1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalm 136:1 (NASB)
Every second line throughout this psalm repeats the refrain, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting”. Things that would be unfortunate, seen from the perspective of some, are fortunate for the people of God. The moral compass of the Bible is secure – no place for relativism. So in describing how God has acted for His people in leading them out of their slavery and oppression under ancient Egypt in order that they attain their promised land, we have:
10 To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
11 And brought Israel out from their midst,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
12 With a strong hand and an outstretched arm,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
13 To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
14 And made Israel pass through the midst of it,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
15 But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalms 136:10-15 (NASB)
and
17 To Him who smote great kings,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
18 And slew mighty kings,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting:
19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
20 And Og, king of Bashan,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
21 And gave their land as a heritage,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
22 Even a heritage to Israel His servant,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalms 136:17-22 (NASB)
Why did God smite all of these people? Because of their unrelenting, unrepentant, unabating wickedness and taste for destruction. Had God called these wicked to repentance at any stage? Yes, He had warned Pharaoh through Moses and Aaron so many times of what would happen to him and the ancient Egyptians if they did not relent and repent of holding onto the Israelites instead of letting them go, yet to no avail. Pharaoh was determined to harden his heart against God and His people:
Exodus 8:12-15 (NASB) 12 Then Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried to the LORD concerning the frogs which He had inflicted upon Pharaoh. 13 The LORD did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. 14 So they piled them in heaps, and the land became foul. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
Pharaoh hardened his own heart. It was only after several deliberate hardenings of his own heart, with Pharaoh refusing to free the people of Israel, that God eventually hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Note the verses reminding all of God’s creation, interspersed with the refrain:
5 To Him who made the heavens with skill,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
6 To Him who spread out the earth above the waters,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
7 To Him who made the great lights,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting:
8 The sun to rule by day,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
9 The moon and stars to rule by night,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalms 136:5-9 (NASB)
Similar to the book of Job, God’s lovingkindness can be seen in this psalm. It is seen not just in His creation but also in His provision for all people and creatures:
25 Who gives food to all flesh,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
Psalms 136:25 (NASB)
We see this same idea expressed in the New Testament by Jesus:
John 5:45(b) (NASB) …for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
God’s care for all peoples and for the animal world can be seen at the end of the book of Jonah. God chastises His prophet servant Jonah for being unwilling to bring His message of repentance to the wicked Gentile pagans of his day, the people of Ninevah. God had expressly told Jonah to go there and prophesy to the Ninevites so that they would repent of their great evil. In his reluctance to obey, Jonah preferred escaping from God’s call by catching a ship to Tarshish. But he couldn’t escape God and so follows the familiar story of Jonah going overboard and into the belly of a “great fish”, probably a whale. We see the lovingkindness of God for these wicked pagans. They repented once told of their evil and of God’s looming judgement upon them. And here we see most clearly God’s message to reluctant Jonah, reluctant because of his anger at the wickedness of the Ninevites, wishing instead that God would rain down judgement upon them:
Jonah 4:11 (NASB) 11 Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”
The relativist could claim that God is not kind at all let alone having everlasting lovingkindness. If we could see, though, that those unrelentingly opposed to God were attacking the good, God’s good, that He has given to all to enjoy. God was bringing justice in defence of what was good and this justice meant stopping in their tracks those persistently in opposition to the good, which meant those in opposition to God. As God’s people, we can continue to rejoice with the psalmist that He who made everything that exists, will care for us always, even in the face of plans being devised against us today, for example, by the Marxists at the World Economic Forum. We can know that God sees and knows all evil that is devised against people. They must repent and we, the people of God, must continually self-evaluate that we are not living our lives apart from God and avoiding Him in a world full of distractions and mischievous lies. God cares for His people and for true victims of evil, continuing as it does today, a continuum since the Fall to now and beyond. But there is God in the midst, always, saving and warning and judging for His lovingkindness is everlasting.
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