The Psalms are a divine picture album by which we learn of God’s love for man, and man’s love for God. Psalm 136 is one of these reflections of our God with its focus on His mercy. The author prefaces this psalm with an exhortation of thanksgiving to the Lord “who alone doeth great wonders.” He then takes our minds on a journey through these great wonders. This journey begins exactly where God chooses to begin His complete revelation —“In the beginning.”
To him that by wisdom made the heavens:
for his mercy endureth forever.
To him that stretched out the earth above the waters:
for his mercy endureth forever.
God’s Wisdom and the Heavens
In verse five, the psalmist tells us that by wisdom, God created the heavens. The “heavens” does not refer to the dwelling place of God in this instance; instead, it refers to the dwelling place of the planets and the stars. A great comparison may be seen between the heavens and God’s wisdom. Explorers, no matter how far they have searched, have never reached the ends of the universe. Similarly, no matter how much one seeks to know the depth of the wisdom of God, it will never be fully known by mortal man. The Bible tells that the wisdom of God is higher than the wisdom of man. God’s wisdom cannot be compared with man’s wisdom. We will never know how far it reaches, just as we will never reach the end of this universe. And as great and vast as the heavens are, we must remember that God is not limited in space, space is in God.
God’s Wisdom and the Heavens
Wisdom is commonly attributed to God concerning His creation, but, like all the wonders in this psalm, it is also connected to God’s mercy. Our God, whose wisdom can be compared to the ever-extending heavens, is also the God whose mercy endureth forever. To the same extent of wisdom displayed in the creation of the heaven, mercy was displayed in the creation of the earth. Out of the vast reaches of the universe, created out of the wisdom of God, He chose to create Earth out of the vast reaches of His mercy; He chose to create man for His own pleasure.
God Wisdom and His Mercy
Here, we are brought to a great crossroads by the psalmist—the intersection of wisdom and mercy. For all of time, man has been the partaker of the mercy of God. But, the wisdom of God is something to which man could never attain. The Bible refers to God’s wisdom as a mystery, or a sacred secret, that was hid in Christ since the foundation of the earth (I Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 3:9). God’s wisdom, this sacred mystery, that Paul referred to, was actually the basis of his prayers for the new Christians to whom he wrote. He desired that they know the?wisdom that was in God (Ephesians 3:10). We are caused to ask the question then, how is it possible to ever know the unsearchable wisdom of God? Paul answers this question which he sparks in our mind in his epistle to the Colossians.
To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:27
As New Testament Christians, we are given a link to God’s wisdom, through the path of His mercy. It is by Christ dwelling in us that we can find insight into the mind of God (I Corinthians 1:24). As tiny as the earth is in comparison to all of the universe, so are we in the presence of an eternal almighty God. But out of His ever-enduring mercy, we can know this God personally, through the person of Christ.
