Today's Reading - 2 Chronicles 6-7, Psalm 136
Background
The fire of God falls on the Temple as God's powerful presence fills the place after it is constructed.
Devotional - Forever Faithful
Don't you hate those "7-11" choruses with all their repetition?
Evidently, the Psalmist didn't get the memo that repetition was bad. The 26 verses of this hymn contain the same two-word Hebrew phrase - leolam chesdu. Literally, that is, "to forever (is) his steadfast love." The faithful love of God is a faithful and eternal constant in the life of his people.
The Psalm begins with God's sovereign power in Creation, then reminds the reader how God saved Israel from Egypt and gave them the Promised Land by acts of power. His faithfulness even in the light of Israel's sin is constant. That is seen in the repetition of "leolam chesdu" in verse after verse.
There are two realities in your life as a believer. First, you have not always been faithful to God. We seek him and we struggle, but we fail. We fall into sin and we stray from the fold. Like the hymn says, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it."
But there is a second reality we must cling to. God's faithfulness is neverending. When we are weak, he is strong. When the storms of life blow, he is a faithful refuge. When life crashes against us with circumstantial tsunamis, he is a refuge of grace. When the enemy marshals his forces to attack, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. The faithfulness of God is bigger than any problem we have or any failure in us.
Leolam Chesdu. That is worth repeating!
Thank you, Lord, for you constant faithfulness. May I never presume on your grace, but may I always rely on it. Your grace is greater than my sin.
Think and Pray
Consider writing your own Psalm 136, detailing the events of your life and then reminding yourself that at every moment of that life, "leolam chesdu" - God was faithful.
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