WEBVTT 00:00:01.383 --> 00:00:14.585 help me to serve in the strength that you supply, that you might receive all glory, and we pray that from our hearts we'd be able to give thanks to you because, indeed, your faithful love endures forever. 00:00:14.585 --> 00:00:17.731 We pray these things in Jesus name, amen. 00:00:17.731 --> 00:00:21.960 This is a Psalm of thanksgiving. 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:25.716 This is a Psalm of thanksgiving. 00:00:25.716 --> 00:00:35.082 Each of the first three verses begins give thanks to the Lord, and the final verse also begins give thanks to the Lord. 00:00:35.082 --> 00:00:39.872 So you could really read that almost as though every single verse could begin give thanks to the Lord. 00:00:39.872 --> 00:01:05.140 But the psalmist who wrote this Psalm, who's inspired by God, but the psalmist who wrote this psalm, who's inspired by God, he didn't choose to specifically highlight give thanks to the Lord every single verse, but he does, under God's inspiration, highlight the reason we're called to give thanks to the Lord. 00:01:05.140 --> 00:01:13.350 Give thanks to God because his faithful love endures forever. 00:01:13.350 --> 00:01:17.158 Give thanks to God, his faithful love endures forever. 00:01:17.158 --> 00:01:20.813 Give thanks to God, his faithful love endures forever. 00:01:20.813 --> 00:01:21.659 Okay, I got it, mike, I got it. 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:24.525 Why does this Psalm repeat so much? 00:01:24.525 --> 00:01:32.225 Because God is so great that sometimes, like those angels, you just want to cry out holy, holy, holy. 00:01:32.225 --> 00:01:52.326 Because God's love is so deep that sometimes it just takes a barrage of praise to really put ourselves in the place where we're rightly acknowledging him, because God knows that we need repetition. 00:01:52.326 --> 00:01:59.781 You that are parents know this, but God, speaking to his children, he knows this also. 00:02:01.224 --> 00:02:04.828 This psalm is a song. 00:02:04.828 --> 00:02:10.175 The 150 Psalms are the earliest Christian songbook that we have. 00:02:10.175 --> 00:02:13.842 It's the only inspired songbook that we have. 00:02:13.842 --> 00:02:19.247 And if you turn in, that first song has a chorus that repeats 26 times. 00:02:19.247 --> 00:02:31.965 Sometimes I'll be talking with someone. 00:02:31.965 --> 00:02:35.703 A song will come up and I'll say, ah, we shouldn't sing that song. 00:02:35.703 --> 00:02:36.384 I'll say, why? 00:02:36.384 --> 00:02:38.531 Say it repeats too much. 00:02:38.531 --> 00:02:41.082 Say, tell me, tell me more. 00:02:41.082 --> 00:02:45.032 And they say, well, the chorus repeats like five times. 00:02:45.032 --> 00:02:52.909 And sometimes now I'm sure this would never, ever happen in our church, but sometimes they say it in a way that's kind of like. 00:02:52.909 --> 00:03:00.989 You know, I feel bad for all those poor, immature Christians who like a repetitive song, but thankfully I've moved beyond that in my Christian life. 00:03:00.989 --> 00:03:09.252 The inspired psalmist repeats the chorus 26 times. 00:03:09.252 --> 00:03:13.360 We need intensive repetition. 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:19.626 It can be good to have songs that have intensive repetition. 00:03:19.626 --> 00:03:24.911 His faithful love endures forever 26 times. 00:03:24.911 --> 00:03:32.456 Now, having said that, let me also say how many Psalms are like this one. 00:03:32.456 --> 00:03:34.902 There's 150. 00:03:34.902 --> 00:03:40.009 Other Psalms do have repetition, but not the same way that this one does. 00:03:40.009 --> 00:03:42.735 So that's one out of 150. 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:52.152 Sometimes you're listening to an album or a radio station, you're in a church service and it feels like eight out of 10 songs are trying to do a Psalm 136. 00:03:52.152 --> 00:03:52.753 You know what I mean. 00:03:52.753 --> 00:04:02.867 That's not wrong, but if you never have intensive repetition you're not matching the breadth of what you find and the variety in the Psalm. 00:04:02.867 --> 00:04:11.932 And if you are always leaning into intensive repetition, you're not also quite matching the breadth of what we have here in the psalm. 00:04:11.932 --> 00:04:20.483 And one other thing if you notice it doesn't repeat 26 times in a row, every single verse. 00:04:20.483 --> 00:04:23.908 There's a new example of God's faithful love. 00:04:23.908 --> 00:04:32.492 So you've got fresh fuel every single time you get to that wonderful chorus that's rehearsing God's faithful love. 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:48.701 But this is a sermon on 136, and I can understand why Pastor Doug would have given me this psalm because, as I said, it begins and ends with thanks and we should give thanks to God for his faithful love. 00:04:48.701 --> 00:04:51.848 We need repetition. 00:04:51.848 --> 00:04:53.752 I think I can prove it Now. 00:04:53.752 --> 00:04:54.793 Hopefully this doesn't backfire. 