Faithfulness
Psalm 136; 23:6; 145:8; Micah 7:18
Psalm 136 is a very important and special psalm in the Jewish tradition. They call this psalm “The Great Hallel” or “The Great Praise Psalm.” This psalm would be regularly featured as part of the celebration and worship at important, special Jewish holidays and festivals – especially at the Passover and also in their celebrations during autumn harvest.
There is a sense in which this particular psalm, though, holds a special place because it serves as a pattern for all other praise psalms. It tells us plainly who God is and why we should praise him, and it makes very clear that we should give thanks to God in a frequent, heartfelt way for a very important, fundamental reason – because his steadfast love endures forever.
This morning, as we enjoy our own autumn season of harvest and thanksgiving, let’s familiarize ourselves with this special psalm and ask God to stir within our hearts a deeper and more frequent appreciation not only for what he does but for who he is – a devoted, compassionate God who puts all of his qualities to work for his people.
Chesed is when God exercises all his attributes on behalf of his people.
This psalm reveals what happens when God puts all his amazing, unparalleled qualities to work for his people. In this psalm, we see evidence of God’s goodness, sovereignty, eternality, unchangeableness, omniscience, omnipotence, justice, omnipresence, mercy, and love. As Jordan Hamilton explains:
Psalm 136 forces us to the conclusion that God’s total wisdom, love, power, presence, justice and all else are exercised as he shows lovingkindness, hesed.
The word chesed is a special, layered, one-of-a-kind word. When the Old Testament (OT) was written, there were no similar or comparable words or concept in other languages, cultures, or religions at that time. It was a unique word and concept which in most of the many times it is used in Scripture attempts to describe our incomparable God.
In 1535, Myles Coverdale published the first-ever translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into English. When he needed to translate chesed, he realized that there was no equivalent English word for this concept, so he created the compound word “loving-kindness” as attempt to translate it accurately. But even the translation “loving-kindness” does not adequately express what this special word means.
Other words that partially express this word’s wider range of meaning include faithfulness, loyalty, unfailing love, mercy, favor, devotion, and compassion. My OT Hebrew professor, Tim Berrey, suggested a meaning like “the faithful, loyal, devoted, unfailing and relentless loving, merciful compassion of God.” That’s a mouthful!
Psalm 136 is a very important and special psalm in the Jewish tradition. They call this psalm “The Great Hallel” or “The Great Praise Psalm.” This psalm would be regularly featured as part of the celebration and worship at important, special Jewish holidays and festivals – especially at the Passover and also in their celebrations during autumn harvest.
There is a sense in which this particular psalm, though, holds a special place because it serves as a pattern for all other praise psalms. It tells us plainly who God is and why we should praise him, and it makes very clear that we should give thanks to God in a frequent, heartfelt way for a very important, fundamental reason – because his steadfast love endures forever.
This morning, as we enjoy our own autumn season of harvest and thanksgiving, let’s familiarize ourselves with this special psalm and ask God to stir within our hearts a deeper and more frequent appreciation not only for what he does but for who he is – a devoted, compassionate God who puts all of his qualities to work for his people.
Chesed is when God exercises all his attributes on behalf of his people.
This psalm reveals what happens when God puts all his amazing, unparalleled qualities to work for his people. In this psalm, we see evidence of God’s goodness, sovereignty, eternality, unchangeableness, omniscience, omnipotence, justice, omnipresence, mercy, and love. As Jordan Hamilton explains:
Psalm 136 forces us to the conclusion that God’s total wisdom, love, power, presence, justice and all else are exercised as he shows lovingkindness, hesed.
The word chesed is a special, layered, one-of-a-kind word. When the Old Testament (OT) was written, there were no similar or comparable words or concept in other languages, cultures, or religions at that time. It was a unique word and concept which in most of the many times it is used in Scripture attempts to describe our incomparable God.
In 1535, Myles Coverdale published the first-ever translation of the Old Testament from Hebrew into English. When he needed to translate chesed, he realized that there was no equivalent English word for this concept, so he created the compound word “loving-kindness” as attempt to translate it accurately. But even the translation “loving-kindness” does not adequately express what this special word means.
Other words that partially express this word’s wider range of meaning include faithfulness, loyalty, unfailing love, mercy, favor, devotion, and compassion. My OT Hebrew professor, Tim Berrey, suggested a meaning like “the faithful, loyal, devoted, unfailing and relentless loving, merciful compassion of God.” That’s a mouthful!
