Psalms 136:1-26 - Homiletics

The Divine constancy.

The refrain of each verse of the psalm may supply us with a guiding thought in our treatment of it. From the first beginnings of creation (as we are affected by them) to the last hour of human experience, we have evidence of the goodness, the "mercy," of the Lord. It has endured through all generations, is with us now, will attend our race (we are sure) to the end of time. We find it—

I. IS THE DIVINE PROVISION . God gave us sun, moon, and stars at the first. These have been giving light to men everywhere and in all ages. They have been regulating the seasons of the year and the tides of ocean, and they have been counting time for us with unbroken constancy. Seed-time and harvest have not failed; food has been given to all flesh, to man and beast, through all the centuries ( Psalms 136:25 ). If the earth has been barren in one part, it has been fruitful in another. Nothing has been needed to supply all mankind with the necessaries and the comforts of life but man's own diligence, enterprise, and economy. God has supplied his part. His kindness is constant.

II. IN DIVINE RETRIBUTION . ( Psalms 136:10-15 , Psalms 136:17-20 .) No doubt this recurring sentence, "His mercy endureth for ever," is written by the psalmist from Israel's point of view. That is quite obvious from the words with which these verses are connected. The destruction of Israel's enemies meant the deliverance, in mercy, of Israel itself. But we may pause to remember that all righteous retribution is a part of Divine goodness. No greater calamity could befall us than Divine indifference to sin and unlimited permission to indulge in it; no more serious injury, therefore, could be done us than the withholding of Divine penalty when sin and wrong are done by us. That would inevitably issue in the loss of all real reverence for God , and of all respect for ourselves. It would mean the simple annihilation of human character, of human worth, of the distinctive excellency of human life. God's abiding hatred and punishment of sin is an element of his constant kindness to our race, as well as a permanent feature of his own Divine character.

III. IN DIVINE COMPASSION AND REDEMPTION . God has ever been pitiful, and his compassion has called forth his power to save.

1. There are two notable instances of this in Hebrew history—the deliverance from Egyptian hardship and bondage ( Exodus 3:7 , Exodus 3:8 ), and the restoration from captivity in Babylon ( Ezra 1:1-11 .). God "remembered them in their low estate," and "redeemed them from their enemies."

2. There was one culminating and transcendent illustration of this in the advent of our Lord. He saw us in our "low estate." The world was sunk in superstition, in vice, in violence, in misery, in spiritual death. No "estate" could be lower than that of the human world when Jesus Christ came into it; and then he accomplished that work which is to issue in its "redemption."

3. We have individual-illustrations of it now. The eye that looked down in pity on the earliest sorrows and struggles of his children regards today with tender commiseration the sufferings and the trials of his people. In all our affliction he is afflicted. He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" ( Hebrews 4:15 ). He is mindful of our danger when in the midst of temptation, and, in answer to our prayer, redeems us from the power of our adversary. To the latest hour of individual life, to the last hour of time, we shall be able to look up with holy confidence for sympathy and succor; "for his mercy endureth for ever."