00:04:54.793 --> 00:04:56.564 I want you to raise your hand. 00:04:56.564 --> 00:04:57.326 Do not be shy. 00:04:58.651 --> 00:05:05.444 Often a week of Thanksgiving we might go around the table or at some point during the week and give thanks to God for something. 00:05:05.444 --> 00:05:14.663 So how many of you this past week said I want to give thanks to God because his faithful love endures forever? 00:05:14.663 --> 00:05:16.771 Go ahead, put the hands up, don't be shy. 00:05:16.771 --> 00:05:18.495 Now. 00:05:18.495 --> 00:05:25.833 I was at a Thanksgiving meal where Nikolai actually brought up this Psalmsalm without any provocation from me. 00:05:25.833 --> 00:05:29.327 So Nicholas is being shy, but that's one, nikolai. 00:05:29.327 --> 00:05:29.829 Who else? 00:05:29.829 --> 00:05:35.146 All right, okay, okay, there are a couple of hands, thank you, very good. 00:05:35.146 --> 00:05:38.480 So we have like two or three hands, over a hundred people here. 00:05:38.480 --> 00:05:45.791 It's not that we all have to say this every single time every Thanksgiving, but you think I got it. 00:05:45.791 --> 00:05:46.273 I got it. 00:05:46.273 --> 00:05:47.574 This faithful love endures forever. 00:05:47.574 --> 00:05:56.166 But if it's really lodged in our hearts, if it's really on the tip of our tongue, don't you think it would have come out a bit more than that? 00:05:56.166 --> 00:06:12.663 In a group this size, I won't do it, but if I said how many of you thank God for the food or for family, how many hands would go up with those things? 00:06:12.663 --> 00:06:13.584 And those are good things to give thanks for. 00:06:13.605 --> 00:06:18.254 We need the repetition because perhaps this truth of God's faithful love isn't planted in our hearts and on the tip of our tongues the way that it should be. 00:06:18.254 --> 00:06:22.067 So here's what we're going to do this morning. 00:06:22.067 --> 00:06:26.122 First we're going to explore what God's faithful love is. 00:06:26.122 --> 00:06:28.065 We need to unpack that. 00:06:28.065 --> 00:06:32.834 And then, as you look at the Psalm, it breaks into two sections. 00:06:32.834 --> 00:06:36.870 So there's the opening, thanks, but then there's two main sections in the Psalm. 00:06:36.870 --> 00:06:45.771 If you look, you'll see verses four to nine speak of God's acts and creation, and then verses 10 to 24 speak of his acts for Israel. 00:06:45.771 --> 00:06:51.512 So we'll consider God's faithful love and creation is faithful love for Israel. 00:06:51.512 --> 00:06:59.021 And then, finally, we'll conclude by again reflecting on God's faithful love in our lives and what that means for us. 00:07:01.144 --> 00:07:03.906 So first, god's faithful love defined. 00:07:03.906 --> 00:07:06.511 What is it? 00:07:06.511 --> 00:07:16.396 Well, the chorus of this Psalm, as we read it from our pew Bible, which happens to be the Christian standard Bible. 00:07:16.396 --> 00:07:19.043 It reads his faithful love endures forever. 00:07:19.043 --> 00:07:30.341 If you're looking at a King James Bible this morning and it's another excellent translation that reads his mercy endureth forever. 00:07:30.341 --> 00:07:31.504 Okay, mercy and love, that's two different words. 00:07:31.504 --> 00:07:31.963 That's interesting. 00:07:31.963 --> 00:07:35.928 If you're looking at the English Standard Version today, it says his steadfast love endures forever. 00:07:35.928 --> 00:07:38.372 So that's very similar to the CSB. 00:07:38.372 --> 00:07:42.036 You know, steadfast, faithful those are overlapping words. 00:07:42.036 --> 00:07:48.966 In our everyday English we use the word faithful a lot more than steadfast, but that's very similar. 00:07:48.966 --> 00:07:56.632 And then if you're looking at the NIV this morning these are all great translations the NIV just says his love endures forever. 00:07:56.632 --> 00:08:00.529 So what is the psalmist trying to communicate here? 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:15.281 Yes, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, so your first inclination might be to say, okay, well, in Hebrew does it say love or mercy, does it have an adjective faithful or something like that, or does it not? 00:08:16.904 --> 00:08:19.509 Translation is not always as simple as that. 00:08:19.509 --> 00:08:30.348 Sometimes there are words that have different shades of meaning in different contexts and it's not always easy to communicate that in a translation. 00:08:30.348 --> 00:08:32.813 Think about our English word love. 00:08:32.813 --> 00:08:45.462 If I say I love my parents and I say I love Thanksgiving turkey, I love Thanksgiving turkey. 00:08:45.462 --> 00:08:49.369 If someone's trying to learn English, would they conclude okay, so they love. 00:08:49.369 --> 00:08:53.394 So he has the same relationship to his parents as he does to Thanksgiving turkey. 00:08:53.394 --> 00:08:57.134 I understand. 00:08:57.134 --> 00:09:01.940 I hope for my parents' sake that that's not true. 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:04.169 The love I have for my parents is a much higher love. 00:09:04.169 --> 00:09:05.379 There's a family commitment and obligation there. 