HEBREW WORD STUDY – THE WEIGHT OF HIS LOVE – KABOD כבד   Kap Beth Daleth

Psalms 3:3 “But thou O’Lord art a shield to me, the glory and the lifter of my heard.”

This Psalm was written in probably the worst moment of David’s life.  His beloved son, whom David named Absalom which means father of peace, had been anything but peaceful. He revolted against his father, started a revolution, seized the throne from his father and sent his father off into exile with a few of his followers and then formed a posse to go out after him and kill him.  Then if things were not bad enough, as David was fleeing the kingdom with his few loyal followers, some Benjamite starts throwing rocks at him shouting out that he is getting what he deserves.  

One of David’s loyal servants steps up and says: “Why should this dead dog insult the king, you just say the word and I’ll go lop his head off.”    I have always been moved by David’s response. “No, let him throw rocks, perhaps God will have some mercy on me.” Here David was at his lowest point, he was a failure as a king, his vocation or career was gone. He had lost everything, his wealth, power, and friends, and probably his worst feeling was that he had failed as a father. But I think there was something worse than that, he probably felt he had failed God.  I believe when he instructed his servant to let the Benjamite continue throwing rocks at him, he really believed God was behind it, that God was trying to show him a way back to his love and presence.

I think many of us at one time or another have faced a real failure and as a result of that failure, someone starts to throw “rocks” at us.   I remember such a time in my life and someone that I had really hurt due to my own selfishness started to throw verbal rocks at me.  A loyal friend suggests I not stand for it.  But, like David, the only thing I could think was: “No, let that person continue to throw the verbal rocks, perhaps this realization of my personal failure will lead me back to God. 

In the midst of this sorrow, David declares that God is the glory and the lifter of his head.  What in the blazes does that mean? The word lifter is merim.  This is in a Hiphil participial form. Our Hebrew class will be learning this verbal stem next Tuesday. This would really be rendered as: “God is causing my head to be continually lifted.  What did David mean?  He is totally discouraged.  There might have been some encouraging reports that all is not lost.  He may have followers who declare their loyalty to him and will fight to the death to reestablish him on his throne. Yet, none of that will encourage him.  It was God and God alone who would encourage him. So what does that mean that God is his glory? 

The word glory is kabod in Hebrew.  It means to be weighty.  It also means to honor, to have splendor and to be abundant in riches. I suppose we could say that David is inferring that all his honor, splendor and riches is in God. There is another word for all that, it is love. Honor, glory, and splendor that you receive from someone is rooted in love. Thus it was the love of God that lifted David’s head. In spite of all his failure, his circumstances, God somehow assured him: “You still got me, good buddy, I still love you like I always have.”  

So what about this weightiness in kabod.  Only if you have really been low, I mean very low, have lost everything, felt totally abandoned and hopeless and then felt the love of God descend upon you can you understand kabod. It is truly like a weight, a weight of pure love descending upon you.  It causes you to lift your head, look up to heaven, spin around in a circle and weep, weep out of pure joy.  Kabod is a weight that doesn’t press you down but lifts you up. 
They say “You can’t take it with you” but there is one thing you can take with you when you pass from this life that is God’s kabod, the weight of His love.

There is an old song we used to sing when I was a child:

Love lifted me,

Love lifted me,

When nothing else could help

Love lifted me.

If you ever end up like David, in the midst of despair, just turn your face to heaven, throw out your arms and receive that kabod, feel the weight of His love and let it lift you up. It kind of makes it worth losing everything, to just experience his kabod.

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