Introduction: The Conclusion of the Psalm
We arrive at the conclusion of Psalm 62, at the final two verses where King David summarizes all the foundations of bitachon that he laid out throughout the psalm: might belongs to Hashem, and lovingkindness belongs to Hashem. Many wondrous explanations have been offered on the final verse, and we will examine them one by one.
אַחַת דִּבֶּר אֱלֹהִים שְׁתַּיִם־זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי כִּי עֹז לֵאלֹהִים׃ - One thing God has spoken; two things have I heard: that strength belongs to God.
וּלְךָ אֲדֹנָי חָסֶד כִּי אַתָּה תְשַׁלֵּם לְאִישׁ כְּמַעֲשֵׂהוּ׃ - And Yours, my Lord, is lovingkindness, for You repay a person according to his deed.
Rashi: "According to His Deed" - Not His Actual Deed
Rashi asks: What is the lovingkindness described in this verse? He explains: "For You repay a person according to his deed" - not his actual deed, but only a fraction of it. For if the Holy One, blessed be He, were to exact retribution from us according to what we truly deserve, according to the strict justice due to one who rebels against the King's command - Hashem told me to do one thing and I do the opposite - woe to man! But Yours, Hashem, is the lovingkindness, for You do not repay a person his actual deed, but rather "according to his deed": something resembling his deeds, but not the full punishment that he deserves.
Rashi brings proof for this from the verse in Ezra: "And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, for You, our God, have withheld punishment, holding back below our iniquities, and have given us a remnant such as this" - and so it is expounded in the Aggadah of Tehillim. Rashi there in Ezra completes the picture: You restrained Yourself from collecting the full measure of our iniquity, collecting from us far below our sins, and did not exact retribution from us according to all our misdeeds. In other words, even when the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts payment from us, it is in very small doses compared to what we truly owe. We do not pay the full price - "You held back below our iniquities." Here too: You, Hashem, perform lovingkindness by paying only "according to his deed," even granting discounts at the time of payment.
A Chesed of Strength, Not of Weakness
Rashi offers an additional explanation: Hashem's lovingkindness lies in the fact that He does not exact retribution from the wicked according to what they truly deserve - "for it is in Your power to repay a person according to his deed." The point is profound: often a person does not repay his fellow in kind, not out of forgiveness, but out of weakness - he lacks power, he is afraid, and he worries that if he retaliates he will suffer a double blow. A contemporary example: Iran has been taking blows for a long time and does not retaliate - and may Hashem help that they do not retaliate in the future either - but this failure to respond does not stem from strength, nor from forgiveness, but from fear of the ensuing retaliation.
With the Holy One, blessed be He, it is not so. "Yours, Hashem, is lovingkindness" when You do not punish the wicked according to his evil deeds - and why is this such great lovingkindness? Because with You, there is nothing preventing retribution: "It is in Your power to repay a person according to his deed." You can give a person exactly what he deserves. Strangers desecrate His Sanctuary and the Holy One, blessed be He, remains silent - this is tremendous strength, not the weakness of one who lacks ability. It is in His power to repay a person according to his deed and deliver the appropriate punishment, yet despite all this, He refrains. What tremendous chesed this is from Hashem.
Radak: The Kindness of Advance Warning
Radak explains that the lovingkindness is the very fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, warns us and informs us in advance that He will repay a person according to his deed. He tells us beforehand: know that a person receives according to his deeds. Consequently, a person does not arrive at the checkout stunned. It is like a checkout system that announces the price of every single item you place in the cart in advance, with the set rate for everything - so that when you arrive at the register, there are no surprises.
This is precisely how it is with man. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not suddenly judge and hold him accountable. He gave the Torah, revealed Himself in the giving of the Torah before the eyes of His entire nation, and furthermore, the Tanach is the most widely printed book in the world and recognized everywhere. No one can say, "I did not know the word of God," "I never heard there were warnings," "I did not know there were negative commandments." This is Hashem's lovingkindness: that He revealed to us and told us that He will give to every man according to his deed - one who does good will receive good, and one who does evil will receive evil.
