Psalm 117
Scripture
Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.
Observation
The psalmist of this chapter really keeps it “short and sweet” and emphasizes praising the Lord. They argue that God is good all the time, and that His love endures forever. In addition to this His faithfulness has no end.
Understanding
Arguably one of the shortest books of the Bible, but packed with a lot of meaning. “Praise the Lord” alone offers a whole array of ideas and actions that we can take, but I thought I’d break down what some of the important words in these verses are:
- Praise: expression of approval or admiration for someone or something
- Lord: having power authority or influence; a master or a ruler
- Extol: praise enthusiastically
- Faithfulness: quality of being faithful; fidelity
- Endures: remain in existence; lasts
These words show up in the Bible on many different occasions, meaning that they must be pretty important. To EXTOL/PRAISE God is so important in our daily living, as it reinforces the idea that God’s love and FAITHFULNESS ENDURES long after we leave this earth. But I think that a lot of times we overthink what to do or say to God. Whether we’ve run out of things to say, we think God has grown tired of our voice, or we just don’t feel like talking to God, He remains faithful to listen. In addition, He is the LORD above all, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
Life Application
Praising God does not have to be an elaborate process.
A lot of times we put pressure around talking to God that we just don’t do it. But as this psalm demonstrates its super easy! Also, it’s already done for us. So read this chapter again and through the perspective of you actually believing it and doing it. God doesn’t have a time frame for spending with us and neither should we!
-Allison Khan