Psalm 136:1-26

Psalm 136 is called the “Great Hallel” and it is the climactic song of praise that Israelite people sing at the Passover celebration.

We don’t know who wrote this psalm because no author is given. Nor do we know the historical setting for the psalm since no situation is mentioned or described. We only know that God had recently remembered and rescued them from a humiliating situation with their enemies (Psa 136:23-24). Since Israel endured numerous experiences like this throughout their history as recorded in the Old Testament, this may have been written after any of those experiences.

When we study this psalm, we can easily discover its purpose. The opening three verses begin with, “Oh, give thanks!” (Psa 136:1-3) and the final verse repeats this instruction once again (Psa 136:26).

The psalm also emphasizes the primary reason why Israel should praise God. The second line of every pair says the same thing, “for his mercy endures forever.” My own translation reads, “because his loyalty is endless.”

Through whatever else this psalm says, it shines the spotlight on God’s chesed. Chesed is the same quality of God that motivated David to praise him during an excruciating, long-term trial (Psa 13:5-6).

Chesed is such a crucial motivation for praising God that for a word appearing 245x in the entire OT, it appears 127x (more than half of its occurrences) in Psalms alone. No psalm makes this more obvious than Psalm 136. Let’s take a look.

The one true God is true to his people. (Psa 136:1-3)

The opening three verses draw attention to the identity and nature of God himself.

He is the LORD (Yahweh), the self-existent, all-sufficient one. He is the God of gods, so there is no god as powerful, significant, or deserving of allegiance as him. He is Lord of lords, for no authority figure is greater than or parallel to him. Indeed, whatever authorities exist, they all answer to him.

Yet God’s superior nature and identity are not the reason given for offering him our praise (though this would be reason enough, for sure). The reason given is that there is something about this supreme and sovereign God that should inspire our praise – that his loyalty is endless.

He created everything. (Psa 136:4-9)

The next six verses form the second section of this psalm. They are united together by a shared emphasis on the mighty works of God displayed through creation.

Our God is the only one who has done such great and awe-inspiring things. No other God or Lord has such a majestic resume.

He made the entire universe and solar system with the ease and skill of a master craftsman. Compare this to the money and effort we require to merely begin to explore it!

He also arranged the topography of the earth, and coordinated it with the lakes, seas, and oceans, with the ease with which an artist or craftsman “beats out” and custom fits a thin sheet of metal onto a project of some sort.[1]

He is the one who made the stars of the universe, which are not only uncountable but are also great in size. Perhaps you already know that 1.3 million Earths can fit inside the sun, yet the sun is one of the smallest stars in the universe. Yet for whatever reason, God assigned the sun to give us daylight and the rest of the stars to illumine the night.

These works certainly reveal the incomparable ability, creativity, and wisdom of God, yet these are not the reason why the psalm calls us to praise God (though they would be reasons enough, for sure). These works happened because God’s loyalty is endless. He did these things because of chesed and that should inspire our praise.

He rescued and settled Israel. (Psa 136:10-22)

The next thirteen verses remind us of God’s great deliverance of his chosen people, Israel.

He struck dead the Egyptian firstborns, which is a reference to the last of the ten plagues God sent to persuade Pharaoh to grant Israel freedom from slavery. He had made the universe out of nothing and then he brought his people out of captivity in a foreign land. The psalm describes this poetically as though God reached down into his creation with a strong hand to rescue them from a world superpower.

After this, God split the Red Sea in half and caused Israel to pass over in the middle. The word “pass over” reminds the Israelites of how God “passed over” the houses of those who applied the blood of a lamb to their doorposts the night before Egypt’s firstborn died (Exo 12:13). It may also have reminded the Israelites of when God passed through the middle of Abraham’s sacrifice, sealing an unconditional covenant with him and his descendants, the nation of Israel who would be born to him (Gen 15:17).

God also overthrew Pharaoh when he tried to recapture Israel. He did this by drowning him (and his army) in the Red Sea. The word “overthrew” means something like “swept aside” as when we flick a fly from the table with our fingers. It shows how effortless this was for the Lord.[2] A major superpower? No big deal.

Psalm 136:16 is especially fascinating. It says in the simplest, straightforward, matter-of-fact way possible, “He led his people through the wilderness.” This is profound not just for what it says, but for what it doesn’t say. For sure, God did many amazing things for Israel during this time, but Israel did many … shall we say … unamazing things in return. This was the time that God formalized his covenant with them at Sinai, but they behaved very badly, and an entire generation failed to be loyal to God, even though he had been loyal to them.

Once again, these many works of God for the Israelites were not the reason that the psalm was urging the people to praise God. These works all happened because God’s loyalty is endless. He didn’t do these things because Israel deserved it, but because he was faithful to his promise. No matter how badly Israel would behave (they deserved to remain in Egypt, didn’t they?), he would deliver them and lead them through the wilderness anyway.

What’s more, he deliverance (and loyalty) didn’t end in the wilderness. He continued to be faithful to the next generation by knocking down great kinds, slaying famous kinds, including Sihon and Og. These were the “gateway” kings who were defeated first to get into Canaan. After this series of sweeping defeats recorded in the book of Joshua, God gave his people the land as their own possession and place to live forever. He even called them his servant … not because they did a good job at serving him, but because they had an obligation to serve him. They were in a never-ending covenant with the God of heaven who would never let them go.

He remembered and rescued a later generation of Israel. (Psa 136:23-24)

These two verses fast-forward through centuries to a new generation of Israelites who would praise God in the Temple and celebrate the Passover festival. They would sing this song and repeat back in chorus, “For his mercy endures forever” twenty-six times.

This would be especially meaningful to them because they had recently been rescued from their enemies. Why had they been in trouble with their enemies? Because as part of the Mosaic covenant as described in Deuteronomy, Israel would be troubled and overpowered by their enemies whenever they stubbornly disobeyed God. Whenever they repented and returned to him, God would deliver them. That’s why “remember” is an important word here. It doesn’t mean that God had forgotten them. Instead, it means that God simply did in the present what had promised to do in the past. And why did he do this? Because his loyalty is endless.

He provides food to all people. (Psa 136:25)

Before this psalm ends, it returns to the larger, expansive view with which it began, focusing not just on the people of Israel, but on the people of the whole world that God had made. It may even refer to animals, too. It reminds us that though God is faithful to redeem his people, even though they don’t deserve it, he is also faithful to feed everyone. And if that’s the case, then he’ll be faithful to feed his people, too. In this way, God shows his faithfulness to his creation. He does not abandon what he makes. Why? Because his loyalty is endless. Here we are 6,000+ years later and God is still feeding the world, even though we don’t deserve to be fed.

The God of heaven is loyal to his people. (Psa 136:26)

With God’s chesed, there is no exit plan. So, how should we respond to all this? We should praise him! In fact, we should praise him even more today because we’re not Israel, but we’ve received his promise of salvation from sin and this fallen world through the true servant who would arise from Israel with whom God is certainly eternally loyal – the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Whatever you are going through today, remember that we serve the one, true God who made everything and is loyal to his promises. If you have believed on Jesus Christ as your God and Savior, rest assured that his loyalty to you will be endless, not just in meeting your physical needs, but in meeting your spiritual needs, too.

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[1] Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (90–150): Commentary, vol. 3, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2016), 779.

[2] Allen, A Commentary on the Psalms (90-15), 780