Psalms 136:1-26

O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good.

The eternity or God’s goodness

This is a reason for praising Him--

I. In the material universe (Psalms 136:1). When the grandeur of nature overawes you, when its terrific phenomena, thunders, earthquakes, volcanoes seem to overwhelm you, still praise Him. There is goodness in all.

II. In the history of mankind (Psalms 136:10).

1. In the deliverance of His people (Psalms 136:10).

2. In the destruction of despots (verses 17-22).

3. In His regard for all (Psalms 136:23). All men have enemies, foes to their virtues, their interest, their happiness. He delivers them. All men require nourishment. They live by the appropriation of the fruits of the earth. He “giveth food to all flesh.” His “mercy endureth for ever,” and thus should we praise Him in all. (Homilist.)

A song, a solace, a sermon, and a summons

I. A song.

1. For all singers. Let young and old, rich and poor, instructed and ignorant, saved and unsaved, take part in it. Let us bless God for the eyes with which we behold the sun, for the health and strength to walk abroad in the sunlight; let us praise Him for the mercies which are new every morning, for the bread we eat; let us bless Him that we are not deprived of our reason, or stretched upon the bed of languishing; let us praise Him that we are not cast out among the hopeless, or confined amongst the guilty; let us thank Him for liberty, for friends; let us praise Him, in fact, for everything which we receive from His bounteous hand, for we deserve little, and yet are most plenteously endowed.

2. But the sweetest and the loudest note in the chorus must always be reserved for those who sing of redeeming love (Psalms 136:10). Even now by faith we wave the palm branch and wrap ourselves about with the fair white linen which is to be our everlasting array, and shall we not this day give thanks to the name of the Lord whose redeeming “mercy endureth for ever”?

3. Further on our poet invites the experienced believer to join in the psalm (Psalms 136:16). Just as some among us, whose voices are deep, can take the bass parts of the tune, so the educated saint, who has been for years in the ways of the Lord, can throw a force and a weight into the song which no other can contribute.

II. A solace. We have many troubles, and we need comfort; God is willing that we should be comforted.

1. I shall use the text as a solace to the past. The year is all but gone. Have we not found, up till now, that His mercy has endured for ever?

2. Our text is also a very sweet consolation as to the present. Have we at this moment a sense of present sin? Then, “His mercy endureth for ever.”

3. As to the future. Ah! we are poor fools when we begin to deal with the future. It is a sea which we are not called upon to navigate. The present is the whole of life, for when we enter into the future, it is the present. When these fingers cannot perform their daily work, when my brow is wrinkled, and I can scarcely totter to my toil, what shall I do?” Ah! “His mercy endureth for ever.”

III. A sermon. “His mercy endureth for ever.” Then--

1. Let our mercy endure.

2. Let us learn the duty of hoping for everybody.

3. See the duty of hoping for yourself.

IV. A summons. “His mercy endureth for ever.”

1. Is not that a most loving and tender summons to the wandering child to return to his Father? to the backsliding professor to approach his God? to the chief of sinners to humble himself before the mercy-seat? There is mercy--seek it. There is mercy in Jesus--believe in Him.

2. Believers, the summons is also meant for you. It says this, “His mercy endureth for ever”; therefore let your love to souls continue; let your labour for conversion abide; let your generosity to God’s cause abound; let your endeavours to extend the kingdom of Christ endure evermore. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The duty of praise and thanksgiving

I. The duty, It implies--

1. A grateful sense of the Divine benefits. Here the duty begins, though it ends not here; in acts of the mind, in attentive meditations on the loving-kindness of God, and lively warm affections produced and cherished by these meditations.

2. A suitable expression of gratitude. The heart will awaken the tongue, and the affections of the inner man direct and influence the actions of the outward.

II. The persons called upon.

1. The whole world of mankind are by the psalmist invited to pay their common tribute of praise to their supreme and universal Lord; even all the nations of this widespread and many-peopled earth, by whatever name, or language, or religion they are distinguished; seeing how much soever they differ in these and other respects, they all partake of the light of reason, which discovers a God to them, a first and most perfect Being, and directs them to make Him the universal object of their worship, and trust, and obedience.

2. The Church of God is more immediately and expressly spoken to.

3. All those are particularly called upon to give thanks who have received any fresh or remarkable instances of the Divine favour and interposition on their behalf; such as have been prospered in their designs, and perhaps beyond their own expectations; or have been happily disappointed (for frequent experience shows there are such things as happy disappointments), have had light and comfort in a day of trouble; succour in threatening dangers and temptations; have been raised up from beds of sickness, or blessed with extraordinary measures of health; have had considerable turns in their lives, and seen the hand of God guiding and overruling events to their good.

III. The reason or foundation of it heres assigned.

1. Men should give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good. Other perfections challenge our reverence, and fear, and admiration; this demands our gratitude.

2. Men should give thanks unto the Lord, because His mercy endureth for ever. This may be understood--

(1) In opposition to the anger of God.

(2) To the favour of men.

(3) More absolutely of the unchangeableness and perpetuity of the Divine mercy.

Application.

1. Does religion invite and oblige us to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good? and does a great part of religion consist in the duty of thanksgiving rightly performed? then, certainly, religion can neither be an unreasonable nor a tiresome service.

2. Since the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever, let us resolve that we will serve, and praise, and trust in Him for ever. (H. Bonar, D. D.)

For His mercy endureth for ever.--

God’s goodness and mercy

I. God’s goodness.

1. Goodness is the perfection of things for which they are desirable; perfection imports freedom from all defects, and fulness of all excellences, and is chiefly seen in the being, working, end of things; that which hath the noblest being, and therefore end, and therefore operations, is ever best and most desirable; desire is the reaching of the soul after that that likes us, because it is like us. Now the all-sufficient God is His own Being, His own end, His own act, or rule in action; yea, He is the Author of all good, the end and desire of all things (in natural respects), and therefore the perfection of all, and so all perfection and goodness.

2. God is--

(1) Essentially good.

(2) Causally good.

(3) Eminently good.

(4) Originally and absolutely the only good. Uses--

1. God is good, let us put it to good use; first, for humbling, see what we were once, good; for of goodness can come nothing but goodness; secondly, what we are now by nature, bad; for first, we are sunk as far from God as hell is from heaven.

2. See what we should be, good; goodness is ever admirable, and therefore (saith the philosopher) imitable. Now, Psalms 119:68 tells us that God is good, and doth good, and He is our copy and rule. First, therefore, we must be good, and then do good; first the sap must be good, and then the fruit, for as things be, so they work.

II. God’s mercy.

1. It is everlasting.

(1) His essential mercy is everlastingness itself; for it is Himself, and God hath not, but is, things. He is beginning, end, being, and that which is of Himself, and ever Himself, is eternity itself.

(2) His relative mercy (which respects us, and makes impression on us) is everlasting too, in a sense; for the creatures, ever since they had being in Him, or existence in their natural causes, did ever, and ever will, need mercy, either preserving or conserving.

2. Reasons.

(1) From God’s nature. He is good. Mercy pleaseth Him. First, it is no trouble for Him to exercise mercy. Secondly, it is His delight; we are never weary of receiving, therefore He cannot be of giving; for as it is a more blessed thing to give than to receive, so God takes more content in the one than we in the other.

(2) From His unchangeable word and covenant (Isaiah 54:10).

(3) From our need; every creature is compounded of perfection and imperfection; the first is the ground, the second is the object of mercy. Uses--

1. Dwell upon the mercy of God.

2. Put it to use.

3. Be ye merciful, as He is--to men’s souls, bodies, estates, names. (R. Harris, D. D.)