SSL 8 - Psalm 136:1-5,10-15,23-26
Prayers & Announcements
LAST WEEK: We covered Psalm 19, written by David to demonstrate that God has spoken to us through His revelation in both His World and in His Word. It establishes two major spiritual truths:
1. God has revealed Himself generally through His Creation (19:1-6). We see abundant evidence of God's glory by looking at His Creation, especially the vastness and majesty of His universe. Every day the sun in its brilliance and every night the stars and the constellations tell about the greater glory of the God who spoke them into existence. If people choose to ignore God's revelation in His creation, it is not for of lack of evidence. It's message-the existence of a divine and all-powerful Creator-extends everywhere. The reason people don't see the evidence is moral, not intellectual. The evidence is there; however, people don't want to submit to God; they want to be their own lord.
2. God has revealed Himself specifically in His Word (19:7-11). These verses establish five facts about God's Word: (1) God's Word is authoritative: The principal terms of these five verses-law, testimony, precepts, commandments, and fear-all imply authority. (2) God's Word is abundantly adequate: God's Word is not a burden designed to take away our pleasure but as a blessing to give us real joy in every circumstance of life if we obey and follow it. We should desire God's Word more than wealth or good food, because it has value not only for this life, but for the life to come. (3) God's Word is accurate: If there is any seeming error in God's Word, it is due to our limited knowledge and understanding, not God's mistake. We can be totally confident that God's word will never lead us astray, because it is, as the psalm describes it, perfect, sure, right, pure, and clean in every way it applies to us. (4) God's Word is absolute: Since God never changes, His Word is altogether righteous and endures forever. God's standards are not relative to the times and never shift in response to human events. Instead of being bounced back and forth by man-made principles, we can live by the unchanging and accurate standards of God's Word. When people ask me about my position on a particular issue, political, moral, or both, my response is the "I agree with God because His Word says...." (5) God's Word is Abrasive: Like David, we must respond to God's Word by looking inward to face our own sin, both unintentional sin and deliberate sin, and call out for God's help to both cleanse us and protect from the temptations to sin again.
THIS WEEK: We move to 15 key verses of Psalm 136. A song of praise, Psalm 136 is unique in that the same refrain-for His steadfast love endures forever-is repeated 26 times. This psalm was most likely designed for public worship in the Temple. It is a "liturgical" song in which the priests would recite the first line and the entire congregation would responsively repeat the refrain. Jews called this psalm the Great Hallel (Heb. = praise), and it was always sung during the Passover feast. The chief lesson to be learned from these verses is that we should know Scripture to the extent that we respond to trials and other issues in life with Biblical language and thinking.
Read Ps. 136:1-5 - God's Steadfast Love Since the Beginning of Time
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;
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;
v. 1: "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good...His steadfast love endures forever" - The Heb. word for "give thanks" means the same thing as to confess or acknowledge. The fact that God is good is fundamental to all that He is and does. We know that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8 and16), and that His love is an expression of His goodness. All God does in our lives is for our "good" because "His steadfast love endures forever."
v. 2: "Give thanks to the God of gods" - The expression "God of gods" does not imply there are other Gods, for God Himself has said, "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God..." Isa. 45:5. God is sovereign over all of creation, which includes all angelic and demonic powers, who are also created beings.
v. 3: "Give thanks to the Lord of lords" - This isn't God's Covenant name, Yahweh, but Adonai, which means master and provider. Deut. 10:17 states, "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe." Unlike those who may be called human lords, God is sovereign over all of them, and only He is perfect and pure.
v. 4: "to Him who alone does great wonders" - "Great wonders is a broad metaphor for the creation itself. Of this verse, Spurgeon said, "His works are all great in wonder even when they are not great in size; in fact, the minute objects of the microscope we behold as great wonders as even the telescope can reveal."
v. 5: "to Him who by understanding made the heavens" - The psalmist looks at creation from the original Gen. 1 point of view. This follows Prov. 3:19: "The LORD by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding he established the heavens;...." For example, that our world is the perfect distance from the sun to sustain life is not a random accident of evolution but a characteristic of God's infinite wisdom, and that's only one of countless examples. So we can say without reservation that God's power in creation is a mighty display of God's steadfast love for humankind, created in His image.
Comment: When you study the intricacy, balance, and design of creation, you cannot help but marvel at the wisdom, understanding, and power of God. Whether you go out to the vastness of the universe or down to the amazing structure of atoms or DNA molecules, there is obvious, inescapable evidence of an infinitely brilliant divine designer. As I said in last week's lesson, the reason people don't see the evidence of God's design is moral, not intellectual. The evidence is there; however, people simply don't want to submit to God; they want to be their own lord and master.
