Why We're Called to the Nations (Psalm 117)
Big Idea: We are called to the nations because God wants people from every cultural group to praise him because his love is great and his faithfulness endures forever.
This is the shortest psalm with the biggest message. In fact, it’s the shortest chapter in the Bible. You can read it out loud in 15 seconds or less, but make no mistake: as Derik Kidner says, it “is great in faith, and its reach is enormous... The shortest psalm proves, in fact, to be one of the most potent and most seminal.” It has been called the "little giant" of the Psalter. Charles Spurgeon says that it’s “a very short Psalm if you regard the words, but of very great compass and most excellent if you thoughtfully consider the meaning.”
The Holy Spirit is able to pack a lot of teaching in a small space. One writer identified five key themes in this chapter: the calling of the Gentiles, a summary of the gospel, the ultimate purpose of blessings, the responsibilities of God's people, and their privileges.
This looks like a small psalm, and it is, but it’s so packed with teaching that Martin Luther devoted 36 pages to it. As we’re going to see, this small psalm is too big for some of Paul’s readers to have grasped. But if you grasp this psalm, it’s powerful enough to shape your life.
So let’s look at this psalm. We’re going to discover two important truths.
First, we discover God’s intent for the world.
Verse 1 says:
Praise the LORD, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
What is God’s intent for the world? This verse tells us: that he is praised by all nations; that he is extolled by all peoples.
What does this mean? We don’t know exactly when this psalm was written. It seems likely to have been written later in Israel’s history, after their return to exile. Israel was never a really large or powerful nation, and it certainly wasn’t then. But it was God’s intent that people from every nation, every people group, not just in Israel but in every nation, praise and extol the Lord.
Right now, as best as I can tell, there are 195 sovereign nations in the world. But that’s not what Psalm 117 is talking about. It discusses people groups—distinct communities with shared language, culture, traditions, and identity that set them apart from others. According to the International Missions Board, there are over 12,000 different people groups in the world.
4.8 billion people, belonging to over 7,000 cultural groups, have little to no access to the gospel. The situation is even more serious for some. Among the world's 12,000 total people groups, more than 3,000 are completely isolated from any Christian influence. These groups have no evangelical churches in their communities, and no missionary organizations are currently trying to reach them. 283 million people worldwide live in places where they may never meet an evangelical believer.
Who is going to take the gospel to them? Psalm 117:1 tells us that it’s God’s intent that all people groups praise him. It is our privilege and joy to praise the Lord, but our responsibility doesn’t end there. We’re meant to enjoy God’s grace, and then pass it on. We will not be content with only praising the Lord. We will seek that others join us in magnifying him. We want others to praise him too.
You see what this means?
The meaning and purpose of life, for nations as well as individuals, finds its fulfillment in praising God. In the presence of God, the political and national barriers disappear, and across the frontiers of countries and states, [humans] are linked together in a bond which unites them in God in fellowship with one another. (Artur Weiser)
This is why we engage in church planting, church revitalization, and missions. If this is God’s priority, it should be our priority too. God’s intent is that every people group in the world praise Yahweh and extol him. That, as Jesus said, we would “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19); that “gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14).
It’s God’s intent that all people groups praise and extol Yahweh.
Here’s the second important truth we learn in this passage:
Second, we learn the reason behind God’s intent.
Why does God want all people to praise him? Why is God so concerned for his own glory among the nations? Why is God so radically devoted to being exalted by his people, to seeing to it that his glory is esteemed as the supreme value of the universe?
It’s not because God is egotistical. Quite the opposite. It’s because God wants to “give you the greatest, most beautiful, most admirable, most satisfying reality in the universe — himself” (John Piper). He continues:
That’s not egomania. It’s love. Because nothing will make us happier forever than to be with the greatest Person in the universe, to see his glory, and to be changed to be like him. This is why Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
When all is said and done, and the history of the world is complete, and the new heavens and the new earth are established, and the infinitely joyful age to come is here, the ultimate joy, the ultimate climax of history for our aching hearts, is this: “We will see his glory.” And we will be transformed by it into the kind of people who can enjoy it fully and not be incinerated by it.
In other words, “The reason God seeks our praise is not because he won’t be fully God until he gets it, but because we won’t be fully happy until we give it.” You could argue that the reason God wants us to praise him is because it is right and fitting for us. We were made to worship him.
But there’s another reason for God’s intent that every nation worship him. It’s because he is worth of our praise because of his love and faithfulness to his people.
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
The psalmist says you can look back at God’s steadfast love. I love that concept. Steadfast love refers to God’s promise-keeping love. “Steadfast love is the long, stubborn love of God” (David Goetz and David Hansen). It’s a love in which “God stays faithful to us long after we have forfeited our right to remain in covenant with him.” It’s a love in which God refuses to give up on his people.
The psalmist says that God’s steadfast love is great. The word great doesn’t simply mean that it’s amazing. It means that it’s strong; that it’s prevailed over all the obstacles that could have stopped it. Think of all the reasons God could have chosen not to love his people. His steadfast love for them, his covenant faithfulness, was so powerful that it overcame all of them. Look at the past, and you see God’s unrelenting determination to show his steadfast love to his people despite the fact that we give God every reason to abandon his commitment to his people. History shows that God’s promise-keeping love has overcome every obstacle that stands in the way. His steadfast love is great.
But then look to the future and you will see that the faithfulness of Yahweh endures forever. God’s promise-keeping love has overcome every obstacle; he has bound himself to honor his commitments to his people forever.
Therefore, though thy sins be great, believe the text, and know that God’s mercy is greater than thy sins. The high heaven covers as well tall mountains as small molehills, and mercy can cover all. The more desperate thy disease, the greater is the glory of thy physician, who hath perfectly cured thee. (Abraham Wright)
God’s love refuses to give up on his people despite all the obstacles, and his faithfulness can be trusted in all the years to come.
This is the gospel: that we have given God every reason not to love us. We have sinned against him. And yet, out of sheer grace, he has determined to save a people to himself and stay committed to them forever.
When others see how great and steadfast God’s love has been to undeserving people like us, it should lead some of them to worship God too. Evidence of God’s transforming grace in our lives should cause people to be drawn to that same transforming grace that’s available to them.
Verses 1 and 2 show us that it was always God’s plan to bless all peoples through the Messiah, the Son of God, the savior of the world. It was always his intention that, through Jesus, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).
In fact, Paul quoted this psalm in Romans 15:11 to argue that the love and plan of God always included Gentiles. It’s never been just about one people group. All people groups of the world should praise God together.
Why is it God’s intent that all peoples should praise him? Because he is supremely valuable. Just look at his steadfast love and his enduring faithfulness. God’s intent is that all kinds of people should come to know his enduring love and faithfulness, not only because he deserves their praise, but because every person was made to find their souls satisfied in him.
John Piper helpfully reminds us how central worship is to God’s agenda. Worship, he says, is both the goal and the fuel of missions:
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever.
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God.
And so Psalm 117 simply ends with these words: “Praise the LORD.” The Lord deserves the praise of the whole world. When the nations of the world see God’s steadfast love and enduring faithfulness, they will join in and worship him too.
We are called to the nations because God wants people from every cultural group to praise him because his love is great and his faithfulness endures forever.
