What needs to change?

Psalm 136 is a strange looking psalm at first glance. Every one of its 26 verses ends with the phrase, "For His lovingkindness is everlasting." According to one Bible commentary, this song of thanksgiving had a prominent place in Jewish worsip. The repeated phrase was probably sung by the entire congretation, while the leader of the congregation or the choir sang the beginning phrase of the verse.

As we read it in English, though, it may seem clumsy or tedious. But think for a moment - we all have used the method of repetition throughout our lives as an aid to memorize things. Remember learning the times tables in grade school? Or have you ever repeated in your mind someone's name you just met so you won't forget it 2 minutes later? How about saying over and over again, "Don't forget to stop at the store for milk"? It doesn't take a great leap to suggest that the psalmist intentionally repeats this phrase because he knows how important it is to remember this truth - "For His lovingkindness is everlasting." And that's something that doesn't change!

Two other phrases stick out in this Psalm. Verse 14 says that God "made Israel pass through the midst of it," meaning the midst of the Red Sea. We think of the parting of the Red Sea as a wonderful miracle, which is was. But think of the Israelites whom God "made" to walk on either side of those huge walls of water. Those walls were just being held there by...what??!?!? Don't you think they may have been just a tad nervous? Don't you think they were scared to death that the situation could change and that those walls of water could come crashing down on them at any second?

Then, only two verses later, we are told to give thanks "to Him who led His people through the wilderness." I don't know about you, but a wilderness is not exactly a place I would want to be led into - even if God is doing the leading. "Lions and tigers and bears, O MY" comes to mind. I would probably have to be led kicking and screaming!

But God did make Israel pass through the midst of the Red Sea, and He did lead His people through the wilderness. And the Israelites were called upon in this psalm to thank Him for it - more precisely, to thank Him "for His lovingkindness is everlasting." I don't know about you, but I don't immediately associate walking through the Red Sea and then the wilderness with God's everlasting lovingkindness.

What about you? Are you feeling like the walls are about to crash down on you? Are you in the wilderness? Are you crying out, "God, something needs to change!"? Right now, you may not see it, you may not believe it, but "His lovingkindness is everlasting." That means that His love for you doesn't change! He loves you in the middle of the sea, and in the middle of the wilderness. Do you want to believe that? Then try repeating it as a sacrifice of praise, just like the psalmist encouraged his listeners to do. Repeat it in your mind over and over until it becomes a part of you. You may find that the sea and the wilderness don't immediately change... but you attitude toward them might. Your situation may not change...but your thinking might. Your focus may not change...but your state of mind might. And those changes are the ones that most concerns God - your thinking, your attitude, your heart. That's the lasting change in which He is most interested.

Let Him change your thinking, your attitude, your heart. Then watch to see how the situaton will change!