Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God. Psalm 86:1-2 (ESV)
Whenever I read Psalms like this, I stumble over parts of it. The "poor and needy" part I get, and the "trusts in you" part (though still wrestling there). But the "I am godly" part? I'm not so sure about that. It sounds so presumptuous and unobtainable. What does it mean?
The phrase translated "I am godly" above is variously translated "I am devoted," "I am faithful," and "I am holy (!)." The word is chasid, or hasid (חָסִיד). It is used a lot in the Psalms.
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants (chasid: saints ESV, godly ones NASB). Psalm 116:15 (NIV)
Gather to me my faithful ones (chasid: consecrated people NIV, saints NKJV, godly ones NASB), who made a covenant with me by sacrifice! Psalm 50:5 (ESV)
I was surprised to learn that the primary meaning of the word chasid is "kind, [therefore] pious" ... "because kindness, as prominent in the godly, comes to imply other attributes, and to be a designation of the godly character, piety."1
Kindness! Not some form of religious perfection, but kindness is "prominent in the godly," the kind and merciful ones. According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon "God is wholly love, his nature is summed up in love." The godly – those who are like God – are kind, because God is kind.
Kindness is not what the world (and some believers) first think about the Old Testament God. Most think of wrath and judgement. That is the result of an ancient slander attack on the character of God.
"Satan's first attack upon the human race was his sly effort to destroy Eve's confidence in the kindness of God." -- A.W. Tozer, The Root of Righteousness
Yes, God is just, because true, pure love must seek justice. God gets angry at injustice. He cannot blink at things like child abuse and killing or injustice and oppression. But God's true nature, the exact representation of his being, is expressed in the New Testament in Jesus.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God … Ephesians 2:6-8
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. Titus 3:4-5
"Kindness; crhstoths the word signifies one's easiness to do good to another; that native goodness that is in God, rendering him inclinable to love, and prone to do good unto the sons of men. This was in God from eternity, but appeared in his sending Christ ..." -- Matthew Poole's Commentary
God expressed his eternal kindness by sending Jesus, whose burden is light and whose very yoke is kindness.
I don't believe it is in me to truly love and be kind to others unselfishly, unself-polluted, or disinterested (without thought of personal gain) as the characters in a Jane Austen novel would say. Only God knows the motives of my heart and can change them.
But God, as shown to us in Jesus Christ, is natively kind. His love is Himself. And in letting go of every conscious and unconscious motive, placing them in His hands, and clothing myself with Jesus' perfect life and motivation, I can also have his life-giving, native kindness in me. If I abide in Him, I can have his Love spring out of my heart and life. In his strength, I can make a covenant by sacrifice. My life crucified with his. He graciously responds by filling me with His love and kindness. And I become the chasid.
He made you holy ("likeness of nature with the Lord" because "different from the world"2) by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours. 1 Corinthians 1:2 (NLT)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
"Imitate Christ in your loving spirits; speak kindly, act kindly, and think kindly, that men may say of you, 'He has been with Jesus.'" -- Charles H. Spurgeon3
1Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon.
2HELPS Word-studies, by Discovery Bible.
3Christ's People – Imitators of Him, Sermon #21, The New Park Street Pulpit 1, Vol. 11. Delivered on Sabbath morning, April 29, 1855, at Exeter Hall, Strand. https://www.spurgeongems.org/sermon/chs21.pdf
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