Ps 136 (the one above)

Give thanks / to Yhwh / for he is so good

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

Give thanks / to the God of gods

For his loyal love / is everlasting

Give thanks / to the Lord of lords

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

The psalm begins with a call to give thanks to Yhwh because he is good; he is the God of gods and the Lord of Lords. Yhwh is the one who always stands above.

To him who alone has performed / great wonders

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

To him who made the heavens / with wisdom

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

To him who spread out the earth / over the waters

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

To him who made the great lights

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

The sun to rule over the day

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

The moon and the stars / to rule over the night

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

This portion now relates the performance of his great wonders—the making of the heavens, the spreading out of the earth over waters, and the making of the great light-rulers, the sun and the moon. The cosmos is not ruled over by a pantheon of gods and lords but the god of gods and the lord of lords.

Moreover, this portion shows that Yhwh shares his rule—he made the great lights “to rule over day and night.” This is key because this portion opens with the declaration that Yhwh “alone performed great wonders.” Although all of creation is “performed” by Yhwh, such a performance is one that can be entered into, participated within—and that entering into and participation is itself an aspect of creation. Yhwh ‘creates’ the spaces within which his ‘rulers’ will operate.

What others regarded as gods—the sun and the moon—are in fact rulers, but they are rulers who themselves were created by Yhwh and given their authority. It does not reside within themselves in the same fashion that a deity has his own divine power. In other words, Yhwh “alone” is the god who can create rulers and have that sharing-of-authority actually express his divine authority rather than signaling a limitation of his power. In fact, and momentously, the reverse is true—that if Creation is an expression of Yhwh’s divine sovereignty, then his “sharing” of this authority is itself an expression of power and not simply “benevolence” or a voluntary lessening of his authority to make-room-for-others. The Cosmos does not “compete” with Yhwh, which is why Yhwh can give ruling authority to powers in the Cosmos without diminution of his own authority.

And here is where we need to draw attention what is actually the central claim of the psalm but one that is, oddly, hidden because of its repetition—that all “thanks” is due to Yhwh because “his loyal love is everlasting.”

The first line of the individual verses speak of Yhwh’s authority and power, of his great wonders, and his ability to utterly control every aspect of the Cosmos. The second line sees in this mastery and control the expression Yhwh’s everlasting “loyal love”—his covenant concern and regard. Here is where we come to see something truly important that deepens the above reflection—in Yhwh there is not, first, this “power and control” and then “loyal love”. Rather, each expression of Yhwh is both. In other words—Yhwh’s power is his loyal love and his loyal love is his power. So, when Yhwh creates “ruling authorities” and his granting of a participating within his authority is actually an expression of his power, it is, simultaneously, an expression of his “everlasting loyal love”. Yhwh is not first powerful then loving. Nor is his first loving and then powerful. Comprehending this is key and revolutionary—Yhhw’s love does not compete with his power, nor does it take a second place to his power; Yhwh’s power does not compete with his love, nor does it take a second place to his love. In nearly every conception of authority—divine or otherwise—that I can conceive of, there is first power and then love, love being a type of “coming down”. But, in Yhwh, that is not the case. Again, his power is his loyal-love and his loyal-love is his power.

To him who struck down / the Egyptian’s firstborn

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And brought out Israel / from among them

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

With strong hand / and outstretched arm

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

To him who cut the Reed Sea apart

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And let Israel / pass through it

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

But shook off Pharaoh / and his army into the Reed Sea

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

To him who led his people / through the wilderness

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

This portion of the psalm can strike a somewhat odd note when Yhwh’s striking down of the Egyptian’s firstborn, and later, his striking down and “slewing” of famous kings is an expression of everlasting loyal-love. The oddness of this is not, in my mind, so much the violence that it recounts, but that it is so centrally and almost exclusively focused on Israel.

