Psalm 136 is choral composition, a hymn of gratitude to God which contains 26 refrain with call and response. It is performed in most synagogues each Saturday and holiday morning service. It is a liturgical art form preserved for centuries in Jewish communities, an antiphonal response: a prayer-leader initiates a verse, proclaiming one of God’s virtues, and the congregation sings the refrain in return.
הוֹד֣וּ לַיהֹוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ
Praise GOD, who is good,
God’s steadfast love is eternal.
Ps.136:1
The Hebrew for the reprise Ki L’Olam Chasdo is translated by JPS as “His steadfast love is eternal” or Robert Alter’s “His kindness is forever.”
The Hebrew chesed is a hard one to translate precisely, though love, kindness, or compassion come close.
The list goes on with gratitude for the light of the sun and the cycles of the moon, for each day of life, for bread, for help in tough times, being with us even when we are in our lowest:
שֶׁ֭בְּשִׁפְלֵנוּ זָ֣כַר לָ֑נוּ כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃
Who remembered us in our degradation,
—whose steadfast love is eternal;
Ps. 136:22
And then it gets historical and political and problematic. The Exodus is thanked for, in detail, and then the battles on the way to the promised land. And with the praises of relief and jubilation for freedom and sovereignty comes joy at the defeat of enemies that comes perhaps too close to gloating.
לְ֭מַכֵּה מְלָכִ֣ים גְּדֹלִ֑ים כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃
Who struck down great kings,
—whose steadfast love is eternal;
וַֽ֭יַּהֲרֹג מְלָכִ֣ים אַדִּירִ֑ים כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ׃
and slew mighty kings,
—whose steadfast love is eternal;
Ps. 136:11-12
Gratitude for relief from tyrants, and the triumph over threats to one’s existence is a blessing worth preserving over generations, as again and again we find ourselves in supplication for such relief. And while we get the gratitude to God for victory, we can’t help but notice the not so subtle tone of triumphalism that then evolved to gloating.
Dr. Jeremy Benstein reflects on this chapter and its moral questions, focusing on other verses and a Polish philosopher:
“Leszek Kołakowski opens our eyes to the complexity of the psalm. In his “God, or the Relativism of Mercy,” (in The Key To Heaven: Edifing Tales From Holy Scripture To Serve As Teaching And Warning), he writes:
“Of God, the Psalmist says: ‘To him that smote Egypt in their first-born: for his mercy endureth forever... overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea: for his mercy endureth forever.’
The question is: What do Egypt and the Pharaoh think about God’s mercy?”
Or are we saying that it is part of God’s mercy that tyrants are overthrown, and oppressive regimes are ended, even if through widespread suffering?
Food for thought.”
Kolakowski and Benstein’s questions echo for us today, painful and important, and can not be ignored, even if not simply answered.
Next time this hymn comes around in a public setting at a synagogue near you, and all 26 refrains are chanted by the congregation, perhaps one can pause and ask: Love, kindness, mercy - can all the things we wish for ourselves and attribute to the divine source be celebrated and thanked for - with maximum empathy and sympathy for the pain of all others? Even those who hurt us?
Can steadfast love help heal+transform even our tribal traumas?
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