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God’s Work in Creation and in History

God’s Work in Creation and in History

Last updated on: August 23, 2026 at 4:11 pm by Rob Giannamore

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God’s Work in Creation and in History 2026-08-23T16:11:27-04:00 Rob Giannamore

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Miller’s Station UMC| August 23, 2026| Anchor Verse – Psalm 136

One of my daily practices is to read and pray the news. You know what I never get to see especially in a time of curated algorithmic material – good news. And I often wonder, Is it all bad news? In a world consumed by melancholy and bad news, Psalm 136 directs us to words and postures of praise for what God has done and is doing in our world, in our lives daily. In my therapy work, we call this focusing on the positive perspective. It is easy to get caught up in the negative, focusing on the positive, not so much.

“Psalm 136 echoes the primary theme of the entire book of Psalms: The LORD is the King who provides refuge and pursues people to know Him. And it is echoed 26 times–“The merciful lovingkindness of the Lord has no end.””

This morning, I want to invite you to prayerfully consider how we see God’s presence when the world around us feels heavy with negativity, sorrow, and uncertainty. As I sat with this thought, my mind went back to a poem hanging on my office wall: Invictus, written by William Ernest Henley. Henley knew something about hardship, and in that struggle he wrote these words:

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning’s of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

Henley’s words are powerful because they speak of courage in the face of suffering. He focuses on the strength of the human spirit to endure persecution, pain, and the blows of life without bowing beneath them. Friends, Psalm 136 invites us to go even deeper. It reminds us that our hope is not rooted only in our own ability to stand, but in the steadfast love of God that never gives way. Even when we are weary, even when the world feels bruising, even when circumstances press hard against us, the refrain still rises: God is good, and His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 136 on God’s Character

Let’s talk about God for a moment, I want to apologize, this may get a bit philosophically deep. When we talk about God, what are we talking about?

Commonly, we will say that God is praise-worth, loving, eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and judge. In short, God creates, God governs, and God redeems, but in more deeper more contemplative, who or what is God and why do we believe in God?

I often tell folks that God is a transrational reality. Faith then is a subjective experience of this reality. Early in my explorations that led me away from the faith I was prescribed, I heard the theologian Jack Caputo say that God does not exist, that God insists. What Caputo is saying is the problem that many Christians have with religion, that is they try and make God an idol, a tangible possession that will bring them some sort of experience if they perform some sort of right behavior – pray right, read their scriptures the right way or say the correct words in worship. Friends, God does not work this way. We cannot pray God or God’s love into existence, it is already present, God is already present.

Benedict Janecko, whom we have heard from over the last few weeks, reflects on another praise psalm, Psalm 104, and says that it “praises God our Creator. All creation, all life is attributed to Yahweh, the Eternal Architect, the ground of our Being.” That gives us a helpful way to speak about God. If God insists, then God is not one more object in the world competing for our attention. God is the living reality who brings all things into being and holds all things together. God is love because God brings love into being. Janecko continues by saying that “if creation is God’s body then that body is clothed with majesty and glory and robed in light as with a cloak.” In other words, creation itself becomes a witness to God’s insistence. The world around us preaches, if we have ears to hear it, that God’s goodness is woven into the fabric of life.

That is what Psalm 136 is doing. It is teaching us to see God’s goodness not as a passing feeling, but as the deep truth underneath creation and history. The repeated refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever,” reminds us that there is no part of our lives, and no chapter of human history, that exists outside the reach of God’s faithful love. God’s goodness is not distant from us. It is the reality that sustains us, surrounds us, and calls us forward.

The Jewish tradition gives us a word for this kind of goodness: chesed. At its heart, chesed means God’s faithful love, steadfast mercy, and generous commitment to creation. Chesed is God’s unwavering compassion toward humanity. This also connects with theologian Thomas J. Ord’s idea of amipotence, a way of describing God’s power as uncontrolling love. Ord invites us to imagine divine power not as domination, coercion, or force, but as relational love that works with creation rather than overpowering it. When we hold chesed and amipotence together, we begin to see the God of Psalm 136 more clearly: not a distant ruler demanding praise, but the faithful and loving God whose mercy endures forever, whose power is revealed through love, and whose presence keeps calling the world toward healing, justice, and life.

Proclaim the Truth of God’s Lovingkindness

How then are we to tell our communities and the places we go this week about God’s lovingkingness? We are called to emulate chesed into our daily lives. As the prophet Micah said: “He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love chesed, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Chesed is not just a suggestion—it’s essential, one of the three foundations that support the world. In Judaism of Jesus, Chesed as a central principle remains unchanged: being Jewish means dedicating yourself to acts of lovingkindness. Chesed is expressed not just in belief, but through tangible, ongoing actions that help create a world that is more just, compassionate, and sacred

When we reflect on chesed in our daily life, we observe in a much deeper way God’s love for God’s people. This means all people. When we do this it has a profound impact on our communities and our relationships.

Embracing chesed transforms ordinary interactions into opportunities for kindness, generosity, and understanding. It encourages us to see the divine spark in everyone, inspiring us to offer support, forgiveness, and compassion even when it is difficult. By actively practicing lovingkindness, we foster an environment where trust and empathy flourish, healing divisions and strengthening bonds among neighbors, friends, and family.

In a practical sense, chesed calls us to respond to need, comfort those who are hurting, and uplift those who feel isolated. Whether through small gestures—like listening patiently or helping someone in distress—or larger acts of service, each moment of chesed has ripple effects that contribute to a more just and harmonious society. As we make chesed a cornerstone of our daily routine, we become agents of positive change, embodying the values that sustain and enrich our communities.

In Closing – The Refrain We Carry

Friends, if you hear anything from this message today, hear at least this – God’s steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 136 teaches us that we the people of God do not deny the heaviness of the world – life is hard right now for some people. We do not pretend that suffering is not real, or that the news is not troubling, or that our own lives are not sometimes marked by grief, uncertainty, and struggle – it is going to be okay because Psalm 136 gives us a refrain to carry through it all: God’s steadfast love endures forever.

This refrain has to become our song, our prayer when we go forth from this place this morning. When we feed someone who is hungry, we are saying, God’s steadfast love endures forever. When we forgive someone who has wounded us, we are saying, God’s steadfast love endures forever. When we sit with the lonely, protect the vulnerable, welcome the stranger, and refuse to give up on love, we are saying, God’s steadfast love endures forever.

So I invite you to this simple thought and challenge: let chesed become more than a word we admire. Let it become the way we live. Let God’s lovingkindness move from our lips into our hands, from our prayers into our choices, from our worship into our neighborhoods.

Because the world does not need more bad news. The world needs people who have been shaped by the good news. The world needs people who can look at creation, history, the cross, the empty tomb, and the ordinary moments of daily life and still proclaim:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever. Amen

Benediction

May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that God may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Creator, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. —1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

Friends, may you go – may you go in peace, may you be happy, may you be healthy and may you be at ease this week. Amen

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