Psalms 117:1-2

Common site in America’s southwest desert is the century plant. It’s unique. The century plant, Agave Americana, thrives in the rocky mountainous desert sites. The plant can reach 12 feet in diameter. What makes this plant unusual is its long reproduction cycle. Now, it’s not really 100 years. But it may go decades before it goes into a reproduction cycle. For 20 or 30 years, this six-foot-tall plant stands at the same height and puts out no flowers. And then one year, without warning, suddenly a new butt appears, it resembles a tree-trunk-sized asparagus shoot. And believe it or not, it shoots up into the sky at the rate of safety. seven inches per day until it reaches a height of 20 to 40 feet. And then it crowns itself with several clumps of yellowish blossoms that last up to three weeks. And then you have to wait another 20 or 30 years before it does it again. Now, our text tonight, here in Psalm 117, anticipates the long-awaited kingdom of God coming in all its fullness. it will be a glorious worldwide kingdom with people gathered into it from all parts of the globe. However, in the Old Testament, you only have the promise of God that the heathen would be brought to salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah. Like the century plant, the promise of earth. Verse 1 here of Psalm 117, lied dormant for years and years and years. And then suddenly Christ came. The gospel soon was spread everywhere and this promise came to pass. Some of God’s most wonderful promises are fulfilled only after a long wait. And such is the case with our text here. Now, this is the shortest Psalm in the Bible, probably the shortest chapter, I believe, in the Bible as well. But the Holy Spirit has packed a lot into this two-verse Psalm. We see that the kingdom of God is universal. We see the joy of all the world at the coming of the Messiah. We see that salvation is based upon God’s merciful kindness, and we have assurance of the truth. of God’s word abiding forever in this passage of Scripture. Let me begin, as we look at this text, by saying this, you were called to worship the covenant God. Oh, praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise him, all ye people. We have here the God of the covenant. You see the word Lord capitalized here. and in Scripture, of course, whenever it’s capitalized, it refers to Jehovah. Remember in the book of Genesis that the true God revealed himself as the Lord, as Jehovah God, the God of the covenant. God’s dealings with his people could be classified as a covenant relationship and certainly are throughout Scripture. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so forth. all are said to be in a covenant relationship with the Lord God. A covenant in scripture is a bond of friendship. And the idea here is expressed in such languages, walking with God, as we see with Enoch and Noah, being a friend of God, as we see with Abraham and Moses, God dwelling with His people, as Revelation 21-3 indicates, to us, a family relationship that we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. It speaks of a marriage union, of a husband and wife. It speaks of being one, united with Christ as the head and the savior of the church. It speaks also of God being your God and you being one of his people. Now, in this covenant relationship, God is the friend king of us. of his people and you are his friend’s servant. Now, a covenant relationship with God is always based purely upon divine grace. And we’ll look at that in verse 2 in a moment when he talks about the merciful kindness of the Lord. But you see clearly when the word covenant is first introduced in scripture, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and then a few verses, later, with thee, with Noah, will I establish my covenant? So when we use the term covenant of grace, we’re using it in the sense here of this passage in Genesis chapter 6, that it is to find grace in the eyes of the Lord and to enter into a covenant relationship with him. Now, of course, our bond of friendship with God is based upon Christ redemptive work. Hebrew talks about the blood of the everlasting covenant by which we are redeemed. It’s established unilaterally. There are no negotiations between God and man. There’s no table of negotiation. It’s sovereignly bestowed and maintained by God. Its importance certainly is seen in David declaring in 2nd Samuel 23-5 that God, hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for this is all my salvation. Do you have such a covenant relationship with God? Can you say that God is your friend and your heavenly father? Do you have Christ as your beloved husband? Do you see him as your king? Are you willing to submit to him as your servant? As your servant? It is this covenant relationship that seems to be the background for this particular Psalm that we’re looking at this evening. The God of the covenant is the Lord, the people of the covenant. We see here as all ye nations and all ye people. Nations, Goiam, is often translated Gentiles. There are times it includes the Israelites as well. when we’re thinking about every nation under heaven, then certainly it would include the Israelites as well. People or peoples seems to be used here as the wide diversity of peoples that may be