(0:10 – 0:21)
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever.
(0:22 – 0:39)
O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who alone does great wonders, His mercy endures forever. To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for His mercy endures forever.
(0:40 – 0:56)
To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who made great lights, for His mercy endures forever. The sun to rule by day, for His mercy endures forever.
(0:57 – 1:14)
The moon and the stars to rule by night, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever. And brought out Israel from among them, for His mercy endures forever.
(1:15 – 1:30)
And with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for His mercy endures forever.
(1:31 – 1:47)
But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who struck down great kings, for His mercy endures forever.
(1:47 – 2:00)
And slew famous kings, for His mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for His mercy endures forever. And Og, king of Bashan, for His mercy endures forever.
(2:01 – 2:15)
And gave their land as a heritage, for His mercy endures forever. A heritage to Israel, His servant, for His mercy endures forever. Who remembered us in our lowly state, for His mercy endures forever.
(2:15 – 2:29)
And rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the God of heaven, for His mercy endures forever.
(2:30 – 2:52)
26 verses, and every one of them say His mercy endures forever. Much like our responsive readings, this psalm involved worshiping God in people responsibly singing. And I didn’t sing it, and we didn’t sing it, but that’s how they would have sang this.
(2:53 – 3:12)
And I imagine it was a wonderful sound, as one leader led them all, and then they would respond. For His mercy endures forever, 26 times. God’s mercy is not only the main theme of this psalm, but it is one of the main themes in all of scripture.
(3:13 – 3:36)
God’s mercy is that sweet, moral, spiritual honey, which like a magnet, pulls us in to the realm of God’s sweet grace. His mercy endures forever. The same mercy that saved Israel from Egypt, saves us from sin and Satan today.
(3:37 – 3:56)
And we can sing this psalm just as much as they did. And I want to look at the various parts of this psalm, because it’s divided, I think, in certain parts. Just like the last psalm, this one starts with praise for God’s goodness.
(3:56 – 4:20)
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. God is good, and He’s the source of every good thing. James 1, verses 16 and 17 says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.
(4:20 – 4:37)
It comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Everything that is from God is good. The evil comes, why? Because of our sin, because of our rebellion against God.
(4:38 – 5:14)
But all the good things, and we see there’s still even many good things in this world, even though it is so distorted by sin, the good comes from God. Often we hear somebody called a good man or a good woman, but if we understand what Scripture says, no one is good but God. Jesus says to the rich young ruler, after the rich young ruler called him good, He says, why do you call me good? No one is good but God.
(5:14 – 5:31)
Now when Jesus said that, He’s not denying that He’s God. He wants the rich young ruler to acknowledge that He’s good, and He’s God. There’s only Jesus as God who is good, and we all fall short of that.
(5:32 – 6:05)
Jesus is God. John 1, Romans 9, 5. John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, with God, and the Word was God. Romans 9, 5 talks about Jesus being the eternal, blessed God, and His question to the rich young ruler, as I said, was not a denial, but rather one that was to make the man think about whom he was talking, and to humble the man in regard to any kind of delusions he had of his own goodness.
(6:06 – 6:30)
And at that time, if you remember, Jesus questioned the man, because He wanted to enter the kingdom of heaven, and He said, I’ve kept all the commandments from my youth. And if you remember, Jesus said to him, go and sell all you have and give it to the poor, and you’ll have riches in heaven, and the man walked away. He could not give away his riches.
(6:31 – 6:43)
Secondly, this psalm continues with praise for God’s superiority. So first, there’s praise for His goodness. Second, it’s for His superiority.
(6:43 – 7:03)
And this is the next verses 2 through 4. O give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures forever. To Him alone who does great wonders, for His mercy endures forever.
(7:03 – 7:22)
Jesus, God, is God of gods, and He is Lord of lords. All the gods in this world are false gods. All the lords, they have a certain degree of power on this earth, but ultimately, they’re under God’s control.
(7:22 – 7:46)
And then it says here, to Him who alone does great wonders, and that’s referring to God’s miracles. He does many great wonders. And it’s interesting, because in the morning, we’ve been going through Revelation, and you might remember Revelation 13, 13 is talking about the beast and the false prophet, and it says that He did many wonders.
