Psalm 136:16

Verse 16. He led his people through the wilderness, etc. It is a very sweet truth which is enunciated in this verse, and one which I think we need very much to realize. His own people, his peculiar people, his chosen, loved, and favoured ones, whom he cherished as the apple of his eye, who were graven on the palms of his hands, and loved with an everlasting love, even these he led through the wilderness; and all this because "His mercy endureth for ever." In another Psalm it is said, "He leadeth them beside the still waters, he maketh them to lie down in green pastures"; but the barren wilderness has no green pastures, the parched and arid desert has no still waters. And yet "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and an highway shall be there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." "Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?" It is one of the Lord's sweet truths that so perplex those that are without, but which are so full of consolation to his own children, that the wilderness and mercy are linked together of God in indissoluble union here. "I will allure her", saith the Lord, "and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." -- Barton Bouchier.

Verse 16. Who led his people. Note that in what precedes this, in this verse itself, and in what follows, God's three ways of leading are set forth. He leads out, he leads through, and he leads into; out of sin, through the world, into heaven; out by faith, through by hope, into by love. --Michael Ayguan (1416), in Neale and Littledale.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 16.

Verse 16. Led through the Wilderness.

--C.A.D.