Psalm 31:23 – “Yes”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³Love the LORD, the all of His loved ones. The LORD guards faithful ones and repays abundantly one doing pride.

As I said earlier, I’ve enjoyed this Psalm so much, I’m loathe to leave it; so I’m dragging my feet. Actually there are a few more thoughts from my study which I’d like to post anyway, so ...

I’ve translated above, “Love the LORD, the all of His loved ones.” My “His loved ones” gets translated in many ways, such as “His saints,” “His faithful people,” “His godly ones,” “His righteous ones,” “His merciful ones,” etc., etc. 

I suspect the problem is no one really knows for sure what David meant. The Hebrew word would be transliterated something like “hasadim,” which is the name of the ultra-orthodox Jewish people today. I think today, if someone asked of that group, “But what does ‘Hasadim’ mean?” they’d get the same answer, “Well …” It basically ends up just meaning “followers.”

For me, the thing is that the basic meaning of the word “hesed” is love, which is why I translated it “loved ones.” Unfortunately, even that is debated. There was quite a movement in the 20^th century to play down the idea that the word means love. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just say I found their arguments unconvincing. It means “love” and so I’ve translated “hasadim” as “loved ones.” But, having done that, I acknowledge it could, even by David’s time, have become just a general designation for followers of the Lord. So, we’ll just leave it lie. One way or another, it’s simply referring to God’s people.

And then we notice what David refers to, which he thinks calls forth this love to the Lord. It is the plain simple fact that He guards the faithful ones and pays back the proud one in full. We believers enjoy the enviable privilege of knowing all day every day our Lord is “guarding” us. It’s back to His “hedge” about us. David started the Psalm saying, “In You I have taken refuge.” As I have often lamented, this world is a very scary place and certainly we believers are not immune to its endless cruelties. We do pass through the fires. We get hurt; we get sick; we slip and fall and break our arms; we get cancer and die; we get robbed; we may be bereaved of children; we may or may not suffer every misery in the book – to which David referred in vv. 9-13 – but, as he concluded then in v.14, “But I trust in You …”

The simple, wonderful fact is that I live “guarded.” It seems like I’ve spent my life learning to trust His promise, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Of course if I was graded on my success, I’d no doubt get F’s all along the way, but I can say it has been wonderful always having promises like that to fall back on. I think I can honestly say it has been a pleasure struggling to believe that promise, to look above my miseries, and then always, always, always, always finding Him faithful to me. While I got F’s, He always got an A+. He has been gloriously good to this undeserving, struggling sinner! I agree with David – just to sit and ponder it all moves my heart to love Him more!

… And it is also true that He pays back the proud one in full. As we observed back in vv. 17,18, I’ve lived long enough and enjoyed grace long enough so that what I really want is for everyone in the whole world to be saved. I can honestly say from my heart I wish the love of Jesus on everyone everywhere, even the cruelest and the most despicable. But. For those who will not and who go on being wicked, calling good evil and evil good, lying and stealing and killing (and running for office to do it more), I’m sorry to have to say it, but I’m glad the Lord knows who they are.

And I’m glad He does pay them back in full. I wish they could know mercy, but if they simply will not, then I’m glad they’ll face His justice. It’s interesting that in Hebrew it is singular, “the proud one.” The Lord knows their name. He see them very specifically. They may (and do) form a great crowd, but the Lord sees and notes every single one of them, and, although they sometimes seem to be the richest, the most beautiful, the most famous, the most powerful, it is a comfort to us suffering ones that they will get their due. They will be “put to shame.” They will “lie silent in the grave.” Their lying lips will “be silenced.” Praise God.

Good is good and evil is evil. The world may not see it but our Lord does. For us and our evils, there is mercy and grace. For them and theirs, there will be justice. In this world, it’s easy to look around and say, “It just isn’t fair” – and it’s not. But it will be. It will be because our wonderful Lord is quite on His throne. When Jesus returns, a “sharp sword shall go forth from His mouth, with which to slay the wicked.” We poor stumbling believers will hear Him say, “Enter into the joy of your Lord.” There are sheep and there are goats and our Lord very specifically knows which is which.

I’m glad we’ll have all eternity to praise Him. He’ll deserve every minute of it.

Yes.

May He help us today to be constantly remembering that great goodness and do what David says, “Love Him.”