Day 7: Psalm 136

One of the dominant themes of the book of Psalms is worship. More specifically, it is worship music. At a practical level, the book of Psalms is essentially a songbook. For Jesus and his disciples, the Psalms were their songbook.

Through generations of translations, it’s lost its lyrical nature, but the Psalms are beautiful lyrics when put to music in any language. In the ancient world, a group of people called the Levites (they are one of the 12 tribes of Israel dating back way before the Psalms) would most likely sing the songs over you when you would go to the Temple in Jerusalem. I don’t mean that to say that the crowds were ignorant of the songs being sung or that they did it out habit. They would have been very moved by it, and certainly would have seen the act of going to temple and being sung over as an act of solidarity with your fellow believers.

In our world, worship is talked about as a private experience. We go to church to sing a song, but it is very much between us and God not between us and someone else. The ancients didn’t see it that way. Imagine stepping into temple and hearing these lines from Psalm 136:1-7 sung over you.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords:

His love endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders,

His love endures forever.

Who by his understanding made the heavens,

His love endures forever.

Who spread out the earth upon the waters,

His love endures forever.

Who made the great lights—

His love endures forever.

Psalm 136 1-7

Imagine being moved at the thought that not only did you believe this, the others around you did too. It can be very easy on a quarantine Sunday to not want to worship God, or to feel like you need to muster up worship to God because it’s your typical routine on a Sunday morning. However, on this very unusual Palm Sunday, may you gain strength not just from singing the songs, but like the ancients, having the songs sung over you. It may feel odd and modern to open a laptop and go to church. At the same time, there is something quite deep and rooted about the experience.

We are not entering into a building to have our worship moment with God. We, like the people of God in Psalms, are having songs sung over us. May you find today that His love endures forever.