Psalm 136

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Three times, we are summoned to give thanks to YHWH for this one thing: his goodness expressed in his enduring covenant love and loyalty. The word “give thanks”, hodah has the meaning of “throw” or “cast” at its core. Scholars link this to the liturgical posture of “lifting hands toward” the deity, raising them up as a physical demonstration of what is happening internally. “Throw your hands outward as an expression of thanks and praise” to YHWH. The psalmist uses three titles to address God: YHWH, the Elohim of elohims, the Adonai and adonais. In reality, there are many elohims (gods) and adonais (masters) that one may worship. I’ve worshiped many of them myself. But YHWH reigns supreme as the one worthy of such worship. The gods that I have worshiped are not good and they are not unfailing. They will disappoint because they are made by my hands. They will not be enough to support me when all else fails, when I fail. This psalm comes on the heels of Psalm 135 and its reference to the impotent gods of men, and it establishes a strong contrast to them. YHWH is a God who acts, senses, and exists substantially in reality. The phrase, “his love endures forever” is literally, “le-olam has-do”, “to-forever his-faithful-love”, two words that are repeated in every verse. This may have been a call and response for congregational use (As a worship leader that’s what I would have done with it!). The effect of the repetition is to drive home the point, making it unforgettable, bringing it easily to mind in every day and season of life.

4 to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever;

5 to him who by understanding made the heavens, for his steadfast love endures forever;

6 to him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever;

The psalmist begins to enumerate the reasons that YHWH is worthy of the lifting up of hands in thanks, starting with creation. YHWH does great wonders single handedly. He had no help. The creation stories of other ancient cultures usually involved a pantheon of gods, often fighting with each other with the resulting carnage becoming the stuff of the earth. God needs no help from any other gods. He alone does great wonders, and all of the others are imposters. The first two acts of creation described here are the creation of the heavens (days one and two in Genesis - God makes light and separates the waters above and below forming the sky) and the creation of the land (day three in Genesis where He separates water from land). It was through his wisdom that God made the heavens (and the word there is “make” not “create”), emphasizing not the origin of the heavens but the forming of them. From the beginning of time men have studied the stars and in recent years our knowledge of the workings of the universe have increased exponentially (along with our questions!). The incomparable wisdom of God is the mind behind the beauty and order of the cosmos. How many worlds his hands have made! When it comes to the earth, He “spread out” the land above the waters. The root for “spread out” is the same root as raquia, “the firmament”, “the sky” because the sky was understood as a solid surface that was spread out above the earth, holding back the waters above in between times of rain. There are vast amounts of freshwater underneath the earth, accessed by wells and springs whenever we need it. It’s a perfect system for purifying and storing water for the flourishing of life. Look to the heavens, look at the earth around you, and you see evidence of the faithful love of God. This universe is ideally suited for life on the earth. Scientists have documented the number of specific parameters of our universe that are necessary for life to exist on earth, and their accidental occurrence is extremely unlikely. (This is why some have proposed that there are an infinite number of universes, and we just happen to be the one that got it right!) Andrew Peterson has a song called “The Magic Hour” which describes the beauty of an evening as the sun sets. He asks the question, “could all of this beauty be for us?” I think the answer is yes. Because forever is his love.

7 to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever;

8 the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever;

9 the moon and stars to rule over the night, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Like the author of Genesis, the psalmist looks at creation from a functional perspective. The sun, moon and stars are more than great lights (they are specific celestial objects), but their function in relation to man and our experience is as a source of light. We need light in order to work. We are not moles who live underground and prefer not to see the light. We are light-loving creatures who delight in lying on a sunny beach, spreading a blanket in the park to soak in the rays, or taking a walk on a path through forest with spears of light piercing through the trees. Light is the primary tool of the photographer in creating art, and we experience its dazzling effects on color every day. Ask anyone who has to work nights how much they love light. On the other hand we were also made to rest, about a third of our lives. And to do so we need darkness -- not complete darkness because that would be scary. We need it dark enough for our pupils to dilate and for activity to slow down enough that it gets quiet everywhere for uninterrupted sleep. And yet we still need some light in the night to get up and go to the bathroom and watch for anyone or anything that might trouble us. For this God provided two sources of light, the primary one being the moon, cycling through its phases every 28 days for some variety. The secondary source are the stars (and planets) which don’t provide as much light but help us orient ourselves directionally when the sun is down. Humans have used them for years to navigate at night, even on the ocean when there are no other landmarks. They also provide us with fodder for story-telling as our minds look for patterns, and our boredom moves us to creativity. Most people rarely stop to notice these great lights in the sky, taking for granted that they will always be there because they always have been. Instead, we look down at our screens. 

