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Time after Pentecost · Proper 13 · Year A

Psalm 136:1-9 (23-26)

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever

August 2, 2026

The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, Giovanni di Paolo
The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from Paradise, Giovanni di Paolo, 1445The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (CC0 Open Access)
A predella panel with a diagram of the medieval cosmos on one side, concentric rings of the elements and planets, and the expulsion on the other.Who made the great lights, the sun to rule over the day, the moon and stars to rule over the night: Psalm 136 recites the making, and this is a medieval map of it.Giovanni di PaoloA Sienese painter who ignored the Florentine Renaissance entirely and kept gold grounds and strange colour into old age.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (CC0 Open Access)The largest art museum in the Americas, founded in 1870 by a group of New Yorkers who wanted one and had no collection to start from.The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (CC0 Open Access)
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelMatt. 14:13-21Mt 14:13-21
EpistleRom. 9:1-5 (6-13)Rom 9:1-5 (6-13)
Old TestamentIsa. 55:1-5Is 55:1-5
PsalterPs. 136:1-9 (23-26)Ps 136:1-9 (23-26)

Overview & Insights

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (Psalm 136:1)

Like Psalm 135, this one is hymnic praise with a historical content. Verses 17–22 are, in fact, virtually identical to 135:10–12. But the point of Psalm 136 is decidedly different. While it does direct praise to the God of gods and the Lord of lords (vv. 2–3), its emphasis is not on Yahweh’s defeat of the nations but on his saving acts and compassion to Israel (v. 11) and to us (vv. 23, 24). We should probably imagine this psalm sung with antiphonal choirs, one singing the first line of each verse and another singing the second line, His love endures forever. Like the liturgy of Psalm 135, it opens and closes with a call for congregational worship (vv. 1–3, 26). It progresses through Yahweh’s work (generally described as wonders, v. 4) in creation (vv. 5–9; on v. 6 cf. 24:2; on vv. 7–9 cf. Gen. 1:14–18) and in the exodus and settlement (vv. 10–22), and climaxes in his work for the present generation ( us, vv.

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Take it further: Psalm 136:1-9 (23-26)

Commentary

Enduring Word: Psalm 136Enduring Word: Ps 136 Enduring Word · David Guzik

David Guzik's verse-by-verse evangelical notes on the great psalm of thanks.

BibleHub: Commentaries on Psalm 136:1BibleHub: Commentaries on Ps 136:1 BibleHub

Parallel classic commentaries on the refrain that his steadfast love endures forever.

Background & Word Study

Sefaria: Psalms 136 (Hebrew)Sefaria: Ps 136 (Hebrew) Sefaria

Hebrew text with English and Jewish commentary on the psalm.

BibleHub: Psalm 136 InterlinearBibleHub: Ps 136 Interlinear BibleHub

Hebrew-English interlinear for word-level study of the psalm.

The Church Fathers

Catena: Psalm 136Catena: Ps 136 Catena

Patristic comments gathered verse by verse on Psalm 136.

Questions preachers ask

What is Psalm 136?

A litany of thanksgiving for God's works in creation and the exodus, each line answered by the refrain that his steadfast love endures forever.

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