Let not loving-kindness and truth forsake thee; bind them about thy neck, write them upon the tablet of thy heart
A father tells his son to keep two qualities close — bound where people can see, written where they cannot. Older translations call them "mercy and truth" or "loving-kindness and truth"; the ESV calls them "steadfast love and faithfulness". What are they, and why are they always named together?
Mercy and Truth Are Grace and Truth
These two words are not just an ideal to admire. One writer matches them with words used of Christ, and finds His own life traced here.
There is another point of great interest here. The language used here matches perfectly what history records of the Lord. "Let not grace and truth forsake you," is said to the young men. Now "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was that, its perfection, which the young man was to seek to keep. It is added, "You shall find favour and acceptance with God and man." "So Christ increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." And He was subject to Joseph and His mother. It is deeply interesting to find in Christ what wisdom is here sketching out as the divine path of man on the earth.
Something to Rely On, Not Only to Practise
The command is negative: do not let these go. One writer hears in it a call to trust mercy and truth, and to keep trusting them always.
As we know that "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," the Israelite was urged to cherish confidence in mercy, or loving-kindness, and truth. Let them "not forsake you," is the word. He was entitled to believe and count on them habitually and for ever. "Bind them about your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart." What ornament can compare with them? What inward lesson is so cheering and strengthening!
The Neck and the Heart
The two images do more than decorate. Each names a place where a person goes wrong: a stiff neck, and a hard heart.
Mercy and truth (v. 3) are especially important in our relationships with others. If they are bound "about your neck," they will keep us from being "stiff-necked" or self-opinionated. Written on the tablets of our heart, they will keep us from hard-heartedness. These matter mainly in our dealings with others. Yet they also gain favour and high esteem in God's sight as well as in men's. God wants believers to represent Him rightly before the world (v. 4).
Neither One Without the Other
The two must stay together. One writer makes their blending the test of whether anything will thrive.
Where mercy is not blended with truth, there can be no prosperity. Mercy and truth are met together in Christ. The word is, "Let not mercy and truth forsake you, for so you shall find favour and good understanding (or success) in the sight of God and man." Through our Lord Jesus Christ "grace and truth subsist" now. When we receive of His fullness, it is not truth upon truth, but "grace upon grace." That is the secret of our spiritual success today.
Who Does the Writing Now
The son must write these things on his heart. Believers now have help with that writing. And the promised favour, from God and from people, was seen in full in Christ.
So we see in our perfect pattern. Our Lord certainly found "favour" with God and man in His unequalled path of subjection, as we are told... It was a good and welcome mark of divine approval through devotedness to God's will, without either self-seeking or people-pleasing. Happy, when as here, the answer comes from people around as well as from above, to grace and truth written on the heart! Now too one word, Christ, expresses it all. And the Spirit of the living God is given to us who believe, so that He may be written truly and deeply on those tablets of flesh, our hearts.
Why It Carries Weight
The instruction has authority because of its source, not because of the one delivering it. In Israel it usually came through a parent, but its value lay elsewhere.
What gave it divine value was that it was His teaching, and that the commandments enjoined were His. This alone sanctifies — obeying God, obeying His Word, the effect and proof of love, when any are in relationship with God. Nor do we forget, but remember, what we love and value.
Summary
- Person — Mercy and truth are grace and truth. They came in a Person: the path set out for the son was walked perfectly by Christ.
- Hold — The word is negative: do not let them go. They are yours to count on, not just to achieve.
- Wear — Bound around the neck, they keep a neck from stiffening. No ornament compares with them.
- Write — Written on the heart, they cure hard-heartedness. The Spirit now writes Christ deeply on those tablets of flesh.
- Favour — Keep them together, and verse 4 answers twice: favour from God above, esteem from people around.