00:09:05.379 --> 00:09:08.890 There's a depth of relational experience to that. 00:09:10.081 --> 00:09:24.466 When I say I love Thanksgiving turkey, I just mean I like the taste of it a lot, the word that's here in Psalm 136 is the word hesed in Hebrew. 00:09:24.466 --> 00:09:29.322 To pronounce it correctly, you have to act like you're about to spit on someone. 00:09:29.322 --> 00:09:30.285 Let's not do that today. 00:09:30.285 --> 00:09:41.563 But it's a word that's used quite often in the Old Testament and there's no extra adjective of faithful or steadfast in the original language. 00:09:41.563 --> 00:09:48.384 So you could say in this case, the NIV actually is the most word-for-word translation if we're going to say it that way. 00:09:49.205 --> 00:10:04.576 But the reason why translations like our Pew Bible or the English Standard Version say faithful love or steadfast love, they're trying to communicate that this is not just a generic love, it's a special kind of love. 00:10:04.576 --> 00:10:16.238 Many times this word is used in the Old Testament in the context of forgiveness Numbers 14, 18,. 00:10:16.238 --> 00:10:21.808 The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and rebellion. 00:10:21.808 --> 00:10:29.469 Pardon the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of your faithful love. 00:10:29.469 --> 00:10:29.956 There it is again. 00:10:29.956 --> 00:10:33.462 Your hesed, just as you have forgiven them from Egypt until now. 00:10:33.462 --> 00:10:36.884 Numbers Nehemiah 9, verse 17. 00:10:36.884 --> 00:10:40.645 They refused to listen, did not remember your wonders you performed among them. 00:10:40.645 --> 00:10:44.422 They became stiff-need and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. 00:10:44.422 --> 00:10:55.778 But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in, has said faithful love, and you did not abandon them. 00:10:55.778 --> 00:10:58.385 Psalm 25, 7,. 00:10:58.385 --> 00:11:06.000 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my acts of rebellion, in keeping with your faithful love. 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.744 Psalm 25, 7,. 00:11:08.744 --> 00:11:18.465 So that's probably one reason why the King James translators use the word mercy because we think of a love that's so forgiving. 00:11:18.465 --> 00:11:26.258 We do think of mercy, of a love that's so forgiving, we do think of mercy. 00:11:26.278 --> 00:11:34.057 But those verses that I just read that use the same word that we heard over and over again in Psalm 136, they emphasize also the idea of covenant loyalty. 00:11:34.057 --> 00:11:38.745 God especially shows his chesed to Israel. 00:11:38.745 --> 00:11:40.427 He especially shows his chesed to Israel. 00:11:40.427 --> 00:11:47.869 He especially shows his chesed to David because he entered a covenant with them, he had a commitment to them. 00:11:47.869 --> 00:11:51.681 He entered into a covenant with David, he had a commitment with David. 00:11:51.681 --> 00:11:55.349 So this is a word of unwavering loyalty. 00:11:56.995 --> 00:12:10.807 In 1 Samuel 20, jonathan and David are talking together about what to do in light of Saul's, jonathan's father's, hatred of David, and Jonathan asked David to show him chesed. 00:12:10.807 --> 00:12:17.980 So it's not always used only of God, but it is used here in the context of a deep loyalty Show him chesed from the Lord. 00:12:17.980 --> 00:12:24.138 And Jonathan even says if I die, don't withdraw your chesed, david, from my household. 00:12:24.138 --> 00:12:32.321 And then it says Jonathan once again swore to David and his love for him because he loved him as he loved himself. 00:12:32.321 --> 00:12:37.596 So Jonathan and David have already committed themselves to each other in this covenant of friendship and deep loyalty. 00:12:37.596 --> 00:12:41.042 Committed themselves to each other in this covenant of friendship and deep loyalty. 00:12:41.042 --> 00:12:57.500 And now, as they prepare to part, jonathan calls to mind that commitment and says don't you ever stop showing chesed to me, and even if I die, you better show chesed to all of my family. 00:12:57.500 --> 00:13:10.328 So if we had a Venn diagram up here with this Hebrew word for faithful love, we'd have overlapping English words like mercy, like love, definitely loyalty. 00:13:10.328 --> 00:13:13.524 That's what we're talking about here in this verse. 00:13:15.535 --> 00:13:20.006 Psalm 136 celebrates a deeply loyal love. 00:13:20.006 --> 00:13:24.926 Give thanks to God because his faithful love endures forever. 00:13:24.926 --> 00:13:32.697 And let me, before we press on, let me also say we have visitors, sometimes more than usual on the holidays. 00:13:32.697 --> 00:13:36.615 If you're here visiting, maybe someone in your family convinced you just come to church with me. 00:13:36.615 --> 00:13:44.400 This morning he said all right, like whoa, I didn't come looking to get a lecture on the semantic domain of a word from 3000 years ago. 00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:49.323 I just want the preacher to tell me to love my family and I can get back home and watch some football and eat some leftovers. 