within a nation, different tribes, different ethnic groups, and so forth. So it’s sort of a subdivision, I think, of the idea. of nations here. Together, the words embrace all peoples everywhere. And certainly, this reflects upon Christ’s redemptive work, as the book of Revelation tells us, thou hast redeemed us to God by thy tongue out of every kindred tongue, people, and nation in Revelation. So what you find here is the fruitful response of the Great Commission. that is connected with the preaching of the gospel of Christ and people from all parts of the world coming into the kingdom of God and being converted and coming under Christ as a head and Savior. From the very beginning, God promised, do you recall, in thee, in your seed, in Jesus Christ, all the nations of the world would be blessed. And here we see the promise in a fuller sense in Psalm 117, and we get to the New Testament. We see it coming to fruition. The Apostle Paul interprets this Psalm as being fulfilled in Christ’s coming and advancing his kingdom on the earth. If you hold your place here, but look at Romans chapter 15 and verses 8 to 11. Romans 15, verse 8 through 11. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made under the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again, he saith, rejoice ye Gentiles with his people. And again, and here’s the quotation from Psalm 117.1.1.1. praise the Lord all ye Gentiles and laud him all ye people. The early church, you recall, struggled with the ideas of the idea of the Gentiles being included. Remember how the church sort of reprimanded Peter when he had gone to Cornelius’s house. Not only preached the gospel to them, but ate with them and so forth, and when he gets back to Jerusalem, he gets an earful for it. But it was scriptures like this. Psalm 117 that convincingly proved that the Gentiles would be gathered into the church. Indeed, there would be one fold and one shepherd. The Gentiles would no longer be strangers to the covenants of promise, but fellow citizens with the saints and make up the true Israel of God, as Ephesians 2 indicates to us. Many years ago, there was a mission. mayor of a town in France whose daughter had a pet canary, but one day the pet canary got loose from the cage and she could not capture him in time and out the window he wet. And so the mayor issued a proclamation of all the gates of the city should be locked so that the little creature might not get away. Well, such an effort did not prove very wise or productive. because canaries can fly. And so he flew over the wall and was gone, and they never did catch the canary. The early church tried to confine the gospel within the boundaries of the nation of Israel. They tried to shut the gates, if you would. But God gave his gospel truth wings, and it could not be confined. He purposed that it should spread to the ultimate. uttermost part of the earth, and it flew with wings all over the Roman Empire and even beyond it. As Daniel 7 indicates to us, this shall be given him, meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, dominion in a kingdom, that all people’s, nations and languages should serve him. Daniel 7.14. Now, we should draw from this, or draw this conclusion or observation. Such a revelation as this should stir up the hearts of the people of God for missionary work. Should it not? It seems clear that Paul himself saw, in a sense, that he was fulfilling the purpose of God in his missionary work. Passages like this are the passages that motivated him to take the gospel to the Gentile. and preach all over the Roman Empire, far in one. God’s elect we see are found everywhere. And thus you have good reason. Wherever you find yourself, as you present the gospel of Christ, God could have one of the elect people there. For every nation, every people will somehow be represented, it seems, in the kingdom of God. William Carey, desiring to be a missionary. studied foreign languages and eagerly read all the travel reports of Captain Cook. People looked upon him as sort of a foolish, impractical dreamer as a minister because he had this longing. And at one point, he purposed for a discussion at a minister’s conference whether or not the Great Commission is binding on us today or not. and that we should go out and teach all nations the gospel of Christ. An older minister rebuked him saying, sit down, young man. When God is pleased to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mind. He evidently failed to see that perhaps God was raising up William Carey to do the missionary work. So let us not have that kind of attitude toward missionary work, but be willing to support men who feel called God that carry the gospel to the four lands because this is the purpose of God. This is what the scripture indicates with regard to the kingdom of God. The people of the covenant, people from everywhere, from all nations, from all tribes, and all tongues and so forth. Now, my third point is this. The praise due to the God of the covenant. The praise of God begins the Psalm and ends the Psalm. This teaches us. This teaches us, in a way that the people of God can never be satisfied, even when they have done what they could to praise God. It’s never enough, is it? How do you complete your praise of such a God whose