leaving Him crippled in both feet. He had been living in a place called Lo-debar, which means "no pasture." Forgotten. Alone. With no land, no inheritance, and no future.

When David's messengers arrived, Mephibosheth was understandably afraid. A new king had every cultural right to remove the previous king's family from any blessing. But David said:

"Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your Father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your Father, and you shall eat at my table always." - 2 Samuel 9:7

Mephibosheth's response reveals how hard chesed is to receive when you have been living in a pit:

"What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?" - 2 Samuel 9:8
He could not fathom it. But David did not flinch. He restored Saul's land, arranged for it to be tended and productive, and brought Mephibosheth to eat at the king's table continually. His feet were never healed. His past was not erased. His family history remained complicated. But sitting at the king's table covered all of it.

When you break chesed down into actions, it looks like this:

• A running towards someone in their darkest moment
• A restoring of what was lost
• A raising up to a new position and dignity

That is exactly what God does for us. Nothing about our condition may change immediately, but everything about our position does. We are brought to the king's table.

Chesed is not just a theological concept. It is available to you today, as an individual, as a family, and as a community of faith.

If you look closely at your own story, you will see it. There were moments when there was no hope, and then suddenly there was. Days when you wanted to quit, and something kept you in the game. Seasons where, like Mephibosheth, you felt like a dead dog, unworthy of anything good. And yet God ran toward you.

His chesed has never left you. His steadfast love, mercy, loving kindness, and covenant faithfulness are all still extended to you today.

This week, take time to rehearse your own history with God the way Israel rehearsed theirs in Psalm 136. Write down three to five moments in your life where God showed up when you had no reason to expect it. Let that list become your personal declaration that His chesed endures forever.

Then consider whether there is someone in your life toward whom you need to extend chesed. Is there a relationship that needs repair? Someone you have been running from instead of running toward? Chesed is not only something we receive. It is something we are called to carry into the lives of others.

Ask yourself these questions this week:

• Have I been running away from God while He has been running toward me? What would it look like to stop and let Him catch up?
• Is there an area of my life where I need to repent and realign with God, trusting that His chesed covers me even in that?
• Who in my life needs me to run toward them, restore something broken, or raise them up with kindness and faithfulness?
• When I look at my own story, where can I see evidence that God's steadfast love has never actually left me?

God's chesed is not too good to be true. It is the truest thing about Him. And it endures forever.