Tuesday February 27
God is Our Creator and Redeemer
Psalm 136:1-9
1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.
2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.
3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:
4 To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever;
5 To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, For His mercy endures forever;
6 To Him who laid out the earth above the waters, For His mercy endures forever;
7 To Him who made great lights, For His mercy endures forever--
8 The sun to rule by day, For His mercy endures forever;
9 The moon and stars to rule by night, For His mercy endures forever.
10 To Him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, For His mercy endures forever;
11 And brought out Israel from among them, For His mercy endures forever;
12 With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, For His mercy endures forever;
Every verse in this beautiful psalm ends with the refrain, “For His mercy endures forever”. Over the years as I have read this psalm my heart leaps for joy as I read this phrase over and over again, some twenty-six times! I don’t know about you, but I desperately need His mercy every day! I am so thankful that God’s steadfast love never ends or that He never gives up on me! He is so patient with me as I falter and fail over and over again! We definitely join this anonymous psalmist by giving thanks daily to triune God of heaven!
Remember, the focus of Psalm 136 is on giving thanks to God for who He is and what He has done for His people. The psalmist begins by giving thanks to the LORD as the creator of the universe! The psalmist started at the beginning of time with the creation of the universe, recorded in Genesis 1. The Lord had the wisdom to plan creation and the power to execute that plan, and all He had to do was to speak the Word (Psalm 33:6-9).
As you read these verses and think about them, it is hard to believer that there are people who call themselves atheist and say they don’t believe in God! Everything that God created had a special and unique design that had a specific purpose. It would take more than faith to believe that a big bang took place trillions of years ago and eventually everything we see and enjoy today somehow, or another just happened! I choose to put my faith and trust in the Bible and God’s record of creation and stand amaze at how awesome my God is!
Because humanity refused to be thankful for creation, mankind began that terrible descent into ignorance, idolatry, immorality, and ultimate judgment (Rom. 1:18-32). In the day or the night, whether we look up at the heavens or down at the earth and waters, we should see evidence of the hand of God and realize that a Creator brought it forth from nothing. In this creation is all that we need for life and work, so let us thank Him!
Not only did God create us He redeems us and brings us out of the bondage and slavery of sin. Only a couple chapters after the record of God’s creative acts in Genesis 1-2, man disobeys God and sins, and then faces the consequence of death. But God is not caught off guard and already has a plan to save mankind from his sin and it is through the nation of Israel. Through them we were given the Bible and a Redeemer and Savior. The psalmist quickly turns to this great act of God in the history of Israel and their deliverance.
The psalmist wrote nothing about Israel's years of suffering in Egypt, or the Lord's judgments against the gods of Egypt (Ex. 12:12) but focused on the Exodus. "Brought out" is a phrase the Jewish people used to describe their deliverance (Deut. 1:27; 4:20, 37; 5:6; 16:1). By the time Israel crossed the Red Sea, the land of Egypt, its firstborn sons, its religion, and its army had been destroyed by the power of God. The Exodus marked the birthday of the nation of Israel, and from that time, the Jews looked back each year at Passover and remembered what the Lord had done for them.
The Exodus is also a picture of the redemption we have in Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb of God who shed His blood to set sinners free (1 Peter 1:18-19; John 1:29; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; Heb. 9:12). God's mighty arm was revealed at the Exodus (Ex. 15:16), but it was revealed even more at the cross (Isa. 53:1-12; Luke 1:51).
Again, we must give thanks to the LORD and loudly proclaim, “For His mercy endures forever!”
God bless!