Psalm 136:1–5 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever: To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever; To Him who by wisdom made the heavens, For His mercy endures forever;
Do you see a pattern? A more literal translation of the refrain is: “His lovingkindness endures forever.”
The Hebrew word for lovingkindness is Chesed. The Hebrew language is steeped in imagery, being composed of pictographs or letters that each represent something and when combined create what we refer to as a word picture, giving us a rich understanding of a word’s meaning. The Hebrew word, Chesed, contains the word-picture of God keeping open the way in.
Genesis 3:24b and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Have you ever considered the reassuring picture that God painted for us when He kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden? Reassuring? What could possibly be reassuring about that?
Stick with me, here. Doesn’t it seem like overkill to use Cherubim and flaming swords to keep Adam and Eve out of the garden? Exactly. God was keeping the way open to the Tree of Life, the cross of Jesus.
But as much as the lovingkindness part is important, there is another idea in this refrain from Psalm 136 that is important. That’s the words, “Endures Forever.” Forever is the Hebrew word L’ Olam, which means it keeps going and going and going … it means limitless. No matter what you did this Friday, Saturday, Sunday or will do Monday. God’s love for you is such that the limit of it does not exist.
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