The Israelites, emerging out of the polytheistic culture of the ancient Middle East, with their often-violent gods, developed their own understanding of the divine mystery. Their God, YHWH, was both transcendent and immanent, unknowable and accompanying his people, the creator and sustainer of the heavens and the earth, compassionate, a God whose characteristic was his hesed or loving kindness, a theme repeated endlessly in the psalms. This God was a God who saves, delivering his people from bondage, intervening in their lives, pardoning their sins and offenses, hearing the cries of the poor, leading them into a land of promise, and yet so unlike the gods of their neighbors, demanding righteousness and justice of his people. A brief final chapter explores the tradition of praying the psalms from the early desert fathers and mothers to the Liturgy of the Hours today.