00:13:49.323 --> 00:13:50.176 What's going on here? 00:13:50.176 --> 00:13:52.880 It's okay to watch football. 00:13:52.880 --> 00:13:55.166 It's wonderful to eat leftovers. 00:13:55.166 --> 00:13:57.576 You should give thanks for your family, and we don't. 00:13:57.677 --> 00:14:06.850 We don't talk about specific Hebrew and Greek words every Sunday, but the Bible we believe in this church is the word of the living God. 00:14:06.850 --> 00:14:08.621 It's God's speech to us. 00:14:08.621 --> 00:14:14.802 It's not just a moral totem that we take in our pockets to kind of help our lives be a little better. 00:14:14.802 --> 00:14:19.726 So if God is speaking to us, we're desperate to know what he says. 00:14:19.726 --> 00:14:23.759 So we do hope that when you would come, you'd find people that are hungry to know. 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:24.923 What is God saying? 00:14:24.923 --> 00:14:25.806 What does this word mean? 00:14:25.806 --> 00:14:27.898 I want to know it for myself and my life. 00:14:30.481 --> 00:14:34.789 Second heading this morning, creation sings God's faithful love. 00:14:34.789 --> 00:14:38.601 Verse four invites us to give thanks to God because God does great wonders. 00:14:38.601 --> 00:14:39.104 What wonders are those? 00:14:39.104 --> 00:14:40.187 Verses five to nine tell us some of those wonders. 00:14:40.187 --> 00:14:40.910 God, because God does great wonders. 00:14:40.910 --> 00:14:41.754 What wonders are those? 00:14:41.754 --> 00:14:44.423 Verses 5 to 9 tell us some of those wonders. 00:14:44.423 --> 00:14:49.988 And they're the wonders of creation, making sky and land great lights, like the moon and the stars and the sun. 00:14:49.988 --> 00:14:54.927 This is a very frequent theme in Psalm the glory of God in creation. 00:14:54.927 --> 00:14:59.567 You could look at Psalm 8 or Psalm 19 or Psalm 139. 00:14:59.567 --> 00:15:03.405 But truly we can say the heavens declare the glory of God. 00:15:04.895 --> 00:15:09.847 Here this Psalm brings us all the way back to the first pages of Genesis. 00:15:09.847 --> 00:15:13.899 In verse 5, it says God made the heavens. 00:15:13.899 --> 00:15:18.876 In Genesis, chapter 1, it said God created the heavens and the earth. 00:15:18.876 --> 00:15:26.822 Here, in verse number seven, god makes the lights Genesis 1.14, god made the lights. 00:15:26.822 --> 00:15:33.332 Verses eight and nine of this Psalm picture the sun ruling over the day and the moon ruling over the night. 00:15:33.332 --> 00:15:36.100 Again, language borrowed from Genesis chapter one. 00:15:37.501 --> 00:15:47.797 So from creation until the time when the Psalm writes, so from creation until the time when the psalmist writes, until now, you see God all throughout. 00:15:47.797 --> 00:15:57.929 We could be tempted, can't we, to think that the sun just kind of rises and sets on its own, the moon and the season cycles and the waves just kind of come and go on their own. 00:15:57.929 --> 00:16:04.397 No, it's God that maintains the created order. 00:16:04.397 --> 00:16:07.741 He upholds all things by his powerful word. 00:16:07.741 --> 00:16:08.322 It's amazing. 00:16:08.322 --> 00:16:17.721 When we think of creation, we often think of God's skill, his wisdom, his power. 00:16:17.721 --> 00:16:19.845 And it's true, we even see. 00:16:19.845 --> 00:16:20.826 In verse number five. 00:16:20.826 --> 00:16:28.765 It mentions that skill, but the psalmist still is emphasizing God's faithful love throughout. 00:16:29.687 --> 00:16:39.070 You notice that we might expect the writer here to say who spread the land on the waters, his power endures forever. 00:16:39.070 --> 00:16:40.977 That's not what he says. 00:16:40.977 --> 00:16:50.996 We might expect the psalmist to say the moon and stars to rule by night, his craftsmanship endures forever, but he doesn't say that. 00:16:50.996 --> 00:17:02.125 We might expect the writer to wait until we turn to Israel, god's covenant people, and then to introduce the idea of his faithful, loyal love. 00:17:02.125 --> 00:17:03.697 But he doesn't do that. 00:17:03.697 --> 00:17:13.510 So how does creation reveal God's hesed, his loving loyalty? 00:17:13.510 --> 00:17:19.766 God is not forgiving the whales when they eat other fish. 00:17:19.766 --> 00:17:24.095 God doesn't have a personal relationship with the stars. 00:17:24.095 --> 00:17:28.105 In the same way he's got a personal relationship with Adam and Eve, with Israel. 00:17:30.717 --> 00:17:33.023 How does creation reveal God's faithful love? 00:17:33.023 --> 00:17:35.940 Give you a few ideas. 00:17:35.940 --> 00:17:37.163 These aren't mutually exclusive. 00:17:37.163 --> 00:17:46.815 First, exclusive. 00:17:46.815 --> 00:17:48.719 First, we have to remember that God's hesed is part of his nature. 