Psalm 136

“His love endures forever.”

{Psalm 136} 

If we can read this psalm and not be overcome with praise for our good God, then friend there is something wrong with our hearts! Here we have a song skilfully assembled in such a way as to evoke praise straight from our innermost being. There is a record in 2 Chronicles 7 that the Jews sang this psalm, when they saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple. They could see with their eyes that the great God above all Gods, Yahweh Himself was now present in their midst and they worshipped Him with this song.

This psalm repeats the phrase “His love endures forever” 26 times. O friend, do you know the truth this morning, that God’s love endures forever? There is no end to God’s love. His love is not a love that wanes as the years pass. His love is not puppy love, immature and fickle. His love is not a naïve love. He knows all things about each one of us, and is never taken by surprise by our actions, bad or good. Nothing we can do will affect His love for us. Nothing anyone else can do can affect His love for us. His love endures forever. 

When we look at the placement of this psalm in the book of Psalms, we notice that it is immediately before a psalm of tears. The Jews sat by the rivers in Babylon and wept, for their Lord had given them into the hands of their enemy. What a terrible state they were in. Their sins had overtaken them, judgement had rushed into their lives. They were a long way away from the day they sang this song joyfully as the Spirit of the LORD came down and entered their temple. They were in exile, in a foreign land, cut off from the blessing of God. They couldn’t sing, they mourned. But friend, they could remember. They could remember this truth; “His love endures forever.”

Where are we this morning? Has judgement rushed into our lives? Have our sins overtaken us this day? Are we cut off from the blessing of God? Then remember friend- the truth that is in this psalm. “His love endures forever”. If we truly remember and believe, then we will say with Paul: “Nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” {Romans 8:38-39}