Psalm 136

It's the midst of the Civil War, depending on what part of the country you are from, the War of the Rebellion or the War of Northern Aggression. But a war that this father wanted to keep his six sons from completely. He lived in the Shenandoah Valley. He did not want any of his sons in the war.

can you not hear me

I'm hearing a big echo up here are you not hearing it there okay you okay everybody hearing now okay he did not want any of his sons in the war and you saw the prayer that he prayed he sort of thought he was in control he could protect his family from the war he could be the one who would not let anything happen to his family He had the power and ability to raise the crops from the ground, and he did all the work himself. But then, then this father learned he was not in control. He learned that he could not always protect his family. Because you see, one of his sons, his youngest son, was captured by Yankee soldiers, not because he was fighting for the Confederacy, but because he had found a Confederate cap and put it on, and he was thought to be part of the Confederacy. And suddenly this father has his son taken, and he takes all his other sons to try to find this one missing son.

And as he's on this journey, two sons are killed, a daughter-in-law is killed, and he finally returns home beaten, broken, and still without his youngest son. And he finally realizes that he's not in control, that it's going to take a higher power, a greater power. And you're going to see the end of the story at the end of this lesson. I tell you that story because today we go to Psalm 136. Psalm 136.

And if you want to turn there right now, I will give a few introductory remarks before we dive into this passage. passage. It's called, Psalm 136 is called the great Hallel, the great Hallel. Hallel is the Hebrew word that means praise. When you say hallelujah, Yah is a shortened form of Yahweh, the word for say hallelujah you're saying praise the lord or praise god and psalm 136 is the psalm that in the jewish liturgy and in the to the jews was the great hallel the great praise because it is just soaked in praise to almighty god but i'm going to ask you before we move into this psalm do you ever pause to reflect and to remember on what God has done for you.

And I think we're going to see as we go through this psalm that the foundation for our praise is for us to remember. The scriptures constantly call us to remember, to remember, to remember, to think back on the past and what God has done and is on that basis that we can then sing the great hallel, the great praise.

There's a recurring, and you're going to help me read this Psalm in a minute, so I've got to teach you a little Hebrew very quickly so you can help me. If you see on the title on your handout, Psalm 136, for his hesed endures forever, it's a recurring refrain in this psalm and we're going to talk about what that word means but to say the Hebrew word hesed it's really not just an h sound if you say the word bak you get that sort of guttural sound Beethoven and bak that that sound is the beginning of hesed so you got to say kesed kesed kesed so as we go through this psalm i want you to read the recurring refrain but we're going to read it if you have the niv it just says his love endures forever you're going to say for his kesed endures forever you're going to say it 26 times because that's how many times it's in here but this is how the jews would do it apparently this is a responsive reading for the jews so The first part. And then you say, for his chesed endures forever. Here we go. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

Come on now, let's get together. Give thanks to the Lord of lords.

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

to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt

and brought Israel out from among them

with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm

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,

who struck down great kings and killed mighty kings.

Sihon, king of the Amorites,

and Og, king of Bashan,

And gave their land as an inheritance.

An inheritance to his servant Israel.

To the one who remembered us in our low estate.

And freed us from our enemies.

And who gives food to every creature.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

Lord, we know that your kesed endures forever. I pray this morning that as we go through this great halal, this psalm of great praise, that we will be a people who remember what you have done for us. And because of that, we will give thanks and give praise to your name. For it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

the central admonition of the psalm is give thanks to Yahweh, to the Lord. That's capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. You see it in verses 1, 2, and 3, the introduction to the psalm, give thanks to the Lord. Verse 2, give thanks to the Lord. Verse 3, give thanks to the Lord.

And then in the concluding verse, give thanks to the God of heaven. This is an admonition that has reasons and knowledge behind it. In other words, when we give thanks, it's not sort of just a neutral give thanks. It's a thanksgiving that arises and swells up out of who God is and what he has done for us in the past. And it is an admonition to give thanks, an admonition that always has an object.

Anytime we say give thanks, you've got to give thanks to someone for something they have done. So the psalmist here is pressing us that in the big things of life, we are always, always, always to give thanks to Him who is the Lord.

So, giving thanks has reasons and it always has an object. And the object is Yahweh, the Lord. But the central admonition has a central reason for the admonition. In other words, there is a reason we are to give thanks for the Lord. And the central reason is for his chesed endures forever.

That's why we give thanks to the Lord, because we know and have seen and understood that his chesed endures forever. this is a repetitive refrain 26 verses 26 times it says for his chesed endures forever now for those of you who have the niv i must point out something everywhere it says his love endures forever you don't have that little word for do you before it there's one there every time So for 26 verses, you should have the word for right there. Because that word for could be translated because. Give thanks to the Lord because His love endures forever. For His love endures forever.

