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Psalm 136: The Hesed of God

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INTRODUCTION

This psalm rotates around the hesed of God, coming back to it every other line. This word hesed can be translated any number of different ways—kindness, faithfulness, covenant loyalty, tender-mercies, and the like. The AV supplies the verb endureth every other line, but that is not in the original. The line literally is “for his hesed forever.”

THE TEXT

“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: For his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: For his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: For his mercy endureth for ever . . .” (Psalm 136:1–26).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

So we have in this psalm a litany of gratitude, and each of them is ascribed to the hesed of God. What we are going to see here then is how wide-ranging that beneficence of God actually is.

The first is a summons to thank God for the goodness of God (v. 1). Give thanks to the God over all gods (v. 2). Give thanks to the Lord over all lords (v. 3). God alone is the God of wonders (v. 4). He created the heavens in His wisdom (v. 5), and He spread the earth out over the waters (v. 6). He made the great lights (v. 7), meaning the sun to rule by day (v. 8), and the moon and stars for the night (v. 9).

God struck the firstborn of Egypt out of hesed (v. 10), and delivered Israel from Egypt in consequence (v. 11), with an outstretched arm as an act of strength (v. 12). He split the Red Sea in two (v. 13), making Israel to pass safely through (v. 14), but drowning Pharaoh and his army there (v. 15). He led Israel in the wilderness (v. 16). He struck great kings (v. 17). He slaughtered famous kings (v. 18). Sihon of the Amorites was done (v. 19), and Og, king of Bashan was another (v. 20). God took land away from them and gave to Israel for a heritage (v. 21), even a heritage for Israel his servant (v. 22). He remembered our low estate (v. 23), and redeems us from our enemies (v. 24).

God feeds all the living (v. 25), and we conclude by thanking Him again, thanking the God of heaven (v. 26).

THREE CATEGORIES OF HESED

The first category of God’s hesed is found in the fact that He is the Creator God, and this means that He is the God over all creation (vv. 1-9). The second category is revealed in God’s political providence (vv. 10-24). And the last category is found in the fact that the God of Heaven is the God of ongoing providence—we live in a created order that feeds us (vv. 25-26).

GOD TAKES SIDES

The middle of this psalm makes it absolutely plain that God takes sides. His hesed, His mercy, is seen how He absolutely destroyed the Egyptians. He killed the firstborn of Egypt because of His hesed (v. 10), and He drowned Pharaoh and his army for the same reason (v. 15). God fed Israel from the sky during their time in the wilderness, but that wandering in the wilderness was bookended by two instances of national judgment. Egypt was that era’s superpower, and when God’s hesed toward Israel was done with them, they were little more than a smoking crater. Then on the other end of the forty years, God dispatched Sihon and Og both, and they were described as great and famous kings (vv. 17-18).

God took their land away, and bestowed it on Israel for their own heritage. This was no injustice to them because it was not taken away from them because Israel needed it now. It was taken from them because their iniquity had finally ripened. What had God said to Abraham centuries before? “But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” (Gen. 15:16).

“For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man” (Deut. 3:11).

“Rise ye up, take your journey, and pass over the river Arnon: behold, I have given into thine hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land: begin to possess it, and contend with him in battle” (Deut. 2:24).

The conquest of Canaan was in large measure an exercise in giant-killing, with the final stages of that warfare being accomplished by David (1 Sam. 17:49) and his men (2 Sam. 21:19).

But where did these giants come from? How did they make it past the Flood, which was God’s judgment on the whole Nephilim project? The most reasonable answer appears to be that the DNA of giants was preserved on the ark through Ham’s wife, the mother of all the Canaanites, and Canaan is where the giants all were.

CREATION CORNERSTONE

This psalm foregrounds the doctrine of creation, and the goodness of God as revealed in creation. All attempts at evolutionary explanations are attempts (at their best) to background it, to place it at a great distance from us. The more remote it is, the easier it is to take all these things for granted. One of the great blessings of believing in a young earth creation is that we are confronted with the goodness of God. He fashioned the heavens and the earth, and we can see His exquisite design in all that He has made. For example, when the moon covers the sun in an eclipse, it looks like someone stacking a couple of quarters—like a key fitting in a lock.

