How We Worship
Lessons From Psalm 136 Part 2
Peter told the assembled crowd in Jerusalem during the feast of Pentecost: “And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved” (Acts 2:21).
So, God has determined to receive everyone who by faith trusts in the finished work of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s cross. God declares them righteous. This is the greatest news ever delivered to mankind. Luke gives us the details in his Gospel.
1Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2 [b]This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6 While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Luke 2:1-14
This is why Psalm 96:3 says: 3 “Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.”
However, many refused then and still do today, to believe God’s proclamation through the angels as well as through you and me. They are determined instead to deny God’s truth, to hide God’s truth, and to force others to deny God’s truth through their own deception and wickedness.
What all people who refuse to worship God have in common is this: they have exchanged the truth for a lie. The apostle Paul makes this clear:
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
This is not something new. Psalm 96:4 tells us this: 4 “For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.”
The psalmist is not denying that other gods, other Elohim exist. He is, however, saying that only God is to be feared because is the One true God, the only Elohim that is Yahweh.
I’ve discussed this many times, but I will repeat it again here for context: There are other gods in the universe. The word “Elohim” designates a place of residence, specifically the supernatural realm. We do not see this supernatural realm with the naked eye. We discern it from our experiences, and of course, we know that it exists on the basis of the testimony of the Bible.
Well, if we are going to get to the text of Psalm 136 we better get moving. Again, it is a call to worship.
In fact, this is another psalm that looks very much like responsive reading between worship leaders, who would have been specially designated priests and song leaders.
We know that King David in particular appointed 4,000 singers and musicians from among the sons of Levi. We read this in 1 Chronicles 23:12-13: 12 The sons of Kohath were four: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. 13 The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was set apart to sanctify him as most holy, he and his sons forever, to burn incense before the Lord, to minister to Him and to bless in His name forever.
This Psalm 136 was also sung by the worshipers during the dedication ceremony of the temple Solomon built (2 Chronicles 7:3), and also by King Jehoshaphat’s singers when Judah was attacked by the armies of Moab and Ammon (2 Chronicles 20:21).
That is a perfect segue into Psalm 136. Notice first of all the responsive reading aspect. Each verse ends with the same statement: “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.”
The word “lovingkindness” in the NASB is the Hebrew “checed” (Strong’s 2617) which means kindness. It carries the idea of merciful which is likely why the KJV renders it mercy.
We see in verse 1 that we are to praise God because He is good. He is good always because it is His nature. He cannot be anything but good. All things that He is and all things that He does are always good, right, and holy. We talked about this extensively in Psalm 135 so I direct your attention there for additional commentary.
Then in verses 2-3 we worship Him because He alone is the One True God. There is no other god or lord above Yahweh. That doesn’t mean that people won’t have gods and lords above the One True God. It does mean that when people reject God they are rejecting the only true God and are living in rebellion that must one day be judged.
We just completed out study of 1 Corinthians 8 where we’ve been looking at a question the believers living in Corinth asked paul. That question was related to what they should do about all the food, especially the meat that was offered to idols in the many temples within the city.
This question had far-reaching implications. Here is what Paul said.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled (1 Corinthians 8:4-7).
Some people upon reading that might think that Paul was saying that there was nothing to idol worship since there is only One True God. That was not what he meant at all.
Later in this same letter to the Corinthians Paul said this concerning idols:
14“…flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to wise men; you judge what I say. 16 Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Look at the nation Israel; are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? 19 What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than He, are we?
In case you think we don’t have idols in America because we are just too sophisticated for that, let me tell you that you are wrong. Americans have as many idols as Hindus have gods, which is to say millions.
The biggest idol in America today is sex. The second biggest idol today, is laziness. The third biggest idol is envy and jealousy. Here’s the real tragedy in all this – the State which means our governments from the Federal down to the State and even the local governments, are idols that use all these other idols to completely enslave us all.
Idols enslave folks. Americans have been slowly propagandized; Americans have been slowly over several decades indoctrinated to believe that government is the answer to all our dilemmas.
The new aristocracy in America is the political class and they are using sex, greed, and laziness to shackle us all. Our liberties and freedoms are vanishing while the masses yell “give us more, we love our slavery.”
Only faith in God can give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Only loving God enough to obey His commands will ensure we are able to praise Him in spirit and in truth.
The order of this Chapter is perfect. Idols are nothing because behind them are demons. Demons cannot create anything in the sense that God creates.
Demons can create havoc, they can create turmoil, and they can create despair and devastation in the lives of people. But they need a willing participant. Remember Jesus warned that His enemies are seeking to destroy lives. Jesus’ testimony was that He came to destroy the works of the devil!
We worship God the psalmist says because of the works He has done verses 4-9. What is pictured here? God’s creative work of the universe and particularly our solar system is being pictured here.
God’s great wonders can be seen by every person every day. Look into the sky and see the sun or the moon or the distant stars. God created them and hung them in space. Verse 5 says He did so with “skill” or wisdom. The Hebrew is from a word that means intelligence and skill (See Strong’s 8394 and 995).
So, God had the intelligence, the skill, the wisdom to create and carry out His plan and He did it all by speaking everything into existence.
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 There was evening and there was morning, a third day.
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
We will continue our study of Psalm 136 in Part 3.
Dr. Mike Spaulding
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