His steadfast love endures forever (Ezekiel 13-15; Psalm 136; John 5)

Are you ever likely to forget God’s steadfast love? Maybe it’s when things are hard, and you wonder “how can a loving God allow this?” Perhaps with all God’s people went through in exile, they were tempted to question God’s love. We have an enemy that from the beginning has been getting people to question the love of God. God knows our weakness and so in Psalm 136 He tells us 26 times that “his steadfast love endures forever.” What an amazingly loving and gracious God.

But He doesn’t just tell us, He shows us. He begins by telling us about His character, He is good. There is no one else who is totally good, only God. And He’s the only God. He’s the God of gods. He’s done great things (v4) and some of His great works are recounted. He begins with creation, what an understatement – He “made the heavens”! What did you do today? “Oh, I made the heavens!”

After celebrating His loving kindness in creation, in making a wonderful place for us to live, He jumps to how He redeemed His people out of Egypt. How do we know God is loving, not only did He make an amazing world that reflects His glory, but He rescued His people from slavery, brought them through the Red Sea and brought His people to the promised land (v10-22).

As we sing this Psalm as Christians, we can remind ourselves of God’s steadfast love shown through Jesus. As we saw at the beginning of John’s gospel, Jesus is the one who made all things. We see in the Exodus a shadow of what Jesus came to do, He came to set us free from slavery to sin. He is the true Passover Lamb who died as our substitute. He defeats our enemies of sin, Satan and death to bring us to the promised land of heaven!

How confidently we can sing “His steadfast love endures forever.” What are you facing that tempts you to question God’s love? Now remind yourself of all that He has done to show you His love in Jesus, why not tell yourself “His steadfast love endures forever.” Ask for His help to know that even your present suffering He is somehow working for your ultimate good. And just in case you’re still not sure, our reading from John 5 tells us “the Father loves the Son” He had loved Him from all eternity, and yet He gave Him for us!

“His steadfast love endures forever.”