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“Hallelujah Psalms - V”
Psalm 117 is another of the great Hallel psalms we are considering in this series, in light of the very real possibility that they are the hymns sung by Jesus and his disciples on His last night before the cross. This is the briefest of these songs – just 2 verses! Here are the lyrics:
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!
As you can see, a “hallelujah” both opens and closes the song – thus its appropriate inclusion in this section. As all mature people have discovered, sometimes great power comes in small packages. This short song has a huge reach! It calls on “all nations” to praise God! Not just Israel – ALL.
Jesus would soon command his disciples to “go into all the world” and preach good news. How apropos that on the night before He generated all that gospel work on the cross, they sang of all the world praising God!
You might take note that verse 1 is taken up and used by the great apostle to all the world – Paul – in Romans 15:11. In a section where Paul is driving home the point that the good news of Jesus is for both Jew and Gentile alike, he remembers the powerful words to this little psalm.
Also, in verse 2, most of our translations render something like “great is His steadfast love toward us.” The word “great” there is the same used in the Genesis story of the Flood, whose waters “prevailed mightily” upon the earth (Genesis 7:18). God’s steadfast love is a powerful thing which cannot be held back, and which covers the entire earth, we might say.
I told you – a lot of power in a little song! Wouldn’t you love to know how it sounded?