November 27, 2025 - Psalm 136:1-3

The use of three-fold things is common, the numeral 3 often signifying completeness or used for emphasis.  How about some examples?  What about Isaiah 6 and the prophet’s vision of God?  “Holy, holy, holy!”   I once had a student whose attention I really needed to get.  In class, I called out, “Harley, Harley, Harley!”  I once needed quickly to stop Donna from doing something (I can’t remember what.  Maybe she was about to press a wrong button or something.), and I cried out, “Stop, stop, stop!”  She responded, “You don't have to say ‘Stop!’ three times!”  Yeah, but I wanted to, to make my point. Many hymns & choruses are popular with us because of their simplicity and threefold repetition, e.g., This is the day . . . (3x).  The psalmist provides us with a threefold thanksgiving.  He encourages us to give thanks to the Lord because he is good (1), give thanks to him because he is the God of gods, and give thanks to him because he is the Lord of Lords.

Here is a superlative, much like “the sweetest of the sweet” (Donna), “the highest of the highest” (Mt. Everest), “the smartest of the smart” (Albert Einstein).  There are many lords (of various types), but the God of the psalmist is the Lord of them all.  Let this one reason cause us to give three thanksgivings, or three thousand . . .

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)