His Steadfast Endures Forever, Psalm 118:29
I would encourage you to read Mark 14:22-42 Thursday or Friday. These verses carry us from the Disciple’s Passover meal to Jesus’ arrest. While doing so, I would encourage you to focus on the hinge, the one sentence that holds together the two events: “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” (verse 26).
At first glance, this sentence seems unremarkable. It is preceded by Jesus’ last supper and his institution of the Lord’s Supper. It is followed by his betrayal by one disciple and the desertion by all the rest. And what did they do in between? They sang the hymn.
We know what that hymn was. Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover. The Passover meal begins with singing Psalms 113 and 114. It ends with singing Psalms 115, 116, 117, and 118. The closing hymn was Psalm 118. This Psalm concludes with verse 29, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
These words carry Jesus, and I believe the disciples as well, through the events of the next three days, and beyond them into the confusion that follows their discovery of the empty tomb. Whatever the Romans have done to Jesus, whatever our own Kind Herod and the Temple Leaders have done to Jesus, whatever the crowds have done to Jesus, we remember and hold onto each day, “O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”
All that follows that Passover meal is dependent on faith in this truth.
Jesus, knowing what he was doing and what was going to be done to him, sang bravely and boldly, “His steadfast love endures forever.” In the weeks to come, finally, the disciples will emerge to proclaim God’s Good News through Jesus the Christ remembering, “His steadfast love endures forever.”
As we walk through the days of darkness we encounter as the church, leading to Easter Sunday, I encourage you to remember and repeat “His steadfast love endures forever.” When you face your own dark days and do not know where to turn, I encourage you to remember and repeat, to claim as your mantra, “His steadfast love endures forever.” May it be for us, even now, God’s flickering candle that can never be extinguished.
“When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” I invite you to reread all of Psalm 118, especially the final verse, the last thing Jesus sang before his arrest, and crucifixion “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” There is our Savior.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alan