Psalm 136
“FOR HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER”
Psalm 136 is also known as “The Great Hallel.” Hallel, like Hallelujah, meaning the great praise. It is a magnificent psalm of praise as you will see as we go through it. What stands out about this psalm is that all 26 verses end with the phrase, “For His steadfast love endures forever!”
What the Jewish people would do in the temple or tabernacle worship – they would have one choir sing one part against another part, sort of a point, counterpoint. One side would sing the first part of the verse and then the other side would respond by singing, “For His steadfast love endures forever.” Now, this might have been sung with two choirs; or with some kind of a worship leader and then a choir; or with a worship leader and a congregation. But you get the idea, however it was done.
One commentary I looked at was interesting. I am not a Hebrew scholar so I don’t know that what he said is absolutely true. But he said that the line that gets repeated, “For His steadfast love endures forever,” that line seems a bit tedious in English because, depending on which translation you have, it could be anywhere from 7 to 12 syllables. But in the Hebrew language, what he said is that this line is only 6 syllables. So, the meter and the rhythm would have been a little bit better than our English translations make it out to be. It was not as long and drawn out with only the 6 syllables (it would have had a good flow to it).
Before we get into the text itself, the psalm is divided into three parts (a prelude, the main body of praise, and a conclusion).
A lot of people speculate as to who wrote this psalm and when it was written. We don’t know who wrote this psalm. Some say David. I do think that it was written around David’s or Solomon’s time. And here is why I say that. There were two different times and places that are recorded for us in scripture when I believe it is THIS psalm that is being sung – 2 Chronicles 20 and Ezra 3.
In 2 Chronicles Chapter 20 King Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. He was a good king and he was committed to the Lord. In Chapter 20, Judah is invaded and attacked by a coalition of hostile nations (Moabites, Ammonites and some others). Jehoshaphat calls his people together to pray and to seek the Lord’s help. It is good that he does that, right? The king himself led the assembly in prayer. And God answered their prayer and promised, through one of His prophets, Jahaziel, that God would give His people the victory. Not only that but the battle is going to be won by God Himself. The people will not even have to fight. God is going to do everything. And so, Jehoshaphat and his troops set out to go against this coalition and to meet their enemies. Along the way they were singing a song of praise to the Lord. If you look at 2 Chronicles 20:21, the song that they sang was, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His steadfast love endures forever!” So, that is why I think they are singing this psalm here. So, you have a singing army! Very likely it was the Great Hallel they were singing. Now, the rest of the chapter tells how, while Jehoshaphat and his army were on their way singing this psalm, the invading army (the enemy), God has intervened and they fight against themselves and basically kill each other off. It is like a civil war took place within their ranks. And the scripture says that they destroyed one another (2 Chronicles 20:23). Listen to this description. I think it is fascinating…
“When Judah [Jehoshaphat and his troops] came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the horde [the whole group of people], and behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground; none had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found among them, in great numbers, goods, clothing, and precious things, which they took for themselves until they could carry no more. They were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much” (2 Chronicles 20:24-25).
They did not do anything. God intervened and basically the enemy armies killed themselves off!
The other incident in which I believe this psalm was sung is recorded in Ezra Chapter 3. It is while they are rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. Of course, that followed the 70 years or so of the exile of God’s people in Babylon. A remnant returned to the Promised Land. They went back to their homeland under the leadership of Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. The first thing they did was to rebuild the temple. They laid the foundation and that took some time. It was not anything like Solomon’s temple. It did not have that grandeur, but at least they rebuilt the temple. This is well before Nehemiah came and rebuilt the walls.
It says in Ezra 3:11, “As they [speaking of the workers on the temple foundation] sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, ‘For He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.’” So, I think they are singing the Great Hallel. It says that “all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.”
Now in both of these stories it is interesting that the Great Hallel is not being sung in a worship service per se, but by an army enroute to battle and by workers on a job. So, it was a song they all knew by heart, probably learned when they were children. What I want you to see and why I said all that is that this would have been a familiar and popular praise song of the Jewish people.
[A class member shared their experience of being at a Jewish Passover Seder where they read Psalm 136 in English, responsively.]
So, that introduction sets the stage for you. Let’s take a look at The Great Hallel, Psalm 136, and see what it has to say.
READ Psalm 136:1-3
You can see right off the bat that this is a call to praise the Lord and to give thanks. Basically, they are acknowledging God publicly. It is interesting that this psalm not only tells us to give thanks to the LORD, but tells us why. Now, certainly God desires and even commands His people to praise and worship Him. But He doesn’t just tell us to do something. He tells us why. He does not have to, but He does. And in this psalm, He gives us three basic reasons why His covenant people ought to praise God. First and foremost, that we see in this first part is because of WHO He is. That is what you see in v 1. It says, because “He is good.” God is fundamentally good. V 2 says that He is “the God of gods.” In other words, He is supreme. He is above all others. He is unique. He is the one true living God. And then v 3 says that He is “the Lord of lords.” He is sovereign. He is the Master. He is the Ruler. Now, there may be human leaders that God has placed over us, but God is sovereign over all of them… even President Trump.