00:17:48.719 --> 00:17:50.462 It doesn't just emerge at some later point in time. 00:17:50.462 --> 00:17:51.785 It's part of who he is. 00:17:51.785 --> 00:17:53.548 It's always been a part of who he is. 00:17:53.548 --> 00:17:56.237 And there's a contrast here. 00:17:56.237 --> 00:17:59.740 The gods of the ancient world think of the Egyptian gods or the Greek and Roman gods. 00:17:59.740 --> 00:18:12.780 They're powerful, but they're often not loving and personal and loyal in the way that God is, and that's been true all the way from the beginning. 00:18:12.842 --> 00:18:17.276 God is not just merely some ogre who throws down lightning bolts. 00:18:17.276 --> 00:18:19.240 He does throw down lightning bolts, but he's not an ogre. 00:18:19.240 --> 00:18:28.489 He's always been a God of love and he sends rain on the just and the unjust in commitment to his creation. 00:18:28.489 --> 00:18:39.740 Second, god created the world for his own enjoyment, but he created the world for our enjoyment as well, for his people. 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:43.728 Creation is a gift of God's love to us. 00:18:43.728 --> 00:18:50.548 So when you see a beautiful sunrise, that's God's love for you. 00:18:50.548 --> 00:19:00.103 When you see, on a crisp, clear night, that full moon, if you know the Lord, that's a token of God's love for you. 00:19:00.103 --> 00:19:08.704 When you taste a slice of warm pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream, the world and everything in it belongs to God. 00:19:08.704 --> 00:19:10.307 That's God's love for you. 00:19:10.307 --> 00:19:17.867 So all of creation should be a reminder to us that our God made it. 00:19:17.867 --> 00:19:25.934 And yes, our God made it, and yes, he's a God of faithful love who loves his own. 00:19:25.934 --> 00:19:35.530 Third, god's commitment to upholding the created order should remind us that he will always be faithful to love his people. 00:19:35.550 --> 00:19:36.414 Jeremiah 33, 25. 00:19:36.414 --> 00:19:37.276 This is what the Lord says. 00:19:37.276 --> 00:19:49.635 If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and my servant, david. 00:19:49.635 --> 00:19:51.642 You hear the logic in those verses. 00:19:51.642 --> 00:20:01.681 God is saying he's got a commitment, a kind of creation covenant with the day and the night and he's moving those things along with perfect regularity with the day and the night. 00:20:01.681 --> 00:20:03.201 And he's moving those things along with perfect regularity. 00:20:03.201 --> 00:20:06.164 And then he says to his own people look at, look at the seasons, look at the day. 00:20:06.164 --> 00:20:06.925 Has that stopped? 00:20:06.925 --> 00:20:09.749 Why would you think my love for you would stop? 00:20:09.749 --> 00:20:12.451 It's, it's a witness to his love for his people. 00:20:12.451 --> 00:20:20.134 So all of the created order sings of God's faithful love in the reminder that his faithfulness will never end. 00:20:20.134 --> 00:20:21.862 He will be loyal all the way. 00:20:21.862 --> 00:20:28.481 And that leads us right into the last half of the Psalm. 00:20:28.481 --> 00:20:36.165 Because, yes, creation sings God's faithful love, but Israel sings God's faithful love. 00:20:36.295 --> 00:20:42.576 We see that in verses 10 to 24, the Bible so often recounts God's wonders in the life of the people of Israel. 00:20:42.576 --> 00:20:46.005 It recounts those wonders here, verse number 11, he brings them out of Egypt. 00:20:46.005 --> 00:20:50.143 Verse 13, he divides the Red Sea so they can walk through Verse 16,. 00:20:50.143 --> 00:20:53.838 He leads Israel through the wilderness Verse 21, he gives them an inheritance. 00:20:53.838 --> 00:21:02.855 And all of these acts showcase God's chesed sacrifice. 00:21:02.855 --> 00:21:04.417 God's chesed, his faithful love, his merciful loyalty. 00:21:04.438 --> 00:21:05.721 There wasn't anything in Israel. 00:21:05.721 --> 00:21:15.277 Deuteronomy says he loved them because he loved them Pure, benevolent love. 00:21:15.277 --> 00:21:17.827 But it's a love of commitment and it's a good thing that it's not based on them, or it would be a love that changed. 00:21:17.827 --> 00:21:19.375 But God made that commitment. 00:21:19.375 --> 00:21:21.085 God made a promise. 00:21:21.085 --> 00:21:24.881 He made a promise to Abraham and God doesn't go back on his promise. 00:21:24.881 --> 00:21:27.448 He's loyal even when his people are not loyal. 00:21:29.935 --> 00:21:35.286 How could Israel forget God's faithful love? 00:21:35.286 --> 00:21:36.588 But they do. 00:21:36.588 --> 00:21:44.085 Why would they need to be reminded of it 26 times in one Psalm? 00:21:44.085 --> 00:21:46.028 Because they do. 00:21:46.028 --> 00:21:48.700 They need to be reminded of it, just like we need to be reminded of it. 00:21:48.700 --> 00:22:00.297 The Psalm here hits some of the high points in Israel's history, out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, into the wilderness, into the promised land of inheritance. 00:22:00.297 --> 00:22:01.800 It hits those high points. 00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:05.489 It couldn't detail every single occasion of God's faithful love. 00:22:05.489 --> 00:22:07.038 That would be too much. 00:22:07.038 --> 00:22:11.688 But it hits those high points to remind them in part. 00:22:11.688 --> 00:22:14.803 God is always acting in faithful love. 00:22:14.803 --> 00:22:16.769 It's not just once in a while. 