[1] Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth.
[2] For his unfailing love for us is powerful;
the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!
MAIN POINT: No one is excluded from the invitation to join the choir called to sing, ”Christ conquers all with His love”, so Praise the Lord.
I see Jesus in the ever-expanding kingdom described in Psalm 117. Do you see that you are invited to join? This invitation to praise what we will later see is a colonising love of God is extended to the nations and then to the whole earth. And the word praise here if I understand it correctly is used to say, let your voice shine about Yᵊhōvâ (יְהֹוָה) ( LORD (used 6,510 times in the Bible)) Jehovah = "the existing One".
I wonder if it isn’t more than poetic Hebrew parallelism but actually a mindset of saying all you civilised people with nations and governments praise God and all the rest of you people in tribes and far flung groups you too Praise the LORD!
Can you see that this is the same as what King Jesus tells His disciples just before going to sit on the throne next to the Father?
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.
19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And we get from Dr. Luke in his letter to Theophilus a slightly different take on the same moment, and there you see the far flung nature of this invitation to bring all peoples into the choir that sings Christ the conquers praises.
6 So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”
7 He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
WHY should everyone everywhere praise Jehovah?
LOVE. HIS love. His love for us. His love for all the nations, His love for all the peoples of the earth. For God so loved the _________? Can you fill in the blank? John, Jesus' best friend, writes what is one of the most famous verses in the whole Bible and tells about the good news of God's love. Psalm 117 and John 3:16 have the same message to the same audience. God’s love must be believed even if it is totally mind-boggling ,gobsmacking unbelievable. His love conquers all.
And that is the sense of Psalm 117:2 God’s love has overcome the nations, God’s love is unstoppable. So get excited, sing, shout, ring, make some noise, put your hands in the air for Jehovah. Doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, God’s love in Christ Jesus will be able to reach you too.
And this isn’t a summer festival, summer camp or conference high like the travelling evangelist healer who shows up once a year or less and then pulls up stakes and moves on. NOPE.
The love of God in Christ Jesus moves on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on….. You get the picture.
Now you see why Paul in Romans 8 expands this Psalm into a further poetic treatise on the love of God.
Conclusion: Are you excited to praise yet? I am.
I use a nifty little tool to study the Bible. The option exists more easily on your phone app but I get more screen real estate on my laptop to see more at once. https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/PSA.117.1-2
I am learning all the Bible website abbreviations for the books of the Bible and so I type in the URL of the verse or verse I want to see and then I get a great versions comparison list. The current list of versions that appears automatically on my screen is KJV, NIV, NKJV, NLT, MSG, NASB1995, NCV, ASV, AMP, TPT, ESV. If you have done any Bible study in English you will know what many of those abbreviations stand for.
I rarely use commentaries but occasionally consult them to answer a specific question. Today I wanted to know if the word “praise” was a command. That far too often leads down many paths. If you are studying the Bible to share it with others then there are tools to help. Spurgeon wrote a great sermon, Bible study preparation guide. You can find it here for free in the Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/tod/ps117.cfm?a=595001
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| Handwritten Psalm 117 |
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