Psalm 136:4 To him who alone does great wonders: for his mercy endures for ever. Who alone doeth great wonders. "Jehovah is the great Thaumaturge, the unrivalled Wonder-worker. None can be likened unto him; he is alone in wonderland, the Creator and Worker of true marvels, compared with which all other remarkable things are as child's play. None of the gods or the lords helped Jehovah in creation or in the redemption of his people." As the theme of this psalm is the Divine mercy, we must find the merciful in the wonderful. This psalm recalls to our minds the first chapter of Genesis, which declares the absolute Creatorship of God. It does not consist of a precise, definite, and detailed account of the processes of creation, but contains a series of distinct and repeated affirmations of God's supreme relations to all forms of existence, in all their order, all their origin, all their growth, all their relations. It is designed to impress on us that the world was not created by chance, by self-regeneration, by impersonal powers of nature, or by many agents acting either in harmony or in antagonism. God is distinct from that he has made. God is the one primal Source of all things. God's will is represented in all laws that rule. God's good pleasure shapes all ends. This chapter impresses on mind and heart the existence, independence, and personality of one Divine Being, the universality of his rule, the omnipotence of his power, and the eternal persistence of his relationship to the world he has created. 1. The chapter declares God's unique relation to every part of creation. We may conceive of no created thing, no existing thing, to which the assurance is not attached - God made it, God ordained it, God arranged it. The chapter includes all the components of the earth's crust; all the treasures of the mighty deep; all the elements of the atmosphere; all the hosts of heaven, from the ruling sun to the faintest distant star; all the multiplied forms of vegetable life; all the higher forms of animal life; and all the yet higher forms of human life. And the declaration of God's creation includes all the natural laws and forces that act in creation. These things may be illustrated. 2. The relation of God as Cause and Arranger to all the changes of creation. One living God is at the beginning of all changes, designing all change, and presiding over all change. 3. The relation of God as Cause and Controller to the entire range of development in creation. Tell us of millions of bygone ages: God was there. Show us a thing: God made it. Describe a change: God ordered it. Talk of immeasurable distances, in which the stars swing free: God set them there. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.WEB: To him who alone does great wonders; for his loving kindness endures forever: |
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