00:22:16.769 --> 00:22:21.746 These great occasions show us that God is faithful in the every day of Israel's life. 00:22:21.746 --> 00:22:24.042 He's faithful in the every day of our life as well. 00:22:24.042 --> 00:22:27.238 So sing Israel. 00:22:27.238 --> 00:22:31.307 Sing of God's faithful love that endures forever. 00:22:32.775 --> 00:22:37.994 Verse 23 says he remembered us in our humiliation. 00:22:37.994 --> 00:22:42.987 It's a beautiful theme in the Old Testament of God remembering his people. 00:22:42.987 --> 00:22:46.942 It doesn't mean that he oh yeah, israel. 00:22:46.942 --> 00:22:47.864 Let me get back to that. 00:22:47.864 --> 00:22:51.739 It wasn't that he forgot and now it comes to his mind. 00:22:51.739 --> 00:22:53.823 It's covenant language. 00:22:53.823 --> 00:23:03.188 He always has his people on his heart and there are times when he moves to act in specific ways on behalf of his covenant. 00:23:03.188 --> 00:23:06.480 He knows and he remembers. 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:17.636 When they were in Egypt in slavery, god knew and God remembered this Psalm. 00:23:19.140 --> 00:23:20.182 It's a Psalm of Thanksgiving. 00:23:20.182 --> 00:23:31.607 As I said, it contains a lot of violence and some of you and I know some of your mind works like I know it's Thanksgiving. 00:23:31.607 --> 00:23:32.556 I know this is. 00:23:32.556 --> 00:23:40.809 You know we want to emphasize God's love, but when you talked about all the things God did for Israel, you skipped over every other verse where there was a lot of violence. 00:23:40.809 --> 00:23:43.161 And this gets back to what I said earlier. 00:23:43.161 --> 00:23:44.644 I'm glad you're thinking that way. 00:23:44.644 --> 00:23:46.818 We love all of God's word. 00:23:46.818 --> 00:23:51.056 We know it's all good for us, and there's a lot of violence in this Psalm. 00:23:53.099 --> 00:23:58.630 So if we could ask well, how does creation showcase God's faithful love? 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:04.715 Showcase God's faithful love? 00:24:04.715 --> 00:24:05.017 What about? 00:24:05.017 --> 00:24:05.959 Isn't there judgment here alongside of love? 00:24:05.959 --> 00:24:07.342 How does judgment showcase God's faithful love? 00:24:07.342 --> 00:24:09.366 Look at verse 18. 00:24:09.366 --> 00:24:10.228 Look at it in your Bibles. 00:24:10.228 --> 00:24:13.598 God slaughtered famous kings. 00:24:13.598 --> 00:24:15.943 His faithful love endures forever. 00:24:15.943 --> 00:24:17.647 How does that work? 00:24:17.647 --> 00:24:20.798 How does that work? 00:24:20.798 --> 00:24:21.479 In this Psalm? 00:24:21.479 --> 00:24:30.990 God's judgment is not a separate thing from God's love, just as the creation is not a separate thing from God's love. 00:24:30.990 --> 00:24:40.718 He created with a view to showing his love for his people and he judges, yes, for his glory. 00:24:40.718 --> 00:24:44.163 He judges also with a view to showing his love for his people. 00:24:46.928 --> 00:24:51.316 Verse 22 says god gave israel an inheritance. 00:24:51.316 --> 00:24:54.902 He gave them a land. 00:24:54.902 --> 00:25:03.137 It was promised as an inheritance, but then, if you look back at verse 21, the land was not all virgin wilderness. 00:25:03.137 --> 00:25:07.330 Other people were living in the land, and god takes and he gives. 00:25:07.330 --> 00:25:11.858 Others, others are cursed and Israel is blessed. 00:25:13.684 --> 00:25:17.836 You might say, well, that sounds a little bit loving, but a lot unfair. 00:25:17.836 --> 00:25:21.673 Friends, remember God owns everything. 00:25:21.673 --> 00:25:24.854 He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. 00:25:24.854 --> 00:25:28.576 It is his to distribute as he pleases. 00:25:28.576 --> 00:25:30.050 He made the world and everything in it. 00:25:30.050 --> 00:25:38.673 We can put a no trespassing sign in our yards, but that's not for God, that's for our fellow citizens. 00:25:38.673 --> 00:25:40.808 God already owns it all anyway. 00:25:40.808 --> 00:25:43.195 He's in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. 00:25:43.195 --> 00:25:46.674 And notice also these are not innocent people. 00:25:46.674 --> 00:25:50.615 There's verse number 24 says they are Israel's foes. 00:25:50.615 --> 00:25:55.672 They aren't trying to help God's people, they're trying to kill God's people. 00:25:55.672 --> 00:25:58.432 And this goes all the way back to Egypt. 00:25:58.432 --> 00:26:06.651 Pharaoh was not trying to help Israel get their economic feet in place so they could stand on their own as a nation. 00:26:06.651 --> 00:26:09.554 He ruthlessly enslaved them. 00:26:09.554 --> 00:26:14.817 And God flicks his finger and hurls Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea. 00:26:17.266 --> 00:26:19.934 Verse 20 mentions Zion, king of the Amorites. 00:26:19.934 --> 00:26:23.894 Perhaps he was famous in his own day, not so famous in our day. 00:26:23.894 --> 00:26:26.151 Listen to Numbers 21. 