Psalm 136 can be touted as the “The Psalm of Thanks” or the “Thanksgiving Psalm.” It is a Psalm that is rich in content, apropos the character of God and since each verse in the Psalm is suffixed with “For his mercy endures forever”, it is a Psalm that is easy to read and memorize as well.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this past week and are entering into the Christmas season. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, giving thanks for the ultimate reason of sending us his only begotten Son, we will be looking at each verse in this Psalm and glean out the character of God from these verses, which would be reason enough to be grateful and give thanks to our LORD God.

Today we look at Verse 1.
O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

We can give thanks because first and foremost we can see here that the Lord is GOOD. Even when man disobeyed the Lord, by eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3), God did not show his bad side to man but instead channelled his wrath toward his innocent creation and cursed the land so that man need not be cursed. He further demonstrated his good side (love) toward man, so much so, that he cursed (Galatians 3:13) and poured out his only begotten son (John 3:16), forsaking him on the Cross of calvary (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46), to bear our sin (badness) (1 Peter 2:24). O taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

Points to ponder:
Man lost his experience of seeing the good side of God perpetually by eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3). Man can regain his experience of seeing the good side of God perpetually by taking in (as in the Lord’s supper) the forsaken tree of life (which is Jesus Christ). O taste and see that the Lord God (Jesus Christ) is good.

Have you experienced the goodness of God? Even when things around and in your life don’t seem to be good, the goodness of God never wavers. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.

Psalm 136:1 (KJV)
1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.