On the one hand, this is not at all odd and, in fact, did Yhwh not act this way he would be a poor covenant partner. Yhwh’s ‘loyal love’ is his covenant commitment to Israel, as his covenant partner. Accordingly, he must do everything he can in order to establish them within his abundant life. In order to do so, he must remove every hindrance to their participating within his covenant sphere of life, which includes the destruction of those enemies that threaten Israel. It is key to see in this regard that Yhwh establishes rulers in the sky (the sun and the moon) but that he also strikes down rulers (Kings Sihon and Og). It is clear that the sun and moon, as rulers, are ‘faithful’ in their participation within Yhwh’s reign while the rule given over to Sihon and Og has become destructive. That is why he must remove these rulers, because they represent a cancer within his creation. Their rule is perverted and destructive. This much is clear. What perhaps seems odd is when these stories of particular concern for Israel is understood within the cosmic scope of the opening verses where Yhwh is understood to be not a local deity but the creator and establisher of the Cosmos, of his being the universal, not simply the particular, ruler over all. Indeed, it is Yhwh who establishes the sun and moon which “shine down” on both Israelite and Egyptian. The final verse captures this well when it praises Yhwh for “remembering us” and “rescuing us” and then describing Yhwh as the one who “gives food to all living creatures”.

I think what we see here is somewhat startling on several levels. First, the intimacy that other nations experienced with their particular deity—an intimacy of this gods adherence to this people over against that god’s adherence to those people. For Israel, they retain this intimacy with Yhwh. Yhwh has “chosen this people”. They lose nothing of this. Which can be difficult to fathom. We tend to think that the more universal the power, the inevitably less personal could be the involvement. If Yhwh has created the light that shines on all, and provides food for all, then how could he exclusively covenant himself to this people. It would seem that either his universal reign over the Cosmos would have to be compromised in some fashion or his devotion to Israel would have to be.

But that is not how the Israelites saw it in this psalm. This psalm expresses no tension between these two poles, it flows from one to other and then back again. For them, Yhwh’s covenanting with them was but an intensification of what other nations experience. It is but gain. In Yhwh, the psalmist understands that their deity is not simply one among many. Rather, their deity is infinitely more powerful than all of the other gods. In fact, he is the one who made them. He is the one who put them in power. Their ‘glory’ is but a reflection of their created participation within Yhwh’s superior glory. And so, for Israel, there really is no tension in the fact that he has chosen Israel and yet he is also the god who provides food for all and causes light to shine on all.

To him who struck down / great kings

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And slew famous kings

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

King Sihon / of the Amorites

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And King Og / of Bashan

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And gave their land / as a heritage

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

A heritage / to his servant Israel

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

Who remembered us / when we were down

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

And rescued us / from our foes

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

Who gives food / to all living creatures

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

Give thanks / to the God of heaven

                For his loyal love / is everlasting

A final note—we have seen above several things. We have seen how Yhwh’s everlasting love and his power are to be understood as the same. We have also seen that an aspect of that power and everlasting love requires the removal from authority all powers that seek the destruction of Yhwh’s covenant partner. We have also seen that Yhwh’s act of creation also includes his placing rulers within his realm of ruling authority. We might say he “shares” his rule, or he participates his rule with others. Lastly, we have seen how Yhwh’s particular commitment to Israel does not stand in competition with his universal care and concern for all of creation.

With all of that in mind we need to see that there is a story being told here about Israel, and it is the story of their being raised to the level of rulers as well. Yhwh removes Egypt, so that Israel can live. Yhwh removes Sihon and Og so that their land can be given as a heritage to Israel. What we see here is that Israel is to become Yhwh’s rulers on earth. They are to be the new Adam-people of Yhwh who “till the Land”. As such—and this is the key—they are to be the faithful covenant partner of Yhwh and, like the sun and moon, participate within and enact his loyal-love for all of creation. In other words, Israel is the Adam-Ground-Zero for all of creation but their rule is supposed to coincide with their loving concern. In so far as they don’t, what is clear is that Yhwh will enact judgment. He will “remove them”, in some fashion, like he did Sihon and Og. Yhwh’s regard for Israel, therefore, is not a regard for them so they can turn from him and live within their own authority and power. They are not to be like the Adam that reached for his own knowledge and immortality. This is why Yhwh ‘remembers them’, why he ‘rescues them.’ He does so in order to mission them to the Cosmos, as his image to the Cosmos.