Weseldom sing it for public worship because it is very short. But it is actuallya very beautiful and meaningful psalm.

It is part of the so-called  “Egyptian Hallel” and so would have been oneof the hymns that the Lord Jesus sang with his disciples in the upper room whenhe observed the last Passover and instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night Hewas betrayed.

Indeed, I believe we must takethis psalm as the word of the Lord Jesus which He sings in union not just withHis disciples, but with us.

Weare led to this understanding by the apostle Paul’s use of this psalm in Romans15:11. Let’s read the context:

“⁸Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth ofGod, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: ⁹ And that theGentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause Iwill confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name [Ps 18:49]. ¹⁰And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people [Dt 32:43]. ¹¹And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people [Ps117:1]” (Rom 15:8-11)

Now, I will leave it to you to sort out the speakers in all these quotations of the apostle Paul. But one thing is clear: Paul is quoting them as the words of a single person. Who is this person? Well, he cannot be God Triune, for the speaker addresses God directly (v. 9b). And the speaker cannot be David or Moses because David could not have spoken Deuteronomy 32:43; and Moses could not have spoken Psalm 18:49!

Well, a natural reading of the text from verse 8 would lead us to understand that the speaker is none other than “Jesus Christ [the] minister of the circumcision for the truth of God” (v. 8). Or let me put it this way: if no one tells you that the quotations are taken from Deuteronomy and Psalms or no one tells you that Deuteronomy is written by Moses and the Psalms by David, you will naturally attribute all the words quoted by Paul to Christ Jesus.

And I believe this intuition is correct. Moses spoke in the Spirit of Christ in his song which is quoted. The Psalmist spoke also in the Spirit of Christ.

So then, we need have no doubtthat the Holy Spirit intends for us to understand Psalm 117 as the words ofChrist. We may entitle this Psalm: “Messiah’s Call to Praise in the GreatCongregation.”

Whenwe sing this psalm, we do three things:

·  First, we Exhort one another toPraise the LORD.

·  Secondly, we Remind one anotherof the LORD’s merciful kindness towards us.

·  Thirdly, we Encourage oneanother with the LORD’s faithfulness.

1. We Exhort One Another to Praise the LORD

Our psalm begins andcloses with a call to praise the LORD:

Opraise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.… ²Praise ye the LORD.

Now,we say this is a call to praise in the Great Congregation for two reasons.First, this is the picture given us in the last verse of Psalm 116. Secondly,this is obviously a call issued to the redeemed, for who has known the “merciful kindness” of the LORD (v. 2), but the redeemed.

As the redeemed of the Lord, weare already come to Mount Sion and are part of the general assembly whichcomprises just men made perfect as well as those who are being perfected (cf.Heb 12:22-23).

Therefore,when we sing this psalm in union with Christ in the congregation, we are exhortingone another as members of the great congregation of Christ to praise the LORD.

Andnotice how verse 1 is rendered in Romans 15:11—

“Praisethe Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.”

Wherein Psalm 117:1, we have “all ye nations”, in Romans 15:11, we have “all ye Gentiles.” Thus, Psalm117 is not merely a call to the world to praise the LORD, rather it anticipatesthe extension of the LORD’s mercy and truth towards the gentiles in the LastDays.

So thecall to praise the LORD is especially relevant to us who are gentiles by birthwho have now been joined unto Christ together with all the redeemed throughoutthe ages.

Whata great privilege we enjoy! What a great privilege we have to praise the LORDand to join in with Christ our Saviour to exhort one another to praise theLORD. May the Lord grant us that our hearts may indeed overflow with gratefulthanks and high praises each time we gather to praise the LORD.

But what reasons do we have to encourage one another to praise theLORD? Well, the second thing we do when we sing this psalm is to remind oneanother of the LORD’s merciful kindness.

2. WeRemind One Another of the LORD’s Merciful Kindness

¹ Praise the LORD…² For hismerciful kindness is great toward us:

Hereis the first reason we must use to encourage one another to praise the LORD.Take note that the word rendered ‘merciful kindness’ is actually only one wordin the Hebrew. It is the word, “ds,j,” (chesed). This word occurs 248 times inthe Old Testament. It is variously translated as ‘mercy’, ‘kindness’,‘goodness’, ‘lovingkindness’ and in our text and Psalm 119:76, ‘mercifulkindness.’

What exactly does this word mean? Well, as I must havementioned before, this word does not have a single word equivalent in English.But Hebrew scholars who studied how this word is used in the Bible have noticedthat it is almost always used to describe God’s covenant relationship with Hispeople. So it is used not just to describe God’s kindness and mercy in general,but rather His loving kindness and mercy towards his covenant people.

Inother words, when we sing this psalm we are calling upon one another to praisethe LORD for His covenantal love towards us. How is this covenantal lovemanifested? It is manifested in Christ coming, living, suffering, dying, andrising up again for us. His blood is the blood of the everlasting covenant ofGrace (Heb 13:20).

