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Psalm 136 - His Faithful Love Endures Forever · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 136 and I
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  absolutely love this Psalm. This is one of my favorites.
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  If you've been at Tabernacle over the last two 2 1/2 years,
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  I've read through this Psalm with you guys at the very least
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  at the last Pine praise service that we did back in November.
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  It is just a wonderful joy. And part of the fun of Psalm 136
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  is that it's a call and response.
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  So I'm trying to think of a a good call and response song that
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  that's maybe just more like regular that you might hear out
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  and about. I feel like there's a baseball
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  song and someone's going to be like, Brian, how in the world
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  don't you know the name of this song?
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  Listen, I haven't been to that many ball games, but you get the
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  Dun Dun, hey, Dun Dun. I bet I'm going to get copyright
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  struck for that, for that melody.
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  But there's that song where there's the music portion and
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  then everyone kind of does the hey portion of it.
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  And that that's kind of the kind of the picture that you get from
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  this particular Psalm, that there is an initial person that
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  is saying or singing these truths about God.
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  And then there's the response, likely from either a choir or
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  from just the entire congregation, that they would
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  respond to these statements about God or these remembrances
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  of what God has done by saying his faithful love indoors
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  forever. And here over and over and over
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  again within this Psalm, I'm going to count how many times it
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  does it 26 times in this Psalm, we, we will read or hear the
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  phrase. It is God's faithful, loyal,
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  steadfast, covenant love. One of the first translators of
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  Scripture into the English language, William Tyndale, he
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  actually invented a whole new word in English to try and
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  describe this Hebrew word. And he invented the word loving
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  kindness. And so you'll see that pop up in
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  the King James Version. I think it might even be in some
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  modern translations that are a little more like the New
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  American Standard Bible. You'll find it in the the New
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  King James Version. But loving kindness was the word
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  that was used. It was both there is
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  relationship and there is active love as a result of that
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  relationship. I believe it might be either the
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  new English translation or the English standard version that
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  call it either loyal love or like covenant love, something
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  like that. And I really enjoy that
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  phrasing. I, I think communicates well
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  what this word means over and over and over again throughout
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  the Psalm. So let's read you, you know now
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  what that phrase is. It's the fact that God has a
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  relationship with his people by covenant.
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  He is, He is bound himself to us and certainly us as people of
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  God. That takes place in what Christ
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  accomplished for us, and on the cross, our redemption was
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  purchased. And so as a result of that, God
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  has a covenant relationship with us.
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  And because of that relationship, He is going to act
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  like He loves us because He has promised to love us.
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  So let's read through and I'm super excited.
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  Give thanks to Yahweh for He is good.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  Give thanks to the God of Gods, the Elohim of Elohim.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  Give thanks to the Lord of Lords.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  He alone does great wonders. His faithful love endures
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  forever. He made the heavens skillfully.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  He spread the land on the waters.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  He made the great lights. His faithful love endures
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  forever. The sun to rule by day.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  The moon and stars to rule by night.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  He struck the first born of the Egyptians.
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  His faithful love endures forever and brought Israel out
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  from among them. His faithful love endures
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  forever. With a strong hand and
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  outstretched arm. His faithful love endures
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  forever. He divided the Red Sea.
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  His faithful love endures forever and let his real
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  through. His faithful love endures
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  forever. But her old pharaoh and his army
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  into the Red Sea. His faithful love endures
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  forever. He let his people in the
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  wilderness. His faithful love endures
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  forever. He struck down great kings.
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  His faithful love endures forever and slaughtered famous
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  kings His faithful love endures forever.
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  Saihon, king of the Amorites, his faithful love endures
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  forever And Ogg, king of Bashan, His faithful love endures
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  forever. And gave their land as an
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  inheritance. His faithful love endures
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  forever. And inheritance to Israel, His
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  servant. His faithful love endures
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  forever. He remembered us in our
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  humiliation. His faithful love endures
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  forever. And rescued us from our foes.
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  His faithful love endures forever.
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  He gives food to every creature. His faithful love endures
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  forever. Give thanks to the God of
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  heaven. His faithful love endures
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  forever. Man, what a cool portion of
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  scripture. I am sure you're like Brian.
