Psalms 136:22
a heritage to His servant Israel. His loving devotion endures forever.
BSB
ASV
Even a heritage unto Israel his servant; For his lovingkindness endureth for ever:
KJV
Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Even an heritage unto Israel his servant,.... The land of those that served idols, the Lord took and gave to Israel for an inheritance, who served him, the true God.
As he said to the Egyptians, Let my people go, so to the Canaanites, Let my people in, that they may serve me. In this God's mercy to them endureth for ever, because it was a figure of the heavenly Canaan, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
1834–1892
THESE six verses iterate and reiterate the same fact. They rehearse and repeat the same reflection. Is the tautology tedious? Do the chimes weary you with their monotony? No. And this is a veritable charm in poetry. When the poet touches upon some important theme which illuminates his soul and kindles his nobler passions to a flame, he is very apt to dwell upon it with enthusiasm, inclined to pursue it with eagerness, to follow it up with feeling and echo it over and over again with strong and yet stronger emotion.
1834–1892
Even an heritage unto Israel his servant. Repetitions are effective in poetry, and the more so if there be some little variation in them, bringing out into fuller light some point which else had not been noticed. The lands of the heathen kings were given to "Israel", the name by which the chosen seed is here mentioned for the third time in the Psalm, with the addition of the words, "his servant."
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 47:4He chooses our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob, whom He loves. Selah
leads to
and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,
The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”
For the LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and ruined the branches of their vine.
The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.
I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
Through
Psalms 105:6O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
leads to
But now listen, O Jacob My servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.