Now There's A Hook!

“O give thanks to the Lord, our God,

                      For God’s steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:1)

In popular contemporary music, the stuff we hear on “Top 40 radio stations”, (if anyone still does that in this day of Pandora and Spotify and such).  Most of the songs have a chorus, or refrain that can really stick in your head.  You’ll find yourself humming that part of the tune well after you were listening to it.  A lot of people call that an “ear worm”.  In the music industry, they call that a “hook”.   It’s the part of the song that “hooks” ya and keeps it in your head so that maybe your purchase the song and/or begin listening for other tunes by that artist.  It’s very intentional.

Psalm 136 is one of my most favorite Psalms.  It is a Psalm all about giving thanks to God.  It’s how the first three verses and the last verse begin: “O Give thanks to the Lord our God.”  Well, actually, the last verse begins “O give thanks to the God of heaven”, but you get what I mean.  Now, often, when an author, (or lyricist in this case – the Psalms are the songs the people Israel sang in the temple), repeated a word or phrase it was to emphasize it.  That’s the case here.  The lyricist wants to drive home the message, “O give thanks to the Lord, our God,..”.  For the writer of Psalm 136, the beginning of celebrating the goodness and wonder of God begins with giving thanks to God!

But even all this isn’t my favorite part of the Psalm.  What I most love and appreciate about Psalm 136 is that EVERY VERSE, all 26 of them end with, “For God’s steadfast love endures forever”.  Love that!  Now Psalm 136 recounts the history of Israel from the creation story to living in the promise land.  All the best of times and all the worst of times, from slavery in Egypt to processing the land they understood promised to them by God, from God’s good creation to the wilderness experience in the dessert – in all those times, through all those generations of experiences – the good and the bad, the one known constant the people declare is, “For God’s steadfast love endures forever”.  Now there’s a hook!!

This is the month where we celebrate our Thanksgiving.  I so look forward to this holiday.  In my family’s tradition, it’s the holiday when as much of my family; my siblings and as many of their kids and grandkids – along with my kids and grandkids - all who can…come together!  It is always a wonderful time.  It’s a time of “catching up”, a time of celebrating memories and making new ones, it’s a time filled with laughter and tears of love.  But I think the “hook”, the repeating constant in my family’s lives is that “God’s steadfast love endures forever!

In all our memories, there are times of great blessings and great joy.  But also in our memories are experiences of great loss and of true and injurious crisis.  But the through line of our lives – my family and yours and each and all - is this constant truth: that God’s steadfast love endures forever and ever and ever and ever and….well, you get the idea.

In this month that holds this very special holiday, may you know the certainty of God’ love. That no matter the experience you’re going through – good or not so good – God is with you, God’s love is pouring on you, supporting you, surrounding you, enveloping you (and your family and friends) even indwelling.  May you know that this love is not going anywhere – it’s steadfast – and you can lean on it and count on it!  So, I encourage you to, “…give thanks to the Lord our God” and may the “hook” of Psalm 136 stick in your heart, ‘cause…”God’s steadfast love endures forever!!

Be God’s, Pastor Jim