PSALMS 136

MERCY IN DIVINE CHARACTERISTIC V.1-4

HIS RELIABILITY V.1

GRATITUDE

O give thanks unto the LORD;

GOODNESS

for He is good:

GENUINENESS

for Hid mercy endures forever.

The poet drives a deep nail in Psalms 136.

The capturing spike is the unending mercy of the Lord.

The Lord is Mercy.

His loving kindness is constant.

This mercy is not only continual but it is moment by moment.

He is tender in forbearing compassion.

And it never ends.

Every day there is new mercy.

Every moment there is new mercy!

Without His mercy we’d be consumed in fiery devastation.

There are supernatural forces that want to destroy all of humanity.

These forces have human agents who serve their cause.

But the Lord in His mercy constantly shelters us.

God’s love is immeasurable.

That is what makes the repetition of the phrase

“His mercy endures forever” so beautiful.

That this phrase is mentioned twenty six times is called an antiphonal response.

Antiphonal describes an orderly echo.

This is an echo that sounds over and over.

You would think that saying “His mercy endures” or lasts forever one time,

would be adequate.

No, that’s not enough.

The poet detonates an explosion.

An erupting outburst of writing that God’s mercy is eternal.

He accelerates. He acerbates.

He compounds this wonderful echo over and over and over.

One eternal, one everlasting, one endures forever is not enough.

There are twenty six infinite eternals, awfully celebrated,

in a continual poetic anthem of adoration.

Mercies are on fire everywhere in God’s Word.

But there is no where, so amazing, then the perfect God-man on the cross.

Jesus, yelling out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do”

Luke 23:34

Phillips writes

The very spear that pierced His side drew forth the mercies blood that saves.”

Love that no thought can reach,

Love that no tongue can teach,

No love like His!

“This love and mercy outshines the sun and outlives the stars.

If this love lasted only for a hundred billion years and then ran out.

Suppose, after that, His wrath overcame His mercy.

But no, that’s not God’s love.

His love, His Mercy, His grace,

His tender loving kindness, endures forever.

HIS REMARK-ABILITY V.2

PRAISE

O give thanks

PROMINENCE

unto the God of gods:

PERSISTENCE

for His mercy endures forever.

There are all these gods that are named in the many primitive culture.

But how many? How many gods are there?

There are many religions.

Now lets take Hinduism.

This is a religion with millions of gods and goddesses,

the exact number is unknown.

Some have estimated that with that religion,

along with the many other religions,

we have the exact approximate of 320,000,000 gods.

Plus, there is pantheons of famous mythologies, which combined,

push us off the charts on god count.

With all those numberless gods, there is only one God,

Our God is prominent and persistent in forgiving compassion,

Our God is infinite in merciful loving sympathy, that endures forever.

Our God is that one God.

Our merciful God.

He only, has demonstrated this eternal love, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has asked us to receive and follow Jesus.

Not based on our great performance, but based on His gracious person.

We’re called unto Him.

We’re placed into Him.

We’re provided for through Him.

He gives us, His life, which answers for all we are lacking.

Charles Wesley describes mercy in his hymn Amazing Love:

He left His Father’s throne above So free, so infinite His grace—

Emptied Himself of all but love, And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

’Tis mercy all, immense and free, For O my God, it found out me!

Long my imprisoned spirit lay, Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth & followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear, That whispers all my sins forgiven;

I feel the life His wounds impart; I feel the Savior in my heart.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;

Alive in Him, my living Head, And clothed in righteousness divine,

Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

HIS RENOWN V.3

MAGNIFY

O give thanks

MASTERY

to the Lord of lords:

MERCY

for his mercy endures forever.

Three times now, in this poem, we’re challenged to give thanks.

We’re directed on who our praise is to go to.

So what, is the reason for our gratitude and appreciation?

It is because God is good and His mercy is inexhaustible.

He is the God of god’s and the Lord of lord’s.

What is our foundation of praise?

It is this fact.

That is, that all of His interactions with us are based

on the limitless, boundless, and infinite quantities of His mercy.

We can’t ever review His mercy enough.

We don’t ever remind ourselves sufficiently of God’s mercy to us.

We need it defined over and over.

We need to soak ourselves in its reality.

The dictionary of Biblical Languages defines mercy as loyal love,

His mercy is unfailing kindness,

His mercy is devotion to us,

His mercy is a love or affection that is steadfast based on fidelity of relationship.

Fidelity is allegiance, faithfulness, the keeping of promises

His mercy is Him being a partner that communicates in factual accuracy.

Jesus is all this, and more to us, in His mercy and kindness.

We bring nothing to the table and He brings all.

Mercy is three dimensional.

It is strong. We are weak.

But this merciful love is full, rich, unearned and undeserved.

It is steadfast. We fail.

But this merciful love is unfailing, infinite and has the eternal quality

As His mercy is inexhaustibility.

It is saturating. We are insatiable.

But this merciful love is continually pouring out blessings,

But this merciful love loads us to overflowing with loving promises,

But this merciful love is bulging in good on all its recipients.

In all of these dimensions there is this amazing, astounding truth.

God’s love is free and unearned.

God is the only God that is the giver of mercy.

He pours it all out freely when the opposite of mercy is all we deserve.

In Micah 6:8 the prophet says:

He has showed us what is good and what the Lord requires of us,

to do what’s right, which is to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.

Everything is based on mercy and we are to receive His mercy humbly.

That is what is right and that is what is good.

Nothing that we do earns it, we just humbly receive it.

Our Lord is abounding and plenteous in mercy.

His loyal love is the solution to all our problems,

His loyal love is the resolving of all our sins,

His loyal love is the remedy of all our troubles,

His loyal love is the disbandment of all our enemies.

The reliability of God’s mercy, and the reality that His mercy endures forever,

or as one passage states

His mercy lives on through thousands of generations

His mercy is unimaginable.

This is the basis and starting point and the source of our praise and gratitude.

HIS REASONABILITY V.4

MATCHLESS

To him who alone

MIRACULOUS

does great wonders:

MERCIFUL

for His mercy endures forever.

God’s mercy is not only

RELIABLE v.1,

REMARKABLE v.2

RENOWN v.3,

but God’s love is

REASONABLE v 4

His mercy is unreasonable when we look at ourselves,

when we see our rebelliousness, and sinful inclinations.

But the reasonableness of God’s mercy is based in Himself.

He is matchless, and it’s to Him alone, it is all of Him.

God is love and his love is unconditional, unrestricted, unreserved and unqualified.

His love is definite, total, absolute and complete.

His mercy is all of Him and from Him alone.

His mercy is miraculous, for our God is a God of wonders.

He is amazing, astounding and astonishing.

Our relationship with the Lord is incredible

Our relationship with the Lord is one inexplicable marvel after another.

His mercy to us is mind-blowing and extraordinary

His mercy to us is exceptional in its phenomenal aspects of dealing

with every sin and shortcoming with compassionate loving forgiveness.

His mercy, not to duplicate the thought too much,

but how else can we express it, for His mercy is merciful.

His love is enduring, lasting, permanent and stable.

We can never exhaust it, or empty it out.

His mercy is new every morning,

His mercy is new every moment,

His mercy is new in every circumstance and shortfall in our lives.

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the cross of Christ my God.

All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down.

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine That were a present far too small

Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.