Hebrew Word Study – Bonding – Chashaq חשק Cheth  Shin Qop

Psalms 91:14: “Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high because he hath known my name.”

“One thing you should never say to your boss if she is a woman: “Isn’t it adorable how your children call their nanny mommy.” Unknown

This seems like a wonderful promise.  What the verse is saying is that because God loves us, He will deliver us. One translation renders it this way: “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.”

This is not saying that God will rescue you because He loves you but because you love Him. I mean, we all love God.  Anyone who considers themselves born again and a Christian will love God.  That is the only requirement to get this rescue and protection from God.  

Of course, there is a little problem as to what do we mean by love.  That gets a little tricky as love means many things to many people.  Most all our major translations will render this word chashaq as love.  Yet, there are two other words in the Hebrew that are also translated as love in English.  There is ahav which is your standard word for love. This love covers your romantic love, sacrificial love, love for a parent, sibling, mate, and love for your pet dog Sparky and for Big Macs. This is the word you would use for the love of two teenage twinkies who are holding hands, staring into each other’s eyes, and each sharing an earbud to their iPhone listening to their song.   It is a love of many different levels.  Racham is the ultimate love, the exclusive love that only comes from God, a perfect love. Then we have the word used here, which is chashaq.

Some translations render chashaq as to delight in Him or to set your will upon Him, to focus on Him, be devoted to Him or to hold fast in love.  As you can see this love may not be the type of love you think of when you are loving God. 

Tracing this word back to it Semitic root you find it has its origins in saddling a horse. There is only one reason you saddle a horse and that is that you plan to join yourself with that horse that is going to take you on a journey. The basic root concept of the word is to bind or join together or to bond.

In 1935 the British developmental psychologist John Bowlby published a paper called: “The Nature of the Child’s Tie to His Mother” which introduced the attachment theory or what we call today as bonding.   Modern parents today are very concerned about bonding with a child.  A father will want to be in the delivery room when his wife gives birth to their child so he will bond with the child and mother.  But bonding it not just between parents and their children.  I heard where an aunt bonded with her nephews as she practically raised her nephews as the natural mother was unable to spend the time with the children.  There is a stronger attachment to the aunt than to the mother.   I had a student who given up to foster care as a child and was raised by foster parents who later adopted him.  He said he met his biological mother and he emphasized biological mother because he said his real mother was the one he bonded with the one who adopted him and raised him.  There is a bonding between friends.  I read where a Navy Seal threw himself on a grenade and died to save the lives of his friends that he had only known for a few years but had bonded with them during their training.  In fact, it has been proven that you can bond with a pet like your dog or cat and I recently read where a dog died saving a child’s life. The dog was the child’s pet and the parents said that the child had developed a special bond with his pet.  It has been shown that even animals can bond with each other. This bonding is a special type of relationship.  Love is a necessary element to this relationship, but not love alone creates a bonding.  A mother may love her child and the child may love her, but the child may also love his nanny and may actually bond with the nanny and not the mother. 

So, I believe to render this passage as because he loves me I will rescue him and protect him is not entirely accurate.  The word ahav should have been used if that is all we are talking about.  But the word chashaq is used.  To really be accurate you would need to say because he loves me, has returned my love, and bonded with me I will rescue him and protect him. 

This word chashaq has as Laura coined the term, “a built-in commentary”.  The word is spelled with a Cheth which represents a bonding between man and God.  The next letter is a Shin which expresses the passionate love of God and the final letter is a Qop which shows a completeness and perfection. By bonding with God in his passionate love we are made perfect.

When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute I lived next door in the dormitory to two guys, Bob and Steve who fought constantly.  There could not be two more incompatible people to be roommates than Bob and Steve.  One day I heard the door slam and Bob began pounding on the door, “Open that door, we’re not married you know.”  “I want a divorce” came the reply from Steve.  I opened my door and asked Bob what was going on.  Bob said: “Can you believe this guy, now he is saying he is perfect.”  Immediately the door opened and Steve appeared and declared: “I never claimed perfection, I just said I have a tendency towards it.”  

Actually there was teaching going around from Matthew 5:48:  “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” That indicated that we are indeed meant to be perfect.  Any good Moody student, however, should have known that the word perfect in the Greek is teleioi which does not mean to be faultless but to be complete or reach a maturity. The Aramaic bears this out by using the word gemira which means to be complete as one.  Chashaq is the love that is gemira, a completed love, love that is mature. It goes beyond just loving someone or even experiencing a romance with someone.  This is a love that creates bonding between two people, a bonding that make a husband and wife one, and a bonding that makes you one with God. This is the relationship where you are guaranteed that God will throw himself on a live grenade to save you. Actually, when you think about it, He actually did only it was on a cross.

A lot of Christians love God, but they never really bonded with God. If you want that protection and rescuing of Psalms 91:14 then you really need to bond with God.  My study partner and I discussed this idea of bonding at length today, just what it was and how you do it.  You know what, we knew what it meant to us individually, but to really express it in a universal way seems to be quite impossible. It is different for different people.  Perhaps it is better that way, perhaps it is the way God designed it.  You want to bond with God, figure it out for yourself. The Bible only tells us the benefits of bonding chashaq with God, not how to do it.  Your heart will tell you that.  I guarantee that if you pray to God asking to bond chashaq with Him, He will show away, He did for me.  This book, my daily blog are the result of my prayer to bond chashaq with Him. 

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