To even better understand chesed, we should know that it describes how God acts with respect to the covenants and promises he makes with his people. This psalm, for instance, points back to three covenants which God had previously made.
- He made a covenant with all people through Noah (Gen 8-9). In this covenant, God promised to supply the world with the weather and seasons necessary to sustain human life and to not flood the earth as before.
- He made a covenant for Israel and all people through Abraham (Gen 12, 15). In this covenant, God promised to bless descendants of Abraham in material and social ways and to bless both them and people from the nations of the world in spiritual ways. This promise included the promise of land in Palestine to inhabit and possess.
- He made a covenant with Israel through Moses (Exo 19-20). In this covenant, God promised to commit himself to Israel’s blessing and protection when they moved into Palestine to inhabit and possess it. Most importantly, he promised to provide spiritual salvation both to and through them if they trusted in him.
Chesed shows us that when God enters into a covenant with people, he commits himself in a full and wholehearted way to fulfilling the promises he made and to being a loyal, devoted, unfailing partner. The best example of what this means in our horizontal, human-to-human relationships today is the covenant of marriage. It describes the ideal marriage in which both spouses actually mean what they say when they exchange vows, devoting themselves to a life of active, loyal love and devotion both “for better” and “for worse.”
Chesed, though, does not merely describe what we might call “staying married.” It describes someone who not only “stays married” but who does, on a daily basis, all the things that show his or her spouse the devoted love and care their marriage covenant calls them to show – whether deserved, recognized, reciprocated or not. But as God said to his own people in the OT, when describing their relationship with him as a marriage:
Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away. (Hos 6:4)
When the OT uses this word to describe how people respond (or should respond) to each other, it describes the way they do (or are supposed to) be devoted and loyal to one another in a covenant between them, such as in marriage.
Sadly, our devotion to God is so often like our disloyal devotion to other people – it diminishes and fades away like morning water that evaporates in the heat and wind of the day. And that’s what makes chesed so special. God alone has the qualities necessary to make chesed possible. Psalm 145:8 sums this up well:
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy [chesed].
So, how does God show his faithful, loyal, committed love to people? Psalm 136 draws attention to and celebrates three significant ways that he does this. These are (1) his wise acts of creation, (2) his powerful acts of salvation, and (3) his generous acts of provision.
God’s wise acts of creation show his chesed.
Verses 4-9 point to the beginning of time when God did wonderous things through the wisdom and skill that he alone possesses. Wonders here describe things which are generally considered too difficult to do and therefore too difficult to comprehend. They defy explanation. But the psalmist adds the word great to this word, which means that God’s acts of creation not only defy explanation, but they do so to an indescribable degree. The psalmist also says that God alone did these things – no other god or supernatural being assisted or participated or has ever engaged in creation. God alone does these indescribable, awe-inspiring things.
With intentional and exceptional skill, God made the universe. As a jeweler sets a diamond into a finely crafted gold ring, so God formed and set each star, planet, and celestial object into its place with the finest, most devoted craftsmanship and care. He is the one who “made the great lights,” the “sun to shine in the daytime,” and the “moon and stars to shine in the nighttime.”
God also laid out Earth’s surface, its topmost “crust” layer, “above the waters.” Just as placing the stars and planets into the universe resembles a jeweler placing a diamond into a ring, so God stretching the land over the waters resembles a craftsman beating, sculpting, and spreading a thin sheet of metal with great devotion and care. And since chesed was God’s underlying motive in Creation, then we can say that Creation was – as it were – “handcrafted with love” for his people.
According to a ground-breaking (literally) study published March 2015 in the online scientific journal, Nature, there seems to be compelling evidence of a vast ocean of water trapped deep within the Earth’s mantle (the middle layer), about 400 miles beneath the surface. Many scientists believe Earth's interior holds a volume of water similar to all the oceans on the surface of the earth (oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, etc.).
The point here is that God made all of these things in the beginning, before he had even made human beings. By doing so, he demonstrated up front not only what he was capable of doing for people but of what he intended to do for them.
In a good marriage, for instance, a man prepares in advance for his eventual relationship. He does this by developing life skills, investing in education, establishing the foundation for a successful career, and setting aside money and resources to purchase a house and to demonstrate that he is in all other ways ready to love and care for a wife for life. Such a man does not flippantly bounce around through his early adolescent, young adult years, then one day ask a woman to marry him, with little to no preparation. When he proposes and then says, “I do,” “for better or worse,” and “till death do us part,” he has prepared himself in advance for this covenant – for this promise.
