The Hinge of Hesed: God's Unfailing Love in the Face of Our Unending Failure Text: Psalm 106:40-46
Introduction: The Covenant Seesaw
Psalm 106 is a long, hard look in the rearview mirror of Israel's history. And what we see is not pretty. It is a highlight reel of rebellion, a catalog of carnality, a litany of faithlessness. From the Red Sea to the Promised Land, the story is one of God's mighty acts of salvation met with Israel's stiff-necked, short-term memory ingratitude. They saw His wonders in Egypt and provoked Him at the sea. He gave them their request for meat and sent leanness into their souls. They made a calf in Horeb and exchanged their glory for the image of an ox that eats grass. It is a relentlessly depressing account of human sin.
And this brings us to a central problem that every honest Christian must face. Given our track record, given our propensity to wander, given the deep-seated treachery of our own hearts, why does God stick with us? Why doesn't He just cut His losses and walk away? The world operates on a performance basis. You produce, or you're out. You keep your end of the bargain, or the deal is off. But the covenant of grace operates on a different principle entirely.
The passage before us this morning is the pivot point of the whole psalm. It is the hinge upon which the entire history of redemption turns. After detailing forty verses of Israel's sin, the psalmist now explains the divine response. And it is a response of anger, judgment, and abandonment. But just when we think the story is over, just when we see Israel sinking under the waves of their own iniquity, God does something utterly contrary to our expectations. He remembers. He relents. He shows compassion. This is the covenant seesaw: man's sin drives him down into judgment, but God's covenant love, His hesed, is the immovable anchor on the other side that brings him back up. Understanding this rhythm is central to understanding not just Israel's story, but your own.
The Text
So the anger of Yahweh was kindled against His people And He abhorred His inheritance. Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, And those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, And they were subdued under their hand. Many times He would deliver them; But they were rebellious in their counsel, And so they sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless He looked upon their distress When He heard their cry of lamentation; And He remembered for them His covenant, And relented according to the abundance of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors.
(Psalm 106:40-46 LSB)
The Heat of Holy Anger (v. 40)
The first part of God's response to Israel's persistent rebellion is His righteous anger.
"So the anger of Yahweh was kindled against His people And He abhorred His inheritance." (Psalm 106:40)
We must not try to soften this. Our modern sensibilities are often offended by the idea of God's anger. We want a God who is all soft pastels, a celestial grandfather who pats us on the head and says, "Boys will be boys." But the God of the Bible is a consuming fire. His anger is not like our petty, selfish tantrums. His anger is the settled, holy, and righteous opposition of His character to all that is evil. For God not to be angry at sin would be for Him to be less than good. If you saw a man abusing a child and you felt no anger, we would rightly question your moral character. God's anger is kindled because He loves righteousness and hates iniquity.
Notice who this anger is directed against: "His people," "His inheritance." This is a family dispute. God's anger burns hottest against those who are closest to Him, because their sin is a greater betrayal. The world sins in ignorance, but Israel sinned against the full light of God's revelation and the fresh memory of His salvation. This is covenantal wrath. And it leads to a shocking statement: "He abhorred His inheritance." To abhor something is to loathe it, to find it detestable. This is what their sin had made them in the sight of a holy God. Their idolatry was spiritual adultery, and it provoked the righteous jealousy of the divine Husband.
The Logic of Judgment (v. 41-42)
This divine anger is not just an emotion; it has consequences. God acts on His abhorrence.
"Then He gave them into the hand of the nations, And those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them, And they were subdued under their hand." (Psalm 106:41-42)
This is the consistent pattern we see throughout the book of Judges and beyond. When Israel abandoned Yahweh to serve the Baals, Yahweh abandoned them to the surrounding nations. The judgment fits the crime. They wanted to be like the nations, so God said, "Fine. You can be ruled by the nations." They wanted to serve other gods, so God let them feel the harsh service of pagan kings. This is not arbitrary punishment. God is teaching them a lesson in contrasts. He is saying, "You think My yoke is heavy? Try the yoke of the Philistines. You think My commandments are burdensome? See how you like the decrees of Mesopotamia."
God gives them over. This is one of the most terrifying forms of divine judgment described in Scripture. Paul picks up this theme in Romans 1, where God "gave them up" to their lusts. When a man or a nation is determined to sin, the day comes when God removes His restraining hand and lets them have what they want, good and hard. He lets sin run its course, so that the misery of the consequences might drive them back to Him. The oppression and subjugation they experienced were the natural, God-ordained fruit of their rebellion.
The Stubborn Cycle (v. 43)
This was not a one-time event. It was a recurring, nauseating cycle of sin and grace.
