This declaration is a response to the unending covenantal love and mercies of God as expressed in Lamentations 3:22–23. The response refers to the writer’s personal appreciation of this truth to the core of his being. This is evident from the insertion of the words, says my soul.
The personal character of this declaration continues with his use of the first-person singular possessive pronoun my
.1
Portion
(Hebrew beleq) alludes to the entry into the Promised Land, where land was allotted to the tribes of Israel as their inheritance. Apart from the rest of the people, the tribe of Levi did not receive land as their portion or inheritance. This is clear from Numbers 18:20: And the Lord said to Aaron, You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
The priests were taken care of by receiving a portion of the offerings made at the temple by the other tribes. The Lord himself being the allotted portion for the Levitical priests became a metaphor for a truly theocentric life in which one was able to survive in times of difficulty and crisis (see also Psalm 16:5; Psalm 73:26; Psalm 142:5).2 It is this metaphor that the writer is using to declare, even in the context of judgment, that the Lord is his portion.
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.