Latest / Reformed Thinking / His Steadfast Love Endures Forever (Psalm 136) | Charles Spurgeon

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His Steadfast Love Endures Forever (Psalm 136) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So if you break your arm, the
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X-ray shows this jagged white line.
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It is binary, broken or not broken.
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We like that. We like things to be visible,
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categorized, and, you know, highly precise.
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Yeah, we definitely prefer to have all the facts neatly laid
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out for us, right? But today, for our deep dive, we
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are looking at a piece of ancient poetry, a 3000 year old
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song actually, and we are going to treat it like an X-ray.
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Specifically, we're looking at excerpts from Charles Spurgeon's
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The Treasury of David, focusing on his exposition of Psalm 136.
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It is a text that completely shatters the assumption that
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poetry is just subjective emotion.
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Because, you know, people often assume ancient hymns are just
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vague feelings, like they are open to whatever interpretation
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you want to project onto them. Yeah, but this piece of
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literature is entirely different.
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We have a song here with a seemingly redundant chorus.
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The phrase for His mercy endureth forever is repeated 26
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times. 26 times that is a lot. It is, and to a modern listener,
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hearing something 26 times sounds like a broken record.
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But we are going to look at why this specific repetition holds
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such massive theological and historical weight.
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We're going to see how it's systematically, almost with
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surgical precision, breaks down the nature of God's interaction
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with the world. Yes.
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OK, let's unpack this. We had to start with the
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historical context because this wasn't just a home read silently
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in a quiet room. Not at all.
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I mean, this was a massive public piece of music.
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It was sung in Solomon's temple with full instrumentation, and
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it's application went far beyond standard religious gatherings.
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Really like where else? Well, think about the historical
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account of King Jehoshaphat when his armies went out to battle in
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the wilderness of Toccoa. Facing this huge coalition of
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enemy forces, they didn't March out with typical military
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chants. They didn't.
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No, they literally chanted this specific text to secure victory.
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They sang themselves into a military triumph using these
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words. Wow, OK.
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Which gives the song a very gritty, real world texture.
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And that historical application extends way past the Old
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Testament era too. You brought a really fascinating
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anecdote from the early Christian Church in our notes
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about Athanasius. Yes, Athanasius.
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So just for some quick context, Athanasius was the great Bishop
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of Alexandria in the 4th century.
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He was a central figure in defending Orthodox Christian
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theology against various heresies.
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Which made him a lot of political and military enemies.
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Absolutely. So.
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One night he was leading a vigil in his own church when it was
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attacked by a military commander named Sirianus and his troops.
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So we were talking about a literal military siege on a
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church building while people are trapped inside.
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Precisely. The situation was absolute
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chaos. Soldiers were actively breaching
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the heavy wooden doors, weapons were drawn, people were getting
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trampled and pure panic was erupting in the dark.
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That sounds terrifying. It was, but in that moment of
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extreme, violent crisis, the Bishop didn't panic.
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He sat calmly in his chair at the front and ordered his Deacon
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to begin singing this specific hymn.
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While soldiers are literally breaking down the doors.
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That is almost cinematic. It really is.
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The Deacon would chant the first half of the verse, and despite
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the chaos, the entire congregation answered in prompt
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alternation. They roared back the chorus.
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You know, for his mercy. Endure us forever.
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That is incredible. Yeah, it is a striking scene
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because it showcases how this text was applied.
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It wasn't just a pleasant song for a quiet Sunday morning.
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It acted as an anchor in moments of absolute terror.
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It was a defiant declaration of theological reality in the face
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of imminent physical danger. That paints such a vivid
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picture. I mean just imagine the sound of
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swords hitting wood, people screaming, and over all of that
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a massive crowd shouting about unceasing mercy.
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It really transitions us perfectly from the historical
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battlefield directly into the opening lines of the text
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itself. Yes, it sets the stage.
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Because before the hymn looks at what the Creator does, it sets
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up who is actually being praised.
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The text opens with a threefold praise.
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Verse one says O give thanks unto Jehovah.
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Verse 2 says O give thanks unto the God of gods, and verse 3
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says O give thanks to the Lord of Lords.
