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Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
My Thoughts
As I read this verse my mind went to a modern day song titled The Goodness of God, the thought that came to me was that the person who wrote the lyrics must have been thinking of this psalm and this verse.
This verse highlights the importance of giving thanks to God for His enduring goodness and mercy, which lasts forever. The psalmist encourages all of Israel, including priests and worshippers, to unite in gratitude for His lovingkindness. The repetition of this theme emphasizes God’s covenantal love, inviting reflection and acknowledgment of His unwavering support. Various commentators recognize that expressing gratitude is a collective responsibility, reinforcing the necessity to praise God not only for His blessings but for His inherent goodness, regardless of circumstances…..Bill
Overview of Psalm 118
The psalmist calls on Israel (all God’s people), the house of Aaron (all the priests), and those who fear the Lord (all who take him seriously) to give thanks to him. Why? Because his faithful love endures forever. Notice the repetition. The biblical writers weren’t able to emphasize important truths with bold typeface or italics like we do today; instead, they used repetition for emphasis. If there’s one thing the psalmist wanted us to know, it is this: For those who come under God’s covenant covering, his loyal, covenantal love lasts forever. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 566.
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Commentaries:
Matthew Henry
It appears here, as often as elsewhere, that David had his heart full of the goodness of God. He loved to think of it, loved to speak of it, and was very solicitous that God might have the praise of it and others the comfort of it. The more our hearts are impressed with a sense of God’s goodness, the more they will be enlarged in all manner of obedience. In these verses,
He celebrates God’s mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (v. 1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures forever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Ps. 115:9-11); here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures forever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, v. 2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God’s goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures forever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last for ever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord shall be as pleasing to him as those of the house of Israel or the house of Aaron.
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Charles Spurgeon
“O give thanks unto the LORD.” The grateful hero feels that he cannot himself alone sufficiently express his thankfulness, and therefore, he calls in the aid of others. Grateful hearts are greedy of men’s tongues, and would monopolize them all for God’s glory. The whole nation was concerned in David’s triumphant accession, and therefore it was right that they should unite in his adoring song of praise. The thanks were to be rendered unto Jehovah alone, and not to the patience or valor of the hero himself. It is always well to trace our mercies to him who bestows them, and if we cannot give him anything else, let us at any rate give him our thanks. We must not stop short at the second agent, but rise at once to the first cause, and render all our praises unto the Lord himself. Have we been of a forgetful or murmuring spirit? Let us hear the lively language of the text, and allow it to speak to our hearts: “Cease your complaining, cease from all self-glorification, and give thanks unto the Lord.”
“For he is good.” This is reason enough for giving him thanks; goodness is his essence and nature, and therefore, he is always to be praised whether we are receiving anything from him or not. Those who only praise God because he does them good should rise to a higher note and give thanks to him because he is good. In the truest sense, he alone is good, “There is none good but one, that is God;” therefore, in all gratitude, the Lord should have the royal portion. If others seem to be good, he is good. If others are good in a measure, he is good beyond measure. When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord because he is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless him that “he is good.” We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questionable, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; his dispensations may vary, but his nature is always the same, and always good. It is not only that he was good, and will be good, but he is good; let his providence be what it may. Therefore let us even at this present moment, though the skies be dark with clouds, yet give thanks unto his name.
“Because his mercy endureth for ever.” Mercy is a great part of his goodness, and one which more concerns us than any other, for we are sinners and have need of his mercy. Angels may say that he is good, but they need not his mercy and cannot therefore take an equal delight in it; inanimate creation declares that he is good, but it cannot feel his mercy, for it has never transgressed; but man, deeply guilty and graciously forgiven, beholds mercy as the very focus and center of the goodness of the Lord. The endurance of the divine mercy is a special subject for song: notwithstanding our sins, our trials, our fears, his mercy endureth forever. The best of earthly joys pass away, and even the world itself grows old and hastens to decay, but there is no change in the mercy of God; he was faithful to our forefathers, he is merciful to us, and will be gracious to our children and our children’s children. It is to be hoped that the philosophical interpreters who endeavor to clip the word “forever” into a mere period of time will have the goodness to let this passage alone. However, whether they do or not, we shall believe in endless mercy—mercy to eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ, who is the grand incarnation of the mercy of God, calls upon us at every remembrance of him to give thanks unto the Lord, for “he is good.”
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Enduring Word
For His mercy endures forever: This psalm begins and ends with this declaration. It is a statement of fact and of gratitude, noting that God’s hesed – His loyal covenant love, His lovingkindness – will never be taken from His people.(Guzik)
i. For His mercy endures forever: In the psalms, this phrase has almost a liturgical quality to it. It is used 34 times and is an appreciative declaration of God’s people, praising the great lovingkindness or covenant love of God. (Guzik)
ii. “Other psalms confirm the familiarity of this call to worship (Psalm 106:1; Psalm 136:1), and show the opportunity it gave to cantor and congregation to rehearse the great acts of God together (Psalm 136:1-26).” (Kidner)
iii. “The word endureth has been properly supplied by the translators, but yet it somewhat restricts the sense, which will be better seen if we read it, ‘for his mercy for ever.’ That mercy had no beginning, and shall never know an end.” (Spurgeon)
iv. This psalm is the last of the six Egyptian Hallel Psalms, sung in Jesus’ day as part of the Passover ritual. When Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26 tell us that Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples at the last supper, it refers to these Hallel Psalms. As Jesus sang the words for His mercy endures forever, He did it with complete knowledge that the endurance of God’s mercy would be tested to the utmost in the work to come the next day at the cross.
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Albert Barnes
O give thanks unto the Lord … – Let others unite with me in giving thanks to the Lord; let them see, from what has occurred in my case, what occasion there is for praise. Every instance of a particular favor shown to anyone is to others an occasion for praise, inasmuch as it is an illustration of the general character of God. On this verse compare the notes at Psalms 106:1. The language is nearly the same.
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John Gill
O give thanks unto the Lord,…. For all his mercies, temporal and spiritual; as all should, who are partakers of them: this should be done always, and for all things, in the name of Christ; it is but reasonable service;
for [he is] good; in himself, and to others: is essentially and diffusively good; the fountain of all goodness, and the author of all good things;
because his mercy [endureth] for ever; in his own heart, and in his covenant; his grace and lovingkindness displayed in Christ; the blessings and promises of it, which are the sure mercies of David: these always remain, notwithstanding the unworthiness of his people; and though he hides his face sometimes from them, and chastises them; see Psalm 106:1; the goodness and mercy of God were seen in setting David on the throne; and abundantly more in giving Christ to be the Savior of his people; for both which thanks should be given, and the kindness acknowledged, by the persons mentioned in the following verses.
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Cross-References
Psalm 106:1 (KJV )
1 Praise ye the Lord.
O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good:
For his mercy endureth for ever.
Jeremiah 33:11 (KJV )
11 The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the Lord of hosts: for the Lord is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the Lord.
Ezra 3:11 (KJV )
11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
2 Chronicles 7:3 (KJV )
3 And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 Chronicles 5:13 (KJV )
13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord;
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 118:1
1 Praise (a) ye the Lord, because he is good: for his mercie endureth for ever.
(a) Because God by creating David King, showed his mercy toward his afflicted Church, the Prophet does not only himself thank God, but exhorts all the people to do the same.
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Closing Thoughts
Psalm 55:
16 As for me, I will call upon GOD and the LORD shall save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.
18 He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me,
22 Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 ….But I will Trust in YOU
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