(7:46 – 8:11)
It says He performs great signs, so that He even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of man. That’s what the false prophet does. And yet, when we look at Scripture, we see this is probably talking about some fake trick, some way of deception, because that’s typically what Satan does.
(8:11 – 8:45)
He tries to do these kind of things. Thirdly, third main point in this sermon and in this passage, the third and the fourth, there’s praise for creation, verses 5 through 9, and there’s praise for redemption in verses 10 through 15. Verses 5 through 9 says, to Him who by wisdom made the heavens, for by His mercy, for His mercy endures forever.
(8:46 – 9:00)
To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who made great lights, for His mercy endures forever. The sun to rule the day, for His mercy endures forever.
(9:00 – 9:34)
The moon and stars to rule the night, for His mercy endures forever. When you look at Genesis 1, when it talks about God making the stars and the sun and the moon, it says in Genesis 1 that He made them for times and seasons. And we do, we mark time by the movements, while our moving around the sun is a day, and by years, we have our, they’re kind of our clocks and our calendars.
(9:34 – 10:00)
And you think of, you know, when a man, it used to be when a man retired from work, they’d give him a gold watch, and it was the traditional gift, is that watch, and it kept time. God gives us, as clocks and calendars, the great vast stars in the universe. By wisdom, He made the heavens.
(10:00 – 10:16)
Psalm 147 says He knows all the stars by name. And we know in our galaxy, there’s millions and billions and trillions of stars. And our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
(10:16 – 10:42)
And it’s so large that we really don’t know how big it is. Fourthly, though, there’s praise here in this passage for redemption. To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His mercy endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, for His mercy endures forever, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever.
(10:43 – 11:06)
To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever, and made Israel pass through it, for His mercy endures forever, but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for His mercy endures forever. For 400 years, Israel’s people were slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh would not let them go.
(11:06 – 11:24)
But there is plague after plague after plague. Ten in total, the last being the death of the firstborn, which is mentioned here in verse 10. And then also mentioned here is the dividing of the Red Sea.
(11:24 – 11:31)
They go out of Egypt. They had been used to being slaves. They’re standing at the Red Sea, and they’re mad at Moses.
(11:32 – 11:46)
They’re complaining because they think they’re going to die right there. But God opens the Red Sea for them, and they cross over on dry land. We see here something that we see in other passages of Scripture.
(11:46 – 12:12)
In verses 5 through 9, there’s praise for creation, and we should honor God and praise Him because He is our creator. But then, secondly, there’s praise for redemption. And our redemption is even greater than Israel, because not only were we slaves, we were slaves to sin and to Satan, and He brings us out by a mighty hand.
(12:12 – 12:28)
And some of, well, probably all of us, to one degree or another, are still struggling with sin, and He’s still pulling us out of there to bring us redemption. We see this in the book of Revelation. Chapter 4 praises God for His creation.
(12:29 – 12:48)
Chapter 5 praises Him for redemption. We see this even in the Sabbath command. When the Sabbath command is given in Exodus 20, it says, for God rested, you know, He created the earth in 6 days and rested the 7th day after His creation.
(12:48 – 13:03)
So we worship Him on the Sabbath day, the 7th day, or they did. And then in Deuteronomy 5, we see Him say a different thing. It’s the only of the commandments that changes.
(13:04 – 13:41)
Even in the Old Testament it changes, because in Exodus it’s mentioned creation, and in Deuteronomy, the same commandment, you set aside the Sabbath, but there it mentions, because God brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves. And so we see redemption is being pointed at, and ultimately we have redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so one of the reasons, you know, they were always looking forward to that greater redemption, that redemption from sin that Jesus would provide.
(13:41 – 14:03)
And when Jesus died on the cross, that was where our redemption was accomplished. And so we start the first day of the week as our day of worship, because when He rose from the dead, it was proven that our redemption was accomplished. The first day of the week we worship God.
