A Commentary on Psalm 136

Below is a commentary I put together after studying Psalm 136 at Ellerslie Discipleship school. Check out today’s podcast episode to learn my study process for this psalm: https://www.podbean.com/eas/pb-zp5xi-19061d4

Psalm 136 in Jewish tradition is called the Great Hallel or Great Psalm of Praise. While this psalm never uses the word “hallelujah,” it is full of praise to God for His goodness to His people who are encouraged to praise God for His lovingkindness.¹ We do not know when this psalm was written or who wrote it. It was possibly written when the ark was placed in the temple.² Spurgeon says of this psalm, “We know not by whom this Psalm was written, but we do know that it was sung in Solomon’s temple (2Ch 7:3, 6), and by the armies of Jehoshaphat when they sang themselves into victory in the wilderness of Tekoa. From the striking form of it we should infer that it was a popular hymn among the Lord’s ancient people.”³

The psalmist starts out with a command to praise, saying “Give thanks to the Lord.” Give thanks (yāḏâ) means to “hold out the hand… especially to revere or worship.”⁴ It is used to refer to thanksgiving and celebration which “naturally follow the acknowledgement or confession of benefits received.”⁵ The rest of the psalm continues on to speak of all the benefits God has given Israel and therefore why they ought to celebrate and give thanks. This thanksgiving focuses on who God is.

First, we give thanks because God is good (ṭôḇ): He is kind, He gives benefits, He will always do what is right.⁶ 6 Then, the psalmist brings us to the refrain of the psalm: “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” This refrain repeats twenty-six times in this psalm. This is the big “why” behind our giving thanks to God, and the rest of the psalm will give practical examples of God’s everlasting lovingkindness. The word lovingkindness (ḥeseḏ) means kindness, piety, beauty; “the grace, favor, mercy of God toward men,” “constant or abiding favor,” and “mercies or benefits of God.”⁷ Other translations use the words mercy, faithful or steadfast love, graciousness, and compassion to translate hesed. It occurs 247 times in the Old Testament. This hesed is everlasting (ʿôlām), it is eternal, always, without beginning or end.⁸

To insert these definitions into the text, we would read verse one as, “Give thanks [revere and worship with lifted hands; celebrate following the acknowledgement of God’s benefits] to the Lord, for He is good [kind; beneficial; always does right]; for His lovingkindness [kindness, beauty, grace, favor, mercy of God towards men] is everlasting [without beginning or end].” Charles Spurgeon once said of the refrain in Psalm 136, “We shall have this repeated in every verse of this song, but not once too often. It is the sweetest stanza that a man can sing. What joy that there is mercy, mercy with Jehovah, enduring mercy, mercy enduring for ever. We are ever needing it, trying it, praying for it, receiving it: therefore let us for ever sing of it.”⁹

The psalmist goes on to tell us why we should give thanks and gives examples of how God’s lovingkindness is everlasting. The psalmist says that Yahweh is the God of gods and Lord of lords; He is greater than all others. No other religion or rulers of the earth can compare to Him. He is a God who does great wonders, and the psalmist points back to the creation account and the rescue of Israel out of Egypt to demonstrate those great wonders. In six days, the Lord created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1). The psalmist focuses on the first four days of creation, where God made the earth and heaven, separated the waters from the waters, made dry land appear, and created the great lights. God’s creative power demonstrates that His lovingkindness is everlasting; He was loving-kind before creation, and He will be loving-kind for all eternity. Because of His lovingkindness, God created the universe for His pleasure and our delight.

The psalmist moves on to recount God’s rescue of Israel from slavery in Egypt. He starts with the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. This event tangibly demonstrated the salvation that was to come by the blood of Jesus. The Israelites painted the blood of an unblemished lamb on their doorposts, and all those who obeyed the Lord’s command had their firstborn spared from the death angel (Exod. 12:1-13). Through this tenth plague the Lord delivered Israel from slavery; He had disproven all the power of the Egyptian gods and then rescued Israel from their captors. In the same way, the blood of Jesus rescues us from slavery to sin and brings us out into the Promised Land as citizens of heaven. This foreshadowing of Christ is a powerful display of God’s eternal lovingkindness.

After bring Israel out from Egypt, God performed a miracle and made Israel pass through the middle of the Red Sea on dry ground, and then He drowned Pharoah and his army in the Red Sea when they attempted to pass through (Exod. 14). God demonstrated His lovingkindness by delivering Israel from their enemies and by utterly destroying their pursuers. Even in God’s justice, He is demonstrating lovingkindness.