perfections are infinite? When you’ve done your utmost for God’s praise, you can’t be content, but we have to begin anew. This is hardly a duty that’s more pressed upon you than this. giving praise to God. And sadly, it is not practiced as fully as it should be among the people of the Lord. The beginning in the end of this Psalm uses the word hallelujah. Because there’s a jubilation. There’s joy in this praise of God that comes through with the way it’s worded. Sort of like we read in Psalm 100, make a joyful noise under the Lord. all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before his presence with singing. So we have this idea of joy in the worship of God. Here we have the idea that God would have certainly happy worshippers, that God would have us cheerfully sing praises to his name and honor him. Adoration of God should not be something that is melancholy, like at a funeral or something. It should be a celebration. It should be joyful. It should be more like we’re going to a wedding. I can’t put it that way. You remember the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon set up a golden image, and he demanded that everybody in the capital city would worship his God. and he attached a death threat to noncompliance. They’d be thrown into the the fiery furnace. And we have the story of Shadrach and Meshach and Abedigo and so forth. Now, it’s true that people from all nations and all lands bowed down before his image out of compulsion. What joy was found in this. It was grudgingly done. It was out of fear that it was done. God, however, calls upon you to worship him with a right attitude, with a joyful spirit. from the heart. It’s not enough for us just to show up for church and go through the motions of praising him. Are we no different than those who would bow before Nebuchadnezzar’s idol? We simply perform the duty. No, God would have you praise him with a joyful heart, with a deep appreciation for all that he has done for you through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation. of your soul. In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s progress, you have Christianity saying to Mercy, what was the matter that you did laugh in your sleep last night? And Mercy said, did I really laugh in my sleep? And Christianity said, yes, you laughed heartily. And Mercy said, well, that she had a dream in which she was bemoaning the hardness of her own heart. And suddenly an angel appeared and said, mercy, what aileth thee? And then the angel said, Peace be to thee. And he wiped away all her tears with his handkerchief. Then clad Mary in gold and silver, put a chain around her neck, put a beautiful crown upon her head, and took her by the hand, and they came to a golden gate through which they entered into heaven. And she heard from God’s throne, welcome daughter. And so Mary laughed with Julie. at such a situation, even in her sleep, that she was a child of God and she was going to heaven. Now, friends, we have such an inheritance. We ought to have joy in having such an inheritance. The second praise of verse 1 is a little different. It speaks more of exaltation here, glorying in the Lord. Yes, joy is still at focus. But here the focus is upon the greatness of our God and his worthiness to be praised. He is the true and living God. Think of all the gods that the Gentiles were worshipping. They are idols, deaf and dumb. This is the true and living God worthy to be praised. He is the creator of heaven and earth. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created all things. in Revelation 411. He is the redeemer of his people. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. For thou hast that was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. That’s sung in the book of Revelation to Christ. I can go on and on. But the psalmist here is going to give us two specific reasons why God ought to be. to be praised in verse 2. But he’s worthy of all the worship that we can give him. So you are called to worship the covenant God. Secondly, the specific reasons you should worship the covenant God are found in verse 2. For his merciful kindness is great toward us. And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. Praise you the Lord. The first thing he mentions here is the God’s merciful kindness to his people. Here is the greatness of God’s love. The word us here should not be seen as referring just to Jews, but to all of God’s people, all those who are included in verse 1. Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day and shall be my people, Zachariah 2-11. You recall in Romans chapter 9 that Paul, Paul quotes from the book of Josea and he speaks of the Gentiles. I will call them my people which were not my people and her beloved which was not beloved. Romans 925. Paul argues for the grafting of the Gentiles into the olive tree representing the Israel of God. And so we have the idea here of Gentiles being among the people of God. It is passages like this that certainly would remind us of what Jesus said in John 316, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now, of course, us indicates that God has merciful kindness, love toward his people, his elect people. Not every. individual, or every person in the world, but the elect of the world, the