Read Ps. 136:10-15 - God's Steadfast Love in Saving His People
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;
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[a] Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for his steadfast love endures forever;
Note: In vv. 10-15, moving from God's work in creation, the psalmist describes how God demonstrated His steadfast love for His chosen people by delivering them from the bondage of slavery in Egypt as reported in the Book of Exodus.
vv. 10-11: "struck down firstborn of Egypt...brought Israel out" - As with the creation, these are historical facts. The children of Israel could never have escaped from Egyptian bondage if God had not used His power to free them. The psalmist only cites one of the plagues-the death of the firstborn-because it was that deed that finally caused Pharaoh to give in, though he later reneged. Why did God do this...why did he choose these people as His very own? Because of His covenant with their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and because of His steadfast love for them.
v. 12: with a strong hand and an outstretched arm" - God's "strong hand" is a metaphor for the power to break and defeat anyone's pride and arrogance, including the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt, one of the most powerful individuals in the world at that time. An "outstretched arm" signifies might and clever skill from which there is no escape.
v. 13-14: "divided the Red Sea in two..." - An unusual expression. The Hebrew literally means to chop an object into two pieces. The same expression was used in 1 Kgs. 3:25 when two women contended for the same child, Solomon suggested cutting it into two pieces. So we see another historical fact: With the Israelites backed-up against the sea with no means of escape, God, in effect chopped it in two, and the people passed between the two halves. Like the ancient Israelites, lost people today are backed-up against a lake of fire with no escape, except for God's saving power by faith in Jesus Christ.
v. 15: "overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea" - The finale, Pharaoh's army utterly destroyed by the two halves coming back together like a handclap. The Hebrew word used for "overthrew" in the same one applicable to a tree shaking off its foliage as used is Isa. 33:9.
Comment (skipped verses): Verses 16-22 continue to tell of God's steadfast love through the history of His people from their Wilderness wanderings up to the conquest of the Promised Land. Verses 10-15, withs these verses retell God's steadfast love and grace on behalf of the Children of Israel, and in spite of their repeated rebellion and idolatry. The history of physical Israel is a picture of our spiritual history, of how God chose us by grace alone, redeemed us from the bondage of sin, and saved us, like the Israelites, to be a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His own possession." (1 Pet. 2:9).
Read Ps. 136:23-26 - God's Continuing Care for His People and His Creation
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;
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.
v. 23: "remembered us in our low estate" - This refers to Israel's condition in the bondage of Egypt but may also be expanded to the Babylonian Captivity (597-537 B.C.), which coincided with the later ministries of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The main truth here is that in order to appreciate God's steadfast love, you must be brought low. As Christians, this is a picture of our spiritual condition before God saved us. We were dead in our sins, without hope, and without God in this world (Eph. 2:1-3). We deserved His wrath, but He showed us mercy, "because of His great love with which He loved us" (Eph. 2:4).
v. 24: "rescued us from our foes" - Progressing from the Egyptian bondage, the Wilderness wanderings, and the many adversaries they faced, the Israelites would never have survived even to enter the Promised Land, let alone conquer it, unless God had rescued them. These people were helpless to rescue themselves. For people today, one of the greatest hindrances to salvation is the notion that you can do something to save yourself. If a person thinks he's good enough or somehow deserves salvation, he won't get it. Like the ancient Israelites, people today are helpless to rescue themselves. Only God can save a person from his or her sins and God does this apart from anything any person can do. He or she must receive it as a free gift of grace by faith in Jesus Christ.
v.25: "gives food to all flesh" - This phrase alludes to God's promise to Noah after the flood to sustain "all flesh" (Gen. 9:8-17). It pertains to God provision, not only to us, but to all living things in creation, like the birds of the air Jesus mentioned in Mt. 6:26. If god cares for the birds, He will certainly take care of you and me. It reminds us that we should give God thanks for morsel of food we eat and every drop of water we drink, which is simply further evidence of God steadfast love for us. God gives us many reasons for giving thanks, in particular: God's power in creation, salvation, and provision, which all display His everlasting, steadfast love for us.
v. 26: "Give thanks to the God of heaven" - The name "God of heaven" (Heb. = El Ha-Shamayim), is a title that places particular emphasis on God's sovereignty. It is used only here in Psalms but appears nine times in Ezra and ten in other exilic and post-exilic OT books. Under this name, God rules from heaven, which He made, and thus rules over everything else. In order to give thanks to God in the midst of difficult trials, you must submit to His sovereign control of events. Further, you must acknowledge that God, for His purposes, has orchestrated your circumstances for your ultimate good. So, when we grumble and complain about our trials, we aren't fully submitting to the God of heaven-which is something that's easy to say but much harder to do.
APPLICATION:
1. We should continually give thanks to God for showing His steadfast love by creating us and the world we live in. God's creation, from the smallest atom up the vastness of the universe, is a fact of history, that mightily demonstrates God's steadfast love for humankind-those created in His image.
2. We should continually give thanks to God for showing His steadfast love by saving us. The history of Israel depicted in the psalm is a picture of our spiritual history, of how God chose us by grace alone, redeemed us from the bondage of sin, and saved us, like the Israelites, to be a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for His own possession." (1 Pet. 2:9).
3. We should continually give thanks to God for showing His steadfast love through His provision to us. God not only gives us everything we need to live but also provides for every living thing in the creation. We should thank Him for the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breath, the warmth of the sun, and everything else that sustains our lives from day to day. He made it.
4. We should continually give thanks to God as the "God of Heaven" for His sovereign control over every event in our lives. This means we must acknowledge that God, for His purposes, has planned the every circumstance of our lives, even times of trials and hardships. As a result, when we grumble and complain about our problems, we aren't fully submitting to God's sovereignty, are we? And this aspect of submitting to Him is easier said than done, isn't it?
