Sunday: His Mercy Endures Forever
Daily Lesson for Sunday 11th of February 2024
Read Psalms 136:1-26. What thought predominates in this psalm? Where does the psalmist find evidence for his prevalent claim?
Psalms 136:1-26 summons God’s people to praise the Lord for His mercy as revealed in creation (Psalms 136:4-9) and in Israel’s history (Psalms 136:10-22). “Mercy” (Hebrew khesed, “steadfast love”) conveys God’s goodness and loyalty to His creation and to His covenant with Israel. The psalm shows that God’s immense power and magnificence are grounded in His steadfast love.
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The Lord is “the God of gods” and “the Lord of lords,” which is a Hebrew idiom that means “the greatest God” (Psalms 136:1-3), not that there are other gods but that He is the only God.
The Lord’s great wonders, which cannot be replicated by anyone else, are the undeniable demonstration of His dominion (Psalms 136:4). God created the heavens, the earth, and the heavenly bodies, which are worshiped by the pagans (Deuteronomy 4:19). The Psalms, however, strip the pagan gods, and by extent every human-based source of confidence, of their authority. They are mere products of the creation. They are merely created things—not the Creator, a crucial distinction.
The image of the Lord’s strong hand and outstretched arm (Psalms 136:12) stresses the efficacy of God’s power and the far-reaching domain of His mercy.
God’s mercy in creation and history should inspire His people to trust in Him and to remain faithful to His covenant. The refrain “For His mercy endures forever” is repeated 26 times in Psalms 136:1-26, thus reassuring the worshipers that the Lord does not change and will repeat His past favors to each new generation. God remembers His people (Psalms 136:23) and is faithful to His covenant of grace. The belief in the Lord’s enduring mercy is at the core of biblical faith, which includes joyous worship and confidence, as well as reticence and repentance.
Psalms 136:1-26 closes with God’s universal care of the world (Psalms 136:23–25). God’s mercy is extended not only to Israel but to all creation. The psalm thus speaks of the universality of God’s saving grace and exhorts the whole world to join Israel’s praise of the Lord (see also Luke 2:10, John 3:16, and Acts 15:17).
How does the image of Jesus on the cross, dying as a Substitute for our sins, most powerfully reveal the great truth about God, that “His love endures forever”?
(26)
Endurance is in my mind associated with persistence. As I have mentioned before, a fair bit of my research life has been involved with the study and development of persistent computer systems. A persistent computer system endures errors and faults and ultimately restarts in a consistent state. Nowadays we almost take for granted that if you have a power loss, or similar, when you start your computer up and get back to work, usually the document you were working on is still readily available and you may have only lost the last few lines. In the "good old days", it was highly likely that your file would be corrupt and you would have to start afresh.
The Bible is essentially a story of God's persistence with us. We are fragile and error-prone, subject to power failure and network faults. Yet God keeps hammering away at us and restoring his image in us when we fail.
Endurance carries with it a sense of time but persistence adds the dimension of timelessness. What is saved is worth saving because of its value. Persistence runs deep in the story of God's dealing with man and although it is often expressed in terms of time it also includes God's persistence with us even when we are rebellious sinners.
In today's culture, it is considered merciful, or non-judgmental - to allow everyone to have their own gods. It is the educated view to believe that "All paths lead to Rome." "All religions and worldviews lead you home, to truth." It's a sort of comfort to believe that the same god is behind every religion and worldview. Just love everyone and put whatever you want as #1 in your life as long as it doesn't hurt anyone.... could be your job, or your family, or seeking some kind of knowledge, or health.....you'll find your way to "Source" any which way.
In the Christian worldview, to use the "all paths lead to Rome" analogy.....Rome has come crashing down the path to find us. God is merciful and so He doesn't wait for people to bumble along to find Him. He sent us Jesus to change everything. Just like Jesus overwhelmed Saul while on his false path of angry religion, God sends the Holy Spirit to intercept our false religions and carry us to Jesus (1 John 4:1-2). God sweeps aside the self-help books and brings us to the end of our loving feelings and kind actions so that our gods topple and crash. Psalm 136:2 says, "You guys may have these other gods, but they're actually demons (1 Cor. 10:19-20). Jesus alone is "the Way (the original name for Christianity), the Truth, the Life". Jesus similarly said, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37).
