Psalm 117: For

The shortest verse in the Bible is John 11:35, “Jesus wept.” It is two words, but it is packed with truth, with depth, with life; sometimes the shortest statements pack the most punch. Psalm 117 is the shortest of all the psalms, two verses, four sentences, the next to last psalm of the Hallel. If we are not careful this becomes one of those psalms that we run through to get to the next one. It is familiar, even repetitive, in four sentences, two of them are “Praise the LORD”. But there is a depth to this psalm that, if overlooked, could cause us to miss one of the most important truths of the Passover celebration. 

As the first verse begins, it sounds like something we have heard before, many times, “Praise the LORD”, but rather than an exclamation point marking the end of the first sentence of the psalm as Psalms 111, 112 and 113 did, it continues, “Praise the LORD, all nations!” The Hebrew word translated “nations” is “Goy” it refers to the Gentiles, basically to everyone that is not Israel. Why would Israel, in the midst of its Passover celebration, the celebration that remembers God’s deliverance from their bondage in Egypt, sing out for all the other nations to give God the praise He deserves? 

Before we think that this is just a nice sentiment, something that is said without thought or meaning, the next sentence takes it further, “Extol him, all peoples!” Some versions translate the verb as “laud” or “praise”, basically it means to “speak well of, loudly”. As the Passover is nearing its conclusion, the people sing not to God, not to each other, but to the nations, they sing to everyone else, “Praise the LORD! Make much of Him, extol Him, shout of His goodness!” I find this to be completely unexpected. The Passover psalms have, thus far, been filled with imagery about the Exodus, the opening and closing of both the Red Sea and the Jordan River, water coming out of rocks, the mountain of God, God hearing the cries of His people and delivering them from oppression and now, as the celebration nears its end, the song is still about God, but rather than singing to each other, they sing to everyone else. It is almost as if they got up from the table and opened the doors to sing to their neighbors, like the goodness of the celebration and the One they were celebrating was just too much to keep to themselves, they had to invite everyone else in. The question remains, why? 

It begins to be answered in the first word of the second verse, “For”. If we are not careful this word, like the short psalm itself, can seem inconsequential, but this is the word that the entire psalm is built upon. “For” can also mean “because”. The author says “Praise the LORD, all nations! Because great is his steadfast love toward us . . .” This is where we must really pay attention. Who is the “us” of verse 2? This is a Passover psalm, being sung in Jerusalem by Israel. In verse 1 Israel is telling the Gentiles to praise the LORD. In verse 2 they answer the question we have been asking, why should the nations praise the LORD? They praise Him because of His steadfast love for Israel.

Genesis 12:1-3 is the first interaction that we see between God and Abram, where God promised that He would make him a great nation, that He would bless him and make his name great and that through Abram and through the nation God would make all the families of the earth would be blessed. Go back and read it and notice that no where in God’s promise did He say that He would give Abram a son, yet is that not what we talk about often when we talk about Abraham and Sarah? How many times have you heard it or said it, “God promised to give them a son”? It was not until Genesis 15, after some years of wandering, when God first mentioned that He would give Abram a son. 

The promise to Abraham was not that God would give him a son, but that through him God would send His only begotten Son to save the nations. God chose Abraham to be the father of Israel because His plan was to use Israel to send the Messiah that would redeem all the nations. The promise was never about Isaac, it was always about Jesus. In fact, Galatians 3:16 says, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.” We completely miss the point when we make the story of Abraham and Sarah about Isaac, it was never about a baby, it was always about a nation, the Messiah and salvation. 

That is what Israel is singing in Psalm 117, that the nations should praise God because of His steadfast love for and faithfulness to Israel. Michael Wilcock paraphrased the psalm this way, Israel is singing, “When you grasp what he has done for us, when you see what the Passover and exodus . . . mean, you will see that he also deserves your allegiance too.” That is what it means for them to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), that God formed Israel, He chose to create them from Abraham, so that He could use them as witnesses of His great love, his faithfulness and His mercy. Israel’s witness is not simply that they told others about God, but that God showed Himself to the nations by His treatment of Israel. His work in His people showed His heart to and for all people. That was His promise to Abraham, that was and is His purpose for Israel. 

But from Israel has come the great fulfillment of God’s ultimate promise to Abraham, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Again, God did not promise Abraham a son, He promised the world a Redeemer. The child of the promise is Jesus the Messiah. Yes, Isaac was a miracle, but he was a miracle that pointed to the promise. I share this today because some of us are waiting for and holding on to promises that are not actually promises at all, we are living for the next thing rather than living from the main thing. God’s will for Abraham was not simply a son, it was a nation and even then, it was not simply a nation, it was the nation that God would use to send His Son for all nations. We cannot ever forget that God’s “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9 NKJV); that God “desires all people to be saved” (I Timothy 2:4), everything He does is to this end, every promise He makes, is toward this purpose. God’s promises are not about sons or houses, spouses or jobs, ministries or opportunities, those things may be vehicles to the promise, but the promise is always the same, God is using His people to reveal His love and His heart and to bring His salvation to those who do not know Him yet. 

Near the end of the Passover celebration Israel sang to the nations, to all of us that are not Jews, “Look what He’s done in us, through us and for us; it’s all been because He wants to show His love to you!” For those of us who are in Christ, are we willing to sing the same? Do we even realize that this is the song that God desires for us to sing? The work of God in our lives is so that He can show His love to others. The beauty of hearing Israel sing to the nations is causing me to carefully consider the song my life is singing to my neighbors. Are they hearing God’s lovingkindness or my indifference? God’s grace or my impatience? God’s protection or my panic? God’s provision or my anxiety? Does the way I respond to the work of God in my life cause others to long for Him to work in theirs? That is what it means to be a witness, that is what it means to join the work of redemption, that is what it means to live for Jesus by living like Jesus. Faith is not holding on to the thing we believe, it is believing in the One who is holding on to us and singing to others that He can hold onto them. Whether it is Abraham, Israel, Peter, Paul, you or me, the promise is not the things God gives us, but that He has given His Son for us, and He will use every part of our lives to make His Son known through us. Rather than hoping for the next thing we need God to do, let us sing about the main thing that God has done: He has sent His Son, He has paid my ransom, He has forgiven my sin and He has made me His child. What else could matter now that I know that God loves me? And He loves me so that I can show you that He desires to love you too.