Psalm 136 stands apart from all the rest of the Psalms. And even as you flick through the Psalms, you notice its distinctive feature straight away. The feature that makes its main point, over, and over, and over again. There’s no getting away from what the Psalm is telling us, reminding us again and again that ‘His love endures for ever.’
If you remember nothing else from our Psalm this evening, at least, you’ll remember this. ‘His love endures for ever.’ That chorus comes at the end of every verse, at the end of every sentence, and sometimes even in the middle of the sentence, driving home that His love endures for ever. One of the commentaries suggested that we’re so unfamiliar with this repetition that it might feel as if the Psalm itself was going to endure for ever. But the Psalm makes its point. His love endures for ever.
When I was writing the sermon, I wondered if I should take my lead from the Psalm, and repeat that phrase after every sentence, but I decided against it. It might have been a bit much to have it in the Psalm and in the sermon. But let’s think about that sentence for a moment. Let’s break it down, to see what it is actually telling us.
HIS love endures for ever - the focus is on the ‘him’ behind ‘his’. And who is the he? Verses 1-3 shows us who ‘he’ is. ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good... Give thanks to the God of gods... Give thanks to the Lord of lords...’
It’s the love of the LORD, capital letters LORD, that we’re focusing on in this Psalm. When you see the word LORD in capital letters, it’s the covenant-making, promise-keeping Lord who is in view. Jehovah (or Yahweh). The LORD is good, so we are to give him thanks. More than that, he is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the ruler of the rulers - high over all, no one compares to him.
And the quality that sets him apart, besides his goodness, is his love. His enduring love. In fact, 1 John goes even further, to say that God is love. This is who he is.
We see just what the LORD has done, as last week, in terms of creation and then redemption. It’s creation, first, in verses 4-9. And here we find echoes and allusions to Genesis 1, to the story of God’s creating the world.
‘To him who alone does great wonders... who by his understanding made the heavens... who spread out the earth upon the waters... who made the great lights... the sun to govern the day... the moon and stars to govern the night...’
The LORD is the one who did all this. And he did it all because of his enduring love. When you look at the world, when you’re struck by a sunset, or when you marvel at the stars in the night sky - whatever you see is by God’s grand design. It was his idea, his understanding, his wisdom to form it and fashion it, to display his glory.
Some people may look at it all and think there’s no evidence of God, but another Psalm (19) tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God... And every feature - is a sign of God’s love. In front of me, there’s a phone, which has an app that can tell you when the sun will rise and set tomorrow. Another to tell you when high tide and low tide will take place next Tuesday. Another to say the phases of the moon, because it’s all perfectly designed and shows God’s love and care for us. Why? Because his love endures for ever.
If you were with us last week, you might recognise some of the next section. You see, in verses 10-22, the main focus is on God’s redemption of his people Israel. And there are some lines that are shared with Psalm 135. But there is a bit more detail here. Here’s what’s new in Psalm 136:
‘With a mighty hand and outstretched arm (12)... to him who divided the Red Sea asunder... and brought Israel through the midst of it, but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea... to him who led his people through the desert.’ (13-16).
There’s a greater focus on the escape here - how it was God who worked to rescue his people, with his mighty hand and outstretched arm. It was through the Red Sea that God brought his people to safety, and led them through the desert. And then, in words we heard last week, the kings that were killed, including Sihon and Og.
And why did God do all this? Because of his love for his people. Over in Deuteronomy, Moses is speaking to the people before he dies, and they go over into the promised land. And he deals with the question of why God chose them, why God set his love on them. Was it because they were a big nation? Populous? Mighty? Strong? No, it was simply because he loved them. ‘It was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand...’ (Deut 7:8). He loved them because he loved them.
They hadn’t done anything to impress him. They hadn’t done anything to deserve his love. They had no merit, nothing going in their favour, except that God loved them. And isn’t that the same for us? We might try to think that God has chosen us and loves us because, well, how could he not? But we had nothing going for us. We were still his enemies, but God shows his love for us in this - Christ died for us.
We see his love in the events of the Exodus. But we also see his love in the events of the cross. That the perfect, holy, Son of God should stoop to live and die for sinners like us. That he should take our place, and bear our sin, so that we might go free, forgiven, and saved.
This is ‘His love’ - a love that we will never tire of singing about; throughout all eternity, this will be our song. And just as our song will endure through all eternity, it’s only because his love also endures for ever. There’s no best before date; no expiry date; no time-limited guarantee. His love endures for ever. And just as he continued to bear with the Israelites as they messed up again and again, so his love endures for us as well.
It’s why, after whatever sort of week you’ve had, you can come before him tonight. It’s why, whatever sort of week you’re about to have, you can come to the table. And in the little bit of bread, and the little sip of wine, you taste the tokens of his love, the ongoing pledge of his never-ending love for you.
You see, we are drawn into Psalm 136. We’re drawn into the opening verses, calling on us to give thanks. But we’re also drawn into the closing verses. You see, the main sections, creation and redemption are all past tense - they look back to what God did in the past. But verses 23 -25 are different. They gather the present day people of God into the story. They use, for the first time, ‘us’. ‘To the one who remembered us in our low estate... and freed us from our enemies... and who gives food to every creature...’
Those verses bring the Psalm into our experience, the way that he remembered us in our low estate, and freed us from our enemies. They way God continues to give food to every creature. The ways that we continue to experience his enduring for ever love.
So what do we do with this Psalm tonight? Do we remember it as the slightly odd and repetitive Psalm? Or do we hear the chorus, and take it up as our own - knowing, for sure, in our mind and our experience, that his love endures for ever.
You see, sometimes it can be hard to know that. Or hard to remember that, when you’re going through difficult circumstances. But if Psalm 136 is telling us anything, it is telling us that his love really does endure for ever. And because it does; because he does love us; it calls us to give thanks to the God of heaven.
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday evening 19th August 2018.
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