John Calvin Commentary Psalms 136:23

"Who remembered us in our low estate; For his lovingkindness [endureth] for ever;" — Psalms 136:23 (ASV)

Who remembered us in our humiliation The six verses taken from the previous Psalm I pass over without observation, and I shall only touch very briefly upon the others, which do not need lengthy consideration. We may just observe that the Psalmist represents every age as affording displays of the same goodness as had been shown to their fathers, since God had never failed to help his people by a continued succession of deliverances.

It was a more notable proof of his mercy to interpose for the nation when it was nearly overwhelmed by calamities, than to preserve it in its entire state and under a more even course of affairs, as the emergency itself served to awaken attention and arrest the gaze.

Besides, in all the deliverances which God grants his people, there is an accompanying remission of their sins. Finally, he speaks of the paternal providence of God as extending not only to all humankind, but to every living creature, suggesting that we have no reason to be surprised at his sustaining the character of a kind and provident father to his own people, when he condescends to care for the cattle, and the asses of the field, and the crow, and the sparrow.

Human beings are far superior to brute beasts, and there is a great difference between some people and others, though not in merit, yet as regards the privilege of divine adoption. The Psalmist is to be understood as reasoning from the lesser to the greater, and emphasizing the incomparably superior mercy which God shows to his own children.