Thank-ful-ness. The word itself suggests that there ought to be a certain abundance to our gratitude. It should be full to overflowing. Food to eat, clothes to wear, homes to live in, and incomes to spend, indeed all these things ought to be on our thanksgiving list. Yet the list should be longer than that; this is where Psalm 136 teaches us an important lesson.

Clearly Psalm 136 is a song of thanksgiving. The psalm begins with a triplet of gratefulness: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good... Give thanks to the God of gods... Give thanks to the Lord of lords” (vv. 1-3). The psalm also ends on the very same theme, “Give thanks to the God of heaven” (v. 26). Exhortations to give thanks are the matching bookends which keep the whole line of these praise-laden verses upright and in place.

Yet why give thanks? Twenty-six times in twenty-six verses the answer is repeated: His love endures forever. Sadly, the meaning of love has been hollowed out to the point of vacuity. Basically “to love” has come to mean little more than “to be nice.” People cannot fathom how discipline could ever be part of genuine love because discipline is not a nice experience. When married life is no longer nice, marriage vows are nixed.

Thankfully, the love of the Lord is so much more than mere niceness. In fact, in the year gone by, you might well point to a number of not so nice things that God put on your path. Perhaps you lost a job. Maybe you were not accepted into the college program that you wanted. There may have been sickness, strife, sorrow, or suffering. And we do confess that “all things come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand,” don’t we? So, what shall we conclude? Is the Lord’s love toward us fickle?

On the contrary! His love endures forever, sings the psalmist, over and over again. The Lord’s love is not characterized by fickleness but by forever-ness. Actually, if you want to pick a synonym for the love in this psalm, the best word would be loyalty, not niceness. True love is faithfulness, reliability, and sticking to your promises even when things are far less than nice.

As the verses 4-9 show, the Lord’s loyal love is evident in his works of creation. He alone created the heavens, the earth, the waters below, and the sun, moon, and stars above. Now look all around you. What do you see? After all these centuries, and even after the fall into sin, the heavens are still there. The earth and the oceans are still around. The sun, moon and stars are still shining. You see evidence of the Lord’s loyal love in every corner of his created realm.

Also, as the verses 10-24 proclaim, the Lord’s loyal love shines forth from the pages of salvation history. The journey to the Promised Land was full of setbacks. Pharaoh and the mighty army of Egypt made a terrifying attempt to recapture their slave labour force. The desert sun threatened to dehydrate them. Food was scarce, water was in short supply. Other enemies blocked the way into the land flowing with milk and honey, Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan. To sum up, the journey from Egypt to Canaan was not at all nice. Yet through it all the Lord’s love for his chosen people remained reliable. They received what they needed, when they needed it. And, in due time, they arrived in the Promised Land.

You also, and especially, see the Lord’s loyal love revealed in Jesus Christ. Witness the loyalty of the Father who did not even spare his only-begotten Son, but gave Him up for us all that we might not perish eternally but live in everlasting blessedness (Romans 8:32).

Witness the loyalty of the Son who remained true to his anointing as our Messiah. Even when his suffering intensified to the point of being forsaken by his own, eternal Father, Christ did not abandon the salvific task at hand. Instead, He stayed the course of agony, all out of loyal love for us (John 15:9-13).

Witness the loyalty of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father and the Son sent to dwell in us. By rights the Holy Spirit could have given up on us a long time ago, stubborn people that we are. And yet our Saviour has given us the Spirit of truth who remains with us forever (John 14:16, 17).

Our triune God is a thrice-full manifestation of steadfast love. And, privilege of privileges, you are baptized into the name of this loving God. Therefore, give thanks to the God of heaven. Yes, He gives food to every creature (v. 25), but He also does a whole lot more than that. Give thanks to the Lord of lords because in every way, on every day, his love for us is steadfast in Jesus Christ. And, having received the enduring love of the Lord, our cup is always running over.

The Lord’s eternal and loyal love. Our eager and abundant thank-ful-ness. The latter ought to flow forth from the former.