We are taught in Romans that the two great impulses of the unbelieving heart are the impulse to deny God’s sovereignty (Rom. 1:21), and to deny our responsibility to be thankful to Him (Rom. 1:21). The invitation issued in this psalm confronts both of these unbelieving impulses.

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Psalm 134: Bless Thee Out of Zion

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INTRODUCTION

Our covenantal relationship with God is a relationship that is tied completely around with blessing. The servants of the Lord are called and summoned to bless the Lord, and in return the Lord blesses us out of Zion. One of the characteristic notes of this psalm is that it is filled with blessing.

THE TEXT

“A Song of degrees. Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion” (Psalm 134:1-3).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This very brief psalm appears to be a conversation, and there are different scenarios that could contain such a conversation. Perhaps the Levitical guards for the Temple are addressing the priests who serve there at night, and then the priests reply to them. From an extrabiblical source that there were 24 Levites, 3 priests, and the captain of the guard there. So that is a possible scenario.

But as this is the last psalm of ascents, I take it as something of a recessional. The pilgrims who have come to worship God at His Temple have risen early to return home (for many of them a long journey). So they have risen while it is still night, and as they are departing Jerusalem, they address those who still have the night duty at the Temple. As a farewell, they exhort the servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord, telling them to bless the Lord (v. 1). They urge them once again to lift up their hands in the sanctuary, and to bless the Lord there (v. 2). And in return, the Levitical guards and the priests extend their blessing to the departing pilgrims. Jehovah, the one who made heaven and earth, bless you out of Zion (v. 3).

WHEN NOTHING IS HAPPENING

This scene occurs at night at the Temple. This is not in the daytime, when the services are being conducted, or the sacrifices being offered. Everything is quiet. Nothing is happening. To which we might reply, “What do you mean nothing is happening?” Jehovah God is being blessed by His servants. He is being blessed by the night watch, and in a solemn and quiet hour.

This psalm is saturated with the presence of Yahweh. Only three verses, and yet Jehovah is mentioned five times. And where the covenant God of Israel is present, what else is present? Blessing is present—blessing is mentioned three times.

When we are tempted to think that nothing is happening, perhaps we ought to stop and remember in the quiet that God is being praised. Jehovah is being blessed.

LIFT UP YOUR HANDS

We are told at the conclusion of this psalm, that God made Heaven and earth. He made the material creation, and that means that He made us as creatures with bodies. We are beings who have the sun go down on us, which is why we must have night watchmen. And when we are in the house of the Lord, we have to stand there. According to the custom of the Jews, the high priest could sit in the Temple, but the other priests would stand. Who stand in the house of the Lord.

They watch with their bodies. They stand with their bodies. They lift up their hands because their bodies have hands. There is nothing inherently unspiritual about having a body. In fact, your body is the instrument that God wants you to use for offering up true spiritual worship to Him. Physical worship offered in obedience is spiritual worship.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV)

“I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting” ).

(1 Timothy 2:8 (KJV)

Your body, a living sacrifice, is your spiritual worship. Your hands, hands which are holy, are the way you lift up your prayers.

This is why we have wanted to worship God together, collectively, as though we have bodies. And in our worship, we have wanted to conform to various biblical postures for the body in our services, doing it all together as a single liturgical movement. This is why we stand together for the reading of the Word, why we kneel together in confession. This is why we raise our hands all together in doxological praise at the conclusion of the service. This is a public service where God is being worshiped by the congregation. We believe that this is what Paul was referring to in his letter to the Colossians: “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ” (Col. 2:5). The word for order there is a military term, and could be understood as something like regimentation. Paul rejoiced at their martial discipline in worship.

