To Encourage You

Psalm 136:1 “. . . his mercy endures forever.”

Have you ever said or at least had the thought about a person, “That’s it! I’ve had enough!” Maybe you’ve tried to be kind and understanding to that person. Perhaps you’ve done things for them, even over and over again, but it didn’t seem to matter. They just kept disappointing you. They’ve just kept spurning your love.  And so, you’ve had it! You’re done!  You’ve written the person off! Again, have you ever been there and done that? Most of us probably have at one time or another.  

But, think about this in relation to the God Who has made us.  Think about how you and I have treated Him in spite of His love toward us.  Think about how, day after day, “he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Think about how, sometimes for 80 or 90 years of a person’s lifetime, “he is kind to (them, although they may be) ungrateful and . . . evil” (Luke 6:35).  

But even if you are a believer, loved by God in these wonderful ways, how many times have you acted as if you were not?  How many times have you drifted back to old patterns of unbelief and sin, although the God Whom you say you believe had never given you a reason to doubt or disobey Him.  It is to this that the verse above from Psalm 136 speaks. Actually, this phrase, “his mercy endures forever,” occurs 26 times in this one psalm.   After every statement it is repeated, such as in,

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever:
To Him who alone does great wonders,
For His mercy endures forever;
To Him who by wisdom made the heavens,
For His mercy endures forever;
To Him who laid out the earth above the waters,
For His mercy endures forever;
To Him who made great lights,
For His mercy endures forever—
The sun to rule by day,
For His mercy endures forever;
The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His mercy endures forever.”

On and on it goes. At first blush it seems kind of monotonous.  So why this redundancy? Why is the psalm written like this?  

Well, one of the things that I’ve come to realize over the years is that when God repeats Himself to us, it’s because He’s trying to drill something into our heads!  He has felt the need to reinforce what He’s saying to us, because it may be so foreign to how we tend to think.  The word “mercy” in Psalm 136 is translated from the Hebrew word “checed.”  It means “the grace, favor, or mercy of God toward men” (Strong’s Concordance).  It’s a big word in the sense of its rich meaning.  It’s been translated not only into the English word “mercy” but also “kindness,” “lovingkindness,” “goodness,” and “love,” in an attempt to get across its rich meaning. I think I like the translation “mercy,” the best. The word is defined in one dictionary as “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.”  Think of this in terms of our God. There is no other being in the universe Who is perfectly righteous as He is.  There is no other being that is so full of love, forgiveness, and compassion.  Yet, there is no other being Who has so much power to bring punishment or harm to those Who would oppose Him.  To resist and fight against Him is the utmost exercise in futility.  As Jesus told Pilate as Pilate was about to sentence Him to death, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).  And as he rebuked Peter as he tried to defend Him with his sword against the soldiers who came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53).  

You see, God is utterly invincible and could destroy any one of us with a word. As believers, there are times when it dawns on us how despicable is our unbelief and disobedience toward the One Who is Love.  It’s at such times that we can feel the guilt of that sin particularly deeply, and fear the heavy hand of God.  But what does He say to us, over and over again, “My mercy endures forever!” “I will NEVER leave you nor forsake you!” (Hebrews 13:5).  “If (you) are faithless, (I) (will) remain faithful— for (I) cannot deny (my)self” (2 Timothy 2:13).  For you see, believers are one with Him. We are all members of His body (Ephesians 5:30).  We are branches in His vine (John 15). And though He may prune us, discipline us, or rebuke us when we fail, He will not reject us. He will never deny His own.  Those who come to Him He will never cast out (John 6:37).  Wonderfully, we have a God Whose mercy endures forever.  He will never say “That’s it! I’ve had enough!” although we are prone to have such an attitude toward those who disappoint US!  

What a wonderful and faithful God we serve! What incredible evidence of His amazing grace!  And so, we can say with the apostle Paul about this great God we serve, “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). 

So, suppose you’re a Christian who has fallen into some sin. Perhaps you are a believer who is feeling condemned because of it, and you believe that you’ve finally gone beyond the capacity of even God to forgive. If so, you may need to be reminded of what Jesus answered when he was asked, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”  To this Jesus replied, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22). 

Perhaps you need to be reminded that Jesus never asks us to do more than He has already done.  Perhaps you need to be reminded that He is not a God whose forgiveness is limited to a number like seventy-seven. Rather He is a God “whose mercy endures FOREVER.” 

Praise be to His glorious name!