"Ki" in the Sense of "Even Though"
Another explanation in the Radak: "For You will repay each man according to his deed" - with *ki* in the sense of "even though." That is, even though You repay each man according to his deed, still "to You, Hashem, belongs lovingkindness," and lovingkindness prevails. For if He were to repay a person strictly according to his deed, one might say: woe to us, nothing would remain of him! Regarding this, the verse comes and says that even at the time of repayment, chesed prevails, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not exact punishment to total destruction; rather, man still retains existence and rectification.
An example of this is from the verse, "And forgive our iniquity... for (*ki*) it is a stiff-necked people" - which seemingly is a strange argument: what does it mean to say, forgive us because we are stiff-necked? On the contrary, if they are stiff-necked, one should deal with them harshly! Rather, *ki* serves in four usages, and one of them is "even though": forgive our iniquity even though it is a stiff-necked people. And so too here: even though You repay each man according to his deed, nonetheless, it comes with great mercy and great lovingkindness, and You do not consume him completely.
The Chesed of Exile: Repayment in This World in Order to Arrive Pure in the World to Come
The Radak explains the entire psalm as referring to the exile, and therefore states: in prolonging the duration of our exile, You have done lovingkindness with us, in order to do good for us in our end. You do lovingkindness with man when You repay him according to the bad deed he did here, for "behold, the righteous shall be repaid on earth" - the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts payment from the tzaddik and collects from him retribution for his few flawed actions in this world, and thus he arrives at the World to Come refined. The true reward is given there, in the World of Truth, and a person needs to arrive there pure and clean. Here too: the chesed is that the Holy One, blessed be He, collects from man and repays him according to his deed in this world, and through this he arrives pure in the World to Come. And so it is with the troubles of exile - Hashem cleanses us for the World of Truth.
The Midrash of Rabbi Yehudah: Sin Is Barren and a Mitzvah Bears Fruit
The Radak cites a well-known Midrash. Rabbi Yehudah says: Sin is barren and does not bear fruit, but righteousness bears fruit. "Barren" - in the sense that it has no offspring. And from where do we know this? As it is stated in Yeshayahu: "Say of the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds" - good deeds have fruit, and they even eat the fruit. Whereas regarding sin, it is stated: "the recompense of his hands shall be done to him" - according to what you did, that alone you will receive, neither fruits nor the fruit of fruits. And it is also stated: "for You, our God, have withheld below our iniquities" - not according to our iniquities, but below our iniquities.
Let us define it this way: on mitzvot one receives additional dividends; on sins, not only are there no dividends, but they even reduce from what is due to you. Punishment does not accrue interest, and they even deduct from it - whereas with mitzvot, one receives an added measure of good.
A Warning: Do Not Mistakenly Assume That Sin Bears No Fruit
Yet do not understand from this that a sin produces no fruit at all. A sin certainly bears fruit. A person who established a nightclub, and ultimately passed on to the next world - he will certainly pay there for all the people who sin through that negative legacy he left behind in this world. And this is what we say: "The books of the living and the dead are opened before You" - were the dead not already judged at the time of their passing? Indeed, but it is very possible that they left landmines behind, and those landmines continue to bring down more and more people years after their death, so they naturally continue to pay for it.
And how terrible this is in our times, when with the press of a key - which could well be called a mine - a person can bring troubles upon himself for generations. He uploaded a video, a picture, a matter of Heaven forbid, and so many people watched it; and today there is also sharing, and he shares with others, causing guilt and bringing guilt to his fellows, spreading it to more and more people - and where did they all end up? In that same "pit of destruction" that you created. And all with a single keystroke. Let us understand: how many generations later will a person continue to pay a price in the World of Truth, because the picture he placed or the post he uploaded continues to cause people to stumble. And if it is the reverse - it is five hundred times greater: he uploaded a Torah shiur, posted something uplifting, and more and more people are strengthened by it - calculate how much reward that person has!
"Collecting His Own from His Own"
The Midrash continues and offers an example: a young man is "burning with sin," and by rights he deserves to die for his iniquity - he deserves punishment. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He suspends judgment until he marries and has children, and takes one of his sons in place of the sin he committed. As Chazal said: Who will be our guarantors and atone for us? Our children. At the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, the Holy One, blessed be He, asked what guarantor we would provide, and we answered: Our children. And there is no question here of "Does the son deserve to die?" - for from the very beginning, the Holy One, blessed be He, brings into the world a soul that was destined to remain in this world for only a short time, which is its tikkun. Meanwhile, for the man himself, this comes as retribution for all the foolishness he committed in his youth.
