Psalms 117:1

The Bible says in Psalm 117:1, “O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.” Everyone in the world is commanded to praise the Lord. But no one can praise Him unless they have a reason to praise Him. A couple of very good reasons to do so are given in the next verse. The Bible says in Psalm 117:2, “For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.”

First we are told to praise the Lord “for his merciful kindness.” God is so very kind towards us. He is gentle and He is understanding. He knows that we are weak and that we easily fail, and He takes that into consideration. He is merciful. Mercy means that you do not get the punishment that you deserve. Everyone needs mercy, a lot of mercy, because we are all sinners. We are all very great sinners. Without God’s mercy, we could not have any of the other gifts and benefits that He wants to bestow upon us. God devised a great plan so that He could make mercy available to all humans. The Son of God came to the earth to take upon Himself the punishment for sin and Jesus suffered and died on the cross. Now Jesus is the way to God. Jesus is the way to experience the forgiveness and mercy that only He can give. If you realize how great of a sinner you are, and you are a great sinner, then you will also realize how great is God’s merciful kindness to you.

Psalm 117:2 gives a second reason to praise the Lord: “the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.” God’s truth is available and knowable. There is truth about God, and there is truth from God. It makes sense. Why would the great eternal God create us, and not let us know the truth about Him? God created His truth in written form. It says in Second Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” God has given to us His written Word so that we can read it and study it for ourselves. If you do not know God’s truth, you will be without excuse. The written truth points us to the living truth. Jesus is the living truth. That is why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but by me.”

When Psalm 117:2 tells us that “the truth of the LORD endureth for ever,” it reminds us of the eternal existence of Christ. Because Jesus has eternal life, He gives eternal existence to all who are joined to Him through faith. Also, when Psalm 117:2 tells us that “the truth of the LORD endureth for ever,” it reminds us that the written Word of God is eternal. God gave us His Word through each of the original writers in a method that the Bible calls “inspiration;” and God also preserves His Word without error to every generation. His Word is eternal. It cannot cease. It cannot be marred or damaged by human failure or human error because the Word is eternal. No one knows all the details of just exactly how God preserved His Word with scribes through all the centuries, but we know that He did. Jesus said in Mark 13:31, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”

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