The thing this psalm celebrates is how God did this in the grandest and most impressive way. He created the universe and wisely formed the world for people to exist and enjoy. In this way, God’s creation of the world reveals his faithful, loyal, loving devotion.
God’s powerful acts of salvation show his chesed.
Verses 10-16, then, reveals God’s faithful, loyal love through his powerful acts of salvation when he rescued the Hebrew people from Egypt. When God did this, he was fulfilling a promise he had made to Abraham centuries before. Israel had been slaves in Egypt for decades, possibly centuries, with no hope of freedom. After all, Egypt was the leading world superpower of that day. But Egypt was also a pagan, idolatrous, ungodly, wicked nation who refused to worship God.
So, God “struck” Egypt by killing their firstborn animals and sons. This historical reference does three things. First, it jumps forward from God’s creation of the world in the opening chapters of Genesis and the opening era of history to this moment thousands of years later. This means that the psalmist views everything that God did from Genesis to Exodus, from Creation to Mount Sinai as evidence of God’s loyal and devoted love to his people.
Second, this big jump reveals that the psalmist views God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt as a fulfillment and outworking of God’s original plans and intentions for his people begun in Genesis at Creation and continued forward through Noah, Abraham, and eventually Moses.
Third, this focus on God’s rescue of his people from slavery in Egypt focuses specifically on the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborn animals and sons of the Egyptians. By focusing on this tenth plague, the psalmist is actually referring to all ten plagues, representing them all with the final, climactic one – the one which finally convinced Pharoah to let God’s people go.
Now, about this plague, some may ask the question, “What is good about God killing all the firstborn animals and sons of the Egyptians? Isn’t this a cruel and awful thing?” But here we must acknowledge that with God, his perfect goodness and perfect justice come together perfectly in whatever he does, even the difficult and painful things. As Mark Hulbert point out a couple of weeks ago in his sermon about God’s goodness, Rom 11:22 pairs God’s goodness (kindness) and severity (harshness) together:
Consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.
I really appreciate how OT scholar Patrick D. Miller urges us to take seriously “the dirty work of God” as presented as part of God’s chesed in Psalm 136. He says:
We resist the association of God with the real and messy stuff of history. Israel understood that, in every way, God was at work in their story. Totalitarian forces and oppressive slave masters do not relinquish power and the whip by kind words.
Since God is lovingly devoted to his people, he will act in both kindness and justice at the right time, in the right way on their behalf. Even if his actions – to us – seem cruel, they are always good and right and will be directed as needed for the salvation of his people.
The psalm writer goes on to describe God’s acts of salvation in Exodus as being “with a strong hand” and “outstretched arm,” referring to extraordinary and impressive displays of force and overpowering strength. By his mighty strength, he divided the Red Sea in half, guided millions of defenseless Hebrew people to the other side, then “overthrew” (lit. “brushed aside,” “shook off”) the entire army of the leading world superpower of that time.
By God’s power and care, he also guided that same group of millions of defenseless Hebrew people through the Arabian wilderness for forty years. We know, of course, that this period of time was marked by frequent failures and sins, in which people complained about God and disobeyed him greatly. Even so, the psalmist makes no mention of these embarrassing memories – emphasizing instead how God cared for them anyway, leading them through the wilderness as a good, loving shepherd guides his sheep, no matter how difficult and stubborn they may be.
This mention of God’s faithful love in the wilderness illustrates God’s faithful loyal love not only “for better” but “for worse.” Micah 7:18 encapsulates this well:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy [chesed].
So, we see that God showed his loyal, devoted compassion to Israel by saving them from slavery in Egypt by his mighty power and by guiding and preserving them in the wilderness for forty years, despite their own sin and disobedience. He saved them not only from their enemies but from themselves.
So, God shows his chesed through his wise acts of creation and his powerful acts of salvation. But he also shows his chesed through his generous acts of provision, too.
God’s generous acts of provision show his chesed.
Verses 17-22 describe how God provided the people of Israel with a land to call their own – a place to live in and possess permanently. To accomplish this for them, he forcefully “struck down” mighty kings, famous kings – and then the psalmist names a couple of noteworthy examples.
Then the psalmist goes on to explain how after dethroning and killing these kings (which we can read about at great length in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and more), he then gave their land to Israel to live in and call their own. It’s here that the psalmist repeats a key word, the word heritage. This word describes God’s provision of this land as something which they would possess and pass down for continual generations. In other words, God intended for this land to be their permanent possession.
