We Must Build this World from Love

Ps. 89:3

Amichai Lau-Lavie (he/him)

Aug 11, 2024

“ I will build this world from love

And you must build this world from love

And if we build this world from love

Then God will build this world from love”

Based on three words from today’s psalm, this powerful song, composed by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, has become an important anthem in many settings including vigil, prayers and protests. Check out this moving rendition in Hebrew, Arabic and English by the Israel-Palestinian Jerusalem Youth Chorus.

The song is based on this verse, from the top Psalm 89, which is also the closing chapter of the third of five books of the Psalms:

כִּֽי־אָמַ֗רְתִּי ע֭וֹלָם חֶ֣סֶד יִבָּנֶ֑ה שָׁמַ֓יִם ׀ תָּכִ֖ן אֱמוּנָתְךָ֣ בָהֶֽם׃

“For I have said, The world is built by love: You establish Your faithfulness in the very heavens.”

But although the psalm begins and goes on for many verses with praises and gratitude for a world rooted in love, and a proud Judean nation with its own beloved King David -- it goes south half way through the psalm.

Where is the love when all is lost?

The psalm is ascribed to the elusive Ethan the Ezrahite - this is the only psalm attributed to him - and most scholars consider him to be among the fabled musicians of David.

But it may be just a flourish as the second half of the psalm seems to clearly indicate the times of the Davidic dynasty’s decline. It is assumed that this psalm - or at least the latter half already describes the destruction of the First Temple, on the Ninth of Av, 586 BCE.

The world may once have been founded in Hesed - Love -- but where is it his love now?? The Psalm includes deep despair and condemnation:

אַיֵּ֤ה ׀ חֲסָדֶ֖יךָ הָרִאשֹׁנִ֥ים ׀ אֲדֹנָ֑י נִשְׁבַּ֥עְתָּ לְ֝דָוִ֗ד בֶּאֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ׃ זְכֹ֣ר אֲ֭דֹנָי חֶרְפַּ֣ת עֲבָדֶ֑יךָ שְׂאֵתִ֥י בְ֝חֵיקִ֗י כׇּל־רַבִּ֥ים עַמִּֽים׃ אֲשֶׁ֤ר חֵרְפ֖וּ אוֹיְבֶ֥יךָ ׀ יְהֹוָ֑ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר חֵ֝רְפ֗וּ עִקְּב֥וֹת מְשִׁיחֶֽךָ׃

O my Sovereign, where is Your solid love of old, from long ago?

The love that You swore to David in Your faithfulness?

Remember, O my Sovereign, the abuse flung at Your servants

that I have carry in my chest from so many nations - how Your enemies, O ETERNAL One, have flung abuse, abuse at Your anointed at every step.

This accusation of God’s betrayal is so harsh that the medieval Judeo-Spanish Biblical commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra added a note about it in his commentary:

“There was in Spain a great and pious sage for whom this psalm was so difficult that he would not recite it and was not able to even hear it, because the psalmist seems to be speaking against the respected God in a negative way.”

Scholars believe that Ibn Ezra was referring to the great poet Rabbi Yehudah Ha’Levi who insisted on loving God and Zion no matter what and eventually died in, or on the way to, Jerusalem.

Ibn Ezra’s comment feels heavy today, and poignant. With all the love that this world is built on, and with the illustrious history we carry - where is the love? What happened to the promise? How and why do the people of David, again and again, find ourselves in mourning and grief, combat and chaotic confusion?

The theological heartaches echoed here linger, as does, we hope, the belief that love is at the core of all and will, somehow, some day, overcome the hatred.

The psalm ends with a declaration of faith, amen and amen, that wraps up this third book of the psalms and lets in a ray of light even in the midst of midsummer grief and darkness. Maybe the ray of light is where we come in - determined to keep believing in a world made for love, and lifting up peacemakers and bridge builders every step of the way. We must build this world with love, whatever the history and however we got here.

Amen and Amen.

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Below the Bible Belt

We Must Build this World from Love

Ps. 89:3

“ I will build this world from love

And you must build this world from love

And if we build this world from love

Then God will build this world from love”

Based on three words from today’s psalm, this powerful song, composed by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, has become an important anthem in many settings including vigil, prayers and protests. Check out this moving rendition in Hebrew, Arabic and English by the Israel-Palestinian Jerusalem Youth Chorus.

The song is based on this verse, from the top Psalm 89, which is also the closing chapter of the third of five books of the Psalms:

כִּֽי־אָמַ֗רְתִּי ע֭וֹלָם חֶ֣סֶד יִבָּנֶ֑ה שָׁמַ֓יִם ׀ תָּכִ֖ן אֱמוּנָתְךָ֣ בָהֶֽם׃

“For I have said, The world is built by love: You establish Your faithfulness in the very heavens.”

Ps. 89:3

But although the psalm begins and goes on for many verses with praises and gratitude for a world rooted in love, and a proud Judean nation with its own beloved King David -- it goes south half way through the psalm.

Where is the love when all is lost?

The psalm is ascribed to the elusive Ethan the Ezrahite - this is the only psalm attributed to him - and most scholars consider him to be among the fabled musicians of David.

But it may be just a flourish as the second half of the psalm seems to clearly indicate the times of the Davidic dynasty’s decline. It is assumed that this psalm - or at least the latter half already describes the destruction of the First Temple, on the Ninth of Av, 586 BCE.

The world may once have been founded in Hesed - Love -- but where is it his love now?? The Psalm includes deep despair and condemnation:

O my Sovereign, where is Your solid love of old, from long ago?

The love that You swore to David in Your faithfulness?

Remember, O my Sovereign, the abuse flung at Your servants

that I have carry in my chest from so many nations - how Your enemies, O ETERNAL One, have flung abuse, abuse at Your anointed at every step.

Ps. 89:50-52

This accusation of God’s betrayal is so harsh that the medieval Judeo-Spanish Biblical commentator, Abraham ibn Ezra added a note about it in his commentary:

“There was in Spain a great and pious sage for whom this psalm was so difficult that he would not recite it and was not able to even hear it, because the psalmist seems to be speaking against the respected God in a negative way.”

Scholars believe that Ibn Ezra was referring to the great poet Rabbi Yehudah Ha’Levi who insisted on loving God and Zion no matter what and eventually died in, or on the way to, Jerusalem.

The theological heartaches echoed here linger, as does, we hope, the belief that love is at the core of all and will, somehow, some day, overcome the hatred.

Amen and Amen.

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