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  I never want you. I never want to hear you say
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  that one phrase again. It's just too many times.
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  The constant reminder to us is that in our hard times, in our
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  questions about our world and ultimate reality, when it comes
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  to our past, when it comes to our future, but when it comes to
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  our redemption, it is all centered on the person of who
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  God is and what his character accomplishes.
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  So let's walk through this Psalm and see what particular aspects
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  this Psalm has for us. First, we're going to look at
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  verses one through 3. So these are the three give
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  thanks to God. And what's the why of that?
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  So #1 He says give thanks to Yahweh for he is good.
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  And I'm going to assume that this is the word toe.
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  That is correct. So we give thanks to Yahweh,
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  this personal God, the God who told us his own name.
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  He's not just generic God, He is personally Yahweh, Jehovah.
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  He is the great I am. He is the one who is in need of
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  nothing and yet desires a relationship with you and I.
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  And so let's give thanks to Him. Why would we give thanks?
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  Because He is the very definition of goodness.
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  Something cannot be good. That is unlike God.
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  And God gives us the standard for what goodness is.
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  He lets us know how we ought to treat each other, how we ought
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  to interact with a broken and a fallen world.
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  God is there for us in all of it, and because of His
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  consistent goodness, because of His personal relationship with
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  us, let's give thanks to Him. Let us consistently be glad and
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  rejoice in what the Lord has done and is doing and what He
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  will do. And He does it all because of
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  His faithful love, because He has a relationship and He's
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  going to act in accordance with that relationship.
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  Verse #2 Give thanks to the God of gods.
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  This is the Elohim of Elohim. God is not the only spiritual
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  being. We all know that they're also
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  the what we would normally term the angels and the demons.
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  We would think of Satan and Michael and Gabriel.
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  And as we look at all of the spiritual beings, though they
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  have incredible power and might, though they can make themselves
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  appear in various forms. You can think about the serpent,
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  the the snake, the dragon that tempted Adam and Eve in the
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  Garden of Eden. You can think about even the
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  silent behind the scenes moving where he can, even where Satan
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  can even prompt Peter to tempt Jesus into rejecting the cross.
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  As we think about the fact that Paul tells us that Satan himself
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  appears as an Angel of light, as a messenger of light, I As we
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  think about the Angel of death, both in the story of the Exodus
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  and in the story where the children of Israel are
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  surrounded at Jerusalem by the Assyrian army.
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  And God delivers through having the death Angel go in and defeat
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  the army so that many of the Assyrians flee away, even
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  hearing about an assault that was happening in Assyria at that
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  time. And we can read about that both
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  in, I believe it's second Kings as well as in some like classic
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  Assyrian history, we found things that talk about the siege
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  of Jerusalem, the damage that they did, the surrounding towns,
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  but did not do to Jerusalem itself and how they had to come
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  back and how the king of that time perished in the ensuing
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  fight that took place much closer to home.
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  So you can go, wow, the angels are the other spiritual beings
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  are so powerful. They can be so tricky.
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  We don't even know that we are, if you will, sometimes pawns in
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  this game, that we just have a thought and we think, Oh yeah,
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  I, I should say this, or this is a good thought for me to adopt
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  into my life when it can really be the temptation of Satan or we
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  encounter a difficulty in our life and we might not realize
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  that there is a demonic oppression in that, or we might
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  not recognize that we have angelic help behind the scenes.
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  It's quote UN quote, the unseen realm.
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  It's the spiritual realm that we can't see.
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  And so we could be really scared of the other spiritual beings if
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  it were not for the fact that our God is the chief spiritual
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  being. He's the one to whom no one else
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  compares. He is the 1 completely unlike
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  any other. He is the uncreated 1, he
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  spiritual being above all other spiritual beings.
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  And so we ought to give him thanks for his greatness.
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  Verse #3 Give thanks to the Lord of the Lords.
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  This is if I'm no correctly. Yeah, that's Adonai.
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  Yeah, he's the Adonai of Adenine.
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  He is the great master. He is the great Lord, the one
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  that owns it all and is in charge of everything.
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  And even as we have, you know, worldly people that are
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  temporarily in charge of some things, you know, you can look
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  at the president of the United States and he has some charge
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  over some different things of Maryland that he governs.
