Repeat after me: “Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good. His loyal love lasts forever.” If you study that sentence, you might notice there are thirteen English words there. It takes almost double the number of English words to translate or express the thought that Hebrew does in just seven words.
“Hodu YHWH ki tov, ki le’olam hasdo” The first page of scripture tells us about God creating the world, and at the end of every day he says, “It is good.” Why is creation good? Because it comes from a good God!
We give thanks and remember, first of all, that God is good. But there’s more to it than that. Besides creating this world, God has been working with humans from the beginning and one thing is consistent. Even in the face of the most evil or gross human conduct, God responds with hesed or “loyal love.” Hesed is hard to translate, but it arises from longstanding loyalty to a promise. It means the relationship is anchored and will last. God’s loyal love lasts and will not give out. Yahweh is good, and his loyal love doesn’t stop.
You’ll find these same words repeated several times in the Psalms. Psalm 106:1, 107:1, 118:1 and verse 29, and then again in 136:1. Outside of Psalms, we also encounter this prayer in 1 Chronicles 16:34 and in the prophet Jeremiah 33:11. That’s a seven-fold repetition of this temple prayer or lyric.