This word describes what we call “inalienable rights.” We are familiar, I hope, with our own United States Declaration of Independence, which says that people:
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
By “unalienable rights,” we are referring to rights which we believe all men possess and which no one may rightly take away from us. In this way, God took away this land from the powerful but pagan, wicked, ungodly kings who ruled there and gave it to the people he had promised it to. And when God gave it to them, he gave it to them as an “unalienable” possession, a land which he intended for them to permanently possess. What amazing and extreme generosity this was!
So, we see from this psalm that God has showed his chesed through his wise acts of creation, his powerful acts of salvation, and his generous acts of provision. So, now we must also see something else.
Chesed is both a past and present experience for God’s people.
Verses 23-24 take all that this psalm speaks about from the beginning of the world and God’s salvation and provision for Israel during the lifetime of Moses and Joshua and applies it to our lives today. This is where the psalm tells us that we also experience God’s chesed today who are the children and people of God. The words “us” and “our” and “all flesh” take these amazing acts of God in the past for his people and points out that God continues to show his chesed to his people today, as well.
When we find ourselves in a “lowly state” is a way of saying “whenever we find ourselves in a helpless, difficult, painful, or impossible” position in life. When this happens, the same God who made the world, who saved his people from slavery in Egypt, who guided his people through the wilderness, and who defeated powerful kings and gave away their land to his people – that same God will “remember” and “rescue” you today. He will even give you food when times are tough. And why?
To tie this all together, we must now point out the two most obvious things about this psalm – that I’ve waited till now to mention. The first is the repeated line “for his chesed endures forever,” and the second is the repeated command to “give thanks to the Lord!”
The first line is repeated twenty-six times, as the second half of every couplet or pair of lines. As was pointed out during our public Scripture reading, this line would’ve been repeated, recited, or sung by the people who gathered in the Temple or synagogue to worship God. A lead musician, Scripture reader, or choir would’ve sung or read the first line of each line pair, then all the people gathered would’ve repeated this line energetically and reflectively in response each time.
Doing this would drive home the main point and obvious message of this psalm – that everything God does is motivated by his chesed, his steadfast love and compassionate, relentless commitment to his people.
This includes his wise acts of creation, whether of this majestic, fruitful earth that we live on or the awe-inspiring universe far beyond our realm – all was created because of God’s steadfast love for his people.
This includes his powerful acts of salvation, whether the seemingly cruel acts of justice on the wicked or the patient, forgiving, faithful care of his own people even when they disobey – all of this is motivated by his steadfast love for his people.
This includes his generous acts of provision, whether the abundant provision of a fruitful, beautiful land for the people of Israel or the abundant, faithful provision of food, strength, health, and material provision for his people today. All this God does because of his steadfast love for his people. And this is just as true today as it was at Creation, the exodus from Egypt, or the conquest of Canaan. That’s why this psalm says not only that all these things God does he does due to steadfast love, but why it also says that this steadfast love endures forever.
If we were to translate this line in a strictly formal, literal way, following the Hebrew word order, it would say something like this: “because for eternity is his steadfast love.” Placing “for eternity” at the beginning of this sentence sounds strange to our ears but doing this is a way that the Hebrew language emphasizes something, showing that it is a very important part of what’s being said. It’s like putting words in italics, bold, or underline today. The point the psalm is making then is first whatever God does he does motivated by steadfast love and commitment to his people and second this active, dominant quality of God lasts forever and will never change. It is true not only of what God did in the OT but it is true today, as well, and will always be true.
We should respond to chesed with frequent, heartfelt gratitude and praise to God.
The second most obvious thing about this psalm, then, is the part which tells us how we should respond to God’s constant, never-ending displays of loyal love for his people. It is the phrase that visibly begins each of the first three verses. I say “visibly” because it also begins all the next twenty-two verses, too, but invisibly so. The psalmist wrote this psalm in such a way that we should continue to internally see and silently say “oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!” at the start of each verse to the end. He makes this clear by finishing the psalm by including this call to praise God one more time in the final verse.
This may seem redundant and unnecessary but let me ask you two simple questions here today. When was the last time you thanked God in a heartfelt way overflowing with awe and gratitude for his love and devotion to you despite your failings? And once you’ve answered this question, let me also ask – how frequently do you respond this way?