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And that three-part structure is highly significant.
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We have analysis from scholars like Daniel Cresswell and
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William de Berg and our source material on this WHO?
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Were they just for the listeners?
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Right. So to give a little background,
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both of these men were rigorous 19th century scholars.
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They spent their lives analyzing the original languages of these
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ancient texts, and they point out that this threefold
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invocation mirrors the Trinity. How so?
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Walk us through their breakdown. Well, Cresswell and de Burr note
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that Jehovah has reference to his essence as self existent.
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It is the uncaused cause. OK, got it.
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Then you have God designating him as the almighty judge, You
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know, the one who sets the standard of justice.
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And finally, you have Lord, representing him as exercising
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sovereign rule over all things. De Berg specifically notes that
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this structured opening indicates God in Trinity,
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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Which means right out of the
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gate we are dealing with a massive supreme entity.
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But I want to push back on something here regarding the
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core theme of the song. The chorus repeated for all
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these titles is for his mercy endureth forever.
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When we think of the word mercy today, we usually think of it in
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a very narrow legal sense. You know, you get pulled over
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for going 20 miles over the speed limit.
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The police officer walks up, you sweat a little bit, and then he
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decides not to write you a ticket.
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You drive away saying, shoot, you showed me mercy.
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We frame it entirely around getting out of a punishment.
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That is the common view, yeah. But reading through this ancient
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text, the author seems to demand a much broader definition.
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What's fascinating here is how the source material expands that
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definition far beyond a simple pardon.
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Thomas Scott provides a brilliant definition in our
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notes. Thomas Scott, the English Bible
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commentator from the late 1700s. That's him.
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He was known for his incredibly practical, grounded approach to
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theology. He says mercy is the disposition
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to compassionate and relieve those rendered miserable by sin,
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and a readiness to forgive the most provoking transgressor.
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That is a very different angle. It is.
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Notice the phrasing. It is not just the absence of
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punishment. It is an active disposition to
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relieve misery. It's a readiness.
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I really love that word. It means the action isn't
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reluctant. In my traffic ticket analogy,
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the police officer might be super annoyed, rolling his eyes,
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but he decides he doesn't want to do the paperwork so he lets
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you off with a warning. Exactly.
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But the mercy described by Scott is an eager readiness to
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forgive, even when the transgressors are actively
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currently provoking. And we have to connect that
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eager disposition to the phrase endureth forever.
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Robert Harris, a scholar from the 16th and 17th centuries,
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offers a staggering concept of everlastingness.
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Tell us about Harris. Well, Harris was a clergyman who
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spent a lot of time thinking about the attributes of God
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versus the attributes of humanity.
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He explains that everlasting mercy is a perfect possession of
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an endless life. It shuts out all the
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imperfections of time. Wait, what does he mean by the
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imperfections of time? So time has beginnings, it has
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ends, it has interruptions and it has succession.
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We operate inside time, so our resources deplete, but God's
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mercy doesn't operate on a timeline where it might run out
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or need a nap, Harris says. God takes more content and
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giving mercy than we do in receiving it.
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That is a massive paradigm shift.
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I mean, think about how we operate when we give our time,
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our money, our patience, our energy, our reserves deplete.
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Eventually we are just empty. We need a break.
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Right, human capacity has a hard limit.
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Exactly. But Harris is arguing that
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because God's essential nature is eternal and unchangeable, his
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disposition to relieve misery is an endless well.
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He is never weary of receiving us, therefore He cannot be weary
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of giving to us. Spot on.
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Or to quote the quaint analogy provided by Henry Smith from the
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16th century. Smith was known as the silver
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tongued preacher of his day because of his poetic delivery.
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He says David harps on this concept of mercy 26 times, like
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a Nightingale taught to pipe. Oh, I love that part of the
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source text, Smith says. David sings it, records it, and
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makes it the burden of his song, like a Nightingale in a pleasant
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vein that quavers, capers and trebles upon the sweetest note.
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Have you ever actually listened to a Nightingale sing?
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They have a very distinct sound, don't they?