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  What happens in our state for this time.
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  God is the One who is ultimately in charge, and He is the one who
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  declares the end from the beginning, and so we ought to
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  give thanks to Him that He is ultimately in charge, and so we
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  can trust Him. Verse #4 says He alone does
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  great wonders. There is no one that is like our
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  God in what He has accomplished. You can look at all the annals
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  of church, all the annals of world history, and you will
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  never read about anyone doing the kinds of things that Jesus
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  did. People would do things, perhaps
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  in legend on a much greater scale, and they would defeat
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  Medusa or they would defeat, you know, the the cyclops or the
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  Minotaur. Jesus came and he raised
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  children from the dead. He came and lepers, outcasts of
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  society. He made them clean so that they
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  could return and be with their families.
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  Our God is so much cooler than any other God.
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  He is the one who alone does great wonders.
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  That God doesn't have to have the help of angels.
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  God doesn't have to have the help of mankind in order to
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  accomplish His deeds and His work.
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  When it came to our salvation, Jesus did it and Jesus alone did
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  it. It wasn't that Jesus needed the
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  help of Peter or Jesus didn't need the help of even Moses or
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  great holy man like Elijah or someone else.
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  No, Jesus alone, our God alone, does great wonders and He does
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  it because of His love. He doesn't do it to be a show
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  off though. He could show off and we could
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  be amazed at the great wonder working God.
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  But because of His love, God does wonders.
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  Verse #5 He made the heavens skillfully.
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  That is all of the skies above everywhere where the spiritual
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  realm is as and as much as we could ever see with our eyes or
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  look through telescopes to behold God has made it
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  skillfully and I'm so glad for that.
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  Even the last, you know, 200, two, 150 years of science have
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  shown us how finely tuned our universe is so that for our
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  Earth's like tilt and access axis and distance from the sun
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  to be adjusted by even a few degrees would mean that life
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  would be completely inhospitable or life would be incapable of
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  existing on planet earth. And as we look at all of our
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  universe, we can see that it is greatly, wonderfully, skillfully
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  made. And God made the heavens
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  skillfully because of his covenant love for us.
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  Think about that, that God made the stars and the sun and the
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  moon and the asteroids and the meteors and the comets.
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  He made it because of his love for you.
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  Are you enjoying the works of God's hands?
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  Do you look up into the sky or do you even look at, you know,
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  pictures or videos on your phone of what God has created in the
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  heavens and are you thankful to Him?
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  Are you reminded of the fact that just as He made those
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  things with incredible specificity, He made you and He
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  loves you and He created you intentionally so that you would
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  know and experience His love in Christ Jesus forever?
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  What an amazing thought. Verse number six.
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  He spread the land on the waters.
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  His faithful love endures forever that he didn't have to
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  make the the dry land. He could have just had their BC
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  on the earth, and He would have been a powerful God having made
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  all of that, but He made the land so that we could be on the
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  land so that we would have a place to live because He loves
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  us. And that love is an everlasting,
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  a forever enduring love. Verse #7 He made the great
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  lights. His faithful love endures
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  forever. This would be not just like sun,
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  moon and stars, though certainly that would be the main thing in
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  mind here. There was, especially in the
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  ancient Near East for a very long time, always a connection
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  between the heavenly bodies would be, you know, an older
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  phrase that people would use, the heavenly bodies and
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  spiritual beings that there was assumed to be a connection.
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  These things are moving. Well, what moves a living things
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  move, and especially as they move orderly and you can always
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  know where it's going. And so that was the assumption
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  that was always made. So here are these great lights.
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  It is, yes, the sun, moon and stars, but it's also the angelic
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  host that every single day are able to give us light in the
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  morning and light at night, that we're able to tell the seasons
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  and the months and the years by these luminaries.
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  And so God is the one that made all of this to take place.
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  God created, yes, our solar system, and he created all of
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  the stars, but he also created the spiritual beings and he
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  commands them. They are not his rivals.
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  Instead, he is their Lord and God and Master.
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  Verse #8 So continuing the thought, he made the great
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  lights, the sun to rule by day, and he made the sun so that we
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  would experience his love every single day.
