Society’s slide into moral and spiritual degeneracy seems sometimes unstoppable, yet from time to time the Lord grants relief. The Scottish Parliament had been considering a reckless piece of legislation to allow assisted suicide in Scotland, yet at the last minute this appalling wrong has been averted. Enough MSPs to provide a clear majority (of 69 to 57) voted to reject the bill, which would have allowed terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to obtain medical assistance to end their lives. Mindful that there remains a determination to drive similar assisted dying legislation through Westminster, and it is unlikely to mark the end of attempts within Scotland, we should nevertheless give thanks for every token of the Lord’s goodness. As the sudden and dramatic liberalisation of the law around abortion in England and Wales has shown in the same week, the decision in Scotland certainly doesn’t mean a total turning of the tide. Yet in a context made bleak by the imposition of so many different progressive ideologies and practices, this decision gives us reason for profound gratitude to the Lord whose mercy is for ever. In discussing Psalm 136, David Dickson traces an abundance of reasons for thanksgiving. In the following updated extract he points out how we can continue to praise the Lord for long-ago mercies as well as praising afresh for contemporary deliverances.

Psalm 136 is an exhortation to confess God’s goodness and mercy, and to praise and thank Him for manifesting it in so many different works of His. The fountain of His mercy, where His works flow from, is still running, and endures for ever, to the benefit of His own people especially.

There are as many reasons in Psalm 136 for giving thanks and praise as there are verses, and to every single reason one common reason is added — the everlasting endurance of His mercy.

Praise the Lord for who He is

From the threefold exhortation to give thanks as the psalm opens (v.1), we learn that when we have praised God for whatever reasons were offered to us in one psalm (such as Psalm 135, for example), we must begin again, and praise for other reasons, and when we have done so, we have not got beyond our task, for the duty still lies at our door to be done afresh.

We are to acknowledge and praise God as the fountain of the being, continuance and preservation of all the things that are in the world, and as one who fulfils all His promises, “O give thanks unto the Lord, Jehovah.”

The knowledge of God’s attributes, properties, or name, and especially the knowledge of His goodness, is able to draw praise for God from every believer. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.”

And God isn’t weary of doing good, nor is His mercy spent, by what He has already let out of it, but it continues, like a river that keeps flowing. “For his mercy endureth for ever.” Whatsoever is the Lord’s praise is for our profit and advantage, and so it is a matter of thanks from us to His majesty. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.”

The Lord is more excellent than all the magistrates, rulers, princes and kings in the world. Indeed, He has in Himself all the perfections which idolaters feign to be distributed among their idols. They imagine one of their gods excels in one thing, and another in another thing, but we say, “O give thanks to the God of gods!” He is the only sovereign Lord of all things, the only potentate, who has absolute right and absolute power to do what He pleases, and can, when He wills it, overtop all principalities and powers, to the benefit of his followers. “O give thanks to the Lord of lords!” (v.2–3).

If the Lord is God by covenant to anyone, He is their God always and for ever, “for his mercy endureth for ever.” The perpetuity of God’s mercy makes the benefit of God’s sovereignty forth-coming for ever to the believer, and it stands as a matter of constant praise and thanksgiving to Him.

Praise the Lord for His work of creation

Every work of God is wonderful, and able to make anyone astonished if it is well considered. (v.4). The constancy of God’s mercy to his own means that God’s wonderful power is constantly forthcoming to them, as their need requires.

The making of the heavens, as it is a wonderful work, and a matter of constant praise unto God, so it is a wonderous benefit to His people in many respects (v.5), and it is the mercy of God that the heavens do continue in their service to sinful men.

The fact that the earth stands up above the waters, which by course of nature should be above the earth, is a standing miracle for the use of humankind, that we would have a pleasant dwelling while we are in the world. It is the mercy of God that the waters do not return to their natural course to cover the earth, as they did in the flood of Noah (v.6).

The illumination of the world by lights which are so great that they can shine on fully half of the earth at one time is a matter of God’s praise, as well as benefit to mankind, deserving thanks from us to God. It is the Lord’s mercy that He has not changed this course, nor removed this much abused benefit from us (v.7–9).

Praise the Lord for His work of redemption

Then there are reasons to praise God taken from His work of delivering Israel out of Egypt, convoying them through the wilderness, and planting them in Canaan.

