Psalm 117
Let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Psalm 117, and it’s just two brief verses. The title says, the Lord’s faithfulness
endures forever. And beginning at verse one, we
read, praise the Lord, all nations, extol him, all peoples, for great
is his steadfast love toward us. and the faithfulness of the
Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. Amen. This is God’s word. Well, what
can you get out of two little verses? You can get a whole,
whole lot. I listen to RefNet most mornings
when I get up. And on Sunday mornings, Martin
Lloyd-Jones sermons come on maybe in the 6.30 hour range. and he
could preach for years on a small section of scripture. I think
I have one of his commentaries on Romans 8, and he went on forever
and ever and ever. We were sitting with a preacher
the other week from one of the churches in Mebane, and he said
his pastor was in Romans, the book of Romans, for about 10
years. So we’ll take Psalm 117 and spend about eight nights
on it. No, we won’t do that. We can take care of it in the
time we have after our song and prayer here. But what do we learn
from Psalm 117? Well, we want to think of it
in this way. Jesus was on a journey from Judea
to Galilee. This story is in the Gospel of
John, and he passed through the Samaritan territory of Sychar. And you probably are beginning
to remember the story. Sychar was the field that Jacob
gave to the patriarch Joseph. And Jesus, weary on his journey,
here about the sixth hour, sits down at a well and a Samaritan
woman appears. His disciples had gone to the
local 7-Eleven to get some food. And so Jesus, that was a joke,
Jesus was sitting down at the well and he says to the Samaritan
woman, give me a drink. And she says, you’re Jewish.
I’m Samaritan. We have nothing to do with one
another. And Jesus said to her, if only you knew who I am, I
can give you living water and you’ll never thirst again. In
fact, in you will be a spring of water and that from that spring
of water will come eternal life. And she said, give me that water.
And he said, go get your husband. And she says, I have none. He
says, actually you have what five? And she says, you’re right.
How do you know? And so she goes and tells all her kinfolk, all
that were here, there is this man, he is a prophet and he has
told me everything that I have ever done. And the Gospel of
John says that many Samaritans believed because of her faith
and because of Jesus’ ministry. But Jesus goes on to speak of
worship, he goes on to speak of food, but he reminds us of
the teaching of the scripture in this passage that the religion
of the Jews was at one time just for the Jews, but it is being
opened and extended to the Gentiles. I don’t know about you, but I’m
not Jewish. I’m a Gentile. I imagine there’s
not a one of us in the room of Jewish descent, but thanks be
to God, as the book of Galatians reminds us that those who were
children of Abraham by faith, are included in God’s family. And so we are reminded in this
Psalm, we’re reminded that the promise of God to Abraham and
to his offspring had its privileges. Those privileges to the Jews
were the words of God, the prophecies of God, the adoption, the glory,
the covenants, the law, the temple, and the promises. And throughout
the scriptures of the Old Testament, there were glimpses of the inclusion
of the Gentiles, remember Rahab, Then there was Ruth. Then there
are great prophecies where the gospel would go to both Jew and
Gentile. Then we see the work of Paul,
a minister to the Gentiles. In Psalm 117, in Romans 15, we
find a wonderful quote where Paul speaks of the glories of
Christ coming to the Gentiles as well. But what does this little
Psalm teach us in particular with this larger of the Gentiles in mind. Well,
it says just a few things. The first verse says, praise
the Lord, praise Yahweh. Remember, we’re in the Hallel
section. This is the fifth one, I believe.
But praise Yahweh, that’s the hallelujah, the Hallel. Praise
Yahweh, all nations, extol him, all peoples. The Gentiles are
to worship the living God. Some of the commentaries you
read on the Psalms, follow the order of the Psalter. As you
get through the Psalter, there’s a structure to it, there’s a
format to it. These aren’t just little individual Psalms that
sort of got jammed together with a number on them. No, they’re
in an order. They’re in an order of maybe
their placement in the history of God’s people. Well, the farther
you get into the Psalms, the farther you get into the inclusion
of the Gentiles. But you also get into Israel’s
history where they were given great mercies by God. The longer
into the Psalter you get, probably the closer to the exile and the
return from exile you come. And so there’s much more to praise
God for because the people have been wicked over the history
of God’s people, but God has been merciful. So why do we praise
the Lord? Why do we extol him? Well, there’s
two really good reasons. Anytime you hear Like this morning
in our call to worship, Psalm 95, we’re to worship God, come
before him. There’s always a for or a why. And the why here is answered
in two ways. Great is his steadfast love toward
us. And then the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. So we’re called to worship. All
people, all nations, including the Gentiles, are called to worship. Why? because God has prevailed
over sin and our enemies and nothing has separated us, not
even our own wickedness. Nothing has separated us from
God’s steadfast love or his faithfulness. His steadfast love, we see in
verse two. and his faithfulness have overcome
or overpowered or outlasted our wickedness, sin’s darkness, the
devil’s schemes. That’s something to really think
about when you’re going through the thick of life. You may think
the world is gonna get you. You may think cancer is going
to lick you. You may think the economy tanking or correcting
itself or whatever it has done is going to ruin your financial
dreams or plans or stability, but God’s steadfast love and
his faithfulness prevail over everything. And so we remember
this night as we are called to praise God, as we’re called to
extol him, his steadfast love, his faithfulness, or you might
say his mercy and his truth will always prevail over even the
greatest enemy. Romans chapter eight reminds
us what will separate us from the love of God in Christ? Nothing,
absolutely nothing, that’s right. God’s mercy and truth are forever
sure and they are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. And so we can
say as the last stanza, the last command of Psalm 117, we can
say, praise the Lord or hallelujah. Let’s say a prayer together.
Lord, we give you thanks for this little psalm so packed with
the reminder that you save not only the offspring of Abraham,
but you have come to bring your gospel to the Gentiles. We bless
you for your steadfast love and for your faithfulness, for they
have overcome all obstacles to keep us in your love. And we
thank you for this in Christ’s name, amen.