thirty-two times—twenty-five in the Psalms alone—and it refers to the ‘holy ones’ or ‘saints’ who have received the mercy of God. Mercy is the child of grace. The other Old Testament Hebrew word that approaches the idea of grace is the word hanan. It meant ‘favour’, and was always a one-way response from a superior to an inferior. This word could be used of our relationship to each other, but it was never used of our response to God. The first use of it in the Bible is found when we are told that, ‘Noah