The Lord’s preserving of His church from the beginning concerns the true members of the church in all times after. They should be thankful for it, no less than for the continuing of the course of the heavens, sun, moon and stars. The fact that the Lord punished the enemies of His church in Egypt gives the church reason to praise Him for ever, and His constant mercy gives the assurance that He will avenge the quarrel of His oppressed people in all ages (v.10). Likewise, the fact that the Lord delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt is a matter for perpetual praise to God, as well as a pledge of God’s mercy to His church in all ages (v.11).

As the work of delivering the church is more difficult, so the Lord displays more clearly His omnipotence for achieving it, as seen in Israel being brought forth out of Egypt “with a strong hand and out-stretched arm” (v.12).

The most improbable deliverances from danger are very possible to God, who can turn the sea into dry land in order for His people to escape (v.13). Yet it is a work of no less mercy and power to give His people grace to make use of an offered means of delivery, than to prepare the deliverance for them (“He made Israel pass through the midst of it,” v.14). The constancy of God’s mercy not only provides the means, but also gives His people grace to make use of the means, in all ages.

God can also make a means which proves effectual for the safety of His people something which proves a snare to the wicked for their destruction, as the Red Sea was a snare to the Egyptians (v.15).

Praise the Lord for dealing with His people’s difficulties

While on the one hand thankfulness searches out many mercies in the bosom of one, so the innumerable multitude of God’s mercies sometimes forces the thankful man to sum up many mercies in one. Here, all the mercies in the forty years of journeying in the wilderness are summed up in a word, “To him that led his people thorough the wilderness” (v.16). It is the constancy of God’s mercy which make Him continue conducting His people, and bearing with their behaviour, till He brings their journey to its end.

Even if kings and powerful authorities oppose God’s church in any place where He pleases to plant it, yet they shall not be able to hinder His work, for His mercy keeps coming in one time as well as in another. He “smote great kings, for his mercy endureth for ever” (v.17). Indeed, men of renown lose their reputation when they meddle with the Lord’s church (v.18). he Lord, not the Israelites, takes vengeance on their enemies (v.19–20), and at His pleasure gives heritages and dispossesses His opponents of their lands (v.21).

And in all this, no cause can be found in God’s people, why God should do good to them, or why He has done good to them, except only the constancy of His own mercy, “For his mercy endureth for ever.”

Praise the Lord for His recent mercies

Then the psalmist turns to give reasons to praise God from the recent experience of the church in his own time. “He remembered us in our low estate; for his mercy endureth for ever, and hath redeemed us from our enemies; for his mercy endureth for ever” (v.23–24). To all the praise we can give to God for what He has done before our time, we should also add praises for what He has done for us in our time.

The ordinary time when the Lord manifests Himself for His people is when they are brought to a “low estate,” and emptied of their own strength, and of all hope of worldly assistance. The Lord’s presence, help and assistance, good-will and taking notice of us, is better observed by afflicted people then by prosperous ones. Troubles, needs and pressures are means to open people’s eyes, and waken up their senses, to recognise the worth of the Lord’s working.

The mercy of the Lord is set to work for His people, both when they are in adversity (to sustain them, and raise them out of it), and in prosperity (to maintain them in it, and to teach them the good use of it). We are to look wisely on God’s dealing with us in both conditions.

Even if the proud enemies of the church may prevail, and bring the church into bondage for a time, yet the Lord will not allow the enemy to oppress, nor his people to be oppressed, for ever. He will deliver His own in due time (v.24).

The same reason is to be found for delivering Israel out of Egypt, and for delivering the church from their enemies at any time, and that is mercy only. “For his mercy endureth for ever.” From the Lord’s goodness and fatherly care to all living creatures (v.25), we see a ground of assurance to His people that He will take far greater care of them.

The psalm closes, “O give thanks unto the God of heaven; for his mercy endureth for ever” (v.26). Heaven and heavenly gifts are the height of all the blessedness of the saints, and the flower of all God’s benefits to His children, for which above all other favours He is to be thanked and praised by His people.

God is called the strong God of heaven, not only because he made the heaven, and shows His glory most there, but especially because He has promised to give heaven, and all spiritual graces to eternal life, in heaven, to His own people, by an everlasting covenant. Of this heaven and these heavenly mercies He is God.

As mercy has entitled the saints to heaven, so mercy preserves them in their right to it, and will preserve them in their possession of it, for ever, “For his mercy endureth for ever!”

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