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I do. They don't just hit a flat note
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and stop. They sing in the dead of night
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when everything else is quiet and dark.
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And they trill, they repeat the melody, they vary the pitch.
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They keep her around that single, beautiful sound,
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layering it. The repetition in this hymn
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isn't a lack of creativity. No, not at all.
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It. Is the music musician delighting
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in the sweetest possible reality, turning it over and
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over? And that reality is the
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unceasing active disposition of the Creator towards His
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creation. Which is something for you to
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consider right now as you listen?
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How do you define mercy in your daily life?
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Are you viewing it through that narrow legal lens?
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Just hoping the universe or God doesn't hand you a penalty.
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Or are you viewing it as the text presents it as an
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unceasing, active disposition of a creator who delights in giving
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it? Because the definition you
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choose completely alters how you interact with the world around
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you. It changes everything about your
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perspective. And once the text establishes
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the nature of the God being praised, it doesn't just stay in
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the abstract. It pivots in verse 4 to a very
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specific operational style. It establishes that he operates
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alone. Verse 4 says to him who alone do
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with great wonders. Now here is where things get
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really interesting. Well, when you read the biblical
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accounts, God uses people all the time.
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He used Moses to speak to Pharaoh, He used Aaron.
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He used natural elements like wind and hail and fire.
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He uses kings and prophets. So why does this verse insist
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that he works entirely unaided? Why insist on the word alone?
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It comes down to ultimate causality.
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While instruments are used, the actual marvel, the initiating
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energy and the sustaining force belongs solely to the creator.
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OK, so the tool isn't the mechanic.
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Exactly. The instruments themselves have
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no inherent capability to produce the wonder.
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Moses couldn't split AC on his own.
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Andrea Bonar provides a striking analogy in our source material
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to make this concrete. Yes, Bonnar was at 19th century
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Scottish minister, right? Yes, he had a real knack for
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illustrating heavy theological concepts using geography and
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nature. The Nile River analogy.
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Let's lay that out because it paints the picture perfectly.
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Bonnar describes the geography of the Nile River.
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It rolls for 1300 miles from the deep regions of Nubia all the
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way up to the Mediterranean Sea, and for that massive 1300 mile
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stretch it receives not one single tributary.
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That is wild to think about. 1300 miles.
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Right. It flows in solitary grandeur
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through the burning desert sands, yet all along that
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immense route it dispenses fertility and fatness.
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Wherever it comes. It waters the land.
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It sustains life. It creates an Oasis in a hostile
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environment entirely from its own original source.
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It needs no other streams feeding into it to accomplish
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its work. So the text argues that God
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similarly needs no prompter and no helper.
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He is the ultimate source. He spontaneously goes forth to
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work. He doesn't need a tributary of
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human wisdom. He doesn't need a stream of
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angelic assistance. He doesn't need a river of
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favorable natural circumstances to execute his will.
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All our springs are in him. Abraham Wright adds another
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layer to this idea, doesn't he? He does.
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Wright was a 17th century theological writer, and he makes
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a sharp distinction between lesser wonders and great
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wonders. He suggests that lesser wonders,
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things that just hasten or hinder natural processes, can
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sometimes be manipulated by nature, by human engineering, or
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even by dark horses. So humans can do lesser wonders.
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Right. But great wonders are different.
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They shake the very frame of nature.
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They behave as if the course of nature had never been
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established in the 1st place. When it comes to those great
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wonders, God alone does them. So it is the difference between
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building a dam to redirect a river, which is a lesser wonder
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requiring engineering concrete machinery and thousands of
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workers, and speaking the river into existence from nothing.
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Only one entity can do the latter.
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Precisely. Think about how countercultural
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that is for us today. We live in a society that
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constantly champions networking, collaboration, and collective
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effort. You have to build your team,
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find your investors, Crowdsource your solutions.
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If you don't have the right network, you fail.
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That is the modern mindset, yes. But here is a creator who
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requires 0 outside assistance to execute his will.
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He operates completely independent of the systems we
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think are absolutely necessary for success.
