If the Bible says something more than once, we should pay attention. How about if it says something 17 times in the span of just one chapter?

This is what happens in Psalm 136, where God’s people basically tell the story of God’s care and redemption. Then, between each of the acts that are recounted, they say, “His love endures forever.” Seventeen times.

In the Jewish tradition, Psalm 136 has been called “the Great Hallel,” or the “Great Psalm of Praise.” James Montgomery Boice says this: “It rehearses God’s goodness in regard to his people and encourages them to praise him for his merciful and steadfast love.”

God’s steadfast love undergirds the whole Psalm. It’s really the truth that undergirds all our stories. In all our days, in all that we do and say and experience, God’s love endures.

It’s there in the good times. The Psalm recounts some of them: “he does great wonders” and “gave their land as an inheritance.”

It’s there in the trials, too. The Psalm recounts some of these times, too, remembering the days that God’s people were in slavery in Egypt and when they wandered in the wilderness. And yet in the retelling of these days, the people proclaim, “His love endures forever.”

So what about you? What is your “Great Psalm of Praise?” What would you write if you could follow the structure of this Psalm?

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the One who saw me through illness.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God who provided for me financially when I didn’t know how I’d do it.

His love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God who is carrying me through a difficult season.

His love endures forever.

And on you could go, and you could be even more specific. Because God really is good and his love has endured and will forever. That’s a reminder we need every day.