10 to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his steadfast love endures forever;

11 and brought Israel out from among them, for his steadfast love endures forever;

12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Moving from creation, the psalmist cites the greatest miracle in history (one that would ultimately point to the resurrection of Jesus and its consequences). YHWH killed the firstborn of Egypt and brought Israel out of slavery with his strong hand and outstretched arm. If you’re Egyptian or sympathetic to them, this passage may be problematic. How can a God whose “love endures forever” be guilty of mass murder and destruction of the environment and society? Egypt was a big messy pile by the time God got done with it. How can anyone justify that? What kind of God would do such a thing? I think the answer is a God of justice. As much as we don’t like to be on the receiving end of justice, we still like it and we wouldn’t want to live in a world without it. Egypt accomplished great wonders that endure to this day, but they did so on the backs of slaves, inflicting untold centuries of suffering on innocent people. Slavery was a moral evil and a society that prospers using slave labor isn’t really prospering. It is a cancer that grows within until it metastasizes and bears its deadly fruit. The plagues were a series of environmental calamities that were meant to humble Egypt’s leadership, causing them to reconsider their core beliefs about the gods, and perhaps even to change their attitudes about how they were treating their fellow man. It took ten of them to bring about that result, but even that was only temporary. Such is the nature of human pride and selfishness. YHWH showed centuries of grace on the Egyptian people and through the megaphone of pain he shouted at them to repent. Some of them did and joined the Israelites in the exodus. The same will be true of the conquest of Canaan that will follow some forty years later. Sometimes God’s love is expressed in his discipline, for he disciplines those he loves, like the good father that he is. Don’t be confused about the LORD’s discipline. He’s not angry with you. He desires what is best for you, and what is best for you is Him. 

13 to him who divided the Red Sea in two, for his steadfast love endures forever;

14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for his steadfast love endures forever;

15 but overthrew [Hebrew shook off] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;

Following the plagues and the judgment of Egypt, the Israelites began migrating to the east and came up against the yam suph, the Sea of Reeds, identified today as the Red Sea. While “sea of reeds” may indicate shallowness, that was only true of the shoreline. Other passages describe the water piling up, a wind blowing through the night to dry up the sea bed, and the Egyptian army drowning. (They didn’t just get their chariots stuck in the mud!)  While there have always been naturalistic explanations of this miracle, they stretch credulity. You might as well try to give a naturalistic explanation for the resurrection of Jesus! The passing of Israel through the water has much symbolic significance. In Genesis 1, the earth itself passes through water before its formation (everything was underwater, but God separated the land from the water, forming the dry ground and allowing life to flourish on it). Likewise, each of us spends the first nine months of our lives immersed in water (amniotic fluid) before we pass through the birth canal and into the dry world. This experience was meant to signify the new birth of the nation. They didn’t have a choice in a sense. They had two options: stay where they were and certainly die by the sword or move toward likely death in the water. They chose the latter and came out the other side singing. So must every man make that choice. Death is certain in this life. Stay where you are on the western shore and you will die. But through faith walk through the waters of baptism, experience this watery death, and you might just emerge a new man with a better life, an eternal life, as you look to the east and the rising sun. Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born again, born of water and spirit, the sea and the wind (Genesis 1:2 - the wind/breath/spirit of God was hovering upon the waters). Like a baby, we emerge from the watery grave of sin and into the light of life, into the world that we were made for with a brand new heart of faith and gratitude. 

16 to him who led his people through the wilderness, for his steadfast love endures forever;

The psalmist summarizes forty years in one line: YHWH walked with his people through the wilderness. The root of “led” here is simply the word “walk” in the causative form. God “caused them to walk” which is another way of saying “led”. Of course it didn’t have to take forty years to get from Sinai to Canaan. There is a more direct route, but the majority of the people lacked the faith to take it. This was one of the great ironies and tragedies of the exodus. The same people who had witnessed firsthand the power of God in the plagues and his command over the elements in the crossing of the Red Sea suddenly were afraid of the next challenge that lay before them. Yet even in their failure of faith, the LORD led them through the wilderness. For us it is a metaphor for life. Life is in fact a wilderness. It is tough and there are times when we are painfully reminded that we don’t belong here. We are immortals and we are made for a better place. We should treat life as such and hold things loosely that we will never be able to hold onto permanently. In the wilderness that is this life we can expect God’s presence and guidance just as the Israelites experienced. A cloud by day and a fire by night, water from a rock, manna on the ground, even meat from the sky to satisfy our cravings -- these are what God provided his wayward people. Also in the wilderness he punished their disobedience and ultimately an entire generation perished, replaced by a generation that had never known slavery, just life in the wilderness. Maybe that first generation of former slaves didn’t know how to be free. May I learn to walk with God in freedom through the wilderness.

