His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords:
His love endures forever." (Psalm 136:1-3)
Psalm 136 is one of the well-known liturgical psalms. It is set out in call – response fashion where the priest would call out the first part of the verse and the people would respond with the refrain: "His love endures forever."
The psalmist continues to list throughout the rest of the psalm the great wonders that God has performed in the lives of the Israelites, starting with creation, but continuing up to and including the present time. It ends up becoming current and personal in verses 23 & 24, where the first parts read,
"to the One who remembered us in our low estate… and freed us from our enemies."
The word love in the refrain has been translated in other versions of the Bible as 'steadfast love', 'loving kindness', 'mercy' or 'faithful love'. The Hebrew word here is 'hesed' which commentators translate as the characteristic of reliable helpfulness. 'Hesed' is thus an action rather than a feeling. Each of the wonders that are listed is thus an outworking of this 'Hesed.'
Three awesome things to note then from this Psalm:
Firstly, the repetitive nature of the refrain, "His love endures forever" can also be seen as a poetic device to drive the reality of 'forever' into our hearts. Just as we repeat it over and over again, so God's love goes on and on and on. It's a love that cannot be measured or quantified. Paul writes to the Ephesians saying, "I pray that you… grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge."
Secondly that this love is not a general 'God loves the world' kind of love, but rather that it is a personal intimate kind of love. This is the kind of love that cares about sparrows falling from the sky, and that knows the numbers of hairs on our heads. God loves each of us, personally.
And finally, that this love is made visible in God's action. The praise in this Psalm is not thank you God for what you've done, but rather thank you God for WHO YOU ARE and how we see this identity in the wonderful works you do.
"Give thanks to the God of Heaven.
His Love endures forever."
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