Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good...

Psalm 136 (NASB) from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
² Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
³ Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
⁴ To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
⁵ To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
⁶ To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
⁷ To Him who made the great lights, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:
⁸ The sun to rule by day, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
⁹ The moon and stars to rule by night, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

¹⁰ To Him who smote the Egyptians in their firstborn, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
¹¹ And brought Israel out from their midst, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
¹² With a strong hand and an outstretched arm, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
¹³ To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
¹⁴ And made Israel pass through the midst of it, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
¹⁵ But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
¹⁶ To Him who led His people through the wilderness, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
¹⁷ To Him who smote great kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
¹⁸ And slew mighty kings, For His lovingkindness is everlasting:
¹⁹ Sihon, king of the Amorites, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
²⁰ And Og, king of Bashan, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
²¹ And gave their land as a heritage, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
²² Even a heritage to Israel His servant, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

²³ Who remembered us in our low estate, For His lovingkindness is everlasting,
²⁴ And has rescued us from our adversaries, For His lovingkindness is everlasting;
²⁵ Who gives food to all flesh, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.
²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

In yesterdays text we saw that even God’s judgment, even the coming great tribulation is because His lovingkindness is everlasting. If we will look to God rather than looking from our own perspective and through our own self centered desires, we too will see, like the psalmist, see and proclaim  that His lovingkindness is everlasting.  Each one of us, if we will be honest can look back over our lives and see times where God because of His lovingkindness spared us.

We should like the psalmist acknowledge that He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords. As we look around we can believe if we choose to think that all the beauty, the splendor, the intricacies and the vastness of creation happened through a random string of circumstances, we can believe that we alone of all living creatures have the ability to read and comprehend because our cells made better choices than others. Or we can, like the psalmist acknowledge that it is God alone who does great wonders. It is He who made the heavens with skill and spread out the earth above the waters. It is He, God alone who made the sun the moon and the stars and it is He whose lovingkindness is everlasting.

Yesterday we began with the often asked question: How or why would a kind and loving God allow so much suffering and evil? Today consider this first: Why would the almighty, all powerful God of creation care so much about something as inconsequential as a single human life?   The psalmist says God remembered us in our low estate. The psalmist lived and wrote this psalm before the fulfillment of the lovingkindness of God. God remembering us in our low estate, showed His lovingkindness toward us.       God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)       Just as God sought after Adam and Eve after they had sinned, He seeks after each person. His desire is that none should perish, that all should come to repentance. It because of the everlasting lovingkindness of God that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

We can choose to question God. We can from our low estate,  rail against Him, thinking that we in all of our wisdom know better than He who created the universe. Or we can as the psalmist says in Psalm 37,  we can look to the God of all creation, the God of gods, the Lord of lords and: Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

If we will see things from beyond our own self centered perspective and acknowledge God for who He is, we will see His everlasting lovingkindness. If we will see how good and how great God is we will realize that all we do for ourselves amounts to little more than a twinkling in eternity. What we do for God, in response to His everlasting lovingkindness, is also everlasting and eternal.

The writer of Proverbs saw and knew the insignificance of vain striving. In today’s daily reading he wrote in Proverbs 30:7-9:       Two things I asked of You, Do not refuse me before I die:
⁸ Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches;
Feed me with the food that is my portion, ⁹ That I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or that I not be in want and steal, And profane the name of my God.   Psalm 73:25-26 says:      Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. 26My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

“My portion forever” May that be our prayer today. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. I desire nothing on earth, You God are the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Amen.