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  You can think of in Lamentations where Jeremiah writes that God's
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  mercies are new every morning and every morning that comes we
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  are reminded of the fact that God has mercy towards us that He
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  doesn't view us with. How can I beat them down?
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  His desire is that we would experience and share with others
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  His faithful love. The sun is a reminder of the
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  consistent, loyal, covenant, steadfast love of God to you.
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  Verse #9 The moon and stars to rule by night.
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  Though we don't as often utilize the moon and stars now.
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  Now we have our you know, St. lights and we have our you know,
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  lights on our cars and everything to be able to see at
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  night or it within a house. You know, you've got light bulbs
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  and TV's and 1000 other things. But what a joy that God created
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  the moon and stars to remind us of his love for us, of his
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  consistency and his faithfulness.
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  And even as we look at the Old Testament and Exodus in
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  particular, as God sets up the various times of year that
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  Israel would celebrate the, the various feasts and festivals as
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  every single year, which you determine by the moving of these
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  heavenly bodies that that was linked with freedom and the year
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  of Jubilee. And you know, every 7th kind of
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  Sabbath year, all of that was meant to bless and bless
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  mankind, to help remind them of who was in charge of what, of
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  who their calendar days and years belonged to, and even
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  every seven days. That rotation of the sun and
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  moon and stars every seven days they were reminded God rested on
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  the 7th day and so we can rest as well.
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  Then in verses 10 through 22 is dealing with the Exodus and the
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  people's wandering in the wilderness for 40 years as a
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  result of their sin and refusal to follow God's instructions
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  that God was with them in all sorts of situations.
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  I I have run out of time so I'll summarize these portions.
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  I think there's a couple other episodes like Psalm one O 7 and
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  some others that you can look at that deal with this thought.
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  But God exacting vengeance, justice on Egypt for the crimes
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  they had committed against Israel in the sight of a holy
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  God was viewed as God's covenant love to Israel.
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  That just as the Egyptians had killed all of their goal was to
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  kill all of the baby boys of Israel.
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  When God in divine justice with warning and with a way out of
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  it, when He struck the first born of the Egyptians, it was an
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  act of justice. It was still even in his
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  justice, there was an act of love.
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  There was a way of escape for anyone that would take it.
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  God brought Israel out from among the Egyptians, something
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  that they didn't think would be able to happen.
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  It says that He did this with a strong hand and an outstretched
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  arm. I love the song Forever by Chris
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  Tomlin that takes a lot of these lines just straight from Psalm
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  136 and sings that. I've linked that in the show
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  notes. But I love that the God is a
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  strong hand and an outstretched arm like he, he's going, he is
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  fighting for his people because he loves them.
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  He divides the Red Sea, He leads Israel through.
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  But when Pharaoh and his army tried to follow, to kill the
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  children of Israel, then he hurled them into the Red Sea.
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  And that was justice for the evil that had been committed by
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  the by the Egyptians, by Pharaoh, and by his government
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  over the course of generations, that there was that justice that
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  was done towards them. And God, even through his
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  people's failing, he led them in the wilderness.
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  And when kings of the Amorites and the the nation of Bashan, as
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  they tried to attack Israel, God gave victory to this wandering
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  wilderness people who were not trained warriors, they were
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  slaves. And yet God saved their lives
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  again and again and even gave the land of those that had
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  attacked the Israelites, gave them their land as an
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  inheritance as well. And then the Psalm ends with
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  verses 23 through 26. He remembered us in our
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  humiliation and rescued us from our foes.
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  You can think of the time of the judges and all of the things
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  that happened there. This could also have in mind as
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  well the exile to to Babylon or to Assyria for the northern
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  Kingdom of Israel that God remembered his people and he
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  brought them back again. And then verses 25 and 26 and,
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  and he gives food to every creature, anyone that eats
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  anything that is from the hand of God.
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  And verse 26, give thanks to the God of heaven.
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  His faithful love endures forever for everything that God
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  is, for all the wonders that he has accomplished, for what he
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  has done in our past, for what He will do in our future, for
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  what He gives us daily in our food right now, He ought to be
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  given thanks. Thank you for tuning in today.
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  Hope that you have a wonderful day.