Read the passage and its setting
Psalms 136:1–3, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Psalms 136:1–3
Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Opening call to the God of gods
The Main Point
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
What Is Happening Here?
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied. The unit's form is litany-thanksgiving, and its voice is communal.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Psalms 135:1–21 has just completed “Praise the sovereign LORD above idols and kings.”
Psalms 136:4–9 next carries “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Creation remembered through the refrain.”
Follow the Psalm's Poetic Movement
See why this section appears here and how the author's poetic movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Book V places this unit within its movement from thanksgiving, torah, pilgrimage, davidic prayer, and universal praise bring the psalter from gathered distress toward a many-voiced hallelujah. Psalms 135:1–21 has just completed “Praise the sovereign LORD above idols and kings.” Psalms 136:4–9 next carries “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Creation remembered through the refrain.”
Follow the Voice, Image, and Parallel Lines
Identify the communal voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 136:1–3; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Voice, image, and parallel movement
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied. The opening clause “O give thanks unto the LORD” belongs to this complete movement.
Placement in Book V
Book V places this unit within its movement from thanksgiving, torah, pilgrimage, davidic prayer, and universal praise bring the psalter from gathered distress toward a many-voiced hallelujah. Psalms 135:1–21 has just completed “Praise the sovereign LORD above idols and kings.” Psalms 136:4–9 next carries “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Creation remembered through the refrain.”
Uncertainty and responsible limit
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
“O give thanks unto the LORD”
·
This is the exact opening KJV clause of Psalms 136:1–3; read it as one line inside the communal poetic movement rather than as an isolated slogan.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Psalms 136:1–3 with its poetic voice, whole psalm, and collection rules out this misuse:
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
Context check: Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
What Remains True Today
Creation's order, dependence, danger, abundance, and praise place human life inside accountable creaturely limits rather than at the center of everything.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Psalms 136:1–3 performs this poetic work: Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Creation's order, dependence, danger, abundance, and praise place human life inside accountable creaturely limits rather than at the center of everything.
What response preserves the text's voice and the neighbor's safety?
Start with the line's work inside “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Opening call to the God of gods”—The opening line begins the movement “Opening call to the God of gods.” Then let “O give thanks unto the LORD” widen attention beyond human control; practice gratitude and responsible stewardship without forcing the poem into a scientific mechanism.
A Concrete Example
Before applying “O give thanks unto the LORD,” name the speaker, summarize Psalms 136:1–3, state the enduring truth, and refuse this overreach: This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
Teach It Back
Explain Psalms 136:1–3 in your own words. Name the poetic voice and movement, trace its place in Psalm 136 and Book V, identify one exact source control or uncertainty, and reject one use the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Voice, image, and parallel movement
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied. The opening clause “O give thanks unto the LORD” belongs to this complete movement.
Placement in Book V
Book V places this unit within its movement from thanksgiving, torah, pilgrimage, davidic prayer, and universal praise bring the psalter from gathered distress toward a many-voiced hallelujah. Psalms 135:1–21 has just completed “Praise the sovereign LORD above idols and kings.” Psalms 136:4–9 next carries “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain: Creation remembered through the refrain.”
Uncertainty and responsible limit
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
“O give thanks unto the LORD”
This exact KJV clause anchors Psalms 136:1–3. MorphHB and the NET notes were checked at the verse so poetic parallelism and older English stay inside the unit rather than receiving an unsupported dictionary gloss.
How certain? very strongWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Recoverable setting and limits
Psalms 136:1–3 belongs to Israel's received Psalter and Book V. Its litany-thanksgiving form may preserve individual, communal, royal, sanctuary, wisdom, historical, or later liturgical voices. A heading or vivid scene can guide reception without proving one author, date, event, performance setting, or editorial stage.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording in Psalm 136
The pinned KJV remains displayed exactly. MorphHB, exact NET notes, and NETS Ps 136 expose difficult Hebrew, poetic syntax, ancient Greek numbering or division, headings, and material alternatives without silently rewriting the base text.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
The psalm within Jewish Scripture and worship
Psalms 136:1–3 belongs first to the Jewish Psalter's Hebrew poetry, five-book arrangement, prayer, instruction, memory, and worship. Jewish use and interpretation are not a preliminary stage to be erased by later Christian reception.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Canonical relationships after the first horizon
thanks, creation, history, covenant connect this movement with other psalms and wider biblical traditions only after Psalms 136:1–3's own voice and poetic work are established. Similar wording does not make every speaker, enemy, city, nation, king, or promise identical.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
No reviewed textual variant changes Psalms 136:1–3's central movement; exact Hebrew, NET notes, and the ancient Greek form were still checked against the pinned KJV.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do responsible readings differ?
Best judgment: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Psalms 136:1–3 gives communal prayer and poetry a real place before the LORD while the five-book Psalter holds lament, praise, Torah, kingship, Zion, creation, history, and communal memory in conversation.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Creation's order, dependence, danger, abundance, and praise place human life inside accountable creaturely limits rather than at the center of everything.
How certain? probableCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The repeated mercy refrain shapes communal memory; violent history must not be used to celebrate suffering or claim automatic national favor.
A vivid line from Psalm 136 can be detached from poetic parallelism, voice, genre, the whole psalm, Book V, and later reception history.
Within Psalms 136:1–3, the communal voice carries the movement “Opening call to the God of gods” as part of “Creation and exodus answered by one enduring refrain.” Its litany-thanksgiving form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Creation's order, dependence, danger, abundance, and praise place human life inside accountable creaturely limits rather than at the center of everything.
Opening call to the God of gods remains meaningful without the rejected overreach.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Psalms 136:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 136:1–3
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 136:1–3.
Official NET Bible Psalm 136 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 136:1–3
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Enter the Bible Psalms course, Summary, Outline, Introductory Issues, and Theological Themes; applied to Psalms 136:1–3
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 136 for Psalms 136:1–3
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 136:1–3, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 136:1–3
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 136:1–3.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 136 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 136:1–3
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Summary, Outline, Introductory Issues, and Theological Themes; applied to Psalms 136:1–3
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 136 for Psalms 136:1–3
Open NETS Psalms ↗