June 10, 2024 - Psalms 136-140

In Psalm 136, the psalmist begins, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever” (136:1).  And, then, each of the twenty-six verses, after the mention of his great mercies and provisions, ends with “for his steadfast love endures forever.”  Josh, when he preaches, will often have us repeat aloud, several times, important words or phrases or confessions.  I wonder if he picked up this practice from this psalm.  “For his steadfast love endures forever . . . for his steadfast love endures forever . . . for his steadfast love endures forever . . . for his steadfast love endures forever . . . for his steadfast love endures forever . . .”  I thought about typing those words twenty-six separate times but maybe not.  We get the point.  Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm:  “We shall have this repeated in every verse of this song, but not once too often. It is the sweetest stanza that a man can sing. What joy that there is mercy, mercy with Jehovah, enduring mercy, mercy enduring for ever. We are ever needing it, trying it, praying for it, receiving it: therefore let us for ever sing of it.”  And why should we, who once walked in darkness and intentional sin against God, know such mercy?  “There is no reason to be given for grace but grace; there is no reason to be given for mercy but mercy: who remembered us:  for his mercy endureth for ever” (Ralph Venning).

Let us, with a gladsome mind,

praise the Lord, for He is kind:

for His mercies shall endure,

ever faithful, ever sure.

Let us blaze His name abroad,

for of gods He is the God:

for His mercies shall endure,

ever faithful, ever sure.   -- John Milton (1623)