(14:03 – 14:34)
But we see here in this chapter, Psalm 136, His great mercy shown in His creating, and the way He creates everything for our good, and then in His redemption. Fifthly, there is praise here in this passage for God’s guidance, His victory, and His provision. Verses 16 through 22, it says, To Him who led His people through the wilderness, for His mercy endures forever.
(14:35 – 14:47)
To Him who struck down great kings, for His mercy endures forever. And slew the famous kings, for His mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for His mercy endures forever.
(14:47 – 14:58)
Og, king of Bashan, for His mercy endures forever. And gave their land as a heritage, for His mercy endures forever. A heritage for Israel, His servant, for His mercy endures forever.
(14:59 – 15:22)
Here we see God’s people in reference, entering the promised land. And as they enter, there’s other people there, kings, even great kings, He calls them famous kings, because they must have been known in those days. Not a lot of people know of Og, king of Bashan today, but back then he must have been famous, and now he’s not because he was defeated.
(15:22 – 15:49)
And Sally defeated all of these, are defeated before Israel, and we see that record in the book of, you know, the later books of Moses, and then the book of Joshua. And we have these here. Sixthly, there’s praise for remembrance, God’s remembrance of us, His mindfulness, and His care.
(15:49 – 16:10)
Verses 23 through 25 says, who remembered us in our lowly state, for His mercy endures forever, and rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever. Who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever. He remembers us, He knows us.
(16:11 – 16:33)
Scripture tells us that God knows, or Jesus even tells us, that He knows the numbers of hairs on our head. Even a sparrow does not fall without Him knowing that and being in control of it. And for us, He says, you are more value than many sparrows.
(16:34 – 16:52)
Psalm 8 says, what is man? When you look at the stars in heaven and all these great things, what is man? That you are mindful of him. And that mindfulness is so great. His remembrance of us is so great that when we fall, and here He says, rescued us from our enemies.
(16:52 – 17:13)
Again, we’ve read about being rescued from Pharaoh and getting victory over those famous kings. But here, all our enemies, our enemies are sin and Satan, and He’s rescued us from that. He’s rescued us from those things that would destroy us, those things that would take us to hell.
(17:13 – 17:31)
He provides us food. It says He gives food to all flesh, which is referring not just to human beings, but God’s provision for the animals, even including those sparrows that I mentioned. And His mercy is said to endure forever.
(17:32 – 17:56)
And then number seven, there is praise here for His heavenly holiness. The last verse of this passage, Psalm 136.26, Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven for His mercy endures forever. When we pray, Jesus taught us to pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
(17:57 – 18:20)
In the Old Testament, God is not called Father. But when Jesus died for us, when we are washed, our sin is washed away by His blood, we are made new creatures and we are made children of God. And so we cry to Him, Abba, Father.
(18:21 – 18:46)
That is how great His mercy is. Even though we were sinners, even though we are no better than those people who are in hell, God saves us and changes us and we can give thanks to Him because His mercy endures forever. And that great mercy is seen in His sending His Son to die for us that we might be the children of God.
(18:46 – 18:55)
Well, let’s pray. Father, we thank You for Your goodness to us. We thank You for this Psalm, even though it is very, very repetitive.
(18:56 – 19:10)
It’s repeating a wonderful, powerful theme and that is that Your mercy endures forever. And Father, we’re thankful for that because we need it. We need Your grace.
(19:11 – 19:43)
There’s one problem after another, just like this Psalm talks about various enemies and various difficulties. And Father, we may not have people against us, or we may, but You are helping us in every circumstance to get victory and to eventually get to heaven just like they got to the promised land. Scripture tells us that the things that happened to them were examples to us that we might see and learn.
(19:43 – 20:07)
And Father, one thing that we know for sure is the mercy that You had for them is the same as the mercy that is for us today, as even it says in the New Testament that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And He’s the one who on the cross says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He loves us and is willing to die for us.
(20:08 – 20:18)
And we see Your love and Your mercy in them. Father, help us to understand these things and help us to apply them to our lives. Father, we pray these things in Jesus’ name.
(20:19 – 20:19)
Amen.
