Beyond Knowing

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
—Psalm 136:1

Psalm 136 doesn’t just say God’s lovingkindness lasts a long time. It says His covenant love does not run out, wear thin, expire, or change with our circumstances — before the trouble, during the trouble, after the trouble — still His lovingkindness remains.

From Creation, through the Exodus, the wilderness, victory over enemies, and daily provision, His lovingkindness is everlasting.

I’ve read this Psalm over and over through the years.

But today, I sense that God is doing something more than assuring that we understand the definition.

Yes, this Psalm trains the heart to interpret everything through the lens of God’s everlasting love.

And after hearing it twenty-six times, you begin to realize that the repetition is the point!

No matter what event is being remembered; whether the creation, deliverance, wilderness, conquest, discipline, or provision, the conclusion remains unchanged: His lovingkindness is everlasting.

And we certainly need to be reminded, because, we panic after one hard season. We question God after one delay. We tend to view His character through the lens of our current emotions.

So, Psalm 136 answers every changing circumstance with the same unchanging refrain — again, and again, and again.

But twenty… six… times...

I can’t get past that. There must be something more that I have been missing.

I’m reminded of Isaiah 6, where the seraphim cry “Holy, holy, holy.” That Hebrew repetition isn’t just for emphasis. Three times in Hebrew means absolute completeness. There is no higher form. They are not proclaiming that He is very holy. They are declaring holiness that cannot be expressed with words. But Psalm 136 isn’t three times...

Which makes me believe that it isn’t pressing for some deeper expression of the phrase. It is doing something else entirely.

Twenty-six acts of God. Twenty-six responses. The Psalm is moving through the entire arc of history and placing the same verdict over every single moment of it: His lovingkindness was there. And there. And there.

I often write about our existing within God. That we are immersed in His substance — even when we are not aware of it.

I wonder if this repetition may be drawing us deeper into the realization of HIM. Him filling, surrounding, enveloping us. Drawing us into a deeper awareness of being drawn deeper into Him and the receiving, experiencing, living in and through His covenant love.

One declaration of God’s lovingkindness gives you information. Two gives you emphasis. But twenty-six — twenty-six pulls you under. By the tenth repetition you're not reading a statement about God anymore. You're being submerged in something.

Which means Psalm 136 isn't primarily a theology lesson about God's lovingkindness. It's a participation in it. The congregation singing the refrain twenty-six times isn't agreeing with a proposition — they're being drawn deeper with each response. Like being caught in whirlpool that you stop fighting against.

And the refrain never changes. Every act of God is different. But the underlying lovingkindness of God never alters. The twenty-six repetitions are the Psalm's way of helping you stop trying to observe God’s love from a distance — and simply rest in the realization that you are already surrounded by it.

So read Psalm 136 again.

This time, don’t gloss over the repetition. Soak in it. Let it seep into your spirit and draw you into His.

Because His lovingkindness is everlasting!