Psalm 136

Remember responsive readings in church? In the back of most hymnals you find scripture with alternate verses in bold face. Usually the worship leader or pastor reads the first verse, and the audience responds by reading the bold face in unison. Whenever I could make it fit the sermon, I liked to use them, because reading aloud increases the likelihood the audience is paying attention. This Psalm works like that.

In music, especially among the uneducated classes where many could not read, there was a call-and-response type song. The leader would sing or chant or even speak out a line, and the rest would sing that same line back to him. Probably that's why in “high church” traditions most liturgies include congregational responses. For example, a common one is the priest says, “Peace be unto thee,” and his flock answers back, “And unto thee.”

Every verse in Psalm 136 has the same response: “And his mercy endures forever!” several modern translations us the term “faithful love” instead of mercy. The Hebrew word is chesed, and the most accurate is probably “covenant love,” His love for His chosen people, Israel. One Hebrew dictionary suggests these meanings: favor, good deed, kindness, loving kindness, mercy, pity. Oddly its original meaning came from reproach or reproof! Go figure.

The quarterly does a good job of dividing the psalm into three sections. The first is similar to previous studies of His innate greatness as Creator. Next, the praise is directed at His actions in history, His establishment and protection of Israel, and finally, His personal care of individuals.

Verse 1 – good – dictionary: pleasant, agreeable, excellent, rich valuable, kind, benign, ethical – good or right.

2 – God of gods – king above all gods, any other conceivable god.

3 – Lord of lords – as above...

4 – does great wonders – difficult or impossible things

5 – understanding, skill, wisdom. Compare John 1:1 – the Word. Also Genesis 1, where God merely spoke and things came into being.

The author continues to praise God as Creator until:

Verse 10 – smote the Egyptians – shifting to history. Remember we pointed out in our first lesson that history plays a huge part in the Bible. In most world religions, their concept of deity does not include a historical god. Rather everything happens in cycles. The Bible sets out a linear history that God acts in as the Actor in Chief!The most important historical theme is the Exodus. As the US looks back to its founding fathers, so Israel looked back on the Exodus as its beginning.

He goes on in later verses enumerating the battles the Lord won for them, culminating in verse 23:

What was this low estate? Israel came from a hard-working, slave class of people.

Their leaders often reminded them of how far they had come because of the Lord's help. God saw their low estate, their desperate need. We can be sure when we travel through those floods of trouble that come now and then that He knows, loves, and is working through it for our good.

24 – Another historical reference to the many times Israel prevailed only because the Lord intervened.

Verse 25 is one of the most individually personal references in the psalms. He feeds the world. In the first place, Creation is designed to support life as biologists have shown us in describing the life and food cycles of many animals and ecosystems. “food” is the Hebrew word lechem, which you will recognize as the last part of Bethlehem, house of bread/food. Bread does not here mean a grain product, but like we use it to say “break bread with,” or to eat.

To sum up: Praise God for Creation, His might acts in history, and His constant care over us. Praise YE the LORD!