Why is Psalm 136 So Repetitive?

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,

O give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever,

O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever.

I have always had a difficult time with the Psalms, and the reasons for this are several.  First of all, there are just so many of them, and I never know where to start.  Also, I tend to have trouble dealing with large amounts of poetry stacked next to each other.  Lastly, a great deal of the content that I have encountered in the Psalms confuses me.  The text of Psalm 136 is no exception to this. 

Psalm 136 consists of 26 verses that contain an opening statement followed by “his love endures forever.”  I remember encountering this Psalm and thinking to myself, “alright, we get the point: you think that God’s love endures forever.”  This quickly became annoying to me for one outstanding reason: my understanding of love is far more vague and empty than that of the psalmist.  I would hear “his love endures forever” and think of the kind of love that one would encounter in a movie starring Kirk Cameron as the lead actor.  Or perhaps the kind of love that would come from a cosmic vending machine that dispensed grace and love for free.

But the point at which this Psalm began to connect with me came when I began to understand that the content of the Psalm actually serves as a description of God’s love, not just series of repetitive affirmations of an abstract concept.  Instead, each verse describes an attribute or action of God that led the people of Israel to understand the content of God’s love.  He is the God of gods, the one who has done great wonders, made the heavens, spread out the earth on the waters, set the sun and moon into motion, brought Israel out of slavery from the Egyptians, divided the Red Sea, struck down great kings, and most importantly remembered Israel in its low estate, and rescued His people from their foes.  All of these things inform the Jewish understanding of God and His love, and this Psalm serves as a beautiful witness to His acts among them.

Perhaps this Psalm can teach us a lesson in remembering the things that God has done in our lives.  Maybe we can gain the wisdom to point back to the moments where God has moved among us and informed us about the nature of his love.   Some of us have found peace in the presence of God even when our loved one’s have failed us, and we came to see that His love endures forever.  Some of us have been liberated from addictions and self-inflicted destructive habits, and we came to see that His love endures forever.  Some of us have been painfully been confronted by our church community but in the process repented of sin in our lives, and we came to see that His love endures forever.  Some of us have seen God slay the fear that has crippled our lives, and we came to see that His love endures forever.   

May we learn to understand God’s love through His actions that we encounter in our lives and the dynamic work of His Spirit through the church and Scripture, and may we come to truly believe that His love endures forever.