Jacobs, and not the Esau’s. Still, God’s covenant love is broad enough to include people from every nation and tongue and so forth. We read in Isaiah 4511, Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else. There is an abundance in the heart of God. and in his covenant, and in his son, which is displayed in the multitude of people, which no man can number, who will be saved out of all the nations of the earth. So the greatness of God’s love here. The power of God’s love is also indicated here by this word great. It carries the idea of mighty. It can refer and speak to the irresistible power of God’s love. The word is used in Genesis 718, the prevailing of the waters of the flood over the whole earth. The idea of prevailing. And so we have the picture of power here connected with this merciful kindness. How God in his merciful kindness prevails over sinners. He conquers their hearts. He draws them to him without fail. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. God stretches forth his power and brings people into his kingdom and fulfills his promises. God’s grace cannot be thwarted so that people from all nations must, indeed, will be included in the kingdom. You know, British Navy will commandal Lord Nelson deliberately disobeyed a signal to break off the battle. the naval battle with the French. He didn’t want to do it. So he decided he placed his eyeglass over his blind eye and he later claimed, I didn’t see the signal. Then he went out and defeated the French in the naval battle. He became a hero. People cannot see the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, but they have no mind for it. They’re spiritually blind. The ungodly men may be called from the pulpit to repent and turn to Christ, but they readily ignore it. The outward call of God is readily ignored. Someone has likened the ungodly to hogs in a harvest field, eating up the grain, and no matter how you might come along and try to call them away, they’re not going to move. The sinner has no will to hear. All his faculties are paralyzed by sin. He resolutely is opposed to the gospel of Christ. Conversion requires God’s power prevailing in regard to this man’s stubborn disobedience and rebellion. Now notice it is God’s merciful kindness that prevails here. God doesn’t need to violently open the door of a person’s heart. He doesn’t have to use a sledgehammer to break down the door. He has the key of grace. He simply unlawful. the door, opens the heart, and enters. And your mind and will and affections are all changed, and you readily respond to the gospel. And that’s the inward call. Scripture puts it in this way, when God calls out his bride to salvation in Hosea 214, Behold, I will lure her. I will draw her in. And thus he does, God’s merciful kindness to his people, the greatness of God’s love and the power of God’s love is indicated here. God’s promises are sure and certain. He says in verse 2, the truth of the Lord endureth forever. God is going to keep his covenant promise that he made Abraham long ago about his seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. And we see how faithful God is to that promise. as time went on and there’s a long period going by and we don’t see it all come to pass. Eventually Christ does come and then all of a sudden things begin to happen and the kingdom spreads throughout the world. And God grants repentance to the Gentiles and as Paul says he reconciles the world unto himself. This gives you assurance that God will eternally keep every covenant promise he is made to us as his people all who put their trust in him. God’s word never fails. He’s always bound to the truth of his word. This is soul satisfying indeed. God’s commitment here to keep his word should be something that constantly makes us grateful as his people. God never changes his mind. He never withdraws his merciful kindness from you. For the truth of the Lord endures forever. Heaven and earth may pass away, but God’s word will not. And this is the confidence we have. So here are the reasons you should worship the covenant God. God’s merciful kindness to his people and certainly God’s promises are sure and certain because his word is forever settled in heaven. Well, a century plant can go for decades without blooming, then all of a sudden it shoots up this tree trunk shoot, if you would, which produces clumps of yellow blossoms. God’s promises are often like that. they may lie dormant for a long time, and then suddenly they come to pass. God never forgets what he’s promised. He always brings it to pass. This is certainly true regarding the glorious worldwide kingdom of Christ, which is spoken of here in our text. Our text is a call for all nations, all peoples, to worship the covenant God of the Bible for His merciful kindness and His eternal truth. One last thought. You can learn from this Psalm that God’s worship does not have to be long and elaborate. It’s a very short Psalm. Even children in their worship can be be accepted. as simple as this Psalm is. It indicates to us that God is pleased if we worship Him, even if it’s brief, even if it’s as simple as this little Psalm that we have here. For this Psalm is for the singing of the church and the honor of the Lord’s name. Let us close with a good prayer tonight.