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And that independence is the bedrock of the physical
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universe, which is exactly where the hymn goes next, moving from
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the abstract concept of wonders to the highly visible wonders of
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the sky, the earth, and the stars.
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Verses 5 through 9 take us out of the realm of philosophy and
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into the realm of astronomy. The text attributes the creation
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of the heavens, the stretching out of the earth above the
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waters, the making of the great lights, the sun to rule by day,
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and the moon and stars to rule by night, and it attributes all
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of this directly to God's mercy. This is a significant shift in
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perspective from how modern people view the cosmos.
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It really is. When we look at the sky today,
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we see physics. We see gravity, orbital
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mechanics, fusion reactions in the sun, and the cold vacuum of
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space. We see hard, indifferent data.
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Right, just numbers and forces. But the author of this text
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looks at the exact same sky, the exact same celestial bodies, and
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sees a deliberate mechanism of mercy.
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Every single star is an expression of an active
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disposition to relieve misery. And our sources provide
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fascinating scientific observations that support this
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ancient poet's view. FH Alexander von Humboldt wrote
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extensively about this. Who is Humboldt?
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Well, to understand why his view matters, you have to know that
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Humboldt was one of the most famous scientists of the 19th
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century. He was a polymer math, a pioneer
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of biogeography, and a major influence on thinkers like
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Charles Darwin. In his massive work Cosmos, he
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details the solar. Force solar force.
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Yeah, he points out that the sun doesn't just sit there looking
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bright, it is actively generating electromagnetic
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activity across the Earth's crust.
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It calls for the tender germs of plants from the cold dirt.
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It generates the chlorophyll within the leaf.
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So it is actively building the food chain from the ground up.
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Exactly. But Humboldt goes further.
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He notes that the solar force even effects human moods.
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It chases sadness from the sky and dissipates the clouds which
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darken the human heart. The sun is literally lifting our
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moods and growing our food. And the text says for his mercy
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endureth forever. It is not just a giant ball of
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burning gas. It is a daily delivery system of
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grace. And Thomas Dick provides a
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similar analysis of the moon. Thomas Dick was a 19th century
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Scottish churchman and astronomer who loved to blend
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science with faith. Yeah, the moon is often viewed
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simply as a dead, barren rock caught in Earth's gravity.
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Right, but Dick points out the mechanical necessity of its
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gravitational pull. It creates the tides.
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Those ties aren't just there so we can surf.
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They preserve the liquid element of the ocean from filth and
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putrefaction. That makes sense.
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Stagnant water gets nasty quickly.
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Exactly. The tidal currents, direct winds
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that clear noxious exhalation from the atmosphere.
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Without the moon steady rhythmic influence, the oceans would
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stagnate and the air would become toxic.
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So when verse 9 says the moon rules by night for His mercy, it
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means that while you are sleeping, while you are
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completely unconscious and unaware, this giant rock in
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space is pulling millions of tons of water back and forth
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across the globe just to make sure the air you breathe the
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next morning is clean. That is staggering.
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It really reframes how you view the night sky.
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It makes me think of the anecdote about Napoleon
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Bonaparte that George Wilson recounts in our sources.
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The incident on the Mediterranean Sea.
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Yes, Napoleon was crossing the Mediterranean on his Egyptian
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expedition. He brought along a cohort of
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Savans philosophers of the Voltaire school and on shipboard
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these philosophers decided to have a debate to logically and
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metaphysically demonstrate that there is no God.
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A classic shipboard activity. Right, They went on and on,
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laying out their flawless, airtight logic.
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Napoleon, who apparently hated abstract ideologist, refused to
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fence with their dialectics. He didn't try to argue their
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philosophy. What did he do?
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He just had them brought up on deck, pointed to the countless
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stars in the clear night sky and said, very good messieurs, but
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who made all these? If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, it is a brilliant response.
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The exact same intellect that balanced the orbital cycles of
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the planets, that set the moon at the precise distance to clean
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the oceans without flooding the continents, that ignited the sun
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to grow the plants. That is the intellect dispensing
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daily grace to the individual. The physical universe is a
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massive, tangible billboard advertising the unceasing mercy
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of its maker. It truly is.