So, the people of Israel were called to give thanks to the LORD, to praise God because He is good, because He is supreme and because He is sovereign.
Before we go on, let me talk about that refrain that keeps showing up in all the verses. It gets repeated 26 times, so you figure it has to have some importance. “For His steadfast love endures forever” as the ESV (English Standard Version) translates it. By the way, the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translates it the exact same way as the ESV. The King James Version says, “for His mercy endureth forever.” That is probably how some of you learned it or heard it before. The New Living Translation says, “His faithful love endures forever.” The New English Translation says, “for His loyal love endures.” The NIV (New International Version) says simply, “His love endures forever.” The New American Standard says, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” And the American Standard Version says, “For His lovingkindness endureth forever.” So there are many different translations of this in our English Bibles. What I want to try and do is clarify what the real meaning here is.
[In class I showed a slide depicting the Hebrew word hesed.]
Hesed is the Hebrew word that gets translated as love, faithful love, loyal love, lovingkindness and mercy in the English translations. If you do not learn any more Hebrew in your life, learn this word. Hesed is a difficult word to translate into English.
Hesed is the idea of faithful love in action and often in the Old Testament refers to God's lovingkindness expressed in His covenant relationship with Israel. God's hesed denotes persistent and unconditional tenderness, kindness, and mercy; a relationship in which He seeks after man with love and mercy. Hesed expresses both God’s loyalty to His covenant and His love for His people along with a faithfulness to keep His promises.
That is hesed. It is an important concept about God. It is who He is. It is so important it gets repeated 26 times in this psalm! The hesed character of God is everlasting. It is forever. And why is that? Because God is eternal. He is unchanging. So, therefore, His character is as well.
The obvious question before us as New Testament believers who are not under the old covenant is this: Does Psalm 136 then apply to us? Does God have hesed for us (New Testament Christians) as He did for Israel? Yes. But as Christians we are under a new covenant, which is what the Book of Hebrews explains. We are not under the old covenant, right? We all agree to that. We are under a new covenant, a better covenant, which is mediated by Jesus Christ Himself. He is our great High Priest. He ministers on our behalf. Hebrews 8:6 says, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” So, we are under a new and better covenant. But there is still the aspect of God’s promises to us. I would contend that we as Christians are still covenant people, under a different covenant than the people of Israel in the Old Testament were; but worshipping and thanking the same covenant-keeping, promise keeping God as they did. We rest assured that God will keep His promises to us under our new covenant. I love Paul’s words of assurance in 2 Timothy 2:10-13: “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect [that would be us Christians], that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful -- for He cannot deny Himself.”
That sounds a lot like the God of the Old Testament. Because they were faithless people and God was faithful to them. Well, God is faithful to us even when we sometimes are faithless. But He cannot deny Himself. He is a promise-keeping God. He is faithful. He is trustworthy. He keeps His promises. He did for Israel in the old covenant and He still does to us who are under a new and better covenant. That is the application for us – same God. He has not changed.
[One class member made this point: “To understand this first section (of Psalm 136) is to understand that the culture under which Israel existed was a distinctive culture from a world which had many Gods. To address the issue of polytheism (which plagued Israel at the time), the writer of this psalm had to address the issue of the singularity of the ONE God that Israel had chosen to worship and struggled to maintain that relationship. It begins with the goodness of God because not all gods in polytheism were good. Some were mischievous or downright evil. The goodness of God is not to be taken casually, but is a real statement of the purity of God’s relationship with His chosen people.”]
This next part is the longest section of Psalm 136. It speaks about what God has done for His people. We are to praise and give thanks to God not only for who He is, but what He has done.
READ Psalm 136:4-9
So, right here we see God as the intelligent Creator of the world. That is where he begins. Then he goes from there to a little bit of Israel’s history.
READ Psalm 136:10-11
The people of Israel would have understood that this was in reference to what finally got them out of their bondage in Egypt. There were all these plagues, but the last one was the killing of the firstborn “of Egypt.” It did not affect the Israelites because they put the blood on the doorposts and God passed over them and spared the firstborn. They could see how good God was to His people. They cried out to God to deliver them and He did.
READ Psalm 136:12-15
So, here is God’s mighty hand delivering His covenant people. They had been freed from Egyptian bondage. Pharaoh had a change of mind and came after them. But God delivered them with this great miracle – the dividing (parting) of the Red Sea.
READ Psalm 136:16
How did God lead His people through the wilderness? A pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Better than any GPS, right? They knew where to go. When it stopped, they stopped. When it went that way, they went that way. Whether night or day, God made it clear where to go and they followed. And where did God lead them? To the Promised Land.
