“Everyone’s included”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, April 13, 2024
Psalm 117 (Forward, p. 75) CEV p. 628
This tiny psalm—just two verses—packs a punch far beyond its miniscule size, for it does two things. Firstly, it reminds us of two of God’s defining characteristics, namely His steadfast love and His unwavering faithfulness. His steadfast love is not only ‘great’ as some translations put it, but it also prevails, as in being stronger than anything else. And His faithfulness is not only ‘eternal’, as in lasting for ever, but also ‘eternal’ as always being as saying that God’s promises and plans towards us are as fresh, intact, and real as on the day they were first uttered. Those things give us, and all God’s people, abundant reason to praise Him.
But that is not all, and here it is that this psalm packs a second punch. Verse one reveals that the ‘us’ is not just Israel. The ‘us’ takes in the entire world. And here our passage is rather expansive, for it doesn’t mention just individual ethnic groups, but rather ‘all nations’ and ‘all tribes or peoples’. That means that nobody, but nobody is left out. And that is exactly what the apostle Paul is trying to get at in Romans 15:7f (he quotes this exact verse in Romans 15:11). Everyone is supposed to be worshipping and praising God.
And that has an everlasting impact, for far too often believers, whether Jewish or Christian, have ‘enjoyed’ a lovely God and me, Jesus and me, attitude. They have said to themselves, ‘As long as I know God/ Jesus and love and obey Him, that is enough. I don’t have to ‘worry’ about anyone else, and particularly not worry about where they stand with God or with Jesus.’
Indeed, some have gone even further and ‘written’ off other segments of the world’s population. Some of the Jews of Jesus’ day did that with the Gentiles or Samaritans and simply ‘wrote them off’, and we, if we are not careful, can do the same with others (for instance, other ethnic groups or nationalities, or those on the margins of society such as the homeless or the addicted or the mentally ill). So, our psalm is an invitation, a call, for all nations, all tribes, to praise Him. And how can they do so, if they have not heard of Him and come to know Him and love Him? That’s where our job, our responsibility, kicks in, for it is up to us to tell them! Wow.
Forward notes: “Praise the Lord, all you nations; laud him, all you peoples. For his loving-kindness towards us is great and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Hallelujah!” (verses 1-2).
“Praising God is an essential, powerful part of our individual and communal prayers and songs. The psalms of praise provide a wonderful resource. Generally, these psalms include two elements: a summons to praise God and a reason or motivation to offer the praise. In a creative burst of spiritual efficiency, Psalm 117, the shortest psalm in the Psalter, manages to fit everything in with just two verses. First, the summons: praise God, all you nations, laud God, all you peoples. Second, the reasons: God’s loving kindness toward us is great; God’s faithfulness endures forever.
“Not only does this psalm fit everything in, but it also includes everyone in the process: all you nations and all you peoples. In our own divided nation and a world of divided nations, God’s love, light, and faithfulness in this psalm extend to all.
“Hallelujah!”
Moving Forward: “Write your own praise song and offer it to God.”