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Which is a beautiful, comforting thought to hold onto, but the
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deep dive has to shift focus. Now this is where it gets highly
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controversial. From the massive scale of the
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sky above, we move down into the dust and blood of ancient
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history. We move from the creation of the
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world to the rescue of a specific nation from slavery in
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verses 10 through 15. These verses cover the Exodus.
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The text details the smiting of Egypt's first born, the bringing
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out of Israel from among them, the dividing of the Red Sea into
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parts and the overthrowing of Pharaoh and his host in the
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water. OK, So what does this all mean?
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I have to stop here and push back hard.
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How can the slaughter of a nation's first born and the
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drowning of an entire military army be filed under the category
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of mercy? We just established that mercy
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is the eager disposition to relieve misery.
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Yes, we did. Smiting the first born of Egypt
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sounds like pure, unfiltered, terrifying wrath.
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A modern listener hears this and thinks this isn't mercy, this is
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a Horror Story. It is a heavy tension and it
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demands careful attention. Charles Spurgeon addresses this
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directly in his commentary. He writes regarding Egypt.
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That justice lingered, but it struck home at last.
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When the text attributes the plagues to mercy, it introduces
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a necessary surgery analogy. Expand on that surgery analogy
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for me, because right now I'm thinking about human beings, not
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abstract concepts. OK, think of a human body
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afflicted with a malignant cancer.
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A surgeon must cut it out. The act of cutting with a
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scalpel is violent. It causes trauma to the
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surrounding tissue. It involves bleeding and pain.
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Nobody wants surgery. Right, but the surgeon doesn't
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hold back his hand from the needful surgery because he has
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mercy on the whole body. The cancer must be destroyed so
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the patient can live. Wait, hold on.
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A surgeon is cutting out unfeeling tumor cells.
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We are talking about human beings in Egypt.
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We are talking about first born children.
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We are talking about soldiers in Chariots.
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Who were? We're probably just following
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orders from their commanding officers.
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You call that surgery? That is a massive leap.
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How does an ancient singer reconcile that?
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Violence is mercy. To understand the singer's
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perspective, you have to look at the historical context of the
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Egyptian empire at that time. They weren't just a slightly
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oppressive government. They had enslaved an entire
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population for generations. That is true.
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Furthermore, they had systematically ordered the
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murder of Hebrew infants, throwing baby boys into the Nile
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river to control the population. They were the architects of a
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slow multi generational genocide.
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So when we talk about the surgeon cutting out the cancer,
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the ancient singer sees the Egyptian military state as a
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systemic, murderous cancer on the human race.
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When mercy to the wider human race demands severe punishment
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for an oppressor, the Creator will execute it.
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It is mercy to the oppressed to disarm the oppressor.
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So you are saying that true mercy to the enslaved requires
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the absolute dismantling of the slave owners.
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If God just patted Pharaoh on the back and said let's
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negotiate, the murder of the Hebrew children would have
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continued. Precisely if justice never
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strikes, mercy is meaningless. And the sheer scale of this
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rescue event is mind boggling. George Smith, a 19th century
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historian who loved digging into demographics, calculated the
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logistics of this emigration in our source text.
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Tell us about those logistics, because I think we picture a few
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thousand people walking through a dry riverbed.
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Smith points out that this was not a small group of people
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slipping out the back door in the middle of the night.
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Based on the biblical census numbers, the entire multitude
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must have been well above 2 million people. 2 million
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people. Yes, Smith compares it to moving
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the entire 1841 population of the British metropolis.
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OK, let's visualize London in 1841.
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You're talking about the dawn of the Victorian era.
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It was a massive, sprawling, chaotic city.
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Millions of people. Imagine trying to evacuate all
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of them at once. Imagine taking every man, woman
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and child in 1841 London. Add all their goods, their
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property and their livestock. Now force them to March out of
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the city limits and into to a barren wasteland.
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The logistics of just providing drinking water for 2 million
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people for one day is an engineering nightmare.
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Exactly. The sanitation, the food supply
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chain, the sheer noise and chaos of moving a metropolis.
