The last time I was in this Psalm, it was in 2016 – and on a Wednesday night – about 10 years ago. I think it’s time we looked at this Psalm again. I was reading it the other day with a friend, and it struck me how great this Psalm is. In fact, the Jews called this “The Great Hallel Psalm”. It is written like a responsive reading. Every single one of the 26 verses ends with:
His MERCY endureth forever
Word Study: The word translated MERCYis the Hebrew ḥeseḏ (pronounced kheh’-sed). It is translated 149 times as “mercy”, but 30 times as “lovingkindness” and 40 times as “kindness”. The New American Standard translates the word as “faithfulness”, and the Legacy Standard as “lovingkindness”. One source notes that ḥeseḏ refers to faithful, enduring love rooted in commitment, not emotion. A loyal devotion expressed through proper action.
The Christian – like ancient Israel – is in a Covenant Relationship with God. God takes His covenant relationship seriously – and expects us to do the same. As we break this Psalm down, I’m going to ask you to do as Israel would have done. In Israel, the Cantor or the ḥazzan (Hebrew, pronounced khah-ZAHN) would sing
or chant the first part of the verse. Then the congregation would TOGETHER say:
His MERCY endureth forever
You Are In A Covenant Relationship
With The True God
(Psalm 136:1-3 KJV) O give thanks unto the LORD; for [He is] good: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [2] O give thanks unto the God of gods: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [3] O give thanks to the Lord of lords: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
The Apostle Paul said:
(1 Corinthians 8:5-6 KJV) For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (AS THERE BE GODS MANY, AND LORDS MANY,) [6] But to us [there is but] one God, the Father, of Whom [are] all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom [are] all things, and we by Him.
There are many gods that this world follows, and all of these gods stem from the fallen angel who would be God, Lucifer. Lucifer, created by God to be an Archangel, a General among the angels, forgot who his Creator was. The Bible says that he stood up against God, saying “I will ascend to Heaven. I will exalt my own throne above the angels of God. I will be just like God Himself!” (Isaiah 14:12-14). He became puffed up with pride, and led a heavenly revolt against God. When Lucifer came to this earth, he entered into the Garden of Eden as “that old serpent, the devil, the deceiver of the world” (Revelation 12:9). A god has to have a follower. Satan enticed Adam to follow him – and the whole world fell into sin.
In the first three verses the Psalmist pleads with God’s people with an “O GIVE THANKS”.
But our God is the True God, and there is no other. He is “the God of gods”. Though Lucifer led the world away from God, God is Lucifer’s God. Pastor C.H. Spurgeon said:
“gods who have a God over them cannot possibly be gods themselves”
God is the Source of all authority and power. “There is NO POWER but OF GOD: the powers that be are ORDAINED OF GOD” (Romans 13:1). Satan believes himself to be god, but he is deluded. Man creates gods of things, and they are deluded. There is but one God, one Lord, and Jehovah is the Lord over all lords, the God over all gods. They have no more power than what God allows them to have. They operate as His pleasure, and are like puppies in a kennel, and He the Master. We who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior are in a Covenant Relationship with the BOSS of everything. Nothing happens without His permission.
You Are In A Covenant Relationship
With The Creator God
(Psalm 136:4-7 KJV) To Him who ALONE doeth great wonders: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [5] To Him that BY WISDOM MADE THE HEAVENS: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [6] To Him that stretched out the earth above the waters: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [7] To Him that made great lights: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER:
Our God ALONE does great wonders. God did not use evolution or time to create the universe, to create our planet. The evolutionist says that everything just happened over millions or billions of years, that life is an accident. If you believe that everything is an accident, just something that luckily came together, then how can you even believe this is true. If your mind is the result of chaos and accident, then how can your thoughts even be reliable? Yet the Bible says that “God BY WISDOM MADE the Heavens”. The word “MADE” is the Hebrew ʿāśâ (pronounced aw-saw’), which means “to fashion, to shape, to work with, to press or squeeze”. The same word is used in:
(Genesis 1:7 KJV) And God MADE [ʿāśâ] the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so.
God ALONE shaped the earth, the land masses. God put the continents where they are by Himself. Then God created trees that would make (ʿāśâ) fruit (Genesis 1:11). God made the animals (Genesis 1:25), giving them the ability to reproduce. God made humanity (Genesis 1:26), and gave us the ability to reproduce. Creation did not just happen. God “stretched out the earth”. God “made the great lights”, the sun and the moon (Genesis 1:16), as God is the Source of Light:
1 John 1:5 God is LIGHT, and in Him is NO DARKNESS AT ALL
(Psalm 136:8-9 KJV) The sun to rule by day: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [9] The moon and stars to rule by night: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
He is “The Father of Lights” (James 1:17). And all these things were not evolved, but made by God, wisely made, from a heart driven by lovingkindness.
You Are In A Covenant Relationship
With The Redeeming God
When God made the heavens and the earth, the earth was WITHOUT FORM and VOID. It was lifeless. Anything or anyone without God’s touch is lifeless and empty. The same is true of His people Israel. When Israel first entered Egypt under the reign of Joseph, God was honored. But in time Israel drifted from God. Drifting from God, Israel lost her status and privilege as the people of God, and became slaves to the Egyptians.
But God did not forget His people.
God told Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people… and have heard their cry… for I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7). When Israel drifted into the world, they lost sight of God. But when His people cried out, God responded and delivered them from slavery.
(Psalm 136:10-15 KJV) To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [11] And brought out Israel from among them: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [12] With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [13] To him which divided the Red sea into parts: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [14] And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [15] But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
God loves us even when we mess up. We are His children by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He redeems us from darkness and damnation. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Oh, how He loves us!
