16 To him who led his people through the wilderness; For his loving kindness endures forever:
but God led the people around by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water.
You led your people like a flock, By the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Whenever the cloud was taken up from over the Tent, then after that the children of Israel traveled; and in the place where the cloud remained, there the children of Israel encamped. At the commandment of Yahweh, the children of Israel traveled, and at the commandment of Yahweh they encamped. As long as the cloud remained on the tabernacle they remained encamped. When the cloud stayed on the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of Yahweh, and didn't travel. Sometimes the cloud was a few days on the tabernacle; then according to the commandment of Yahweh they remained encamped, and according to the commandment of Yahweh they traveled. Sometimes the cloud was from evening until morning; and when the cloud was taken up in the morning, they traveled: or by day and by night, when the cloud was taken up, they traveled. Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed on the tabernacle, remaining on it, the children of Israel remained encamped, and didn't travel; but when it was taken up, they traveled.
Moreover in a pillar of cloud you led them by day; and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light in the way in which they should go.
yet you in your manifold mercies didn't forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of cloud didn't depart from over them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show them light, and the way in which they should go.
Then he remembered the days of old, Moses [and] his people, [saying], Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he who put his holy Spirit in the midst of them? who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name? who led them through the depths, as a horse in the wilderness, so that they didn't stumble? As the cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of Yahweh caused them to rest; so did you lead your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 136
Commentary on Psalms 136 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 136
The scope of this psalm is the same with that of the foregoing psalm, but there is something very singular in the composition of it; 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, or "keepings,' as we call them, add very much to the beauty of a 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,
Psa 136:1-9
The duty we are here again and again called to is to give thanks, to offer the sacrifice of praise continually, not the fruits of our ground or cattle, but the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, Heb. 13:15. We are never so earnestly called upon to pray and repent as to give thanks; for it is the will of God that we should abound most in the most pleasant exercises of religion, in that which is the work of heaven. Now here observe,
Psa 136:10-22
The great things God for Israel, when he first formed them into a people, and set up his kingdom among them, are here mentioned, as often elsewhere in the psalms, as instances both of the power of God and of the particular kindness he had for Israel. See Ps. 135:8, etc.
Psa 136:23-26
God's everlasting mercy is here celebrated,