After seventeen-and-a-half years of marriage, I can say that it was this year that I genuinely began to realize how incredible it is to have Sarah as my wife. To be sure, I have appreciated her and been thankful for her our entire life together to this day. But only this year can I genuinely say that nearly every day – and often many times a day – I am truly amazed and overwhelmed that she is my wife. What an amazing person she is. What an amazing wife she is. What an amazing mother she is. And I could go on.
But more than this, can I say that I feel the same way about God’s faithful, loyal love to me despite my many failings? Or do I take his commitment for granted?
In preparing this message, I did some reflection on how many people specifically thanked Jesus for his expressions and acts of love and care to them. Despite all the amazing miracles and teaching he provided during his time here on Earth, the NT records [are you ready for this?] – only one clear instance of a person expressing mind-blown, heartfelt thanks to Jesus for his love to him.
Luke tells the story of a time when Jesus healed ten lepers of their leprosy (Lk 17:11-19). But the shocking thing about this story is not that Jesus healed them, but that of the ten men he healed, only one of them came back to thank him. I wonder sometimes if we are not far more like the nine unthankful lepers than the thankful one. In our minds, we believe we are thankful, but are our hearts genuinely moved with overwhelming, frequent, heartfelt expressions of thanks to God for his unfailing devotion to us?
To be sure, whenever we gather together as a church, we have multiple opportunities to express such gratitude to God in song together with one another. We should commit ourselves to regular, weekly worship as a church for this reason alone! And how else can we express heartfelt, frequent praise to God outside of the Sunday worship service? May we genuinely be a people who deeply, frequently “give thanks to the LORD for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
In closing today, I would like to draw your attention to one final place in the psalms, Psalm 23:6. This well-known psalm describes God as the ultimate, faithful, loving shepherd who cares and provides for his people as sheep. But the end of this psalm is especially touching in light of what we learn about God in Psalm 136. Verse 6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”
Can you guess what the word mercy is? You’re right. It’s chesed. But there is another word that also needs to be noticed – follow. That word literally means “to pursue” or “to chase after.” The way we normally read this psalm, we easily think “to follow” means something gentle and serene like a baby duck waddling dutifully behind its mother. But that’s not what this word means. It actually describes something more like a cheetah pursuing an antelope – only here it describes not a predator hunting its prey but a faithful, omnipotent God passionately pursuing his people with kindness – not to hunt them but to fulfill his covenant and promises to them just as he guaranteed.
The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel used to say, “When I was young, I admired cleverness. Now that I am old, I find I admire kindness more.” May it also be said of us, “When I was young, I admired the omnipotence of God. Now that I am old, I find that I admire God’s lovingkindness more.” And if this is true, then may we express this growing admiration of his kindness with frequent, heartfelt praise.
Chesed, though, does not merely describe what we might call “staying married.” It describes someone who not only “stays married” but who does, on a daily basis, all the things that show his or her spouse the devoted love and care their marriage covenant calls them to show – whether deserved, recognized, reciprocated or not. But as God said to his own people in the OT, when describing their relationship with him as a marriage:
Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away. (Hos 6:4)
When the OT uses this word to describe how people respond (or should respond) to each other, it describes the way they do (or are supposed to) be devoted and loyal to one another in a covenant between them, such as in marriage.
Sadly, our devotion to God is so often like our disloyal devotion to other people – it diminishes and fades away like morning water that evaporates in the heat and wind of the day. And that’s what makes chesed so special. God alone has the qualities necessary to make chesed possible. Psalm 145:8 sums this up well:
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy [chesed].
So, how does God show his faithful, loyal, committed love to people? Psalm 136 draws attention to and celebrates three significant ways that he does this. These are (1) his wise acts of creation, (2) his powerful acts of salvation, and (3) his generous acts of provision.
God’s wise acts of creation show his chesed.
Verses 4-9 point to the beginning of time when God did wonderous things through the wisdom and skill that he alone possesses. Wonders here describe things which are generally considered too difficult to do and therefore too difficult to comprehend. They defy explanation. But the psalmist adds the word great to this word, which means that God’s acts of creation not only defy explanation, but they do so to an indescribable degree. The psalmist also says that God alone did these things – no other god or supernatural being assisted or participated or has ever engaged in creation. God alone does these indescribable, awe-inspiring things.
With intentional and exceptional skill, God made the universe. As a jeweler sets a diamond into a finely crafted gold ring, so God formed and set each star, planet, and celestial object into its place with the finest, most devoted craftsmanship and care. He is the one who “made the great lights,” the “sun to shine in the daytime,” and the “moon and stars to shine in the nighttime.”
