We need clean windows! Whenever I wash the car I have to take time to clean the windows. The outside windows are pretty easy to clean. It’s the inside of the windows that give me difficulty. Inevitably, every time I clean the inside I either miss some spots or I smear the window area. It drives me nuts because now I have to go back over it all again. Until then, I have to drive with weird glare from oncoming headlights, or some sort of light refraction from the sun. “Clean it right the first time Mike!”

God cleans the windows of our hearts as He enters into your life. He cleans our windows thoroughly and completely with the blood of His Son shed on Calvary. There are no smears or spots left behind. He leaves no sin behind on our windows to refract or block our sight. That’s the ONLY window cleaner that can clean the caked on, baked on sin in a person’s life. Windex can’t do it. Living a good enough life can’t do it. Keeping one’s nose clean can’t do it. The indelible dirt on the windows of the human heart can only be completely cleansed with Christ’s blood and washed away in Baptism.

            Now that God has cleansed your heart and opened your window, He enters into your life bringing His perspective of His Creation and plan of salvation so that you can see things clearly. He brings His Window—Jesus—into your life.

            The psalmist makes an interesting move beginning in verse 4. The name Yhwh (or LORD in English translations) is now replaced by titles for the remainder of Psalm 136. All these titles are actions and action words because Yhwh is not static. He’s always active, and He’s always active in His Creation and in human history. ^[1] All these titles are rooted in and flow forth from the One Who is the Doer of great wonders. The great wonders, then, become the subject matter for the rest of the Psalm. In other words, God’s great wonders are windows of God through which the Christian sees more aspects of Himself, and to which God calls all humanity to see Him as He really is.

            “Wonders” in Hebrew is nip̱lāʾôṯ with the rood word p̱lʾ. You don’t need to know this. I simply want to point out that nip̱lāʾôṯ (wonders) are miraculous miracles of God.[2] Yhwh is the one Who initiates and performs Creation. Yhwh does the creating, and only Yhwh can and did create everything out of nothing. There’s no “big bang,” no “evolution or theory of evolution” (by the way, evolution is still a theory because it’s never been proven. Isn’t weird how ‘theory’ has dropped out of “theory of evolution?” I wonder why?).

            The adjective is “great.” These aren’t your typical, every day run of the mill wonders. These are “God is GREAT” wonders![3]

            Yhwh creates from His understanding and skill.[4] This is just one of His attributes. His great wonders include the universe. Where’s the end of the universe? And what lays beyond the end of the universe? God is even outside of all of this because He created it! He brought into existence galaxies, stars, plants, moons, and everything that’s in the heavens that we see when we look up into the night sky. God created the sun to bring light and warmth to sustain life on this planet called earth. He created the mountains, valleys, plains, the tropics, the rain forests, the regular forests, and everything!

            The sun and the moon were not created simply for their beauty for us to enjoy. God also created time itself from the very first nanosecond continuing through today and tomorrow. The sun and the moon are God’s markers for time.

            But most important, and the most greatest wonder work He did was that He created you! God don’t make junk. Everything and everyone has a purpose and function, otherwise He wouldn’t have wasted His efforts.

            It is through this window of Creation that God wants you to see yourself. It is through this window of God’s magnificent work that He wants you to understand how valuable and precious you are to Him. You are so precious to God that He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross in your place. You owe nothing to God. Jesus rose again three-days later. In doing so, He has ushered in God’s New Creation. God New Creation has begun! It’s already underway, and it will be fully realized on the final day of Christ’s return. This is one of God’s Windows through which He wants you to see the world, and it can be viewed only through the window of the cross of Jesus.

            The Creation movement of Psalm 136 is the entry way into God’s plan of salvation—the second movement. ^[5] And you, dear friend, are a part of this! What a great wonder you are!

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^[1] James Luther Mays, Psalms, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1994), 419.

[2]  פלא Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and M. E. J. Richardson, eds. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Accordance electronic edition, version 3.6. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2000. 927.

[3]  גָּדוֹל Koehler, Ludwig, Walter Baumgartner, and M. E. J. Richardson, eds. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Accordance electronic edition, version 3.6. 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2000. 177.

[4] tᵉbhûnāh “In contrast to binah, tebhunah is also used as a divine attribute. Thus, several passages emphasize that God created heaven and earth by wisdom and knowledge (Jer. 10:12; 51:15; Ps. 136:5; Prov. 3:19; cf. also the text in Job 26:12, which contains mythological elements). His understanding is unsearchable (ʾen chaqer, Isa. 40:28) and beyond measure (ʾen mispar, Ps. 147:5).” Ringgren. Botterweck, G. Johannes, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds. Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament. Revised; Accordance electronic edition, version 1.4. 15 vols. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. 106.

^[5] Hans-Joachim Kraus, A Continental Commentary: Psalms 60–150 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993), 498.