OUT OF ZION

We are not told that the God who made earth will bless us out of Heaven. Nor are we told that the God who made Heaven will bless us out of earth. We are told that the God of all things, the God who made Heaven and earth both, is going to bless us out of Zion. We lift up our hands in the sanctuary, blessing Him, and He blesses us out of His sanctuary, blessing us. He works through His church.

This psalm is likely by David, which means that he was composing a psalm for use at the Temple on Moriah by faith, and that he apparently felt free to use the name of Zion.

This is a very basic liturgical movement. We all assemble in God’s presence, at the heavenly Jerusalem, in the city of the living God, on the slopes of the heavenly Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22). We come to the house of God, and at the conclusion of the service, we all lift our hands, as this psalm says, and we bless the Lord. We sing a doxology of praise. We bless the Lord. And then I, as a designated minister, raise my hands a declare a benediction, a blessing, through which you receive the blessing of God.

This is not a trite verbal exercise, like saying bless you when someone sneezes. When you receive the benediction of God by faith, something substantial is being placed across your shoulders. You are supposed to carry the weight of that goodness with you throughout the week. And what is that goodness that is so weighty? What is it that God wants you to carry around until next Sunday? He wants you to carry around His favor. He wants you to take it with you everywhere you go.

We are a gathering of forgiven sinners, and as far as our sanctification goes, nothing much can be done with us unless we are making a pilgrimage to Heaven once a week. Never forget that you are worshiping the God of Heaven and earth in two places—in Heaven and on earth. When the call to worship pronounced, and we all stand, the Spirit gathers us up and the spiritual roof retracts, and we are brought to the heavenly Zion. “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22).

GOD OF NATURE, GOD OF GRACE

The Creator God is certainly capable of blessing us. He made heaven and earth, after all. We therefore know that He can bless us. But we are in covenant with Him—He is Jehovah, Yahweh, the God of the covenant, which means that He is the God of grace. And as the God of grace, He has promised to bless us. Not only can He bless us, He will bless us.

And how has He done this stupendous thing? There is only one answer, only one possible answer. The great Puritan preacher, Richard Sibbes, once answered the question of whether preachers should preach anything but Christ. He replied, “Nothing but Christ, or that tends to Christ.” He is the entirety of our message, but this does not bind us up in a cramped space. This Christ we preach is Lord of Heaven and earth.

“For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him [in Christ] are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”

2 Cor. 1:19–20 (KJV)

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve [worship] God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.”

Hebrews 12:28–29 (KJV)

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The Generous Soul

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Collegiate Reformed Fellowship is the campus ministry of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow, Idaho. Our goal is to teach and exhort young men and women to serve, to witness, to stand fast, and to mature in their Christian Faith. We desire to see students get established in a godly lifestyle and a trajectory toward maturity. We also desire to proclaim the Christian worldview to the university population and the surrounding communities. CRF is not an independent ministry. All our activities are supplemental to the teaching and shepherding ministry of CC & TRC. Students involved with CRF are regularly reminded that the most important student ministry takes place at Lord’s Day worship.

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Psalm 133: Together in Unity

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INTRODUCTION

Christian unity is a dangerous subject because, believe it or not, it is one of the ironic things we are divided over. What is the nature of true unity? Why should we care? Are denominations really a form of disobedience? Have we really torn apart the seamless robe of Christ?

THE TEXT

“A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: That went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (Psalm 133:1-3).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Again, this is another psalm of ascents—one of the psalms that would be sung as pilgrims approached the Temple. Something can be good without being pleasant, but when both good and pleasant come together, it is a true blessing (v. 1). That blessing comes when brethren can dwell together in unity (v. 1). In the economy of Israel, all priests were anointed, but only the high priest was anointed on the head. This unity is like that precious oil that is placed on Aaron’s head, runs down to his beard, and from there to the hem of his garments (v. 2). Clearly a large amount of oil was used—even if you follow the ESV reading, which has the oil running down to the collar. In a change of metaphor, we read that Mount Hermon is famous for dew, descending on the mountains of Zion (v. 3). As Zion proper is about 250 miles south of Hermon, we should note the plural mountains, and take Zion as a generic name for Israel. How will this blessing of unity come? It will be the result of a command from Jehovah Himself (v. 3)—that command summoning life forevermore. This dew waters the ground, and makes it truly fruitful. That is the command of God, the blessing of God. This is His purpose and intention.

