Psalms 136:15 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Psalms 136:10–16
• Psalms 136:1–26

Read Psalms 136:15 with 136:10–16 and 136:1–26. Read alone, “But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 136:10–16, the communal voice carries the movement “Exodus and wilderness deliverance” 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.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Psalms 136:10–16 answers or redirects “Creation remembered through the refrain” within Psalm 136 by carrying “Exodus and wilderness deliverance.” The turn from “The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever” to “To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever” explains why this movement occurs here. Within that relationship, Psalm 136:15 turns the movement by contrasting what precedes it with “But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea.”