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And they did this with 0 human resources, zero supply lines and
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0 infrastructure. It highlights the absolute
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impossibility of the task without divine intervention.
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And they were running from a terrifying villain.
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William Osborne provides a historical note on who they were
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fleeing. Osborne was a 19th century
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Egyptologist who spent his career translating hieroglyphics
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and studying the Pharaohs. Osborne identifies the pharaoh
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of the Exodus as Pharaoh Cephos the Second.
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He notes that the specific Red Sea gulf where the army perished
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is still named Bar Colzoom by the locals, which means what
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that translates to the Sea of Destruction.
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To this day, the geographical memory of the event remained.
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And his reputation in Egypt after this disaster was
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completely ruined and. Entirely ruined, Osborne details
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how Sithos the Second's memory was so reviled by the Egyptians
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themselves that his tomb was desecrated, his sarcophagus was
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judicially broken into pieces, and his name was mutilated on a
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Egyptian monuments. Even the rings of his great
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grandfather were defaced. Wow, they wiped him out.
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They tried. The destruction at the Red Sea
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was so absolute, so economically and militarily devastating to
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the nation, that it brought public infamy upon his name in
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his own country. They tried to erase him from
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history. The text in verse 15 says God
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overthrew Pharaoh and his host. Albert Barnes, a 19th century
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American theologian who wrote extensively on biblical
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languages, has a linguistic note on that word overthrew that
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completely changes the visual. The original Hebrew word
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actually translates to shook off.
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It gives a very specific, almost dismissive mental image.
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It really does, Barnes says. It is applicable to a tree
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casually shaking off dead foliage in the wind.
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Zachary Mudge, an 18th century clergyman, adds the image of
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shaking off a swarm of locusts into the sea.
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That paints A vivid picture. Imagine you were wearing a
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jacket and a bug lands on your shoulder.
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You don't engage in an epic drawn out battle with a bug, you
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just casually flick it off with one finger.
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The Egyptian army, with all his Chariots, its wealth, its iron
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weapons and its military supremacy, is described as being
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flicked away like a dried leaf or a pesky insect.
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It wasn't a struggle for the creator.
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No, it was a casual dismissal by the Supreme Force.
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And the chorus continues through all of this.
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For his Mercy endureth forever. Mercy cleared the road through
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the sea. Mercy led the oppressed down
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into the dry path. And Mercy brought them up again
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on the other side while simultaneously shaking off the
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oppressor. But escaping Egypt was only the
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beginning. Passing through the water leads
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directly into a barren desert. Verses 16 through 22 detailed
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the route through the wilderness and the giant kings they faced.
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Verse 16 reads to him which led his people through the
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wilderness. There is a huge paradox here
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that we need to acknowledge. Believers in the biblical texts
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are often promised green pastures and still waters.
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Yet here a loved, chosen people are deliberately LED into a
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parched, arid desert. It is the absolute opposite of a
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green pasture. Why lead them into a death trap?
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This raises an important question, but it was a critical
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aspect of their development. The wilderness was devoid of all
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necessities for human life. No water, no crops, no shade.
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Yet, as the text notes, for 40 years their feet did not swell
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and their garments did not wax old.
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The barrenness of the environment forced a complete
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daily reliance on the provision of the Creator.
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They had to experience the unceasing mercy in an
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environment where no natural tributary could save them.
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Just like the Nile River analogy from earlier, they became the
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desert that needed the spontaneous provision from the
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soul wonder worker. But it wasn't just a physical
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desert, it was an occupied territory.
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Verses 17 through 20 mention specific military defeats,
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Sihan, King of the Amorites and Aug, the King of Bashan.
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Yes. Why does an eternal hymn sung
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for generations bother to name specific regional kings like
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Sihan and Aug? Why not just write a generic
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line like he defeated our enemies?
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That is exactly what I wondered when I first read it.
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It seems like weird trivia to include in a massive theological
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poem. Who cares about Sihan 3000 years
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later? The inclusion of their specific
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names proves that grace isn't just a vague philosophical
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concept, it handles specific named obstacles in real time.