God also laid out Earth’s surface, its topmost “crust” layer, “above the waters.” Just as placing the stars and planets into the universe resembles a jeweler placing a diamond into a ring, so God stretching the land over the waters resembles a craftsman beating, sculpting, and spreading a thin sheet of metal with great devotion and care. And since chesed was God’s underlying motive in Creation, then we can say that Creation was – as it were – “handcrafted with love” for his people.
According to a ground-breaking (literally) study published March 2015 in the online scientific journal, Nature, there seems to be compelling evidence of a vast ocean of water trapped deep within the Earth’s mantle (the middle layer), about 400 miles beneath the surface. Many scientists believe Earth's interior holds a volume of water similar to all the oceans on the surface of the earth (oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, etc.).
The point here is that God made all of these things in the beginning, before he had even made human beings. By doing so, he demonstrated up front not only what he was capable of doing for people but of what he intended to do for them.
In a good marriage, for instance, a man prepares in advance for his eventual relationship. He does this by developing life skills, investing in education, establishing the foundation for a successful career, and setting aside money and resources to purchase a house and to demonstrate that he is in all other ways ready to love and care for a wife for life. Such a man does not flippantly bounce around through his early adolescent, young adult years, then one day ask a woman to marry him, with little to no preparation. When he proposes and then says, “I do,” “for better or worse,” and “till death do us part,” he has prepared himself in advance for this covenant – for this promise.
The thing this psalm celebrates is how God did this in the grandest and most impressive way. He created the universe and wisely formed the world for people to exist and enjoy. In this way, God’s creation of the world reveals his faithful, loyal, loving devotion.
God’s powerful acts of salvation show his chesed.
Verses 10-16, then, reveals God’s faithful, loyal love through his powerful acts of salvation when he rescued the Hebrew people from Egypt. When God did this, he was fulfilling a promise he had made to Abraham centuries before. Israel had been slaves in Egypt for decades, possibly centuries, with no hope of freedom. After all, Egypt was the leading world superpower of that day. But Egypt was also a pagan, idolatrous, ungodly, wicked nation who refused to worship God.
So, God “struck” Egypt by killing their firstborn animals and sons. This historical reference does three things. First, it jumps forward from God’s creation of the world in the opening chapters of Genesis and the opening era of history to this moment thousands of years later. This means that the psalmist views everything that God did from Genesis to Exodus, from Creation to Mount Sinai as evidence of God’s loyal and devoted love to his people.
Second, this big jump reveals that the psalmist views God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt as a fulfillment and outworking of God’s original plans and intentions for his people begun in Genesis at Creation and continued forward through Noah, Abraham, and eventually Moses.
Third, this focus on God’s rescue of his people from slavery in Egypt focuses specifically on the tenth and final plague, the death of the firstborn animals and sons of the Egyptians. By focusing on this tenth plague, the psalmist is actually referring to all ten plagues, representing them all with the final, climactic one – the one which finally convinced Pharoah to let God’s people go.
Now, about this plague, some may ask the question, “What is good about God killing all the firstborn animals and sons of the Egyptians? Isn’t this a cruel and awful thing?” But here we must acknowledge that with God, his perfect goodness and perfect justice come together perfectly in whatever he does, even the difficult and painful things. As Mark Hulbert point out a couple of weeks ago in his sermon about God’s goodness, Rom 11:22 pairs God’s goodness (kindness) and severity (harshness) together:
Consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness.
I really appreciate how OT scholar Patrick D. Miller urges us to take seriously “the dirty work of God” as presented as part of God’s chesed in Psalm 136. He says:
We resist the association of God with the real and messy stuff of history. Israel understood that, in every way, God was at work in their story. Totalitarian forces and oppressive slave masters do not relinquish power and the whip by kind words.
Since God is lovingly devoted to his people, he will act in both kindness and justice at the right time, in the right way on their behalf. Even if his actions – to us – seem cruel, they are always good and right and will be directed as needed for the salvation of his people.
The psalm writer goes on to describe God’s acts of salvation in Exodus as being “with a strong hand” and “outstretched arm,” referring to extraordinary and impressive displays of force and overpowering strength. By his mighty strength, he divided the Red Sea in half, guided millions of defenseless Hebrew people to the other side, then “overthrew” (lit. “brushed aside,” “shook off”) the entire army of the leading world superpower of that time.