17 to him who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;

18 and killed mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures forever;

19 Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures forever;

20 and Og, king of Bashan, for his steadfast love endures forever;

The psalmist moves to the next era of Israel’s history: the conquest. Moving from the wilderness, the people were eager to acquire their own land and that required displacing the people there before them. The improbable warriors experienced victory after victory, but the credit all went to YHWH. It was He who struck down great and mighty kings. Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan were two of the kings that are named, known for their physical size and fierce armies. There is much debate about the ethics of this event, but the psalmist and the historians in scripture treat it matter-of-factly. This is simply what God did to make a place for his people to dwell and judging the people of the land for their corruption and mistreatment of the weakest members of society. Perhaps the “great and powerful kings” description here is meant to highlight this injustice. God brings down the powerful when they are trampling the weak, and he uses the weak to do so. This is what he did with Israel -- former slaves, wandering in the wilderness, subdue the mighty city-states of Canaan, sometimes without firing a shot. Perhaps these civilizations fell because of their own corruption (like Babylon before the Persians). Their time had come, sin had worked its way so thoroughly through society that there was no will to preserve it. Some of them likely intermarried with the Jewish people to save their lives and found so much more in worshiping YHWH. The biblical narrative doesn’t give us such details, so it is left to our imagination given what we know of human nature, the corrupting nature of sin in a culture, and the will of humans to survive by any means. But know that the conquest was an act of God for which he is to be praised. 

21 and gave their land as a heritage, for his steadfast love endures forever;

22 a heritage to Israel his servant, for his steadfast love endures forever.

The second half of the conquest (after the killing of the kings) was the giving of their lands to Israel, the servant of God. From the perspective of the people of the day, it must have seemed like a dream. Moving into a land where trees had already been planted, rocks had been cleared from fields, vineyards were growing, wells had been dug, and houses had been built -- this was seen as a great gift from God. And this land would be their heritage forever, dating back to the time when Abraham sojourned there and bought a piece of land to bury his wife. They were the living fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and the patriarchs: land and descendents. Roughly six hundred years had passed since the time of Abraham, an inconceivably long time, and yet they were back, just as God had promised. The nation of Israel would have its peaks and valleys over the next 3,400 years, enjoying some independence periodically, but for most of that time, they lived under the civil authority of others. The modern state of Israel is also something of a miracle, an unlikely series of events coupled with the iron will of a people to never allow themselves to be subject to the will of others hostile to them. Some Christians say that this is God honoring his promise to them, this promise of land as a heritage. Others Christians say (with Paul in Romans 9-11) that they are cut off from God because they have rejected Christ. I’ll leave the judging to God while continuing to share the good news of Jesus with all who will listen. God may indeed have given the land to modern Israel in the same way that the lands of others were “given” to those who conquered them. The LORD is sovereign over the nations, they totter and fall (Psalm 46:6), but He is ultimately at work behind it all. 

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever;

24 and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever;

In their poor condition, YHWH remembered the people of Israel and rescued them (literally, tore them away) from their foes. It’s not clear what specific event this refers to because there are multiple times that Israel was in bad shape and God stepped in and delivered them from enemies. Examples include the exodus from Egypt, battles with the amalekites in the wilderness, various foreign powers that oppressed them during the time of the judges (Midian, Philistia), the Assyrian and Syrian threats from the north, and later the Babylonians from the east. This could even be a reference to the return from Babylonian captivity, an unlikely event that had God’s fingerprints all over it. Because this pattern is repeated over and over, it suggests a principle: God rescues the little guy. Even with all power and authority and his disposal, he chooses to engage that power for the sake of the powerless. The greatest example is who God conquers the twin threats to humanity (sin and death) by dying on a cross. The sight of a crucified man is not a symbol of power. It is quite the opposite. And yet it shows how YHWH remembers us in our low estate by becoming one of us and by suffering with us. And in doing so he rescued us not from human enemies (which aren’t the worst), but from sin and death and the one who wields them to build his counter-kingdom, the Prince of Lies. The phrase “tore away” makes me think of an animal ripping prey from the mouth of another. While a little gory, that’s exactly what the Lion of Judah did for us. We were about to be devoured by Satan who stalks us like a roaring lion. In fact we were in his teeth when a more powerful lion subdued him and wrenched us, wounded and bleeding, from his mouth. He healed us with his tenderness and while he remains fearsome, we know his heart, and we trust his goodness.  

25 he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

The final expression of gratitude goes to God for his provision of food (lit. “bread”) to all flesh. In short, He is the God of heaven who cares about what happens on earth. This psalm is dripping with the goodness of God. From the good world that he created to the good ways that he took care of his chosen people Israel, He shows that He is involved. Not a distant deity who created the world and sits back and watches it run, but one who is fully engaged right down to daily meal planning for every living thing. Let’s think about food for a moment. It is a basic physical need and yet one that has other dimensions as well. Eating is pleasurable, social, and it brings immense satisfaction. Every day our bodies yearn for it, and it feels good to satisfy that yearning. We anticipate meals, we invest time and effort in preparing them to enjoy. The whole concept of food and mealtime is a gift from God. He could have designed some other system, but literally every living creature must be involved with food in some way every day. And the text says that God gives bread to all flesh. He feeds the world out of its bounty, and in the process brings pleasure and community to families and friends. What a brilliant idea! Give thanks to the God of heaven for the gift of food!