Week 48: Psalms 136-138

Published November 20, 2025

Questions: Psalms 136-138

  • In Psalm 136, the psalmist repeats “for his steadfast love endures forever” after each line of description of God’s character or action. Do you regard EVERY aspect of your life in light of God’s love? Take time to consider God’s mercy in your life and praise Him.
  • Like the psalmist in 137, do you ever struggle “to sing the Lord’s song”? What do you do when you struggle to find joy? May I suggest that you read Psalm 138? 😀
  • God is so good. Take a moment to read Psalm 138 and make it your own. Praise God for His faithfulness and care. 

    • Devotion

    Psalm 136

    The Hebrew word hesed is variously translated “lovingkindness,”“steadfast love,” or “mercy.”  Of the 251 verses in the Old Testament to use this word, 127 of them are contained in the Psalter, 26 or which are in psalm 136. The structure of the psalm suggests that it was antiphonal in worship, with one part of the congregation making a statement, and the other part responding with the refrain.  

    At the dedication of Solomon’s temple we are given a likely time for such praise—2Chr 7:3 “All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the LORD, saying, ‘Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting’…(6) The priests stood at their posts, and the Levites with the instruments of music to the LORD, which King David had made for giving praise to the LORD—'for His lovingkindness is everlasting’—whenever he gave praise by their means, while the priests on the other side blew trumpets; and all Israel was standing.” 

    The psalmist reviews the history or God’s lovingkindness: “Who alone does great wonders” (4), For His marvelous acts in creation (5-9), For redemption of Israel from cruel bondage (10-14), and Who conquered mighty kings to bring Israel into the promised land (15-22).  

    How is it that some acts of God can look to be so severe and harsh and yet be identified here as proofs of His lovingkindness? John Piper explains, “The death and misery of the unrepentant is in and of itself no delight to God. God is not a sadist. He is not malicious or bloodthirsty. Instead when a rebellious, wicked, unbelieving person is judged, what God delights in is the vindication of truth and goodness and of his own honor and glory.” 

    The psalm ends with statements of application for all—"Who remembered us in our low estate(23), “And has rescued us from our adversaries (24), and “Who gives food to all flesh” (25). He has not forgotten the needs of every living creature. “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”  

    Psalm 137

    Psalm137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
    137:2 Upon the willows in the midst of it we hung our harps.
    137:3 For there our captors demanded of us songs, and our tormentor’s mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
    137:4 How can we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land?
    137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill.
    137:6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
    ‘‘How can we sing?” (4) is ironic contrast with the psalm which itself is a song. This psalm combines the loveliest lyric we can sing (1-6) with the ugliest emotion we can feel (7-9). The Babylonian exile was 70 years, well more than a generation. Why so long? We find the answer in the following passages:
    Leviticus 25:4 “But during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard.”
    Jer 25:8 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, [9] behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.”
    2 Chr 36:21 “To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.” 

    The Israelites were an oft-conquered, much-trampled people. The Edomites of the past (v7) and the Babylonians (v8) in the present were oppressors. The Babylonian captivity of the Israelites was a bitter pill to swallow, because of memories of their lost glory, melancholy spirits, and the mocking taunts by captors. Prayer, we think, means presenting ourselves before God so that He will be pleased with us. But when we pray the prayers of God’s people, the psalms, we find them praying who they actually are, not who they think they should be. How might our prayers differ if we lived in similar constraints?

    The two dominant emotions in this prayer are self-pity (1-6) and avenging hate (7-9). Neither are particularly commendable. Praying our sins does not, as such, launder them. The way of prayer is not to cover them up so we will appear respectable but to expose them so we can be healed. Lest we think this a rarity in the prayers of God’s people, on judgment on enemies or those perceived as the enemies of God may be found in twenty other psalms. The only comparable New Testament passage is recorded in the final judgment in Revelation—"Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her” (18:6).   

    - Jim Yoder