That little word is important because it connects the phrase His love endures forever to the giving thanks. And shows that there is a reason for giving thanks. That for word is a word that gives a reason for something. So note that there. But we're giving thanks for his chesed endures forever.

This is a word that we almost cannot translate with one English word, chesed. It is a powerful, powerful word of the Old Testament. I think I gave you in your handout the way some of the different translations have translated this word. uses the word love. Good translation. The NIV, excuse me, the NKJV and the King James Version use the word mercy. Good translation. The New American Standard Bible kind of slammed two words together to try to capture it. The New American Standard translates Chesed loving kindness.

So you see you've got both loving and kindness slammed together into this big huge compound because the NSB translator said we can't get it with just one English word, so we're going to put loving kindness. But this word, kesed, has the notion that God not only loves us, but he is gracious to us. He is kind to us. He is faithful. That faithfulness is part of this notion of kesed.

It is a magnificent word. When the psalmist ends Psalm 23, you know, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. For his goodness and chesed shall follow me all the days of my life. For his goodness and mercy, says the King James. For his goodness and love, says the NIV, shall follow me all the days of my life.

for his goodness and loving kindness, the New American Standard says, shall follow me all the days of my life. So we have a reason to give thanks to God because his love endures forever.

Well, how do we know that? How do we know this is the reason for us to give thanks, that his love endures forever? but we must be I guess persuaded if we're going to truly give thanks that his love really does endure forever and I'm going to submit to you that much of this psalm in fact most of this psalm is the psalmist persuading us that God's love does endure forever because he knows unless we are persuaded of that we will not praise him as we should we will not give thanks as we should so he wants us to be fully persuaded that his chesed endures forever and he helps us know that his chesed endures forever in several ways so i asked the question roman numeral four how do we know that and i use the word love here because that's the way most of you have it translated in your NIV, that his love or his chesed endures forever. We know first that his chesed endures forever because of who God is, his person. And we are told two major characteristics of his person. He is good and he is great. God is good. God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. It's a simple prayer we teach young children, but it's a great one. And the psalmist really captures both of these, his goodness and his greatness. You see in verse one, give thanks to the Lord for He is good, the psalmist says.

And because He is good, we can know He is loving. His goodness goes to His character. This is the kind of God we serve. We serve a good God, a God of upstanding character, a God who because He is good, loves us. So you can be persuaded that he really does love because he really is good.

And his goodness is captured in his love. And in fact, you get to 1 John, John will just say God is love. And that's part of him being good. But then he is great, and we get that in some of the designations of God. Look at verse 2.

He is the God of gods. He is the Elohim of Elohim. When you see the word God in the Old Testament, usually behind that word is the Hebrew word Elohim. And then in verse 3, He is the Lord, capital L, little O, little R, little D. Do you see that?

It's not in verse 1, if you look at the word Lord, it's all caps. Capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Yahweh, verse 3, capital L, little O, little R, little D. That's another Hebrew word, Adonai. He is the Adonai of lords.

And that's the notion that he is the master of all masters. He is the ruler of all rulers. He is the sovereign supreme one over and above all those other little ones who try to claim to be sovereign.

so why is it important if we want to be persuaded that God's love endures forever why is it important that we be persuaded that he is great he is the God of gods Lord of lords and also in verse 26 the God of heaven well not only is he loving which is part of his goodness his character but this love endures forever it endures forever it never ends and you can be persuaded that his love never ends because he is the god of gods he is the lord of lords he is the god of heaven he is all powerful he is eternal he never ends because he is this great god he is all powerful so nothing can ever trump him or overthrow him so you can be persuaded that this love that is part of his goodness will in fact go on forever because he will go on forever and because no one no one nothing will ever defeat him or overthrow him so be persuaded because he is good that he is loving and because he is great his love will never end it is everlasting and it is eternal do you see why the psalmist wants you to know God is great and God is good he wants you to know he is loving and that love will never end but if he is not good then he's probably not loving and if he's not great we can't be assured that it's going to go on forever can we but because he is good in loving good and great we can be persuaded so how do we know his love endures forever first is person but then the second major character category of how we know his love endures forever is because of his works that is what he has done how can you know that god loves endures forever well just look how he's behaved in the past see what he has done and the children of israel would often go back and recount the great things god had done for them and generation after generation after generation after generation the jews would teach the children and the grandchildren let us tell you the story of the one called Yahweh. Let us go back and remember. I hope we do that with our children. You know, these Israelites are our ancestors from a spiritual perspective. And we need to know our ancestry and our history.

