FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOR EVER

 ANCHOR OF LIFE DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE For SUNDAY, 1ST JANUARY, 2023.

Topic: FOR HIS MERCY ENDURES FOR EVER

MEMORIZE: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Psalm 136:1

SCRIPTURE READING: “1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. 2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever. 3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever: 4 To Him who alone does great wonders, For His mercy endures forever;” Psalm 136:1-4.

EXPOSITION:

We thank God for counting us worthy to be among the conquerors who cross-over to 2023 despite the evils and terror that 2022 witnessed. To as many that cross over to this side of the new year, we must appreciate God with the whole of our hearts. We want to examine psalm 136 and join the psalmist in singing: Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever

The scope of this psalm is to examine the mercy of God that endures for ever; for the latter half of each verse is the same, repeated throughout the psalm, "for his mercy endureth for ever," and yet no vain repetition. It is allowed that such “burdens” as we call them, add very much to the beauty of the song, and help to make it moving and affecting; nor can any verse contain more weighty matter, or more worthy to be thus repeated, than this, that God's mercy endureth for ever; and the repetition of it here twenty-six times intimates these truth, 

1. That God's mercies to his people are thus repeated and drawn, as it were, with a continuando from the beginning to the end, with a progress and advance in infinitum. 

2. That in every particular favour we ought to take notice of the mercy of God, and to take favour we ought to take notice of the mercy of God, and to take notice of it as enduring still, the same now that it has been, and enduring forever, the same always that it is. 

3. That the everlasting continuance of the mercy of God is very much his honour and that which he glories in, and very much the saints' comfort and that which they glory in. It is that which therefore our hearts should be full of and greatly affected with, so that the most frequent mention of it, instead of cloying us, should raise us the more, because it will be the subject of our praise to all eternity. This most excellent sentence, that God's mercy endureth for ever, is magnified above all the truths concerning God, not only by the repetition of it here, but by the signal tokens of divine acceptance with which God owned the singing of it, both in Solomon's time (2 Chronicles 5:13, when they sang these words, "for his mercy endureth for ever," the house was filled with a cloud) and in Jehoshaphat's time (when they sang these words, God gave them victory, 2 Chronicles 20:21,22), which should make us love to sing, "His mercies sure do still endure, eternally." 

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2023!

ACTION POINT: Praise God extensively for the gift of life that God gives you through His mercy that endures forever.

When you journey with God in praise this year, your life will be filled with God’s wonders that produce beautiful testimonies.

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DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  Genesis 1-2.