physically · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
God
לֵֽאלֹהֵ֣יle.lo.Hei
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
gods
הָאֱלֹהִ֑יםha.'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
mercy
חַסְדּֽוֹchas.Do
H2617
kindness · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
ever
לְעוֹלָ֣םle.'o.Lam
H5769
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewa…
Psalms 97:9 For thou, LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods.
2 Chronicles 2:5 And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods.
Daniel 2:47 The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, s…
Exodus 18:11 Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.
Joshua 22:22 The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the…
Psalms 82:1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
Psalms 97:7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 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, 1. Whom we must give thanks to - to him that we receive all good from, to the Lord, Jehovah, Israel's God (Psa 136:1), the God of gods, the God whom angels adore, from whom magistrates derive their power, and by whom all pretended deities are and shall be…
O give thanks unto the God of gods,.... Not only of the gods of the Gentiles, who are by name and not by nature gods; or of civil magistrates, who are so called, and seem to be designed in the next verse; but the angels, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi. Christ, our Immanuel, is the God of them, the object of their worship and adoration, being their Creator and Preserver, Psalm 97:7. So the Heathens say (r) of the Maker of all things, him you may properly call the God of gods, the Supreme and Best; this title Janus has with them (s);
for his mercy endureth for ever; in the preservation of those excellent creatures from apostasy, when many of their species fell; and in the continuance and confirmatio…
Psalm 136:1-9
1. Praise Jehovah, for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. 2. Praise the God of gods, for his mercy endureth for ever. 3.. Praise the Lord of Lords, [171] for his mercy endureth for ever. 4. Who alone hath done great wonders, for his mercy endureth for ever, 5. Who made the heavens by his wisdom, [or, intelligently,] for his mercy endureth for ever. 6. Who stretcheth out the earth above the waters, for his mercy endureth for ever. 7. Who made the great lights, for his mercy endureth for ever. 8. The sun for rule by day, for his mercy endureth for ever. 9. The moon and stars for rule by night for his mercy endureth for ever.
1. For his mercy, [172] etc. The insertion…
The Church Fathers
Confess to the God of gods. He means these gods, of whom it is written: "I have said, you are gods." And again: "God stood in the synagogue of the gods." Those who cease to be men, and abandon their vices, and are made perfect: these are gods, and sons of the Most High.
Then follows, "Give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures for ever" [Psalm 136:2]. "Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures for ever" [Psalm 136:3]. We may well enquire, Who are these gods and lords, of whom He who is the true God is God and Lord? And we find written in another Psalm, that even men are called gods. The Lord even takes note of this testimony in the Gospel, saying, "Is it not written in your Law, I have said, You are gods?" [John 10:34] ...It is not therefore because they are all good, but because "the word of God came to them," that they were called gods. For were it because they are all good, He would not thus distinguish between them. He says, "He judges between the gods." Then follows, "How long do ye judge iniquity!" and the rest, which He says certainly not to all, but to some, because He says it in distinguishing, and yet He distinguishes between the gods.
And that this is the opinion either of all or the best of the Platonists can be ascertained by their writings. And regarding the name itself, if they see fit to call such blessed and immortal creatures gods, this need not give rise to any serious discussion between us, since in our own Scriptures we read, "The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken;" and again, "Confess to the God of gods;" and again, "He is a great King above all gods." And where it is said, "He is to be feared above all gods," the reason is forthwith added, for it follows, "for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." He said, "above all gods," but added, "of the nations;" that is to say, above all those whom the nations count gods, in other words, demons. By them he is to be feared with that terror in which they cried to the Lord, "Hast Thou come to destroy us?" But where it is said, "the God of gods," it cannot be understood as the god of the demons; and far be it from us to say that "great King above all gods" means "great King above all demons."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Exodus — The great deliverance wrought for the children of Isreal when they were brought out of the land of Egypt with “a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm” (Ex 12:51; Deut. 26:8; Ps 114; 136), about…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Mercy Of God, The · Described as: Everlasting — Described as: Everlasting
Praise · Is due to God on account of: His mercy — Is due to God on account of: His mercy
Thankfulness · .For the goodness and mercy of God — .For the goodness and mercy of God
Thanksgiving · Should be offered: For the goodness and mercy of God — Should be offered: For the goodness and mercy of God
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Like the preceding Psalm, this Psalm allies itself to the Book of Deuteronomy. Psa 136:2 and Psa 136:3 (God of gods and Lord of lords) are taken from Deu 10:17; Psa 136:12 (with a strong hand and stretched-out arm) from Deu 4:34; Deu 5:15, and frequently (cf. Jer 32:21); Psa 136:16 like Deu 8:15 (cf. Jer 2:6). With reference to the Deuteronomic colouring of Psa 136:19-22, vid., on Psa 135:10-12; also the expression "Israel His servant" recalls Deu 32:36 (cf. Psa 135:14; Psa 90:13), and still more Isa 40:1, where the comprehension of Israel under the unity of this notion has its own proper place. In other respects, too, the Psalm is an echo of earlier model passages. Who alone doeth great won…
Ps 136 This is the last of the Great Hallel psalms (Pss 120–136). It distinctively repeats the refrain His faithful love endures forever in every verse. The hymn is framed by a call to praise (136:1-3, 26). It proclaims the Lord as the Creator of all and the Redeemer of Israel, both in the distant (136:10-22) and in the recent past (136:23-24).
136:1-3 The psalmist invites the community to praise the Lord, who is good and full of love, the true Lord of humanity. Verse 1 alludes to the poetic expression in 2 Chr 5:13.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 136:2
O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.
O give thanks unto the God of gods. If there be powers in heaven or on earth worthy of the name of gods he is the God of them; from him their dominion comes, their authority is derived from him, and their very existence is dependent upon his will. Moreover, for the moment assuming that the deities of the heathen were gods, yet none of them could be compared with our Elohim, who is infinitely beyond what they are fabled to be. Jehovah is our God, to be worshipped and adored, and he is worthy of our reverence to the highest degree. If the heathen cultivate the worship of their gods with zeal, how much more intently should we…