And so we need to remember what God has done for our spiritual ancestors, and we need to teach our children and grandchildren persuaded that this is a loving God. Here are the various things that he has done. He has created creation. You get that in verses four through nine in the text. And you see the listing there of he's done great wonders. He made the heavens. He spread the earth upon the waters, made the great lights, the sun to govern the day, the moon and stars to govern the night. He has prepared an earth that is habitable by us as people. And the fact that he has made it habitable and prepared it for us is a past act showing his love for us. His next work that is recounted is his deliverance.

his deliverance. You can't lightly skirt over this part of Jewish history because this Old Testament history is so vital to New Testament history. And sometimes I assume we all understand and know some of this history, but I'm going to take a moment to be sure we do know it. This may be a refresher for some of you, but if it's not, But his deliverance refers, and you look at verses 13, excuse me, verses 10 through 12, the reference to he struck down the firstborn of Egypt, brought Israel from a mount out among them, and with a mighty hand and outstretched arm he did these things. Do you remember the story of Passover?

The greatest ruler on earth, Pharaoh, had enslaved God's people.

And despite repeated requests from God's messenger Moses, the greatest king on earth would not let God's people go. So the greatest king of all said, you will let my people go. That happened in the event we call the Passover. When on that night in Jewish history and in the history of Egypt, when God sent his death angel to take the firstborn Egyptian child and animal, even the firstborn animals of the Egyptians were taken. And as the death angel passed over, there was death.

Except for the blood of the lamb was on the doorpost. And you remember, the word had been given to the Jewish people. Take the blood of the lamb and put it over the doorpost. And as the death angel saw the blood of the lamb, he passed over.

The blood of the lamb, very important for the New Testament. But it is in that event that God would tell the greatest king on earth, he wasn't as great as he thought and there was a greater king. And it was God's love for his people that had him do this act. So it's the Passover which then led to the Exodus. The Exodus means these enslaved people of God.

Pharaoh finally said you can go after the death angel passed over and took the firstborn among the Egyptians. And as the people leave, they exodus from Egypt. It was God's great delivering hand that did it. Think about that. Your ancestors enslaved for centuries.

But then God, the God of gods, the Lord of lords, lets your people go. It's a good sign he loves you, that he was willing to do that. So his deliverance is important. Then his rescue, he rescued his people. If you recall the story after the Jews left Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind.

He said, I'm going to go get them. I'm going to bring them back. I'm not going to let this great God of gods beat me. I'm going to beat him. I'm going to go get his people back.

but then we are told in verse 13 God divided the Red Sea asunder the Red Sea asunder and he took his people through it so this great God opens the sea the Israelites, you remember the story, had their back to the sea Pharaoh's army is approaching, the people don't know how they're going to escape there's no hope, the greatest army on earth is attacking them have the sea behind them. What will happen? How will they be saved? And then the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the God of heaven says, part sea. And the seas open up.

And I love that scene, don't you, with Charlton Heston and the Ten Commandments with the waters rolling back the great wall of water. And then God's people pass through safely on dry ground. and then just as Pharaoh's armies charge after them to take them and kill them, the seas roll back because the God of gods and the Lord of lords let the waters go.

Pretty dramatic rescue, pretty dramatic act. Another demonstration in his works that God loved his people and would do whatever it took to protect them. The next great act is his guidance.

16 he led his people through the desert the niv says or wilderness would be another translation the wilderness wanderings do you remember the story moses sent the spies into the promised land the children of israel were supposed to take it the 12 spies came back 10 of them said those are big people over there and they can whip us and only two of the spies joshua and caleb said are Are you kidding? We serve the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the God of heaven. What are you worried about? But the people almost stoned Joshua and Caleb and Moses because they wanted to take the promised land. And because of that, God punished them with the wilderness wanderings for 40 years.

But even in that punishment, you see God's love for his people. Because while they were in the wilderness, he led them. He led them by day with a great pillar of cloud. and he led them by night with a great pillar of fire. So they weren't left alone in the wilderness.

They had a great guide who guided them through the wilderness, and his guidance was, again, evidence of his love. The fifth thing is victory. Verses 17 through 22, when the children of Israel finally went into the promised land, the land of Canaan, there were many mighty kings in that land, many mighty kings who normally one would think would be able to defeat the Israelites.

But the Israelites had the God of gods, the Lord of lords, and the God of heaven on their side. And so they're able to defeat the great kings of Canaan. And two are particularly mentioned. Sihon, verse 19, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan. These are both Amorite kings who lived east of the Jordan.

read Numbers chapter 21 you can read the story of Sihon and Og. Sihon was asked by the children of Israel can we cross through your land to get to the promised land and Sihon said no way you're not going through my land and in fact I'm going to send my army out to whip up on you and Sihon gathers his armies together and goes out to defeat the Israelites and of course the The God of gods, the Lord of lords, the God of heaven says, Sihon, you're just a little, I started to say a word I shouldn't say. A little pipsqueak. I like that. A little pipsqueak.