Illustrate: I recently heard the comedian Jeff Foxworthy tell this story. He was witnessing to some men when one said, “The Bible is just a book of rules”. His buddy who was with him picked up the Bible and said, “Really? It’s just a book of rules?” Then he threw the Bible in the trashcan. A big, huge guy named Wayne got up, walked to the trashcan, and pulled the Bible out. He said, “Don’t ever do that again!” Jeff said, “Wayne, if it’s just a book of rules, why does that bother you so much?” Wayne told him, “When my mother died, I inherited 70,000$ from my mother’s insurance policy, along with my mother’s Bible”. Wayne took the money and started a life of addiction, smoking crack cocaine. He lost all his money on drugs. Shortly, in jst a few months, he was homeless and on the street. He started losing his stuff, piece by piece. Then he lost his mother’s Bible. Inside of the Bible was a love letter his mother wrote to him, and he lost it. His mother wrote how Jesus was the answer to all his needs. He lost the backpack that had the Bible in it. He’s on the street for a year and a half, when one day a guy comes by and asks two of the homeless if they wanted a job. Wayne went with him. The man took the two men to a place about 100 miles away, where the man had an old apartment building he was renovating. Wayne started cleaning up, and carrying trash out to the dumpster, and his buddy did the same. Wayne went upstairs to where his buddy was working, and his buddy had a pile of stuff that had not yet been bagged to throw away. Wayne goes over to the pile, starts looking through it, and finds his mother’s Bible. Wayne said, “I collapsed to the floor and started crying”. He said “I figured if God is going to chase me that hard, I would finally quit running”.
You Are In A Covenant Relationship
With The Reigning God
(Psalm 136:16-22 KJV) To him which led his people through the wilderness: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [17] To him which smote great kings: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [18] And slew famous kings: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [19] Sihon king of the Amorites: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [20] And Og the king of Bashan: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [21] And gave their land for an heritage: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [22] [Even] an heritage unto Israel his servant: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
When God led His people from Egypt, to the entrance of the Promised Land, His people rebelled again Him. Joshua and Caleb told Israel:
(Numbers 14:7-9 LSB) … The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. [8] If Yahweh is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us–a land which flows with milk and honey. [9] “But as for you, only DO NOT REBEL AGAINST YAHWEH; and do not fear the people of the land, for THEY ARE OUR BREAD. THEIR PROTECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED FROM THEM, and Yahweh is with us; do not fear them.
But Israel would not hear. This is what we need to understand about our Covenant Relationship with God. He is LORD. He is the BOSS. Not us, but HIM. They were to go into the Promised Land because God said so. I heard a preacher say this the other day. I don’t know his name, but I love what he said.
“God’s not interested in you being a better you. He came to do away with you. He is not interested in you achieving your goals and dreams and desires and ambitions. Jesus came to destroy your dreams and goals and desires and ambitions. He came to give you a desire for Him and Him alone. If you trust God, He will give you the desires of your heart. And the desire of your heart will be to know Him in the power of His resurrection, the likeness of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. … The Word of Faith message and the Prosperity message, which are one and the same, is a doctrine of demons. They are all about manipulating and maneuvering God so you can get what you want. Jesus Christ did not come to this earth so you can be successful. He came so that you can die to you and be alive unto Christ.”
The God Who saved us is the God Who reigns. When Israel refused to go into the Promised Land, God could have killed the entire nation. Instead, He had the wander in the wilderness for forty years. As they wandered, Israel came up against great kings and great warrior nations. “Sihon king of the Amorites” came against Israel. The Bible says,
Deuteronomy 2:33 And THE LORD OUR GOD DELIVERED HIM BEFORE US; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people.
And “Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land” (Numbers 21:24). Our God’s MERCY ENDURES FOREVER. And as Israel traveled, “Og the king of Bashan” went out against them to battle. God told Israel,
Deuteronomy 3:3 So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan… and we smote him until none was left to him remaining.
For the 40 years that Israel wandered in the wilderness, they never suffered defeat in battle while they trusted in and obeyed God. God wanted the disobedient generation to die in the wilderness, so that the next generation could go into the Promised Land. Our God’s MERCY ENDURES FOREVER.
Israel would go into the Promised Land, because the God Who redeems us is the God Who reigns. We will do His will. Period.
You Are In A Covenant Relationship
With The Remembering God
(Psalm 136:23-26 KJV) Who remembered us in our low estate: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER: [24] And hath redeemed us from our enemies: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [25] Who giveth food to all flesh: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER. [26] O give thanks unto the God of heaven: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURETH FOREVER.
I read this passage, and thought of the thief who died next to Jesus on Calvary. Not the one who mocked Jesus, but the one who said:
(Luke 23:42 LSB) Jesus, REMEMBER ME when You come in Your kingdom!
That thief did not pray that his torment be removed. Nor did he even ask that Jesus allow him into Heaven. The repentant thief just asked our Lord to remember him. And Jesus told him, “Truly I say to you, TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE” (Luke 23:43). Our God does not forget us when we are in a low place. We may forget Him when we are in a high place, but He doesn’t forget us. That thief was asking what the Psalmist asked:
(Psalm 106:4 LSB) REMEMBER ME, O Yahweh, in [Your] favor toward Your people; Visit me with Your salvation
God will not forget His people. We who have called on Him in the name of Jesus are saved by grace, and kept by His lovingkindness. Our God is faithful. Praise Him, He is faithful to those who love Him.
Let us pray.
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