“FOR THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER”

Bill McFarland

November 19, 2006

 

Psalm 136 is a call to give thanks to the Lord because he is good.  That in itself is not unusual.  One old writer years back observed that the scriptures call for us to give thanks more often than they call for us to pray or to repent.  That would mean that what we are dealing with here is something which is surely at the heart of godly living.  The interesting thing is that in this text we are not called to give thanks for blessings that we may count.  We are called to give thanks for how good God is, for who he is and for what he is like.

The call of this song here is not unique, but Psalm 136 is.  There is no other passage of scripture like it.  It is a Psalm which is written in a responsive form.  To us, if we repeat something, it begins to be a little bit tedious.  But this drives the crucial point home, as if to say, “You can search the universe over and you can examine everything there is about the nature of God, and you won’t find anything which is more deserving to have thanks offered for it than the fact that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.”

This morning I want to try to describe for you an amazing Bible word, then to show you something of the awesome God that term describes, and then to say to all of us, “We can live an abundant life because of the God who acts like this.” 

An Amazing Word

We need to start with the amazing term, and you can notice it just in the first three verses of Psalm 136: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever;” You already see the keynote of the song, don’t you?  It is that word which is translated here “steadfast love.”  It is a term which is used more than 250 times in the Old Testament.  You and I see something of its nature just by the fact that when we compare different versions of the Bible, it is clear that this is a word that can’t be gathered up in just one English term.  You notice, for example, the King James put it usually “mercy,” the mercy of the Lord.  The New American Standard will say “the lovingkindness of the Lord.”  The English Standard here uses the term “steadfast love.”  I noticed the NIV often uses the term “unfailing love.” 

The wonder of this word can be observed from the occasions in the Bible where it is used.  When David moved the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, he instructed the people in I Chron. 16:41 to give thanks to God because his steadfast love endures forever.  When Solomon dedicated the temple in Jerusalem in II Chron. 7:3, 6, he noted especially that thanks was due to God because his steadfast love endures forever.  One of my favorite illustrations of the power of this term comes from II Chron. 20.  Jehoshaphat had to lead the people who had strayed back to the Lord, but now they are threatened by their enemies from Moab and Ammon.  Jehoshaphat has led the people in fervent prayer to God for deliverance.  One of the prophets has stood up and said, “Don’t be afraid for the battle is not yours but God’s.”  So, the king leads the people out and instructs them “to believe in the Lord your God and you will be established.”  And then it says, “When he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire as they went before the army and say, ‘give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever.’” (v. 21) They won a tremendous victory that day!

You can also see something of the value of this term by noticing the times when people appealed to it in their prayers.  David in Psalm 51:1 in repentance for a terrible sin in his life, a great failure, appealed to God for mercy based on God’s steadfast love.  And Daniel, when the people were captive in the strange land, prayed to the God who “keeps covenant and loving kindness, a great and awesome God” (Daniel 9:4).  Nehemiah, when he heard how terrible things were back in his own land while he is away off in Persia, “praise to the God who is the God of steadfast love” (Neh. 1:5). 

The Psalms underline the value of this term in some wonderful ways.  In Psalm 36:7, for example, it is described like this, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! (notice the word precious there)  The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.  They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.  For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.  Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you.”  Notice the way all of us are described as being dependent on the steadfast love of the Lord.  Psalm 63:3 says, “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”  It is precious, but it is better than life because all of life depends on it.  Psalm 107, having reviewed the dealings of God’s steadfast love, the Psalmist says, “Whoever is wise let him attend to these things.  Let him consider the steadfast love of the Lord.”  (v. 43) I wonder if I am wise enough to consider if my life is the remarkable quality of the steadfast love of the Lord. 

Perhaps my favorite definition of this great word would be the term “faithful love.”  It is steadfast love on the basis of a covenant.  A covenant is a relationship which comes from the goodness of God in which he makes a promise to his people and then deals with them on the basis of what he has promised.  Covenant love is a combination of affection, mercy and loyalty.  It is associated with goodness, kindness and faithfulness.  Notice, for example, the way Psalm 89:28-35 describes the behavior of steadfast love: “My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.  If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.”   That gives you this idea of covenant love which is bound up in the term “steadfast love.”  God’s goodness motivates him to establish the relationship.  His kindness causes him to deal with the people in blessing them.  His faithfulness causes him to go on caring even when the people falter and fail, because that is the kind of God he is.

The Awesome God

In fact, let’s move from the amazing term “steadfast love” to think for a moment of the awesome God it describes.  It is interesting to me that as the Old Testament story unfolds, when people want to know who God is, this is how he introduces himself and makes himself known.  In Exodus 20 as the Ten Commandments are being given and the people are being warned not to worship idols, God says in verses 5 and 6 that he is a God of steadfast love.  No idol, no other god is like him.  In Exodus 34, verses 6 and 7, when God is showing his glory to Moses, God makes it known that he is a God of steadfast love, and there is no other god like him.  It is a term that really describes the way in which God uses all of his other attributes to bless and provide for his people.  I love the wonderful statement of an old Puritan writer who said, “When God makes a covenant and when he says ‘they shall be my people and I will be their God’ that that is the first and fundamental promise.  It is the life and the soul of all the promises.”  And then he explains that it is as if he said, “You shall have as true an interest in all my attributes for your good as they are mine for my own glory.  My grace, says God, shall be yours to pardon you and my power shall be yours to protect you, and my wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and my goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and my mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you.” (Sibbes, cited by Packer, Knowing God, p. 114).   Do you see the comprehensive nature of the promise being made?  The steadfast love of the Lord means that he uses every part of who he is to bless, to keep, to provide for those who are his people.

