Today’s Passage: Psalm 136
This psalm was made to be sung together, one voice calling out and the whole room answering back. The first voice gives thanks, for He is good, and every time it pauses the people answer, His loving devotion endures forever. On and on the calling goes, naming the great things God has done. He made the heavens. He struck Egypt and divided the sea. He struck down Sihon and Og and gave their land away. These are real things that really happened, and after each one the answer comes back the same, never changing and never softening. It is the same gospel from the first verse to the last, and we must not read this long history as though it showed us some gentler love than the love the rest of Scripture proclaims.
As you read, hold this: His loving devotion endures forever.
Context Sung when the fire fell
When Solomon had finished the great temple and dedicated it to the LORD, fire came down out of heaven, and the people fell on their faces to the pavement and sang this very refrain.
"When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests were unable to enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.”" 2 Chronicles 7:1-3 (BSB)
It was a real day and a real house, and out of their mouths came the same five words we are about to sing again.
Psalm 136:1-9 (BSB)
¹ Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His loving devotion endures forever. ² Give thanks to the God of gods. His loving devotion endures forever. ³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁴ He alone does great wonders. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁵ By His insight He made the heavens. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁶ He spread out the earth upon the waters. His loving devotion endures forever. ⁷ He made the great lights—His loving devotion endures forever. ⁸ the sun to rule the day, His loving devotion endures forever. ⁹ the moon and stars to govern the night. His loving devotion endures forever.
So the singing begins with creation itself. He made the heavens, and spread out the earth upon the waters, and hung the great lights, the sun to rule the day and the moon and stars to govern the night. None of this is a picture or a figure of speech. He truly did it, all of it, and the refrain holds steady under every single line.
Word study The refrain
All twenty-six verses close with the same five words. The Hebrew behind them is חֶסֶד (chesed), Strong’s H2617, and the English is already sitting on the table for us, loving devotion. The psalm never stops to define the word. Instead it fastens that one line to every mighty act God has done, and it will not let the words change.
Psalm 136:10-16 (BSB)
¹⁰ He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever. ¹¹ and brought Israel out from among them His loving devotion endures forever. ¹² with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. His loving devotion endures forever. ¹³ He divided the Red Sea in two His loving devotion endures forever. ¹⁴ and led Israel through the midst, His loving devotion endures forever. ¹⁵ but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. His loving devotion endures forever. ¹⁶ He led His people through the wilderness. His loving devotion endures forever.
Here the song remembers the night of the exodus. He struck down the firstborn and brought Israel out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. He split the sea in two and led His people safely through the middle of it, and then He swept Pharaoh and his army under those same waters, and on into the wilderness He carried the people He had freed. Judgment and rescue both receive the very same refrain, for His loving devotion is not shown only in the gentle acts.
Psalm 136:17-22 (BSB)
¹⁷ He struck down great kings His loving devotion endures forever. ¹⁸ and slaughtered mighty kings—His loving devotion endures forever. ¹⁹ Sihon king of the Amorites His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁰ and Og king of Bashan—His loving devotion endures forever. ²¹ and He gave their land as an inheritance, His loving devotion endures forever. ²² a heritage to His servant Israel. His loving devotion endures forever.
Then come the kings. Great kings and mighty kings, Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, all of them struck down, and their land handed over as a heritage to His servant Israel. These are named kings and named lands, not some general lesson about winning. God did particular things to particular people at a particular time, and His loving devotion was in all of it.
Psalm 136:23-26 (BSB)
²³ He remembered us in our low estate His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁴ and freed us from our enemies. His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁵ He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever. ²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven! His loving devotion endures forever.
And the song draws near to home. He remembered us when we were low, and freed us from our enemies, and He still gives food to every living creature. Give thanks to the God of heaven. The thanks at the very end is as wide as the thanks at the very beginning, reaching from the highest heaven down to the bread on an ordinary table.
Study notes Nothing can end it
Paul names every kind of threat and says the same thing this refrain has been saying.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39 (BSB)
Death and life, angels and powers, the heights above and the depths below, nothing in all creation can reach far enough to cut the believer off from that love. The one whom God sets His love upon, He keeps. It is the same gospel the psalm has been singing all along, that His loving devotion endures forever.
His loving devotion endures forever.