We deserve God’s wrath andcurse, but as great as God’s wrath against us is, so much the greater is hismercy towards us in Christ!

Wedeserve no pity at all, but God’s merciful kindness is so great towards us thatthe eternal Son of God took on our flesh and was tempted at all points like aswe are yet without sin so that we may know we have a compassionate great highpriest as our intercessor.

So great is God’s loving kindness towards us thatwe may have the assurance that nothing shall separate us from the love of Godthat is in Christ who sealed God’s love for us with his death. Says the apostlePaul:

“Hethat spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he notwith him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32).

Such,beloved brethren and children, is the greatness of God’s covenant lovingkindness towards us. Therefore, never doubt the extent of God’s mercy towardsyou. You may have sinned. You may have failed again. You do truly deserve nomercy and kindness from the Lord. But the greatness of God merciful kindness isnot dependant on you.

Itis dependant rather on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you areunited to Him by faith, you will experience God’s covenant loving kindness, andHe will preserve you always in His love and care. He will forgive you your sinswhen you come to Him in contrition. He will strengthen you in the inner man. Hewill preserve you from apostasy. He will hold you in his hand and no one shallbe able to pluck you out of His hand.

But not only is His merciful kindness greattoward us, His faithfulness endureth forever, for consider how, thirdly, whenwe sing this psalm, …

3. WeEncourage One Another with the LORD’s Faithfulness

¹ Praise the LORD …² For…the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.

Now, the word rendered ‘truth’(tm,aÔ) is related to the word ‘amen’. It speaks of firmness, stabilityand therefore faithfulness and truth or truthfulness.

In this light, we understandthat God’s Word is true because God is faithful and reliable. So also, thetruth of the LORD is not merely a reference to the Bible, although it isincluded. It is really about the faithfulness of God… that what God says istrue and will come to pass; that God keeps his promises; that what God sayswill never become irrelevant, etc. 

We must praise the LORD becauseof His merciful kindness. We must also praise the LORD because of His truth andfaithfulness.

Has God made a covenant, hewill never break it. But did not God break His covenant with Israel since heallowed both Judahand Israelto go into exile, and he brought only a portion of Judah back? Did He not break Hiscovenant when He allowed foreign powers to rule the Promised Land in greatstretches of her history after they inherited the land? Did not God break Hiscovenant with Israelwhen He cut off most of Israelfrom the Olive Tree and grafted in the gentiles?

No, no; God did not break Hiscovenant. You must remember that the Promised Land was only a type or a shadowof the heavenly inheritance that was reserved for His people. And God’scovenant with Israelwas not really made with Israelas a nation, but with the Israel of God.

Rememberhow when God would cut the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, Abraham was ina deep sleep when the two theophanies passed through the pieces. I believe thecovenant which was enacted then was really the covenant between the Father andthe Son: the Father represented by the furnace and the Son represented by theburning lamp.

So God’s covenant is reallymade with the Israel of God or with the seed of Christ. This is an everlastingcovenant. The blood of this everlasting covenant is the blood of Christ shed onCalvary’s Tree.

Thetruth or faithfulness of the LORD endures forever because He cannot lie norfail to keep His promise, seeing He has cut a covenant. When the ancientfathers cut a covenant by passing through the pieces of animals, they werecalling upon God to cut them asunder like the animals if they failed to keeptheir promise. When God passed through the pieces, He is telling us that Hewill definitely keep His Word, for He cannot be cut asunder or destroyed.

We must praise the LORD for Histruth endures forever. Whatever he says is true and will be true forever.Whatever promises He made will be kept.

Godis not a man that He should change His mind or find himself powerless to keepHis promises. As the prophet Baalam puts it:

“Godis not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he shouldrepent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Num 23:19).

Godhas kept His promises concerning the incarnation of the Messiah and thegathering of the gentiles. He is still fulfilling his promises as he builds theIsrael of God. He will continue to keep his promises. The day is coming when Hewould have gathered all his elect, and then He will come again. He will glorifyand vindicate His Church. He will put away sin and suffering away from uspermanently and completely. He has promised.

We must believe the Lord. We must praise him for his truth andfaithfulness endure from generation to generation. We must trust him to keepHis word that He is a God not only to us, but also to our children and ourchildren’s children.

Conclusion

Beloved brethren and children,many things in this life distract us and make us discouraged. We look at ourown sin and failures. We look at the situation in the world and our family andthe church and we are disheartened.

Thename of Christ is trampled everywhere, and worldliness and wickedness seem toprevail so much so that we are even fearful that we will lose our children tothe world.

But take heart brothers andsisters, youths and children in Christ: The LORD is a covenant keeping God. Hehas demonstrated His merciful loving kindness toward us in an irrevocable wayfor Christ has come.

He has kept his promise, He iskeeping his promises and He will keep His promise.

Let us therefore praise Him andbless His holy name. Let us exhort one another to praise Him for his covenantloving kindness towards us, and for his truth and faithfulness which enduresforever and ever. Amen.Ω