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Sihan and Ogg were terrifying realities to the people walking
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through that desert. Tell us about them.
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Arthur Penryn Stanley provides the historical context for these
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kings. Stanley was a 19th century Dean
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of Westminster who actually traveled extensively through the
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Middle East to map the geography to the biblical events.
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He points out that Sihan was a brutal conqueror.
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He had wrested his territory from the predecessor of Balak
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and established himself in the city of Heshbon.
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He was a mighty sovereign with a formidable, experienced army.
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But he fell at the Battle of Jahas Stanley.
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Note this was the first engagement where the slingers
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and Archers of Israel showed their skill.
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Sihan, this great conqueror was routed.
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And then you have Ogg, the king of Prashan.
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Ogg was a completely different level of terrifying.
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He was literally of the race of the giants.
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The biblical texts go out of their way to specify his
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physical enormity. He was a towering, intimidating
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foe who ruled from the rocky fastnesses of Mashan.
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He was a much more terrifying prospect than Sihan.
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But the text notes the irony of his defeat.
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For all his massive size and his legendary iron bedstead, which
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the Bible actually mentions to prove how huge he was, he was
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rotted like a pygmy. When he entered the lists with
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the Creator, he had to exchange his giant iron bedstead for a
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bed in the dust. The text names them because they
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were the biggest, scariest things on the horizon.
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When the text lists cyhon and Ogg, it is documenting the
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removal of impossible barriers. Think about the sions and Ogs in
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your own life right now. When we look at our bank
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accounts in panic, or when we get a terrifying medical
27:10
diagnosis, or when a relationship collapses, those
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obstacles loom over us like a giant from Bashan.
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They seem completely impossible to bypass.
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Yet this ancient text argues that these named specific giants
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are entirely manageable for the Creator.
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He gives their land for a heritage.
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The obstacle actually becomes the inheritance.
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That transitions perfectly into the final section of the text,
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verses 23 through 26. We move from ancient national
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military victories to intensely personal individual realities,
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and finally to universal Providence.
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Verse 23 says who remembered us in a low estate?
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The word remembered carries immense weight here.
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It is not just a passing thought like when you remember you left
27:50
your keys in the car. Ralph Fenning, a 17th century
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non conformist minister known for his incredibly structured
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sermons, breaks down the word remembered into 6 distinct
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degrees of mercy. I want to go through all six of
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these slowly because they completely change how you read
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that simple phrase. The first degree is to think
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upon in opposition to forgetfulness.
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Benning argues that we cannot be in God's thoughts without being
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the better for it. Right.
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You might cross my mind, but my thinking about you doesn't help
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you pay your rent or fix your car.
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But if the creator of the cosmos thinks upon you, action
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inevitably follows. The second degree is to take
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notice in opposition to neglect. It is observing the specific
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granular condition of the lowest state.
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The third degree is to pity and compassionate the person in that
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case. So he thinks about you, he takes
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specific notice of your exact broken situation, and his
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reaction is pity and compassion. He isn't looking at your low
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estate with disgust or disappointment.
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Precisely which leads to the 4th degree to accept to be well
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pleased with a person even in their low broken condition.
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The 5th degree is to hear and grant a request.
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The action begins. He hears the cry from the lowest
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state and decides to grant their relief.
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And the final sixth degree is to actively help and sucker to
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redeem and deliver from the lowest state.
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Venning says remembering the poor is not barely a thought,
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but a relieving thought. Redemption from enemies is the
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physical manifestation of God's remembrance.
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That brings so much depth to the phrase who remembered us?
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And then I love the sudden pivot in the text.
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It zooms out from this deeply personal spiritual human
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salvation in verse 24 to verse 25, which says he giveth food to
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all flesh. It is a massive leap from
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spiritual redemption to literal grocery shopping and feeding
29:41
wild animals. It grounds the theological in
29:44
the everyday physical reality. It does.
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Thomas Manton, a 17th century Puritan clergyman who wrote
29:50
volumes on practical faith, points out that the exact same
29:53
unchangeable mercy that rescued a nation from a tyrant is the
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mercy that furnishes our dining tables.