READ Psalm 136:17-18
I just told you the story about Jehoshaphat. All throughout their history God was winning battles for His people Israel against the Philistines and others. But on the way to the Promised Land these poor Israelites (a million plus people) were walking through the wilderness and here come the Amalekites. The Amalekites were a ruthless, trained fighting force. And here you have a bunch of people who have been enslaved. They had been making bricks. They were not trained soldiers. So, they are crying out, “God, help us! Here come the Amalekites! We are all going to die!” Typical Israelites.
So, God says, “Moses, hold your arms up and whenever your arms are held up, I will give you victory over the Amalekites. And when your arms come down, then the Amalekites will prevail.” Well, they got smart. They got Joshua on one side and Aaron on the other and they held Moses’s arms up and Israel prevailed (God prevailed) over the Amalekites. That happened on the way to the Promised Land and then similar victories are repeated throughout their history.
Yes, the people made it to the Promised Land. But they were faithless. They did NOT go in and possess the land and God judged them for it. He sent them packing, back out into the wilderness where they wandered until that generation died off (which ended up being 40 years). Everyone 20 years and older died off. It was during this period that v 19 occurs.
READ Psalm 136:19-20
That is recorded in Numbers Chapter 21, which is after the people’s faithlessness; after not believing that God would give them the Promised Land and God sent them back to the wilderness to wander. These two events (the defeats of Sihon and Og) happen afterward. So, God is faithful to His people on the way to the Promised Land. And then, even after they are faithless to Him, He remains faithful to them while they are wandering around in the wilderness. The people would have understood the historical context that the writer speaks about here.
READ Psalm 136:21
Eventually they did reach the Promised Land under Joshua and were able to conquer it – not everything that God intended, but that is another story. But at least they were able to go in and inhabit the land of Canaan.
READ Psalm 136:22
Israel here speaks about Jacob. This goes back to God’s covenant promises to His people – to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The same promises. If you read what God said to Abraham, He reiterates it to Isaac and to Jacob (or Israel). So, God is a covenant-keeping God.
We, as the people of God, can look back at history – Biblical history certainly as we read the Bible; and world history and American history and (through spiritual eyes) clearly see the providential hand of God working out the events according to His divine will. Even in our lifetime. We can see God’s power, His extraordinary actions, His supernatural intervention, and His many mighty wonders, just as the Old Testament people of Israel could. Not only that, but in our own personal lives, we could each stand up and give testimony to what God has been doing in our lives, sometimes in mighty ways. You can see God’s providence in Israel’s history, our history and in your life as well.
The last few verses of this psalm focus on the third part of the psalm, which is God’s providential care – how He works in our own lives. So, we praise God. We thank Him for who He is. We thank Him for what He has done in the past and is doing now. But we also thank God for how He works in our own lives. This is what God does and He will do for each one of us as believers, as followers of Jesus Christ.
Before I read the last few verses of Psalm 136, I want to read Philippians 4:19. You all know this verse: “And my God will supply every need of yours [all your needs] according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” That is a great promise, isn’t it? So, with that in mind, let’s wrap up this psalm.
READ Psalm 136:23-26
So, God is at work. Even now, even today, meeting our various needs – physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, financial, material, whatever. I love v 23: “He who remembered us in our low estate.” In that great hymn, which is my favorite hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, one of the verses in there says, “Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.” Every time I hear that verse, I think this: “What is it that God saw in me that He would do something like that for me? That He would have His own son shed His blood for my soul? What did He see in me?” And I can’t answer that. All I know is that He did. And He remembered me in my low estate – a sinner, an ordinary guy in every way, selfish, a bit narcissistic at times, lustful, prideful, often exercising poor judgment, lazy, self-absorbed way too often, not always faithful to Him (yes, that is me). BUT God loves me anyway. And He sent His Son to die for me on the cross so that I, unworthy as I am, could have eternal life. So, every time I hear that verse, that is what I think about. And it really moves me. I am humbled by that thought.
And then in v 24 it talks about how He deals with our enemies. Yes, I have some enemies too. I think we all do. But, of course, all of have THE enemy, which is Satan. But what a great God our God is! He gives us victory. He rescues us.
And then it talks about in v 25 about how He provides food to all flesh. Hey, I have not gone hungry or thirsty lately. Have you? And my only response as I think about this personally is, “Thank you, O Lord for Your steadfast love, Your hesed, Your loyal love, Your lovingkindess, Your mercy, Your grace, and that it will never end! That is where I come to.
And so, the psalm ends the way it begins. Remember v 1 said, “Give thanks to the LORD…” Here, v 26 concludes, “Give thanks to the God of heaven…”
As I thought about what song we should sing. I realized that this psalm at its core is a psalm of thanksgiving. And even though it’s July, I thought to myself, we should sing a song of thanksgiving, a thanksgiving hymn. So even though this song is one we usually sing in November as we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, I think it’s most appropriate for Psalm 136 – We Gather Together, an old Dutch Hymn composed in the late 1500’s. But it conveys a timeless truth that God “forgets not His own.” And with this we will close.
We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.