“He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, And fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).

TWO KINDS OF UNITY

As this psalm has praised this particular grace from God in the strongest possible terms, we need to be careful not to distort our understanding of that grace. According to Scripture, there are two kinds of unity that God gives to us. We need to be careful not to muddle them up because if we do, the unfortunate result will be . . . disunity.

The first kind is given to all Christians everywhere in the Person of the Holy Spirit. “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).

Notice that we already have this unity, which is why we are told to preserve it. We need to be eager in this preservation, laboring at it. The word for unity is the same as that used a few verses down (henotes). The word for bond can mean fetter, or sinew, or that which binds. And the Holy Spirit is the one who ties of the knot of peace. Every Christian has this unity already, and the one charge we have is to pursue a way of life that does not disrupt it.

The second kind of unity is institutional unity. Paul is thinking eschatologically, and is looking forward to the time when the bride of Christ, the Church, is without any spot or wrinkle or any such blemish (Eph. 5:27). God will accomplish this through the governmental gifts that He has provided to the Church—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers. “Till we all come in the unity [henotes] of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

This is the unity of maturity, and we are not supposed to have it yet.

And no end of trouble is caused by people who think that we are supposed to have it, and on the basis of this opinion disrupt their fellowship with saints who differ. It is like the old joke about two ministers who were talking, and one said to the other, “Well, we both serve God, I suppose—you in your way, and I in His.” Because we try to seize an institutional unity we are not supposed to enjoy yet, we wind up disrupting the bond of peace that we really do have.

SIN AS BARRIER

Sin means we are falling short of a standard that we ought not to be falling short of. Sin means we are not doing what we were instructed to do, and obedience is always something that should be in our hands in the present.

Remember that the basic building block of this broader church unity is the family, and the husband and the father is responsible to set the tone for his family. Fathers, you do not have the luxury of being distant, or angry, or sullen, or quiet, or disengaged, or surly. You do not get to flop, or otherwise disrupt a unity that has already been given to you.

The household is a wonderful place for learning the basic steps of this particular dance. In fact, there is no better place. And when you learn that wisdom in the home, you will be equipped to navigate the challenges that will arise with regard to extended family, or neighbors, or companions in business, or fellow church members.

IMMATURITY AS BARRIER

Immaturity means that we are right where we are supposed to be. A three-year-old is not in sin being three-years-old. Now if a ten-year-old started acting like a three-year-old this would actually not be immaturity—it would be sin. Remember that God is very easy to please, but very hard to satisfy. When it comes to the unity of the Church today, God is very easy to please, and hard to satisfy.

And the reason this is true—the only reason, remember—is because the Father was pleased with Christ. Not only so, but the Father is satisfied in Christ. And Christ is our unity. One Lord, one faith, one baptism (Eph. 4:5).

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Saved Through Childbirth

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INTRODUCTION

The Israelite purity codes point out potent, momentous elements of life and tell Israel to pay careful attention. Go slow here. Warning. There is something glorious here. What you eat, what you touch, your bodies, death and dying, sexuality, and childbearing are potent, powerful forces in the world that God made. Under God’s blessing, they are forces for good, but in our fallen state, they naturally become forces for evil, harm, and destruction. Uncleanness points to our natural fallen state, and points to our need for a new Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, and urges care, wisdom, repentance, worship, and obedience in all things.

THE TEXT

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying if a woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days” (Lev. 12:1-8).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

When a woman gave birth to a son, she was ceremonially unclean for seven days, the son was to be circumcised on the 8th day, and then she continued in a state of purifying for another 33 days, for a total of 40 days (12:1-4). When a woman bore a daughter, she was unclean for fourteen days, and then continued in a state of purifying for another 66 days, for a total of 80 days (12:5). At the end of the time of purifying, the new mother was to bring an ascension offering and a sin offering to the tabernacle, one for atonement and one for cleansing from her blood, with a provision for the poor (12:6-8).

