Psalm 136 explained: A Song With One Repeated Line

The call to give thanks (vv. 1-3)

The refrain uses a Hebrew word for loyal, faithful love that keeps its promises, and many think a leader sang each first line while the crowd answered with the refrain. Calling God the God of gods and Lord of lords ranks him above anything else people worshiped or obeyed.

The maker of the world (vv. 4-9)

The picture of earth spread out over the waters reflects the ancient view of dry land rising from a deep sea below. Neighboring peoples worshiped the sun and moon as gods, but here they are things God made, simply doing their job of marking day and night.

Rescue from Egypt (vv. 10-16)

This retells Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt: the last plague that killed Egypt's firstborn, the split sea where Pharaoh's army drowned, and the long desert journey, with the refrain sung even over those deaths, which many readers today find hard. Christians have often read this escape as a picture of the rescue they believe Jesus brings.

Kings defeated, land given (vv. 17-22)

Sihon and Og were kings east of the Jordan River whom Israel defeated on the way into Canaan. The psalm celebrates their deaths and the taking of their land as God's gift to Israel, told entirely from Israel's side.

Then and now (vv. 23-26)

The song shifts to "us," so a later generation claims the old story as its own, perhaps after a time of defeat or exile, though scholars are unsure of the exact occasion. It ends wider still, with God feeding every creature, not only Israel.

Key verse: Psalm 136:1

Where Christians differ

Christians genuinely differ on how to understand a song that praises God's lasting love in the same breath as the killing of Egypt's firstborn and of other nations' kings, whether as faithful truth about God's justice or as Israel's limited human view of its own history.

Something to think about

If you listed the turning points of your own life one by one, what single line, if any, would you find yourself wanting to repeat after each?