Where is the chesed here? Let us share a story through which we can understand this. Rav Mishkovsky, the mashgiach of Yeshivas Orchos Torah, related that he once went to Rav Shteinman and told him about an avrech who devoted himself to Torah amidst terrible poverty. Through Hashem's kindness, an inheritance came his way - let us say, for our purposes, a million shekels - and he was overjoyed: Now I will invest in a business, the business will yield fruit, and I will be able to sit and learn Torah without disturbance. He invested most of the sum in a business abroad - but the business failed and the money was lost. He left the remainder of the money at home, and thieves broke in and stole that as well. He was left completely destitute, broken and frustrated. The mashgiach asked: How can this avrech be encouraged? After all, he argues: "All I wanted was to study Torah without interruptions; I sought nothing more. If so, why did the Holy One, blessed be He, give me this money in the first place? Better that it had never come and never been taken; but to give it only to take it away?"
Rav Shteinman replied: Tell him, how many people are blind? How many are sightless? The Holy One, blessed be He, performs endless kindnesses with them, yet they come with complaints. Understand this: this avrech had a punishment and a tikkun coming to him from Heaven - for what, we do not know; previous gilgulim, this lifetime. Now, what punishment should the Holy One, blessed be He, bring upon him? God forbid, should He take one of his children? His wife? The Master of souls does not strike at souls first; rather, He takes wealth. But what was to be done when the avrech was penniless without a single agurah - what wealth could they take from him? His home? Should he go live on the street? What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He arranged an inheritance for him, provided him with a million shekels, and said: Now I can chastise him; I will take this money from him, and that will be his tikkun. It turns out that the Holy One, blessed be He, provided him with wealth specifically in order to take it away, rather than harming what was already his - He gave him from His own in order to take it, and yet man still comes with complaints to the Master of the World!
This is an entirely different outlook from how we are accustomed to thinking. We operate from a perspective of "I deserve," and when something is taken from me, they took something that was rightfully mine. But what do you deserve? A creature has no claim whatsoever upon his Creator. A person deserves nothing; everything you have is nothing other than Hashem's kindness. And notice how wondrous this is: what Rav Shteinman said is an explicit Midrash. This is the wording of the Midrash: "Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, collects His own from His own - can you have any greater chesed than this? Say therefore: And Yours, Hashem, is kindness." Hashem says: I could have taken you when you were a youth, but no; I allowed you to marry, I gave you children, and from the child I gave - through him I exact payment from you. From what does He exact payment? From something that He Himself gave. Not from yours, but from Mine did I collect from you. And that is the chesed.
Rabbi Nechemiah: According to His Deed, Not According to His Thought
Rabbi Nechemiah expounds: "For You repay a man according to his deed" - it is not written here according to his thought, but according to his deed. When a person intended to commit a transgression but did not do it, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not record it against him to punish him until he actually commits it. And from where do we know this? "If I had iniquity in mind, the Lord would not hear" - a passing thought is not considered an act of sin, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not listen to it, as it were.
There are two exceptions to this rule: thoughts of avodah zarah (idolatry) and thoughts of arayot (illicit relations), regarding both of which a person is held accountable for the mere thought itself. In all other matters, one is not held accountable for thought alone - if someone planned to steal but did not steal, he is not punished for the thought alone. Furthermore, something must be added that many do not know: if a person is accustomed to committing that transgression, and planned to do it but it did not come to fruition - in such a case he is punished even for the planning. This is an explicit Gemara, though this is not the place to elaborate on the reason. In any event, for our purposes: Yours, Hashem, is kindness, for You repay a man according to his deed and not according to his thought, and You do not exact retribution from him for his evil thoughts.
By contrast, with a good thought, the Holy One, blessed be He, joins it to deed; even though he did not perform it, Scripture credits him as if he had done it. For David intended to build the Beis HaMikdash, and even though he did not build it, the Holy One, blessed be He, attributed it to him as if he had built it, as it says: "A psalm, a song of the dedication of the House, of David." Did David dedicate the House? Rather, because he desired to do so, the Holy One, blessed be He, considered it for him as a fulfilled mitzvah, as if he had dedicated the House himself.