A little pipsqueak. I'll show you who's the God of gods. And he defeats Sihon. And then Og, another Amorite king who lived in Bashan. And Og, if you read about Og, he was a giant.

If you read Deuteronomy 3, he had a bed that was over 13 feet long and over 6 feet wide because he was a very, very, very large man, sort of a Goliath-type figure. And you know what? In his army, in his territory, he had 60 walled cities that were fortified, 60 walled cities. There was no way this ragtag bunch of Israelites could defeat this giant of a king who had 60 walled cities that they would have to conquer.

Except the Israelites had the God of gods and the Lord of lords and the God of heaven on their side. And he defeated Og and all of his cities. And the Israelites, if you read the Old Testament, they will constantly tell the story of the dual defeat of Sihon and Og. because that dual defeat demonstrated to them the power of their God and also his love for them. And then the psalmist summarizes in verses 23 through 25, to the one who remembered us in our low estate and freed us from our enemies and gives food to every creature, his love endures forever.

If you read the whole psalm, I think it's important to note the repetitive refrain of the words,

To him. Look at, and just go through me. Look at your Bible. Look at verse 4. To him.

That's the God of gods, the Lord of lords. And I'm going to tell you where the two hymns are, even if your translation doesn't have it. Verse 4 begins with to him. Verse 5 begins with to him. Verse 6 begins in the Hebrew text with to him.

Verse 7 begins with to him. Verse 10 begins with to him. Verse 13 begins to him. to him. Verse 17 begins to him. Who is him? He is the Lord of Lords, the God of gods, the God of heaven. And the psalmist keeps wanting the Israelites to look up, to look up to him, to him, to him, to him, to him, give thanks. His love endures forever because of his person and because of the works he has done his love is evident and the conclusion of this great psalm is give thanks to the god of heaven for his love endures forever isn't it interesting how repetitive this psalm is occasionally we'll hear some christian music these days and sometimes i've heard some say well it's uh i don't like it because it's so repetitive

the psalmist knew there were some things worth repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating because he knew there were some things to praise about this god and one of them is that his love endures forever is there a song that has that title who sang it do you know

that repetition is from the inspired text that's not a creation of a contemporary artist his love endures forever here's some lessons for life develop the habit of giving thanks to god it needs to be a continual habit this is on the back side of your handout

it needs to become a habit of life during the day for the ordinary things and the extraordinary Number two, read scripture with a thankful eye. When you read about your spiritual ancestors, give thanks for what God did for your spiritual ancestors. And as you read scripture, see what he did in the past that benefits you in the present and give thanks for that. Recognize the Israelites as your spiritual ancestors. That should say are your spiritual ancestors.

Sometimes we forget that. But you want to know your heritage? learn about your physical ancestors. Learn about your spiritual ancestors and recognize that we need to be thankful for what God did for them. Develop a childlike wonder for the gifts God has given you. Those of you who can remember if you have children when they were young and small on Christmas morning, I can remember Caleb and Kate, two years old, four years old, coming downstairs and everything was just wondrous.

Presence. In every presence, there was a squeal of delight about it. Sometimes as adults, we get sort of jaded, don't we? We begin to forget. We let the worries of this life, the hurry of this life, harden us.

And we've lost the wonder. Let's find the wonder. God has done so much for us. Let's have a little bit of that squealing delight for what he has done for us. Number five, help your children and grandchildren see life with thankful hearts.

I think our children and grandchildren need to hear us say, don't we need to thank God that you've got such a beautiful voice or that you've got such a good mind or that you are such a good sports athlete that you have a good meal to eat, that you have a place to get educated, that you have a church that loves you and cares for you, that Jesus Christ died for you and you have your salvation in him. They need to hear and know about giving thanks, and that begins with us being thankful people. And they hear that verbally.

F, read Luke 2, 1 to 20 on Christmas Eve. And I would suggest if you've got a family, read it with your family, And then just sit there and be quiet. Just read it. And then have some silence. And remember.

Lastly, I would encourage you to write your own great Hallel. I've started working on mine. Thinking about the things God has done for me. Things for which I want to praise him.

for life and health, for loving parents, siblings to cherish, for Louise, for Caleb, for Kate, for Joshua, for the hope that I will one day see my Christ and my Joshua, for the Gang of Five, for a class named Christ Seekers, for a seminary called Gordon Conwell, for the chance to serve through Joshua's way, For all the many things, let's write our own great halels. He never fails. He never fails.