Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1).<\/p>\n
In the iconic Verizon cellular phone commercial that aired in the US a number of years ago, the actor playing the Verizon service technician repeatedly asks, \u201cCan you hear me now?\u201d It was an effective message that made its point through the continued repetition of its tagline.<\/p>\n
The repetition of \u201cCan you hear me now?\u201d in this commercial always reminded me of Psalm 136, a unique psalm of twenty-six verses, each of which ends with the same statement: \u201cHis love endures forever.\u201d That\u2019s a lot of repetition. The only other psalm that comes close to it is Psalm 118, which repeats the same expression four times. But with twenty-six repetitions, Psalm 136 is truly the \u201cCan you hear God now?\u201d psalm.<\/p>\n
But Psalm 136 is more than just the simple repetition of a phrase. Its repeated \u201ctagline\u201d ties into an important lesson. The psalm carefully catalogs the many different areas where God\u2019s love may be seen \u2014 some of which we may not often think about.<\/p>\n
The composition begins with a statement about God\u2019s goodness (v.\u202f1) and continues through its first section with expressions of God\u2019s powerful nature and creative deeds (vv.\u202f2-9). These are things we may usually think of as being reasons for praise, but not aspects of God\u2019s love. The psalmist clearly saw the connections, however, and we can, too, if we think about them.<\/p>\n
For example, can we see that God\u2019s refusal to misuse His great power is based entirely on His love? That is only a single instance of how God\u2019s love continually determines every other aspect of His nature.<\/p>\n
Even more obviously connected with God\u2019s love, the psalm\u2019s second section catalogs many of His saving actions in rescuing and helping His people, guiding them and giving them freedom and a land of their own (vv.\u202f10-24). The psalm ends with the statement that God gives food to every creature (v.\u202f25), reminding us that God\u2019s love is shown not only to His people but to all of His creation.<\/p>\n
Each of the themes covered in Psalm 136 is broken down into specific areas \u2014 specific examples of things God has done that show His love. Many of them are taken from the early history of Israel. The psalm actually quotes Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy a number of times.<\/p>\n
For instance, in verse 15 the psalmist uses an unusual expression. He says that God \u201cswept,\u201d or literally \u201cshook off,\u201d the Egyptians in the middle of the sea \u2014 the exact Hebrew expression used in Exodus 14:27 to describe the drowning of Pharaoh\u2019s army in the Red Sea. But if many of the examples in the psalm are firmly rooted in the history of ancient Israel, they could just as easily represent ways we today have been given freedom and every blessing, both nationally and individually.<\/p>\n
Why does Psalm 136 repeatedly connect the things it catalogs with the love of God? The answer is that it is all too easy to see God\u2019s love in His obvious and tangible gifts. Without a broader awareness and understanding, we may not see God\u2019s love \u2014 or we may even question it \u2014 in situations where God allows us to experience bad things rather than good.<\/p>\n
That is why we are told, \u201cGive thanks\u201d for such things four times in the psalm (vv.\u202f1-3, 26) and implicitly throughout it. The psalm reminds us that every one of the Old Testament stories it alludes to, or quotes, involved fears, frustrations, and failures for the Israelites before the final positive outcome. In seeing God\u2019s love in results, we must also come to see His love in the steps along the way to those outcomes.<\/p>\n
Only when we look more deeply at life and the Word of God do we see that the love of God is actually at work in a myriad of aspects of creation and events of history \u2014 and in every aspect of our lives.<\/p>\n
If we think about the ongoing repetition of \u201cHis love endures forever\u201d at each point throughout the \u201cCan you hear God now?\u201d psalm, we, too, can hear God \u2014 everywhere.<\/p>\n
Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever (v.\u202f26).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever (Psalm 136:1). In the iconic Verizon cellular phone commercial that aired in the US a number of years ago, the actor playing the Verizon service technician repeatedly asks, \u201cCan you hear me now?\u201d It was an effective message that made its point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":308,"featured_media":33658,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,2609],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n