The psalmist encourages us to give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love, compassion, goodness, lovingkindness, grace and mercy never ends (Psalm 107:1). After this encouragement to give thanks to the Lord, the psalmist mentions four different groups of people who are returning from exile. We looked at the first of these four groups a few weeks ago, but since I missed the past two weeks, we will be looking at the other three groups today. Just like we saw with the first group of returning exiles in Psalm 107, each of these groups find themselves in a difficult situation, then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and the Lord delivers them from their distress. Each time, the psalmist follows this up with these words: “Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man!” (Psalm 107:8).

We will be continuing our study from Psalm 107 today—focusing in on the concept of the Lord’s HESED to those who have been exiled from the Promised Land. The concept of restoration is a big part of Psalm 107. In this psalm, the author declares that the restoration is available through God’s HESED even to those in despair.

For the next six weeks, we will be studying through Psalm 107 with a particular focus on the steadfast love (HESED) of God. This Hebrew word is one of the most difficult words to translate because of the depth and breadth of its meaning. This Hebrew word carries the sense of an enduring connection that brings life and all good things into a relationship. In Psalm 107:1, HESED is translated thirteen different ways in English Bibles—love, favor, grace, mercy, kindness, goodness, loyal-love, compassion, benevolence, faithful-love, gracious-love, steadfast-love, and lovingkindness. HESED means all of those things and even more!