By God’s power and care, he also guided that same group of millions of defenseless Hebrew people through the Arabian wilderness for forty years. We know, of course, that this period of time was marked by frequent failures and sins, in which people complained about God and disobeyed him greatly. Even so, the psalmist makes no mention of these embarrassing memories – emphasizing instead how God cared for them anyway, leading them through the wilderness as a good, loving shepherd guides his sheep, no matter how difficult and stubborn they may be.
This mention of God’s faithful love in the wilderness illustrates God’s faithful loyal love not only “for better” but “for worse.” Micah 7:18 encapsulates this well:
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in mercy [chesed].
So, we see that God showed his loyal, devoted compassion to Israel by saving them from slavery in Egypt by his mighty power and by guiding and preserving them in the wilderness for forty years, despite their own sin and disobedience. He saved them not only from their enemies but from themselves.
So, God shows his chesed through his wise acts of creation and his powerful acts of salvation. But he also shows his chesed through his generous acts of provision, too.
God’s generous acts of provision show his chesed.
Verses 17-22 describe how God provided the people of Israel with a land to call their own – a place to live in and possess permanently. To accomplish this for them, he forcefully “struck down” mighty kings, famous kings – and then the psalmist names a couple of noteworthy examples.
Then the psalmist goes on to explain how after dethroning and killing these kings (which we can read about at great length in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and more), he then gave their land to Israel to live in and call their own. It’s here that the psalmist repeats a key word, the word heritage. This word describes God’s provision of this land as something which they would possess and pass down for continual generations. In other words, God intended for this land to be their permanent possession.
This word describes what we call “inalienable rights.” We are familiar, I hope, with our own United States Declaration of Independence, which says that people:
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
By “unalienable rights,” we are referring to rights which we believe all men possess and which no one may rightly take away from us. In this way, God took away this land from the powerful but pagan, wicked, ungodly kings who ruled there and gave it to the people he had promised it to. And when God gave it to them, he gave it to them as an “unalienable” possession, a land which he intended for them to permanently possess. What amazing and extreme generosity this was!
So, we see from this psalm that God has showed his chesed through his wise acts of creation, his powerful acts of salvation, and his generous acts of provision. So, now we must also see something else.
Chesed is both a past and present experience for God’s people.
Verses 23-24 take all that this psalm speaks about from the beginning of the world and God’s salvation and provision for Israel during the lifetime of Moses and Joshua and applies it to our lives today. This is where the psalm tells us that we also experience God’s chesed today who are the children and people of God. The words “us” and “our” and “all flesh” take these amazing acts of God in the past for his people and points out that God continues to show his chesed to his people today, as well.
When we find ourselves in a “lowly state” is a way of saying “whenever we find ourselves in a helpless, difficult, painful, or impossible” position in life. When this happens, the same God who made the world, who saved his people from slavery in Egypt, who guided his people through the wilderness, and who defeated powerful kings and gave away their land to his people – that same God will “remember” and “rescue” you today. He will even give you food when times are tough. And why?
To tie this all together, we must now point out the two most obvious things about this psalm – that I’ve waited till now to mention. The first is the repeated line “for his chesed endures forever,” and the second is the repeated command to “give thanks to the Lord!”
The first line is repeated twenty-six times, as the second half of every couplet or pair of lines. As was pointed out during our public Scripture reading, this line would’ve been repeated, recited, or sung by the people who gathered in the Temple or synagogue to worship God. A lead musician, Scripture reader, or choir would’ve sung or read the first line of each line pair, then all the people gathered would’ve repeated this line energetically and reflectively in response each time.
Doing this would drive home the main point and obvious message of this psalm – that everything God does is motivated by his chesed, his steadfast love and compassionate, relentless commitment to his people.
This includes his wise acts of creation, whether of this majestic, fruitful earth that we live on or the awe-inspiring universe far beyond our realm – all was created because of God’s steadfast love for his people.
This includes his powerful acts of salvation, whether the seemingly cruel acts of justice on the wicked or the patient, forgiving, faithful care of his own people even when they disobey – all of this is motivated by his steadfast love for his people.
This includes his generous acts of provision, whether the abundant provision of a fruitful, beautiful land for the people of Israel or the abundant, faithful provision of food, strength, health, and material provision for his people today. All this God does because of his steadfast love for his people. And this is just as true today as it was at Creation, the exodus from Egypt, or the conquest of Canaan. That’s why this psalm says not only that all these things God does he does due to steadfast love, but why it also says that this steadfast love endures forever.