Now, in the 136th Psalm, what is really being described in praise of God is what he has done for his Old Testament covenant people.  In fact, there is a line of thought that runs through this whole Psalm that you and I may perhaps see by reading the leading statement in each verse and then understanding his steadfast love endures forever.  Let me read from verses 3 and following in this manner: “Give thanks to the Lord of lords, 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 … to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt … and brought Israel out from among them … with a strong hand and an outstretched arm … to him who divided the Red Sea in two … and made Israel pass through the midst of it … but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea … to him who led his people through the wilderness … to him who struck down great kings and killed mighty kings … Sihon, king of the Amorites … and Og, king of Bashan … and gave their land as a heritage … a heritage to Israel his servant …  It is he who remembered us in our low estate and rescued us from our foes … he who gives food to all flesh …  Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.”  Read in that way, this is a review of the whole Old Testament and its description of God’s faithful love toward his people whom he chose to bless.

The New Testament comes along and says, as we have remembered at the Lord’s Table this morning, that Jesus shed the blood of the covenant, that he becomes the mediator of the new covenant, according to Hebrews 12:24, that God has established a better covenant through Christ, one in which he says to people who will let themselves be cleansed by the blood of Christ, “I will be your God; you’ll be my people.  I will remember your sins no more.”  (Heb. 8:10, 12)  I got to thinking about that this week and wondering, “What would it be like if we took the words and the statements of the New Testament and tried to review them in the way the writer of Psalm 136 has done with the old covenant?”  So I came up with a Christian version of Psalm 136.  This will take a little bit of reading, but will you please try to follow the thought as we review the steadfast love of the Lord toward us in Jesus Christ?

If you look at it this way, here is what you would come up with. 

  1. “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come,” (Rev. 1:4)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time,” (Eph. 1:9b, 10a)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him,” (Eph. 1:4)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him,” (I John 4:9)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,” (Heb. 1:1b, 2a)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “He is the image of the invisible God … He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power,” (Heb. 1:3)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst,” (Acts 2:22)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” (Jn. 3:17)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” (Rom. 5:8)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Cor. 5:21)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “The God of peace … brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” (Heb. 13:20)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come,” (Eph. 1:20b, 21)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all,” (Eph. 1:22, 23a)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ,” (Eph. 2:4-5a)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus,” (Eph. 2:7)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “He has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature,” (II Pet. 1:4)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them,” (Eph. 2:10)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “Submit yourselves therefore to God,” (Js. 4:7)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you,” (Js. 4:8)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “Humble yourselves … under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,” (I Pet. 5:6)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” (Col. 3:17)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “Through him … let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name,” (Heb. 13:15)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus,” (Phil. 4:19)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you,” (I Pet. 5:10)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” (2 Cor. 5:1)

for his steadfast love endures forever;

  1. “To our God and Father be glory forever and ever.  Amen,” (Phil 4:20)

for his steadfast love endures forever.

 

There are twenty-six verses.  You might benefit from taking the time and coming up with your twenty-six that would tell the story.  But remember that it is the work of God’s steadfast love that we honor in Christ. 

An Abundant Life

That amazing quality of this awesome God is the way to an abundant life.  There are all kinds of ways this is described in the Bible.  I want to summarize it just by noticing with you the way this term is used in the wisdom of the Proverbs.  In Proverbs 3:3, we learn that this steadfast love of God needs to be an ever-present quality in a successful life.  In Proverbs 3, it is as if parents are trying to urge the son as he goes out on his own to remember who he is and what comes first.  They say in verses 3 and 4, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.  Bind them around your neck.  Write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”  Don’t go anywhere without steadfast love and faithfulness!  Wherever you go and whatever you do, don’t be without the steadfast love and faithfulness of God imprinted on your character so that it becomes a part of who you are.”  Be good, kind and faithful.

Then notice in the second place in Proverbs 14:22, this statement is made:  “Do they not go astray who devise evil?  Those who devise good meet steadfast love and faithfulness.”  That is a way of saying that God will be with you and bless you and help you if you will devise good and if you will live your life in that direction, if that will be what you love and care about.  The Old Testament prophets urged the people of God to remember to do justly and to love kindness.  (Micah 6:8)  Kindness is this word.  Love, love in kindness and orient your life in that direction.  Gain knowledge of God, and imitate his steadfast love and faithfulness (Hos. 4:1, 6).

And then Proverbs 16:6 says, “By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for.”  Thank the Lord for that!  That is what he has done in the cross by the giving of his son.  He paid the price by allowing his steadfast love and faithfulness to come together. (cf. Ps. 85:10).   And then it says, “And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil.”  When you have failed, seek forgiveness through the steadfast love and faithfulness which met in Christ.

How can you appreciate the steadfast love of the Lord, give thanks for his goodness, and then not want to turn away from evil and to serve him?  When you and I are so moved by what Christ has done for us on the cross that we turn away from evil and we do acknowledge his holy name in confession with our lips, when we are baptized into Christ, trusting in the work of God, he establishes that covenant relationship that we are talking about where he becomes our God and we become his child.   And then as we live the Christian life, what we are doing is respecting that covenant that God has made with us.  We don’t want to do despite to the Spirit of grace, or to count the blood of the covenant wherewith we were sanctified an unholy thing.  When we invite you to become a Christian, we are inviting you to lay hold of the steadfast love of the Lord which endures forever.  If you need to do that this morning, won’t you come and do it now while we stand and sing?