00:26:26.151 --> 00:26:31.432 Israel sent messengers to say to King Zion of the Amorites let us travel through your land. 00:26:31.432 --> 00:26:34.769 We won't go into the fields or vineyards, we won't drink any well water. 00:26:34.769 --> 00:26:38.496 We'll travel the king's highway until we have traveled through your territory. 00:26:38.496 --> 00:26:43.056 But Zion would not let Israel travel through his territory. 00:26:43.056 --> 00:26:48.265 Instead, he gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. 00:26:48.265 --> 00:26:49.946 Gathered his whole army and went out to confront Israel in the wilderness. 00:26:49.946 --> 00:26:57.835 So this king wouldn't even let Israel walk through his land, much less give them any food and water. 00:26:57.835 --> 00:27:05.843 He tried to put up a no trespassing sign, and it's never a good idea to tell God no trespassing. 00:27:09.865 --> 00:27:17.928 So in Psalm 136, these occasions of judgment even highlight God's faithful love for his people. 00:27:17.928 --> 00:27:21.273 You don't mess with the Lord's bride. 00:27:21.273 --> 00:27:25.247 You see, there there's something else about this love. 00:27:25.247 --> 00:27:29.093 It's not a wispy, sugary love. 00:27:29.093 --> 00:27:35.991 You can watch all kinds of Hallmark movies this time of year and find all kinds of platitudes. 00:27:35.991 --> 00:27:41.049 If that's what you're looking for, god's love is a deep and affectionate love. 00:27:41.049 --> 00:27:46.626 It's a tender love, but it's a love that has teeth, it's tenacious. 00:27:46.626 --> 00:27:56.201 He's plowing through mountains, he's walking across surging oceans in behalf of his own beloved ones. 00:27:56.201 --> 00:27:59.836 That's the kind of fiercely loyal love that God has. 00:27:59.836 --> 00:28:05.233 Creation sings God's faithful love. 00:28:05.233 --> 00:28:08.315 Israel sings faithful, god's faithful love. 00:28:08.315 --> 00:28:10.048 And finally, beloved. 00:28:10.048 --> 00:28:12.856 Yes, we should sing God's faithful love. 00:28:15.705 --> 00:28:19.696 How does this Psalm intersect with us and with our lives? 00:28:19.696 --> 00:28:25.038 Well, in Luke, chapter one, mary is the mother of Jesus. 00:28:25.038 --> 00:28:38.176 She rejoices at the coming of Christ and she says that the Lord has helped his servant Israel, remembering his and then most of our versions say his mercy. 00:28:38.176 --> 00:28:47.809 That's the same word in Luke that the translators, the Greek translators of the old Testament, used over and over and over again in this particular Psalm. 00:28:47.809 --> 00:28:52.111 So that's probably another reason why the King James has the word mercy here. 00:28:52.912 --> 00:28:56.557 But Mary's point is, god's got this promise. 00:28:56.557 --> 00:29:05.990 He had this promise of this loving loyalty, this willingness to forgive all the way in the past, and now it's coming to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. 00:29:05.990 --> 00:29:12.087 And that's where we see the reality of how is God extending forgiveness and judgment. 00:29:12.087 --> 00:29:20.990 Well, in Jesus we see both judgment and forgiveness, because Jesus himself was judged in the place of those who trust in him. 00:29:20.990 --> 00:29:34.115 He bore the wrath of God's judgment that we might experience mercy, not just the mercy of defeat over a temporary area and territory for one period of time, that we might receive eternal mercy in Christ. 00:29:34.115 --> 00:29:48.371 God has looked with pity on his people and God's love is so determined that he actually took up residence among sinners. 00:29:48.371 --> 00:29:56.752 He humbled himself the son of God did and became obedient to death, even death on a cross, that we might receive the gift of righteousness. 00:29:56.752 --> 00:29:58.430 Oh, what faithful love. 00:29:58.430 --> 00:30:00.275 What has said God has shown to us? 00:30:02.526 --> 00:30:05.474 Psalm 136 traces Israel's history. 00:30:05.474 --> 00:30:18.589 It traces the steps of their history out of Egypt through the Red Sea into the wilderness, into the place of inheritance. 00:30:18.589 --> 00:30:36.355 Consider the steps of Jesus out of Egypt into the waters of the Jordan River, tempted in the wilderness, now exalted and has received his inheritance from the Father. 00:30:36.355 --> 00:30:42.251 Israel's history becomes Christ's history. 00:30:42.251 --> 00:30:45.057 You see how that is happening. 00:30:45.057 --> 00:30:52.439 As we bring in the rest of scripture in the New Testament to this, a text like this, israel's history becomes Christ's history. 00:30:52.439 --> 00:31:08.240 So now, through our union with Jesus Christ, if indeed we've turned from our sin, we're trusting in him alone, we are united to Christ, so that Christ's history becomes our history. 00:31:08.240 --> 00:31:15.942 He's our representative. 00:31:15.942 --> 00:31:18.023 Christ's history becomes our history. 00:31:18.023 --> 00:31:18.866 He's our representative. 00:31:18.866 --> 00:31:21.577 But then that also means that through Jesus Christ, israel's history becomes our history too. 00:31:21.577 --> 00:31:28.531 Whether we're Jew or Gentile, by faith we share that history through Jesus Christ. 