Open Skies

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, March 1, 2026:
Second Sunday of Lent

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Psalm 33

​R. Let your love be upon us, Lord, even as we hope in you.

The word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

​R. Let your love be upon us, Lord, even as we hope in you.

Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine. 

​R. Let your love be upon us, Lord, even as we hope in you.

Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and shield.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord,
​be upon us, even as we hope in you. 

​R. Let your love be upon us, Lord, even as we hope in you.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

A psalm in three stanzas on God’s steadfast love, each building on the other.

The earth is full of it.
    God sees when people see it and respond to it.
        Let that be us, perceiving and receiving it.

But what is it? I’ve actually often wondered about this phrase “steadfast love.” It shows up in quite a few psalms, and some translations of the Hebrew works of poetry simply call it “kindness” or maybe “loving kindness.” So I finally took a look. The word behind them all is HESED, and it carries quite a load and holds a weighty impact. It is a relational, loyal, and covenantal love that is unwavering, regardless of what it meets. That encompasses mercy and faithfulness and goodness. A loyalty that has nothing to do with duty, and a love that doesn’t stop at emotion but moves into practice. It’s something that is core to who God is, and something that becomes core to those who hope in Him, living out the type of interpersonal steadfast loving kindness that repairs the world.

Holding all of that in your hand, come back to the three stanzas and place this understanding into the pieces that build on each other.

The Earth is full of God’s steadfast love. It is everywhere. All our lives, and the lives of all who came before us, and of all who will come after us, are spent walking through an existence redolent with His steadfast love. We just can’t see it on our own because we, like the world, are broken. Like the 14 stars seen in the night sky of Toronto, touchpoints of steadfast love may appear to be few and far between, great gaps of blackness between each dim pinprick of light, but that is the illusion. Remove the light of the city, and reality sets in. In the blanket of stars above, you can’t even fit your pinky finger between light and light. That is the unseen reality, the solidity of His steadfast love.

God sees when people see His steadfast love and respond to it. Grace moves throughout people’s lives, creating tears in their veils, tears in the cauls that keep them from seeing the nearness of His steadfast love, and giving them momentary glimpses of the reality they would otherwise be unable to grasp. These small experiences build hope in this reality, until there are enough of them that the hope becomes firm enough to walk on. Standing on that firmness, they start to become the points of grace for others, each act of loving kindness creating tears in the cauls that cover the eyes of others so that they can begin to see the reality of His steadfast love too.  

Let that be us, perceiving and receiving God’s steadfast love. This is The Ask. That we could move from blindness to sight, and then from sighted to filled, and from filled to overflowing. Joining with Him in repairing the world by living out His wondrous and weighty loving kindness, making it small enough for people to see. Kindness may seem a small thing, but it’s not. Small touch. Big impact. Like a soapy finger touching pepper floating in a cup of water. One touch and the darkness runs away to the edges, creating an opening.




Noreen Smith​

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