My Personal Psalm 136

While enjoying my personal devotional time this morning, I came across a wonderful passage that helped me understand just how much God loves, cares, and provides for me. I have been studying certain themes throughout scripture for my devotional time, and this morning I decided to look at the term "everlasting/eternal lovingkindness" in Hebrew.

Both of these words are translated differently, depending on the verse and version of the Bible. But the Hebrew words are 'olam (eternal, forever, everlasting) chesed (steadfast love, mercy, lovingkindness). And as I searched the 45 usages of this phrase in the Old Testament, I was thrilled when I came across Psalm 136. Out of 26 verses in the chapter, every single verse uses the phrase. The basic formula for the chapter goes something like this: "Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindess is eternal; to Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for His lovingkindness is eternal." This is the formula that the Psalmist follows in this whole chapter.

And the formula is basic. The Psalmist invites the reader to give thanks to the Lord at the beginning and end of the chapter, and then lists reasons as to why the reader should give thanks to the Lord. But then he goes further. Not only does he list reasons for why the reader should gives thanks to the Lord, but he shows in every verse that those precise reasons stem from the reality that God's lovingkindness and steadfast love are eternal. In other words, precisely because God's love towards us is eternal does He bless us with all of these things.

And so I got to thinking: what would my personal Psalm 136 look like? If I looked back on the course of my life, what would I identify as proofs that God's love toward me is eternal and unchanging and everlasting? And so I scribbled down a few of those things that I am going to share. Perhaps you can do the same thing in your own time.

Give thanks to the Lord,

For He is amazingly good,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who gave me life,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who placed me in a Christian home,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who drew my heart from a very young age,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who saved me from rebellion when I was a child,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who blessed me with the privilege to attend Christian schools,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has kept me safe and healthy all my life,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has protected me from a car accident during all my many miles of driving,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who spared me from too many heartaches in my romantic life,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who gave me a beautiful and wonderful wife,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has blessed me with an awesome son,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has allowed me to live in the most beautiful part of the world,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has always placed food on my table,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has placed me in a position to talk about Him all the time - and get paid for it,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

To Him who has provided enough money for my family - even though my wife is not employed full time anymore,

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

O, Give thanks to the Lord!

Because His lovingkindness towards me is eternal.

Two things: obviously, this is a work in progress. And secondly, when I look back at all the blessings God has bestowed upon me, it makes me realize that God is up to something in my life. He must have something special for me to do for him.