Psalm 136: Repetition

When Joseph was interpreting Pharoah’s dreams, in Genesis 41:32 he said, “And the doubling of Pharoah’s dreams means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.” If God repeating something once means it will happen soon, what does it mean when He repeats Himself 26 times? Even more, what does it mean when He asks us to repeat something 26 times? Psalm 136 is the most repetitive chapter in the Bible. It seems to say the same thing over and over again, but if we read slowly and look closely, we see that it’s doing more than repeating itself, it’s revealing the depth of the truth it holds. This is a psalm that uses repetition to give revelation. 

The psalm was probably responsive, written for a priest or Levite to recite the first line of each verse and the congregation of Israel to respond with the repetitive refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” There is a story that’s being told, a truth that’s being revealed, there is a building toward something that is not yet realized. 

It begins with the leader making a statement that calls for an action, “Give thanks”. This is more than a call to be thankful or to say, “thank you”, it is a command for the people gathered to give public acknowledgement, to make a confession of the greatness of God. The first three verses make the same call, each drawing our attention to who God is, “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good”; “Give thanks to the God of gods” (which means the only true God); “Give thanks to the Lord of lords”. With each call to confess the greatness of God, the people responded, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” 

It’s important that we realize that this response was not something that the people thought of themselves, it was not an excited utterance. These words had been prepared for them, they were not declaring something they knew, they were saying something they needed to learn. The beauty of this is that they were hearing from God in the sound of their own voices. All Scripture is God-breathed, inspired by the Holy Spirit and so, these words in Psalm 136 were not the idea of the priest who first wrote them or the people who gathered to sing them, but the God who had created, not only the words but the people who would say and hear them. When we quote the Scriptures, we are hearing from God in the sound of our own voices, we aren’t making declarations to God, we are hearing God make declarations about Himself. 

The first three verses are three calls for God’s people to declare God’s greatness. But the responses are from God Himself, it’s God telling us, through His Word with our own voices what it is that makes Him great, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” This refrain isn’t new to us, Psalm 106 and 107 both began with the exact same words. The height, depth and magnitude of God’s steadfast love has been a recurring theme throughout the Psalms. As we discussed in Psalm 108, the Hebrew word that we translate as “steadfast love” is “hesed”. It’s used 127 times in the psalms, Ronald B. Allen wrote that this is “the most significant term used in Psalms to describe the character of God.” There is no translation of this word that can fully capture it’s meaning. It is translated as mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, steadfast or loyal love, but it’s never one of those things, it’s always all of them and even more. It describes God’s covenant love for His people, it’s based on His character, His loyalty, His faithfulness, it’s not simply something God gives to us or feels toward us, it’s how God has directed His heart, His nature, His very being, toward us. 

The first three verses call us to declare the greatness of God, but then, starting in verse 4, the psalm describes God’s greatness. “To him who alone does great wonders . . . to him who by understanding made the heavens . . . to him who spread out the earth above the waters . . . to him who made the great lights . . . the sun to rule over the day . . . the moon and stars to rule over the night . . . after each line is the response, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” There’s a connection that is being made, if we, the readers, won’t get bored with the repetition we will discover that it’s trying to teach us something, we aren’t just saying the same words over and again, we are learning that there is something at work in each line. Creation didn’t spring forth from God’s great power but from His steadfast love. The things He made and the way He made them were from His steadfast love. The “Hesed” of God radiates from Him because it is not something He has, it is who He is and as such, it’s not that you can find the love of God in all that He does, but all that God does is found in His steadfast love. 

God created all things in His steadfast love, but then the psalmist starts to make things more personal for Israel: “to him who struck down the first-born of Egypt . . . and brought Israel out from among them . . . with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for his steadfast love endures forever.” It was the steadfast love of God that established Israel through Abraham and then delivered her from Egypt. It was the steadfast love of God that displayed His power in plagues in Egypt and led her to the Red Sea so that He could part it for her. There is a discovery that is happening as the Psalm continues, the steadfast love of God goes from a large, untouchable thing that we know but don’t understand to something that we begin to see woven into not just the mighty but all the acts of God. 

The psalm continues by recounting how God led Israel out of Egypt, through the desert and into the promised land. All His great works are the result of His steadfast love. But then, the psalmist goes even deeper, “It is he who remembered us in or low estate . . . and rescued us from our foes . . . he who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.” History and our lives are filled with questions we cannot answer. There are large ones: Why did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden if He knew that Adam and Eve would eat of it? Why did God send Israel to Egypt to become slaves? Why did they have to wander? Why the captivity? Those large questions trickle down to our own questions, that may not encompass the whole world, but they are the world to us. We have so many “Why’s?” So many things maybe that we can’t understand. It’s as if this psalm is asking our questions and then allowing us to speak the answer. He remembered us because His steadfast love endures forever. He rescued us because His steadfast love endures forever. He feeds everyone everywhere because His love endures forever. 

By the time the psalm is over there should be an awakening in our minds and in our hearts, everything that God has ever done and will ever do, great and small, seen and unseen, understood and complained against, is because His steadfast love endures forever. Michael Wilcock describes it this way, “From the beginning of creation to the climax of redemption, from the first making of the heavens to the final inheritance of the saints, all is to be seen against the background of the love of God.” And so today, every declaration we make of God’s greatness is because His steadfast love endures forever. But just as much, every pain, fear, worry and doubt is met with the same truth, “His steadfast love endures forever”. Doors close for the same reason they open, rain falls for the same reason the sun shines, last breaths are swallowed up in the same thing as first breaths, the truth in all things and at all times is that “His steadfast love endures forever.”  

I encourage you today, read your way through Psalm 136 and when you get to the end, start writing your own psalm. Use your experiences, your events, your triumphs and your struggles and with each line, with each memory, with each smile and with each tear, repeat the refrain that can’t be changed, “His steadfast love endures forever”. It’s not just repetitive it’s true. Look at your life through the lens of God’s character and realize that not only has all this happened inside of God’s love, but it’s God’s love that has done it.