Introduction to Psalm 136
Psalm 136: the Great Hallel and the eternal mercy
Psalm 136 is known as the Hallel ha-Gadol — the Great Hallel — in Jewish liturgy, and is distinguished by its unique responsorial structure in the entire Psalter: twenty-seven verses, each of which ends with the identical refrain ki le-olam chasdo — «for his mercy endures forever». This repetition is not poetic monotony but ritual affirmation: all of history — from creation to redemption, from nature to history — is pervaded by the single reality of divine hesed.
The Great Hallel in Jewish liturgy
The Talmud (Pesachim 118a) discusses at length which psalm should be identified as the Hallel ha-Gadol. The dominant conclusion is that Psalm 136 is the Great Hallel, but some sources also include Pss 120–136. Mishnah Pesachim 10:6 prescribes that at the end of the Seder the Hallel be completed, and Psalm 136 is traditionally associated with this conclusion. 25) as a reason to recite Psalm 136 after meals. Its liturgical position is therefore rooted in daily worship and in the great festivals.
The three-phase structure: creation, history, care
Psalm 136 is structured in three sections of equal theological dignity. The first (vv. 1–9) celebrates creation: the heavens, the earth, the waters, the sun, the moon, the stars. The second (vv. 10–22) recounts the history of redemption: the exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the journey through the wilderness, the conquest of Canaan. The third (vv. 23–26) summarizes: YHWH has remembered Israel in its humiliation, has given food to every living creature. The three sections show that the hesed of God is not limited to one domain — it pervades the cosmos, history and daily life.
Ki le-olam chasdo: mercy as the grammar of reality
The refrain ki le-olam chasdo is one of the densest theological formulations in the Bible. Hesed is untranslatable in a single English word: it encompasses mercy, faithfulness, covenant love, grace, loyalty. It is the name of YHWH's attitude toward his people, defined already in Exod 34:6–7 in the revelation of the divine name. Le-olam means «for the world» but also «forever» — eternity and cosmos are designated by the same word in Hebrew.
The hesed of God is manifested in the ordinary cycle of nourishment. Hesed is not the exclusive privilege of Israel but the constitutive structure of creation. Mishnah Avot 1:2 states that the world rests on three things: the Torah, worship and acts of chesed. Psalm 136 shows that the foundation of these three is the hesed of God himself.
Liturgical responsoriality as participation
The responsorial structure of Psalm 136 — where one voice proclaims the divine act and a communal voice responds ki le-olam chasdo — has shaped Jewish and Christian liturgy. In the synagogue the psalm is sung with the congregation responding. In the Roman Mass the responsorial refrain to the Psalms takes up this structure. The alternation of proclamation and response is not performative execution but real participation: whoever responds ki le-olam chasdo inserts himself into the history of salvation and confesses it as his own.
Twenty-Six Generations and the Three Pillars of the World
Psalm 136, Hallel haGadol, repeats 26 times the refrain "ki le-olam chasdo" — "for his chesed endures forever". The Midrash Tehillim 136 explains this numerical structure with extraordinary precision. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi teaches: «What do these twenty-six 'give thanks' (hodu) correspond to? To the twenty-six generations that the Holy Blessed One created in his world and to whom he did not give the Torah, and he nourished them with his chesed». From the Adam of creation until the Moses of Sinai, humanity was sustained exclusively by the gratuity of God: chesed precedes every normative revelation. Rabbi Yochanan adds the reason for the name Hallel haGadol: «because the Holy Blessed One sits in the heights of the world and distributes food to every creature», as the psalm states: «gives food to every living creature» (Ps 136:25). Chesed is the very cosmic structure of providence.
Mishnah Avot 1:2 of Shimon ha-Tzaddik offers the institutional complement: «The world stands on three things: on the Torah (Torah), on worship (avodah), and on acts of gemilut chasadim». The three pillars that sustain the cosmos — teaching, liturgy and acts of kindness — are the human response to the eternal chesed celebrated by Ps 136. The Torah is gift, worship is acknowledgment, acts of kindness are imitation. The 26 pre-Sinaitic generations were sustained only by the first: after Sinai, Israel responds with all three, and Psalm 136 becomes the liturgy through which this triple gift finds voice.