16To Him who led His people through the wilderness,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

17To Him who smote great kings,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

18And slew mighty kings,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting:

19Sihon, king of the Amorites,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

20And Og, king of Bashan,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

21And gave their land as a heritage,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

22Even a heritage to Israel His servant,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

23Who remembered us in our low estate,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting,

24And has rescued us from our adversaries,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting;

25Who gives food to all flesh,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

26Give thanks to the God of heaven,
         For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Parallel Verses

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
But He overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
He swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea- because his mercy endures forever.

King James Bible
But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And overthrew Pharao and his host in the Red Sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Darby Bible Translation
And overturned Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea, for his loving-kindness endureth for ever;

English Revised Version
But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Webster's Bible Translation
But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.

World English Bible
But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea; for his loving kindness endures forever:

Young's Literal Translation
And shook out Pharaoh and his force in the sea of Suph, For to the age is His kindness.

Cross References

Exodus 14:27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Psalm 78:53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear; But the sea engulfed their enemies.

Psalm 106:11 The waters covered their adversaries; Not one of them was left.

Psalm 135:9 He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, Upon Pharaoh and all his servants.

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 10-22

The great things God for Israel, when he first formed them into a people, and set up his kingdom among them, are here mentioned, as often elsewhere in the psalms, as instances both of the power of God and of the particular kindness he had for Israel. See Ps. 135:8, etc. 1. He brought them out of Egypt, v. 10-12. That was a mercy which endured long to them, and our redemption by Christ, which was typified by that, does indeed endure for ever, for it is an eternal redemption. Of all the plagues of Egypt, none is mentioned but the death of the first-born, because that was the conquering plague; by that God, who in all the plagues distinguished the Israelites from the Egyptians, brought them at last from among them, not by a wile, but with a strong hand and an arm stretched out to reach far and do great things. These miracles of mercy, as they proved Moses's commission to give law to Israel, so they laid Israel under lasting obligations to obey that law, Ex. 20:2. 2. He forced them a way through the Red Sea, which obstructed them at their first setting out. By the power he has to control the common course of nature he divided the sea into two parts, between which he opened a path, and made Israel to pass between the parts, now that they were to enter into covenant with him; see Jer. 34:18. He not only divided the sea, but gave his people courage to go through it when it was divided, which was an instance of God's power over men's hearts, as the former of his power over the waters. And, to make it a miracle of justice as well as mercy, the same Red Sea that was a lane to the Israelites was a grave to their pursuers. There he shook off Pharaoh and his host. 3. He conducted them through a vast howling wilderness (v. 16); there he led them and fed them. Their camp was victualled and fortified by a constant series of miracles for forty years; though they loitered and wandered there, they were not lost. And in this the mercy of God, and the constancy of that mercy, were the more observable because they often provoked him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert. 4. He destroyed kings before them, to make room for them (v. 17, 18), not deposed and banished them, but smote and slew them, in which appeared his wrath against them, but his mercy, his never-failing mercy, to Israel. And that which magnified it was that they were great kings and famous kings, yet God subdued them as easily as if they had been the least, and weakest, and meanest, of the children of men. They were wicked kings, and then their grandeur and lustre would not secure them from the justice of God. The more great and famous they were the more did God's mercy to Israel appear in giving such kings for them. Sihon and Og are particularly mentioned, because they were the first two that were conquered on the other side Jordan, v. 19, 20. It is good to enter into the detail of God's favours and not to view them in the gross, and in each instance to observe, and own, that God's mercy endureth for ever. 5. He put them in possession of a good land, v. 21, 22. He whose the earth is, and the fulness thereof, the world and those that dwell therein, took land from one people and gave it to another, as pleased him. The iniquity of the Amorites was now full, and therefore it was taken from them. Israel was his servant, and, though they had been provoking in the wilderness, yet he intended to have some service out of them, for to them pertained the service of God. As he said to the Egyptians, Let my people go, so to the Canaanites, Let my people in, that they may serve me. In this God's mercy to them endureth for ever, because it was a figure of the heavenly Canaan, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Calvin's Commentary

10. Who smote the Egyptians in their first-born, for his mercy endureth for ever. 11. And brought out Israel from, the midst of them, for his mercy endureth for ever: 12. With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, for his mercy endureth for ever. 13. Who divided the Red Sea into divisions, for his mercy endureth for ever, 14. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it, for his mercy endureth for ever. 15. And cast Pharaoh and his host headlong into the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth for ever. 16. And led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy endureth for ever.