Today at church I heard a sermon about Noah. One thing that stood out to me was how for 120 years, Noah went about his daily life eating and sleeping and marrying off his sons, and yet the focus of his time was on God's kingdom. He did not forget God in His feasting. His sight and heart was on what is not seen. That was his reality and priority. His week's most urgent and most real to-do list was conversation with God, building the Ark as God directed (Heb. 11:7), and preaching the warning message to draw people into the Ark.
I can hear Noah saying,
"God's justice needs to make all things new. God's mercy endures forever... and He wants to save you from the coming destruction of everything you know as 'normal' and 'reality' (Matt. 24:44). Please stop limping between two opinions (1 Kings 18:21). Today holds eternal significance. I know it feels like nothing otherworldly is at stake today, but it is! I know evil seems as necessary and normal as death is to life, but God wants to one day make a world without evil or death. I know rain seems implausible because you've never seen it before. But you can't base everything that is true upon your intuition (Matt. 24:37-39). You just need to accept His mercy. PLEASE, PLEASE plan to come into the Ark, it's big enough for us all! God is waiting to close the Ark door and seal us inside (Gen. 7:1,16). Very soon, He will in His mercy open the windows of heaven to return and make all things new (Rev. 21:5).
In this spiritual race persistence, preparation, intentionality, and endurance are essential components on this faith journey. In running the race we will get distracted by focusing on other runners, carrying weights of sin which so easily beset us, and by not focusing on Jesus at the finish line. His everlasting mercy and grace will be able to take us through each obstacle we will face.Stay on track.
As I was reading Psalm 136, the thought came to mind that we cannot possibly list all the events where our God showed that He rules forever, but that we, by faith, understand that He rules every cicrumstance or situation, so mitigating the effects of evil by His Justice and Mercy.
How do we understand His Mercy to be applied? Is it only applied to benefit the lives of those who are called by Him, or does His Mercy extends into all the universe? His adversary with his army of fallen angels has compromised all of His Creation. It is being upheld because and through God's Justice, Mercy, and Grace which are His powerful tools to maintain life under these circumstances.
We know of our God and His Plan through the holy Scriptures - heaven and earth will be made new because of His Mercy and Grace. Nothing would exist anymore were it not for His design from the Beginning that Justice, Mercy, and Grace govern all things in heaven and on earth.
Yes, His Justice through Grace and Mercy accepted by faith is what our faith is build upon; He revealed this to us. Our God is more than able and willing to govern all life with these aspects of Himself which are powerful to heal/restore all His creation!
Indeed, we praise You heavenly Father for your everlasting loving Faithfulness – Justice, Mercy and Grace!
Here is a Psalm for Maurice and any one who reads this, as some time back he requested a Psalm we wrote, however this Psalm surpasses any psalm I could write, it fits into Psalm 136 very well. It could very well have been inspired by Psalm 136, I don't know. It was written by Brian and Jennifer Johnson, and their support team. I do believe their father is a pastor of a church in California, and they are the musicians for the ministry of the church. It was written when Jenn was going through trials whether physical or emotional, I don't know, just the same it appears as Jenn's trials were much like many of the Psalmist in the 5 volumes of the book of Psalms.
The Goodness of God.
"...And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God
I'm gonna sing, I'm gonna sing
Oh, 'cause
'Cause all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God
Oh, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God
We love You for that
One for all my days."
The Goodness of God is a prayer for us too.
Indeed God's mercy is forever.
God's mercy is forever.
It has been said nothing is forever.
We, by the grace of God are going to be preserved.
God's grace is forever.
When it comes to God, don't be reserved.
He is forever, is the reason for our assurance of eternal life.
Eternal life is forever.
We need not fret the strife.
Let's let God remove the for never.
Psalm 136
Romans 6:23.
Philippians 2:13.
Revelation 14:12.
2 Timothy 4:18.
John 21:22.
I will sing of the goodness of God..Amen.i love the song by Jennifer Johnson
It's humbling to know all powerful, omnipresent God is watching over me and even invites me to come and reason together with him.The humility exhibited is beyond human comprehension.