If we were to translate this line in a strictly formal, literal way, following the Hebrew word order, it would say something like this: “because for eternity is his steadfast love.” Placing “for eternity” at the beginning of this sentence sounds strange to our ears but doing this is a way that the Hebrew language emphasizes something, showing that it is a very important part of what’s being said. It’s like putting words in italics, bold, or underline today. The point the psalm is making then is first whatever God does he does motivated by steadfast love and commitment to his people and second this active, dominant quality of God lasts forever and will never change. It is true not only of what God did in the OT but it is true today, as well, and will always be true.
We should respond to chesed with frequent, heartfelt gratitude and praise to God.
The second most obvious thing about this psalm, then, is the part which tells us how we should respond to God’s constant, never-ending displays of loyal love for his people. It is the phrase that visibly begins each of the first three verses. I say “visibly” because it also begins all the next twenty-two verses, too, but invisibly so. The psalmist wrote this psalm in such a way that we should continue to internally see and silently say “oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!” at the start of each verse to the end. He makes this clear by finishing the psalm by including this call to praise God one more time in the final verse.
This may seem redundant and unnecessary but let me ask you two simple questions here today. When was the last time you thanked God in a heartfelt way overflowing with awe and gratitude for his love and devotion to you despite your failings? And once you’ve answered this question, let me also ask – how frequently do you respond this way?
After seventeen-and-a-half years of marriage, I can say that it was this year that I genuinely began to realize how incredible it is to have Sarah as my wife. To be sure, I have appreciated her and been thankful for her our entire life together to this day. But only this year can I genuinely say that nearly every day – and often many times a day – I am truly amazed and overwhelmed that she is my wife. What an amazing person she is. What an amazing wife she is. What an amazing mother she is. And I could go on.
But more than this, can I say that I feel the same way about God’s faithful, loyal love to me despite my many failings? Or do I take his commitment for granted?
In preparing this message, I did some reflection on how many people specifically thanked Jesus for his expressions and acts of love and care to them. Despite all the amazing miracles and teaching he provided during his time here on Earth, the NT records [are you ready for this?] – only one clear instance of a person expressing mind-blown, heartfelt thanks to Jesus for his love to him.
Luke tells the story of a time when Jesus healed ten lepers of their leprosy (Lk 17:11-19). But the shocking thing about this story is not that Jesus healed them, but that of the ten men he healed, only one of them came back to thank him. I wonder sometimes if we are not far more like the nine unthankful lepers than the thankful one. In our minds, we believe we are thankful, but are our hearts genuinely moved with overwhelming, frequent, heartfelt expressions of thanks to God for his unfailing devotion to us?
To be sure, whenever we gather together as a church, we have multiple opportunities to express such gratitude to God in song together with one another. We should commit ourselves to regular, weekly worship as a church for this reason alone! And how else can we express heartfelt, frequent praise to God outside of the Sunday worship service? May we genuinely be a people who deeply, frequently “give thanks to the LORD for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”
In closing today, I would like to draw your attention to one final place in the psalms, Psalm 23:6. This well-known psalm describes God as the ultimate, faithful, loving shepherd who cares and provides for his people as sheep. But the end of this psalm is especially touching in light of what we learn about God in Psalm 136. Verse 6 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life…”
Can you guess what the word mercy is? You’re right. It’s chesed. But there is another word that also needs to be noticed – follow. That word literally means “to pursue” or “to chase after.” The way we normally read this psalm, we easily think “to follow” means something gentle and serene like a baby duck waddling dutifully behind its mother. But that’s not what this word means. It actually describes something more like a cheetah pursuing an antelope – only here it describes not a predator hunting its prey but a faithful, omnipotent God passionately pursuing his people with kindness – not to hunt them but to fulfill his covenant and promises to them just as he guaranteed.
The late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel used to say, “When I was young, I admired cleverness. Now that I am old, I find I admire kindness more.” May it also be said of us, “When I was young, I admired the omnipotence of God. Now that I am old, I find that I admire God’s lovingkindness more.” And if this is true, then may we express this growing admiration of his kindness with frequent, heartfelt praise.
Posted in Sermon Manuscript
Posted in Incomparable, Theology, Doctrine, Faithfulness, Chesed, Loyalty, Lovingkindness, Compassion, Love, Devotion
Posted in Incomparable, Theology, Doctrine, Faithfulness, Chesed, Loyalty, Lovingkindness, Compassion, Love, Devotion
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