Psalm 136:22

Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 136:22-25. A heritage unto Israel his servant — He speaks of all that people as of one man, because they were united together in one body, in the worship of one and the same God. Thus God calleth them all his firstborn, Exodus 4:22. Who giveth food to all flesh — To all living creatures. For which God deserves great praises, which the palmist, by his example, teacheth us to render for them, because those who are most concerned either cannot or do not perform this duty. Observe, reader, “the same bounty, which in the natural world provides proper nutriment for every creature, hath also provided for the spirits of all flesh the bread of eternal life. In either sense, Jehovah openeth his hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness. Be therefore his praise as universal and lasting as his mercy.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

136:10-22 The great things God did for Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt, were mercies which endured long to them; and our redemption by Christ, which was typified thereby, endures for ever. It is good to enter into the history of God's favours, and in each to observe, and own, that his mercy endureth for ever. He put them in possession of a good land; it was a figure of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

To him which smote great kings - On this passage see the notes at Psalm 135:10-12. There is little difference in the two places, except that here the statement is divided by the refrain, "For his mercy endureth forever." The idea in the whole passage, in view of the divine interposition in slaying the mighty kings, and in giving their land for a possession to the Hebrew people, is, that it was a proof of mercy and benevolence. It is benevolence to mankind and to the church of God - it is in the interests of humanity, of domestic peace, and of the charities of life, to remove wicked people from the world. This mercy may be manifested further, not merely in removing the wicked, but in transferring their possessions to those who will make a better use of them. Thus the possessions of these mighty kings, Sihon and Og, were transferred to the people of God, and lands which had been devoted to the service of blood, ambition, crime, pollution, and idolatry, became devoted to the service of religion and righteousness. In like manner, through the removal of a wicked man from the world by death, God may cause his wealth, accumulated by avarice and dishonesty, to be transferred to the hands of children who will make a good use of it - children converted as if in anticipation of this, and with a view to this. Among the highest expressions of mercy to the world may be, therefore, the removal of wicked princes in war - or the removal of wicked people, in other ranks of life, by death in any form.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. overthrew—literally, "shook off," as in Ex 14:27, as a contemptuous rejection of a reptile.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Israel his servant; he speaks of all that people as of one man, because they were united together in one body, in the worship of one and the same God. Thus God calleth them all his first-born, Exodus 4:22.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Even an heritage unto Israel his servant,.... The land of those that served idols, the Lord took and gave to Israel for an inheritance, who served him, the true God. Thus the Lord rewards his servants in a way of grace and mercy, though not as of debt; for it follows,

for his mercy endureth for ever; Aben Ezra and Kimchi make the mercy to lie in this peculiarly, that the lands of these kings were not in the covenant with Abraham; only the seven nations or kingdoms of Canaan, which are not here mentioned, as in Psalm 135:11; but the Amorites were given in the covenant, Genesis 15:21; and the one as the other were given as an inheritance to Israel, and equally owing to the mercy of God; see Psalm 135:11. And thus the heavenly glory, of which Canaan was a type, is an inheritance owing to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Jde 1:21.

Geneva Study Bible

Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. Israel his servant] Cp. Isaiah 41:8; &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Even an heritage unto Israel his servant (comp. Psalm 135:12). For his mercy, etc. Psalm 136:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Up to this point it is God the absolute in general, the Creator of all things, to the celebration of whose praise they are summoned; and from this point onwards the God of the history of salvation. In Psalm 136:13 גּזר (instead of בּקע, Psalm 78:13; Exodus 14:21; Nehemiah 9:11) of the dividing of the Red Sea is peculiar; גּזרים (Genesis 15:17, side by side with בּתרים) are the pieces or parts of a thing that is cut up into pieces. נער is a favourite word taken from Exodus 14:27. With reference to the name of the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh (Herodotus also, ii. 111, calls the Pharaoh of the Exodus the son of Sesostris-Rameses Miumun, not Μενόφθας, as he is properly called, but absolutely Φερῶν), vid., on Psalm 73:22. After the God to whom the praise is to be ascribed has been introduced with ל by always fresh attributes, the ל before the names of Sihon and of Og is perplexing. The words are taken over, as are the six lines of Psalm 136:17-22 in the main, from Psalm 135:10-12, with only a slight alteration in the expression. In Psalm 136:23 the continued influence of the construction הודוּ ל is at an end. The connection by means of שׁ (cf. Psalm 135:8, Psalm 135:10) therefore has reference to the preceding "for His goodness endureth for ever." The language here has the stamp of the latest period. It is true זכר with Lamed of the object is used even in the earliest Hebrew, but שׁפל is only authenticated by Ecclesiastes 10:6, and פּרק, to break loose equals to rescue (the customary Aramaic word for redemption), by Lamentations 5:8, just as in the closing verse, which recurs to the beginning, "God of heaven" is a name for God belonging to the latest literature, Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:4. In Psalm 136:23 the praise changes suddenly to that which has been experienced very recently. The attribute in Psalm 136:25 (cf. Psalm 147:9; Psalm 145:15) leads one to look back to a time in which famine befell them together with slavery.