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Psalm 117 Commentary

Praise The LORD!

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KEY THOUGHT: Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! [Psalm 117:1a NKJV]

Kindly read your Bible before going through the commentary!

Psalm 117 NKJV

Let All Peoples Praise the Lord

117 Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles!
[a]Laud Him, all you peoples!
2 For His merciful kindness is great toward us,
And the truth of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

Footnotes

a. Psalm 117:1 Praise

New King James Version (NKJV)

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Psalm 117 Commentary

What could possibly be the message if a man were asked to say stuff in just two lines? Let’s find out from Psalm 117. It is the shortest chapter in the entire holy script.

First is one loud call to everyone to praise the LORD. It is a call to worship the one true God of Israel. The message is targeted at the nations. But why the nations and not just all peoples?

Back in the day, each nation had its own god. During the days of the great prophet Samuel, the Philistines worshiped a god called Dagon. These gods were often represented by idols that men and women manufactured in a factory. They could even be stolen if the neighboring nation thought of your god as being more powerful than theirs.

They were thought to possess the power to cause harm to one’s enemies, while offering all sorts of fortunes for the owner.

The psalmist is making this grand announcement to all the nations with this kind of understanding in mind. Only one LORD God exists. Let everyone praise Him!

And why not? His love for us is great. Probably the ‘us’ might mean everyone, inclusive of the nations.

The countless gods that existed, and probably still exist under all sorts of guises, could be blamed for many things. Love isn’t one of them.  Only the Creator God truly possesses true love for humanity. He is the creator of humanity.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14.

The rest are ‘hired servants’. They won’t take care of the sheep. They promote their own agenda. But the LORD’s love and faithfulness stay on forever.

It is a call to humanity to examine these truths and decide for Jesus. He loves humanity. That’s the only agenda behind the gospel.

It’s good news to the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed!

You know where to turn whenever you find yourself in a state of meaninglessness, nothingness, heart-brokenness, oppression, injustice, or blindness – logically and mentally and spiritually jailed. A point of the question, “What is the point of life?”

Psalm 117 would therefore summarize the message of the entire Bible as it presents the love of God in the call for restoration.

If nations possessed gods, then individuals possess gods today. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. They may have many fancy terms to hide the ugliness of the deception that they trade. They may be sugar-coated, painted in fake gold, or probably even have an appearance of goodness when, as everyone knows, it is all emptiness – a chase after wind.

This grand announcement to praise the LORD has a hidden message to the nations to abandon their gods. Let humanity examine these gods. Then, probably, and this is the psalmist’s prayer, they can declare together with the saved: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Loving Scripture….

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24 thoughts on “Home”

  1. It has been exciting learning how God can make things happen to his choosen one, God workout something wonderful and fulfils the promises he made to the father of Joseph.

    God’s words remains true so are his promises and indeed it has been God working out the salvation of man Kind by Grace through Faith alone.

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  11. Profound. My life needs a new introduction to God. Not that I have been right, but because God desires to help me… I see an amazing Grace here. Having broken the first commandment, still God looks for me and helps me to build up with him… And live for him. A littles knowledge of the Lord will ignite my passion and desire to serve him. This morning I pledge to seek, live and serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His purposes everyday of my life.
    Beautiful lesson

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  12. The Lord reintroduces himself and shows Israel, He is all they need. Some boast in horses and others in chariots but we’ll boast in the Lord. He is able and the only one worthy of our trust. Lord teach me how to always look up to you at all times and not focus on my strength or capabilities. This is my prayer

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  14. This far too common today. Just do something that seems like true worship yet it’s intent and actual practice is not even close to the set standard by the Lord. I personally feel challenged of some things we do in our personal lives, the focus of many churches and ministries today. We’ll need to realize the Lord must be worship as he has personally guided. Provides a good start of my reflection today

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  15. In those days when there was no King everyone did as they pleased. This is a good reminder to us that we are on own when the King of Kings isn’t leading our lives we’ll be doing what is not right and the results will show clearly how life without Christ looks like. We thank God that even when it looks like he’s not there, he’s behind the scenes working. I have learnt to trust in the Lord always.

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  16. Iam seeing this being stressed… There was no King in Israel… So lawlessness is the order of the day. This shows how heartless and wicked man can be with out the right King in his life. He can do anything. May the Lord help us to allow Christ in our lives that every aspect of our lives is changed and we yield ourselves to him alone.

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  17. I’m sure as the two daughters in-law stayed in Naomi’s home they learned about the God of Israel and appreciated His works among his people. Ruth’s determination and what she says moves my heart. She’s convinced she must go with Naomi and wants to spend her life with her, this relationship was strong especially between a mother inlaw and a daughter in-law. Yet Ruth stays and how she puts it shows the depth of her heart, I’ll go with with you, your people will be my people, your God will be my God…

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