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The same reason is rendered for the Exodus As for your
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breakfast, for his mercy endureth forever.
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It makes me think of the hilarious and touching anecdote
30:07
of Father Taylor from our sources.
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Edward Thompson Taylor, the famous sailor preacher of
30:12
Boston. That story perfectly illustrates
30:15
the scope of verse 25. Father Taylor was a 19th century
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Methodist minister who dedicated his life to preaching to
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sailors. He was sailing to Europe for a
30:24
trip, leaving his congregation behind in Boston.
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During the voyage, he started to panic.
30:30
He began praying anxiously, stressing out over who would
30:33
care for his church while he was gone.
30:35
He was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.
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He was. Overwhelmed he was, but
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suddenly, right in the middle of his anxious pacing and praying,
30:42
he stopped himself and said, What have I done?
30:44
Distrust the Providence of heaven, A God that gives a whale
30:47
a ton of herrings for a breakfast?
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Will he not care for my children?
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It is a brilliant realization. Think about the mechanics of
30:53
that. A blue whale eats thousands of
30:56
pounds of fish or krill every single day.
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If the Creator overseas the logistics of feeding every
31:02
massive marine mammal in the ocean every single morning
31:05
without fail, the needs of a small congregation in Boston are
31:09
well within his capacity. A ton of herrings for breakfast.
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Yeah, it makes our daily anxieties seem a bit out of
31:15
proportion when you realize the sheer volume of provision
31:18
happening globally every second. And the hymn brings it all home.
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And the final verse, verse 26, says, Oh, give thanks unto the
31:24
God of heaven, for his mercy endureth forever.
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The God of Heaven? Why that specific title?
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To close it out, we started with Jehovah God of Gods and Lord of
31:32
Lords. Why end here?
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It is a title full of majesty and it carries specific
31:36
historical weight. It is used in a later scriptures
31:39
by figures like Ezra, Nehemiah and Daniel Man who were
31:42
operating in exile under the rule of Pagan empires.
31:45
It perfectly balances glorious elevation above the
31:48
perturbations of Earth with an intimate, unceasing care for the
31:52
individual. That is a gorgeous balance.
31:54
The God who is set in glory, completely out of reach of
31:57
earthly foes in the place of universal oversight, is the
32:00
exact same God who feeds the Ravens, who stretches out the
32:04
earth, and who remembers us in our lowest state.
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It ties the entire hymn together beautifully.
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We started with the Trinity move through the solitary creation of
32:13
the cosmos, down into the surgical rescue of a nation in
32:16
Egypt, through the barren wilderness of giant obstacles,
32:19
into our personal low estates, and out into the feeding of all
32:22
living creatures. And every single step of the
32:25
way, the mechanism driving the action is that eager, unceasing
32:29
disposition to relieve misery. The structure is flawless.
32:32
It isn't just subjective emotion, it is a systematic
32:34
cataloging of divine interaction.
32:36
So we want to leave you with a mental exercise that builds upon
32:39
everything we've talked about today.
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Think about the structure of Psalm 136.
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It lists the historical fact of creation or rescue and follows
32:47
it with a chorus. If you were to write your own
32:49
verse come E7 to this ancient hymn chronicling a specific,
32:53
undeniable instance of grace or rescue in your own life,
32:56
followed by the chorus For His mercy endureth forever, what
33:00
specific historical fact of your life would you record in stone?
33:03
What is the scion or Ogg that was defeated for you?
33:06
What low estate were you remembered in?
33:08
Naming the specific reality anchors the abstract theology
33:12
into your lived experience and makes it concrete.
33:14
When we first opened, we talked about how reading ancient poetry
33:17
can feel like looking at a broken X-ray.
33:19
Muddy, subjective, hard to read, but if you look closely enough
33:23
at the structure, the text isn't muddy at all.
33:25
It is a precise high definition scan of how the Creator
33:28
interacts with the universe. It points directly the cosmos,
33:31
at history and at your daily bread, and says with absolute
33:34
clarity, there it is. Keep observing the wonders
33:37
around you until next time.