10. Who smote the Egyptians in, their first-born Some read with their first-born, but the other rendering reads better. As we do not mean to sermonize upon the passage, it is unnecessary to detain the reader here with many words, as nothing is mentioned but what has been treated elsewhere. Only we may notice that the Egyptians are well said to have been smitten in their first-born, because they continued in their outrageous obstinacy under the other plagues, though occasionally terrified by them, but were broken and subdued by this last plague, and submitted. As it was not intended to recount all the wonders successively done in Egypt, the whole is summed up in one word when it is said, that he led his people forth from the midst of it with a mighty and a stretched out arm. For pressed down as they were on every side, it was only by a wonderful display of divine power that they could effect an escape. The figure of an outstretched arm is appropriate, for we stretch out the arm when any great effort is required; so that this implies that God put forth an extraordinary and not a common or slight display of his power in redeeming his people. [175]

13. Who divided the Red Sea I have already (Psalm 106:7) spoken of the word svph, suph, and have not therefore hesitated to render it the Red Sea The Psalmist speaks of divisions in the plural number, which has led some Jewish authors to conjecture that there must have been more passages than one -- an instance of their solemn trifling in firings of which they know nothing, and of their method of corrupting the Scriptures entirely with their vain fancies. We may well laugh at such fooleries, yet we are to hold them at the same time in detestation; for there can be no doubt that the Rabbinical writers were led to this by the devil, as an artful way of discrediting the Scriptures. Moses plainly and explicitly asserts that the heaps of waters stood up on both sides, from which we infer that the space between was one and undivided. [176] But as the people passed through in troops, and not one by one, the pathway being so broad as to admit of their passing freely men and women, with their families and cattle, the Psalmist very properly mentions divisions, with a reference to the people who passed through, this circumstance not a little enhancing the mercy of God, that they saw large depths or channels dried up, so that they had no difficulty in advancing in troops abreast. Another circumstance which confirmed or enhanced the mercy shown, was, that Pharaoh was shortly afterwards drowned; for the very different issue proved that it could not be owing to any hidden cause of a merely natural kind, that some should have perished, while others passed over with entire safety. The distinction made afforded a conspicuous display of God's mercy in saving his people. Much is included in the single expression that God was the leader of his people through the wilderness. It was only by a succession of miracles of various kinds that they could have been preserved for forty years in a parched wilderness, where they were destitute of all the means of subsistence. So that we are to comprehend, under what is here stated, the various proofs of divine goodness and power which are mentioned by Moses as having been vouchsafed, in feeding his people with bread from heaven -- in making water to flow from the rock -- in protecting them under the cloud from the heat of the sun -- giving them a sign of his presence in the pillar of fire -- preserving their raiment entire -- shielding them and their little ones in their exile wanderings under tents of leaves, [177] with innumerable other instances of mercy which must occur to the reader.

Footnotes:

[175] "Dieu en deliverant son peuple n'a point monstre une petite puissance," etc. -- Fr.

[176] "Dont nous pouvons bien recueillir que l'espace d'entre deux estoit sans aucune separation." -- Fr.

[177] "Sous des logettes de feuilles." -- Fr.

Links

Psalm 136 Commentaries: Barnes • Calvin • Clarke • Darby • Gill • Geneva • Guzik • JFB • Keil / Delitzsch • KJV Translators' • Henry's Concise • Matthew Henry • Scofield • TSK • Treasury of David • Wesley

NIV / NLT / ESV / GWT / KJV / ASV / DRB

Jump to Previous Occurrence
Age Army Endures Endureth Everlasting Force Forever Host Kindness Loving Loving-Kindness Mercy Overthrew Overturned Pharaoh Red Sea Shook Steadfast Suph Swept Unchanging

Jump to Next Occurrence
Age Army Endures Endureth Everlasting Force Forever Host Kindness Loving Loving-Kindness Mercy Overthrew Overturned Pharaoh Red Sea Shook Steadfast Suph Swept Unchanging

New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org.

GOD'S WORD® is a copyrighted work of God's Word to the Nations. Quotations are used by permission. Copyright 1995 by God's Word to the Nations. All rights reserved.

Alphabetical: and army but endures everlasting For forever He his in into is love lovingkindness overthrew Pharaoh Red Sea swept the

Bible Browser

The Last Discourses of Christ - the Prayer of Consecration.
THE new Institution of the Lord's Supper did not finally close what passed at that Paschal Table. According to the Jewish Ritual, the Cup is filled a fourth time, and the remaining part of the Hallel [5717] repeated. Then follow, besides Ps. cxxxvi., a number of prayers and hymns, of which the comparatively late origin is not doubtful. The same remark applies even more strongly to what follows after the fourth Cup. But, so far as we can judge, the Institution of the Holy Supper was followed by the …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Minstrel
ELISHA needed that the Holy Spirit should come upon him to inspire him with prophetic utterances. "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We need that the hand of the Lord should be laid upon us, for we can never open our mouths in wisdom except we are under the divine touch. Now, the Spirit of God works according to his own will. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," and the Spirit of God operates as he chooseth. Elisha could not prophesy just when he liked; he must wait until …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

Gethsemane
We turn once more to follow the steps of Christ, now among the last He trod upon earth. The hymn,' with which the Paschal Supper ended, had been sung. Probably we are to understand this of the second portion of the Hallel, [5818] sung some time after the third Cup, or else of Psalm cxxxvi., which, in the present Ritual, stands near the end of the service. The last Discourses had been spoken, the last Prayer, that of Consecration, had been offered, and Jesus prepared to go forth out of the City, to …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament