His Steadfast Love

Scripture Reading: Psalm 136

26 times, once in each line of this Psalm, the phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever,” is repeated. There are lyrical/poetical reasons for this. This is a hymn of the Hebrew faith. While I’m not a big fan of overly repetitive contemporary Christian worship songs, I have to also admit they are not without some precedence (see Psalm 136).

Here the Psalmist hadn’t run out of creative juice, and he wasn’t taking the easy way out, hoping to get this to his publisher quickly so he could get out of the office and take the family on that weekend camping trip he had been promising them for over a month. He hadn’t come up with a catchy line he thought would make quick inroads in the synagogue worship scene and bring in a healthy and constant flow of royalty payments.

There was a theological reason for this repetition. He was making a significant point. That line – “for his steadfast love endures forever” – in each instance was preceded by a recounting of one of God’s acts in history. Creation, the Exodus, the Wilderness, and receiving the Promise Land are all recalled to some degree. If the question is, what was God’s motive in these great acts, the same answer can be given in every case. He acted this way because His steadfast love endures forever.

This is a world of uncertainty. There doesn’t seem to be a lot we can count on. I haven’t heard it used as much as I used to, but there is an old saying that goes “the only thing you can count on in life is death and taxes.” This Psalm holds out a better hope than that. The Psalmist wants us to know and believe that the one thing we can be sure of is the steadfast love of the Lord. It endures forever.