00:31:28.551 --> 00:31:39.190 We think about the high points of Christ's work his birth, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, all of those high points, just like the high points in this Psalm. 00:31:39.190 --> 00:31:44.228 They remind us oh, god's always at work to show his faithful love in the high point and every way in between. 00:31:44.228 --> 00:31:54.580 Ephesians says that he has appointed Christ to be head over all things for his church, which is his body. 00:31:54.580 --> 00:32:04.215 Christ is always ruling in a way that reflects his faithful love, his deep, loyal, covenant commitment to his people. 00:32:04.215 --> 00:32:09.457 Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to the end. 00:32:09.457 --> 00:32:13.974 His faithful love endures forever. 00:32:13.974 --> 00:32:20.617 Give thanks because the Lord's faithful love endures forever. 00:32:23.246 --> 00:32:25.755 Often people have forever plans. 00:32:25.755 --> 00:32:38.199 They're going to have a forever spouse and forever children and a forever job, and sometimes those plans are adjusted, sometimes those plans are shattered. 00:32:38.199 --> 00:32:40.367 You know some of you. 00:32:40.367 --> 00:32:48.336 You're sitting around a table this week and there was someone that you always thought was going to be there, and they're just they're not there, they're gone. 00:32:48.336 --> 00:32:54.069 Thought was going to be there and they're just they're not there, they're gone. 00:32:54.130 --> 00:33:04.690 And even apart from being sinned against and the sin that we contribute at times ourselves, death can intrude into our lives at any time, and the Burghards experienced that this week. 00:33:04.690 --> 00:33:24.949 But there is a real forever that moves beyond the disappointments, the massive disappointments of commitments that have since come and gone, to the disappointments of death, to even the very sweetest relationships. 00:33:24.949 --> 00:33:29.137 That God gives to so many of us till death, do us part. 00:33:29.137 --> 00:33:38.380 That God gives to so many of us till death, do us part. 00:33:38.380 --> 00:33:39.464 This is an actual, forever, eternal love. 00:33:44.984 --> 00:34:08.032 So, no matter what our present situation in life, we can give thanks to God because his faithful love endures forever, and a love that's that big, that's that vast, that's that high and deep, as Ephesians, is praise for all the saints to know the height, the breadth, the depth, the length of this loyalty of our Lord, oh, that's where we can rest, that's where we can enjoy the gifts God has given to us in this life, where we can pray, where we can seek him. 00:34:08.032 --> 00:34:18.570 It's distraction where, even amidst plans that are not at all what we thought they were going to be, the faithful love of our God endures forever. 00:34:18.570 --> 00:34:24.644 And, ultimately, there's only one forever faithful love. 00:34:24.644 --> 00:34:28.731 Because there's only one forever Lord, the Alpha and the Omega. 00:34:30.112 --> 00:34:44.050 Let's pray, oh Lord, how we thank you that this is the faithful love that we need, this is the loyalty that our souls crave and long for. 00:34:45.150 --> 00:35:00.679 So write it on our hearts and blazon it in our souls that reflexively, involuntarily, we would be saying the faithful love of God endures forever. 00:35:00.679 --> 00:35:06.943 That we give thanks in all circumstances because God's faithful love endures forever. 00:35:06.943 --> 00:35:16.791 That, as we see death and destruction and as we anticipate future judgment to come, your faithful love endures forever. 00:35:16.791 --> 00:35:25.612 And as we see the way you've provided for us all things that we truly need in Christ, how your faithful love endures forever. 00:35:25.612 --> 00:35:51.378 When we see the love of father, son and spirit, this eternal bond and commitment that we can be invited into, that, that the love the Father has for the Son can be placed in us, that the joy, the expanding and abounding, super abounding joy of the Lord can be brought to us. 00:35:52.521 --> 00:36:00.215 Lord, give us as much as possible in this life the eyes of faith to have that real experience of your love. 00:36:00.215 --> 00:36:21.945 That it would not be merely a vain repetition, but a repetition that is fueled by the knowledge of all of your word and deeds in the past, of your redemption in the past, the anticipation of redemption in the future and the present experience that we can say from our hearts we love you because you first loved us. 00:36:21.945 --> 00:36:24.972 We have peace with you through our Lord, jesus Christ. 00:36:24.972 --> 00:36:31.376 We have a communion with Father, son and Spirit, and this is no small communion. 00:36:31.376 --> 00:36:36.617 This is a communion that envelops our whole souls and motivates every deed of our lives. 00:36:36.617 --> 00:36:43.067 So write that into our hearts, make it a beautiful writing, Make it a permanent writing. 00:36:43.067 --> 00:36:45.070 We pray in Jesus' name, amen.