Today’s response is Psalm 136. Our Sunday night music group plays a song based on this Psalm with some regularity, but I must admit that this is one of the texts that I struggle with a great deal. The refrain is “His love endures forever.” If you have been around the field of Biblical Studies much you know there is some debate over the translation of this word translated love. Does it mean something like “steadfast love?” Does it mean “mercy?” Does it mean something like “covenant loyalty?” And, the debate goes on.
Personally, I think “covenant loyalty” fits in this context. If not, then verse ten of the Psalm reads (though this verse is actually not in the section for today’s response):
10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
I never really thought about this text in particular (though I have had similar thoughts about the Passover narrative) as problematic until I was teaching seminarians. One of my students said that the response for that particular day had been Psalm 136. And, he found the concept of love difficult to reconcile with some of the acts retold in the Psalm. And, I agreed. I don’t really find the translation “love” adequate here. I think it is at least confusing for English readers.
At any rate, I encouraged my student to read texts like this honestly. I told him that, at least in my own mind, I am more concerned about people who can read texts like this without a second glance or without sparing a thought for Egyptian children (though, as I believe I have stated before on this blog, I do not believe the Exodus took place exactly as the Bible describes it) than I am about someone who reads it and struggles at least a bit.