Metzudas David: Measure for Measure Is Kindness
The Metzudas David explains: Hashem performs chesed with human beings by declaring that He will repay a man according to his deed, exacting payment from a person in accordance with his evil deeds - "And if you walk with Me contrary, then I will walk contrary to you also." For every sin a person commits, You repay him measure for measure, and that itself is the chesed: the repayment "according to his deed." For had a person received a punishment that was not measure for measure, he would come with complaints, difficulties, and questions; but when he receives measure for measure, he knows where to point the finger: Here I corrupted through this, and I received in the very same measure.
In our time, it is very difficult to see this, because this applies primarily to tzaddikim who have no sins. With them, when a punishment arrives, they know immediately: this is precisely because I did such and such. We have shared several stories in the past about gedolim who, whenever anything happened to them, knew how to point their finger at where it came from and for what - because with them, there truly are no sins, and they are pure. But with us, when a punishment comes, we do not know what it is for: for today's sins? This morning's? Yesterday's? From a week ago, a month ago, four months ago? "There is no soundness in it" - from the abundance of sins, we do not know what to attribute it to. Consequently, whatever punishment comes, we deserve it. And this is the chesed: that You give "according to his deed," and thereby a person will know what he needs to correct.
Chanukat HaTorah: Why Are There Mitzvot Whose Reward Is in This World?
The Rebbe Reb Heshel, in his work Chanukat HaTorah, whose explanations are sweeter than honey, explains: It is known that for the mitzvot of "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods," one receives reward in this world. The foundation for this is: after all, it is written, "The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you overnight until morning." If so, a question arises - why is it that "there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world"? After all, if the prohibition against withholding wages (bal talin) applies, and the Holy One, blessed be He, surely fulfills His own commandments, He should pay our reward immediately!
However, the condition for transgressing bal talin is only when one hired the worker directly himself; but one who hires another through an agent is not subject to the prohibition of bal talin. Herein lies a wonderful insight: "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods" were heard directly from the Almighty - meaning that Hashem hired us for His work directly, and therefore, for these two, reward is received here in this world. But the rest of the Commandments were spoken through Moshe, as we said, "Speak with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us, lest we die" - and there, bal talin does not apply, so the Holy One, blessed be He, can pay the reward in the World to Come.
And this is what King David says: "God has spoken once, twice have I heard this" - referring to "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods," which Chazal tell us were uttered in a single utterance. And regarding these two alone: "And to You, my Lord, is kindness, for You pay a man according to his deed": Where did I perform these deeds? In this world, and therefore the reward is also paid in this world. However, regarding the rest of the mitzvot, which we heard through an intermediary, Hashem is not obligated to pay here, and the reward is reserved for the World to Come.
Asarah Ma'amarot: Eternal Reward for an Eternal Act
He further explains based on what is stated in the name of the Asarah Ma'amarot: Why is there no reward for a mitzvah in this world? Quite simply - the mitzvah is eternal, while this world is temporary. It is impossible to give an eternal reward within a temporary world; in order to receive such reward, the person's own existence must also be an eternal reality. You fulfilled an eternal mitzvah - you deserve an eternal reward for it. Why should they give me a reward for seventy years when I deserve a reward for all eternity? Therefore, there is no reward for a mitzvah in this world. And this is the meaning of "for You pay a man according to his deed": commensurate with the deed itself - and since the deed is eternal, the reward is also eternal, and therefore You do not grant it here in this world.
Eretz Chemdah in the Name of Havot Yair: Reward for Abstinence as Well
Chazal state: "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods" were heard directly from the Almighty, simultaneously, in a single utterance. "I am Hashem your God" is a positive commandment - to accept the sovereignty of the Holy One, blessed be He; "You shall have no other gods before Me" is a negative commandment - not to worship idols. This comes to teach you: just as one receives reward for actively seeking out and fulfilling a positive commandment, so too one receives reward for abstaining and taking care to avoid a negative prohibition.
For one might have thought: What did you actually do? You merely refrained from looking at a forbidden sight; that is passivity, avoidance, so perhaps there is no reward for it. To this we are told: know that the positive and negative commandments were spoken in a single utterance to teach you that you receive reward for both - if an opportunity for sin came before a person and he was saved from it, he receives reward for it. As King David says in Psalm 119: "They have also done no iniquity; they have walked in His ways" - even if you merely did not commit evil, it is already credited to you as "they walked in His ways," as though you actively fulfilled the will of Hashem.