"Many times He would deliver them; But they were rebellious in their counsel, And so they sank down in their iniquity." (Psalm 106:43)
Here is the story of the book of Judges in a single verse. Sin, oppression, crying out, deliverance, rest, and then back to sin again. "Many times" God delivered them. Think of Othniel, Ehud, Deborah, Gideon. God kept raising up saviors. He kept showing mercy. But what was their response? "They were rebellious in their counsel." This means their rebellion was not a momentary lapse; it was their settled policy, their chosen strategy. They were stiff-necked. They were determined to go their own way.
The result is a spiritual sinking. "They sank down in their iniquity." Sin is a weight. It always drags you down. It promises freedom but delivers bondage. It promises to lift you up but only pushes you lower and lower into the mire. They were not just brought low by their enemies; they were brought low by their own choices, by their own sin. This is the tragic autonomy of the sinner. Left to himself, he will always choose the path that leads downward.
The Divine Nevertheless (v. 44-46)
Just as the story reaches its lowest point, we come to the great turning point of the psalm, introduced by that glorious word, "Nevertheless."
"Nevertheless He looked upon their distress When He heard their cry of lamentation; And He remembered for them His covenant, And relented according to the abundance of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors." (Psalm 106:44-46)
This "nevertheless" is the gospel in a nutshell. It is God's interruption of the logical consequences of our sin. Based on their behavior, they deserved to sink all the way to the bottom. But God intervened. Why? Not because they had cleaned up their act. Not because they presented a compelling case for their own rehabilitation. No, the basis for God's action is found entirely within Himself.
First, He saw their distress and heard their cry. This is the compassion of God. Even though their trouble was self-inflicted, He did not ignore their pain. Their cry was not a cry of sophisticated repentance, but a cry of raw lamentation, a cry of pain. And God, in His mercy, heard it.
Second, and most importantly, "He remembered for them His covenant." This is the bedrock. God's faithfulness is not dependent on our faithfulness. His promises are not contingent on our performance. He made an unconditional covenant with Abraham, and He will not break it. When God "remembers" His covenant, it does not mean it slipped His mind. It means He is now acting publicly on the basis of that covenant promise. Our only hope, in our sin, is that God is a covenant-keeping God. He has bound Himself by an oath.
Third, because He remembered His covenant, He "relented according to the abundance of His lovingkindness." The word for lovingkindness here is hesed. This is one of the great words of the Old Testament. It is covenant love, loyal love, steadfast, unfailing mercy. It is grace that will not let go. God's repentance here is not a changing of His mind as though He were fickle. It is a turning from the course of judgment to the course of mercy, based on the unchanging foundation of His own character and His covenant promises. And He does so not sparingly, but according to the "abundance" of His hesed.
Finally, this internal change in God's disposition has an external effect. "He also made them objects of compassion in the presence of all their captors." God can turn the hearts of pagan kings. He can make the very instruments of His judgment become instruments of His mercy. He did it with the Egyptians at the Exodus, who gave Israel silver and gold. He did it with Cyrus of Persia, who sent the exiles home. God is sovereign not just over His people, but over their enemies as well.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Nevertheless
This entire cycle of sin, judgment, and covenant renewal finds its ultimate expression at the cross of Jesus Christ. In our sin, we were far worse than Israel. We were rebellious in our counsel, dead in our trespasses, and sinking into our iniquity. The anger of God was kindled against us, and He gave us over to the dominion of sin and death.
We were without hope. We had no cry to offer, no covenant to claim on our own merits. But God had a "Nevertheless" for us. "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Ephesians 2:4-5).
At the cross, the full heat of God's holy anger against our sin was poured out upon His own Son. Jesus was abhorred as our inheritance, so that we might be accepted as His. He was given into the hand of His enemies, so that we might be delivered from ours. He sank down into the iniquity that was laid upon Him.
And because He endured the judgment, God can now look upon us and remember His covenant. He relents from His wrath against us, not because we are good, but because Christ was perfect. His action is based entirely on the abundance of His lovingkindness, His hesed, demonstrated and secured at Calvary. He makes us objects of compassion, adopting us as sons and seating us in the heavenly places.
This psalm, therefore, is our story. We are the faithless people. But we have a faithful God. When you feel yourself sinking in your iniquity, when you are overwhelmed by your own recurring foolishness, do not look to your own resolve. Look to God's covenant. Plead His hesed. Take refuge in His great "Nevertheless," which is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For He is the one who turns our lamentation into deliverance, and our judgment into abundant, unfailing, covenant love.