THE PROMISE OF THE SEED

While these ceremonies can seem strange or even offensive to modern ears, there really is a logic to it all and something profoundly glorious is going on here. Remember, that God blessed Adam and Eve with the command to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and ruling over all the creatures (Gen. 1:28). This means that conception and childbearing was originally blessed by God and is part of what God pronounced “very good” (Gen. 1:31). But Adam sinned, and God pronounced curses on the ground that man worked and greater pain in a woman’s childbearing, and promised that now death would come upon all (Gen. 3:16-19). This general curse of sin and death in the world is what theologians call “original sin,” and all people (except for Jesus) are conceived and born with this covenantal guilt and natural proclivity to sin and corruption (Ps. 51: 5, Is. 48:8, Rom. 3:23, 5:12-19, 6:23). This is part of what God was teaching Israel in their purity codes: sin and death infects everything to some extent, and Israel cannot approach God unless He makes a way of cleansing. However, God also promised Adam and Eve a “seed” (a descendent) who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). God promised that through the seed of the woman, the curse would be reversed.

FULFILLED IN JESUS

This text is fulfilled in the gospel initially in the circumcision of Jesus and Mary’s purification (Lk. 2:21-24). Circumcision was the Old Covenant sign that pictured the need for the shedding of blood for our sins and the cutting off of our sinful flesh. This is why the time for purification is cut in half for a baby boy because the baby boy at least symbolically shared the other half of the purification process. Jesus did not need to receive the sign of removal of sin for any personal sins anymore than He needed to be baptized for the remission of any sins, but in both cases it was to stand with us as our representative (covenant) head, to fulfill all righteousness (cf. Mt. 3:15). All of this was completely fulfilled in the cross, which Paul figuratively calls “the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11), where our sins and the “uncircumcision” of our flesh was forgiven and all the condemnation of the law was nailed to His cross (Col. 2:13-14).

CONCLUSIONS

It’s particularly glorious that Jesus rose from the dead on the “8th Day,” the day of circumcision, which is of course also the first day of the week, the day of new creation, the day of the removal of the curse.

Part of what this text underlines and which is highly offensive to modern sensibilities is the inequality of the sexes. We have been catechized and discipled by modern secularism to jump at every hint of inequality and to presume that this necessarily implies inequality of value. But men and women are gloriously unequal (1 Cor. 11:3, 7-11), and both bear the image of God equally in creation and are co-heirs of the grace of life in Christ (Gen. 1:27, 1 Pet. 3:7).

God loves the glorious differences and inequalities of male and female, and He loves how they image Him. And so should we, and therefore we hate the sexual promiscuity that makes light of this glory, the utter fruitlessness and impossibility of homosexuality, and the utter confusion and blasphemy of transgenderism.

This text points us to the glory of childbearing, the profound beauty of motherhood, the way that the curse of sin and death has attempted to infect it, and it all points to the glory of Christ who is now in the process of redeeming it all. By His blood, He has removed the ceremonial curse, and while we still battle with the presence of the curse in this world and in our bodies, Christ has commandeered death itself, such that even the remaining signs of the curse are turned into marks of the cross for those who are in Christ Jesus (cf. Gal. 6:17).

The reason our culture rages against motherhood is because it is so beautiful and powerful (Ps. 139). There is nothing more potent in this world than people made in the image of God. This is why marriage and the gift of children are so central to the working out of the gospel. This is why the Bible even says that a woman may be “saved through childbirth” (1 Tim. 2:15). This does not mean that a single or barren woman cannot be saved, but it does mean that all women are called to embrace by faith the vocation of motherhood. Whether or not you bear your own children, you are to be fruitful in your home, cultivate beauty, feed the hungry, and in all of it, be the glory of man.

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