And why did the Holy One, blessed be He, say this Himself and not Moshe? Because only He can utter two things in a single utterance; Moshe could not do so. Therefore, "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods" were heard directly from the Almighty - for only Hashem can speak in a way that no human mouth can speak and no human ear can naturally hear. This is what Kohelet means when he says: "Two are better than one" - "Two are better," these are the first two Commandments, which came forth from "the One," from the mouth of Hashem, Who is One; and the verse continues: "for they have a good reward for their labor" - that even for "You shall have no other gods," one receives reward just as for "I am Hashem." Therefore, both came forth from the One and were spoken in a single utterance, in order to equate them.
This is what David means: "God has spoken once" - He spoke in a single utterance; "twice have I heard this" - "I am Hashem" and "You shall have no other gods"; and who has the power to do all this? "For strength belongs to God." And why did He do this? "And to You, my Lord, is kindness, for You pay a man according to his deed" - You reward the person who abstains from sin "according to his deed," as though he actively performed a mitzvah, even though he was entirely passive and merely refrained from sin.
The Sefer Zeh HaSha'ar: The Payment to Moshe Rabbeinu
Another explanation is brought in the sefer Zeh HaSha'ar. It is known from the holy sefarim, from Rav Saadia Gaon, that all 613 mitzvos are included in the Ten Commandments, and all Ten Commandments are included in "Anochi" ("I am Hashem your God"). This is what the Gemara says in Maseches Makkos (24a): "'Anochi' and 'Lo yihyeh lecha' we heard directly from the Almighty." Thus, "Anochi" encompasses the entire Torah, and its acronym equals 613. This is what is meant by "God spoke once" - the Anochi spoken by Hashem, where everything is contained within that single utterance.
A support for this is found in the continuation: "And Yours, Hashem, is lovingkindness, for You reward a man according to his deed" - who is this "man" (ish)? This is Moshe Rabbeinu, "the man Moshe" (Moshe ha'ish). There is an allusion to this: the final letters of "אַתָּה תְשַׁלֵּם לְאִישׁ" spell Moshe (mem, shin, hei). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: I consider it as though you performed all 613 mitzvos - "according to his deed," as if you fulfilled them in actual practice.
This is also what we say in the Shabbos prayers: "Moshe rejoiced in the gift of his portion, for You called him a faithful servant." Why did he rejoice in the gift of his portion? Because he received a gift. And what was the gift? "A crown of glory You placed on his head" - the word kelil ("crown/entirety") has the numerical value (gematria) of 613. The Holy One, blessed be He, gave him the reward for all 613 mitzvos. And why? "For You called him a faithful servant" - he was a faithful servant who desired to fulfill everything; and even though he did not fulfill everything, since he did not enter the Land of Israel, he received reward for all of them. This is the great lovingkindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, performed for Moshe Rabbeinu.
A Final Explanation: Everything Is Chesed, Not an Obligation
Finally, the question is asked: What lovingkindness is there in paying a person according to his deed? If at the end of the month the boss comes, pays you your salary, and says, "Look, I am doing you a favor (chesed)" - what kindness is that? I worked a full month! How, then, can the verse say, "And Yours, Hashem, is lovingkindness, for You reward a man according to his deed"?
Rather, the explanation is this: in truth, if a person had to pay even for a single breath, all the mitzvos he performs would not suffice to pay for it - or even for the very fact that Hashem placed us in the world. It turns out that rewarding a person according to his deed is truly from Hashem's chesed, and not because the Holy One, blessed be He, owes us anything.
In summary: In concluding the psalm, David HaMelech teaches us that two fundamental principles emerge from one mouth: "For power belongs to God" - and "Yours, Hashem, is lovingkindness." The power - that He has the ability to pay a person precisely according to his deed; and the lovingkindness - that He does not do so: He does not exact punishment with the full severity of the law, but rather "less than our iniquities deserve," He warns us in advance so we are not caught by surprise, He punishes measure for measure so that we know what to correct, He exacts payment from His own possessions, He does not punish for a bad thought alone but joins a good thought to deed, and He grants reward even for refraining from sin. Ultimately, even the very act of rewarding someone according to his deed is not an obligation but an act of chesed - for a creation has no claim whatsoever upon its Creator, and everything we have is nothing other than Hashem's lovingkindness. With this, we conclude Psalm 62.