The Lord also led Israel through the wilderness for forty years and won battles for them against their enemies. Two kings are specifically mentioned here: Sihon and Og. In Numbers 21, Israel needed to pass through Sihon’s land. They sent messengers to Sihon and promised to not touch any of his kingdom’s produce; all they would do is walk through his land to the other side. Sihon did not like this idea and sent out his army against Israel. God enabled Israel to win the battle against Sihon, and the land which they originally were only going to pass through became their land. Not too long later, Og also rose up against Israel, but God delivered Og into their hands so that Israel possessed the land of the Amorites and the land of Bashan. To our modern ears, it may seem harsh for God to destroy nations and give their land to His people. How is that lovingkindness? We must remember that God is not only a God of love, but He is also a God of holiness, righteousness, and justice. In Genesis 15, God promised all this land to Abraham, but God told Abraham that it was not yet time for him to possess the land of the Amorites because “the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:16). God gave time for repentance to the Amorites before He sent Israel in to wipe them out. The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in mercy, but there comes a time when His vengeance will arise. As believers, we can be thankful and praise God that He is a God of vengeance. We do not have to fear His vengeance, because the blood of Christ has justified us before God. We can trust that in His good timing, God will bring about justice and vengeance for all situations, whether through the blood of Christ or through judgment on the final day. In all this, God is still loving-kind. Barnes explains it well: “The general idea is, that all these acts of the divine interposition – all that God has done, even though it seemed to be a display of power or of justice, of severity or of wrath – was, in fact, an illustration of the ‘mercy’ of God, and laid a foundation for praise. That is, All this was connected with the good of his people, with favors to mankind, with the accomplishment of great and benevolent purposes, and, therefore, was expressive of mercy – a proof that the ‘mercy of God endures forever.’”¹⁰

The psalmist ends by bringing his praise to the current day. He praises God for remembering them, even in their “low estate,” for rescuing them from their enemies, and for providing for their daily bread. In the big and small things, from big rescues to the provision of food for all flesh, even for the birds as Matthew 6:26 tells us, God shows His lovingkindness to be everlasting. The psalmist finishes with a declaration of thanksgiving to the God of heaven, the God above all, “for His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

How does this psalm apply to us today? This psalm teaches us that God is worthy of thanksgiving and praise for all that He has done and is doing. This psalm reminds us to remember and rehearse the goodness of God, the ways He’s shown Himself strong in our lives and in Christian history, and to praise His hesed that has no beginning or end! Let us set up our remembrance stones and go back again and again to praise our God.

“In view of all this – of all that he does in heaven and on earth – let praise be ascribed to him. To know the measure of the praise due to him; to see how great is his “mercy,” it would be necessary to know all that he does in heaven and on earth. That will not be known here. It will constitute the theme of contemplation and praise forever and ever. Enough, however, is known here to show the propriety of repeating again, again, and again, as in this psalm, the language, “For his mercy endureth forever;” “For his mercy endureth forever;” “For his mercy endureth forever.”¹¹

Albert Barnes

With love,

Kelsey

1. Boice, J. M. “Study Guide for Psalm 136 by David Guzik.” Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified
   6/2022. https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/psalm/psalm-
   136.cfm ↩︎
2. “Probable Timeline of When Each Psalm Was Written – Study Resources.” Blue Letter Bible.
   Web. 14 May, 2025. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/parallel/paral18.cfm>. ↩︎
3. Spurgeon, C. “Psalm 136 by C. H. Spurgeon.” Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified 5 Dec 2016.
   https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/tod/ps136.cfm ↩︎
4. H3034 – yāḏâ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (nasb95).” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 28 May, 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3034/nasb95/wlc/0-1/ ↩︎
5. “Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon – yāḏâ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (nasb95).” Blue Letter
   Bible. Accessed 28 May, 2025.
   https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3034/nasb95/wlc/0-1/ ↩︎
6. “H2896 – ṭôḇ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (nasb95).” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 28 May, 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h2896/nasb95/wlc/0-1/ ↩︎
7. “H2617 – ḥeseḏ – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (nasb95) and Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee
   Lexicon.” Blue Letter Bible. Accessed 28 May, 2025. https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h2617/nasb95/wlc/0-1/ ↩︎
8. ” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon – ʿôlām – Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon (nasb95).” Blue
   Letter Bible. Accessed 28 May, 2025.
   https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h5769/nasb95/wlc/0-1/ ↩︎
9. Spurgeon, C. “Psalm 136 by C. H. Spurgeon.” Blue Letter Bible. Last Modified 5 Dec 2016.
   https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/tod/ps136.cfm ↩︎
10. Barnes, Albert. “Commentary on Psalms 136”. “Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible”.
    https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bnb/psalms-136.html. 1870. ↩︎
11. Barnes, Albert. “Commentary on Psalms 136”. “Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible”.
    https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/bnb/psalms-136.html. 1870. ↩︎