Day 255

Isaiah 29:1-30:18, 2 Corinthians 12:11-21, Psalm 107:1-9

We’ve spent very little time so far in the last year looking at the Psalms despite the fact that they contain so much emotion and theology. If we were to look at songs in the charts we see that they are a mix of the high moments of life and the low moments, and everything in between. In the same way the Psalmists used their songs to try and express what they, or the whole nation, were feeling.

I have seen the words from v1 in a number of places through the Old Testament – “give thank to God, his love endures forever”, but Psalm 136 (which we’ll get to eventually) has to be one of the best locations for it.

There are also a number of worship songs that go down this route and I was having a look at Chris Tomlin’s “Forever” where the words dwell on this verse and the others live it. It’s all about the eternity of God, which we have touched on before, where ”forever” is actually a long time. For this Psalmist there is something a little more immediate. When you have been in exile (the land of the foe), when you are hungry and thirsty beyond recognition, all you actually care about is the next day or the next meal. Tomorrow or even an hours time. When you are close to death, forever is tomorrow. All you really want is love that will get you out of that situation.

God’s love endures for the very immediate idea of forever, then it keeps on going. In his love he walks with us and stays with us for all eternity.

“Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
              his love endures forever”