I would ask you to turn in your Bibles this morning to the 117th Psalm. Psalm 117. My wife tells me this is her favorite Psalm when she was a young person attending church because sometimes they would ask her to read the Bible. She'd always pick Psalm 117 because she knew only two verses. She knew it to be the shortest. of all the psalms, and it's almost the kind of psalm that you would overlook. In fact, there are those who have tried to put it maybe at the end, verse 116, or at the beginning of 118, and you don't understand why they'd want to do that, because we've been studying this section of the psalms, this collection of songs that are all what are called halil songs. They are praise songs. Halil is to praise. Hallelujah is to praise the Lord. And so these halil songs, beginning and ending, many of them, with the note praise Yah or praise the Lord, hallelujah, is a collection that has a story that it tells. And we've been looking at that story. as we've gone through it. It's also the collection at least 113 to 118 that was known as the Egyptian Hallel. And the reason it was called the Egyptian Hallel, it was praising the Lord that we're not in Egypt. praising the Lord that he delivered us out of Egypt, that we went out from Egypt, that the power of God brought us out of Egyptian darkness and death of bondage and slavery, but not just took us out of Egypt, but brought us through the wilderness, that land that was a fearsome, troublesome, dangerous land, and God guided us, protected us, and led us ultimately into the place of the promise. And it's in the collection of these psalms that we find some of these psalms are, well, questionable as to where they begin and where they end. Remember Psalm 116, we said that their tendency is, as you see it in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. You know what they did with Psalm 116? They separated it. It's two psalms. They separated it from verse 9, 1 to 9, and then 10 to verse 19. And why did they do that? Well, because it's difficult to see how both of those parts really fit together in one psalm. It's easier to separate them and put them in a different place. But I don't think that was right. that they did that, but that's what they did. And you know what else they did? They went and they took Psalm 114 and Psalm 115 and they united them. They put them together. So if you were reading the Old Testament in the Greek translation called the Subtuagent, you would be reading Psalm 114 and 115 as one Psalm. And you would be reading Psalm 116 as two Psalms. Strange, but it happens in a couple of other places. Psalm 9 and 10, and then later on in the book of Psalms, it happens again. And so all the Psalter is the same in all the translations. It's just that they're numbered differently. They're put together in different ways. So people would say, well, 117, maybe that doesn't belong. Just this one psalm on its own, just two verses, just too small, too insignificant, too unimportant. The problem with that is nobody thought in history to do that. Nobody ever thought to put psalm 117 to connect it with the psalm before or the psalm after. It's always stood upon its own, and it's always had its own sense of importance within the framework of these Egyptian halal psalms. And we'll say more about that later. The fact that it's small should not be making it, in our minds, insignificant. Remember the old saying that good things come in small packages. And we may well find very important things found in this passage. I mentioned in the reading, it's a psalm that Paul quotes. and a very strategic part of his own argument about his own ministry to the Gentiles and how it is that the people of God in Rome that comprise both Jews and Gentiles in one congregation ought to consider one another. And this psalm fits in to that whole argument that you Gentiles need to thank God for the Jews. You need to praise Him that there are Jews in your midst. And the reality is, this psalm is unique. And it's unique in the classical sense. It's one of a kind. At least up until this point in this altar, there's no psalm like it. When we did the scripture reading, I asked you to think, what is it about this psalm that's unique? Because again, you read it and you say, it sounds just like all the other psalms. 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. What makes this different from all the other psalms? Let me read you a few of the praise psalms. And I wonder if you could just detect what the difference might be. Psalm 9 is a call to sing praises to the Lord. who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples his deeds. Tell among the people his deeds. That's God's people, Israel, the covenant people, praising the Lord enthroned in Zion, speaking among the peoples about the God that they serve. But this is a psalm that calls the peoples to praise. It's not just God's people praising Him in the presence of others. It's calling the peoples of the nations to praise Him. Psalm 18 verse 49. For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations. I will praise you among the nations. That's the psalm writer praising the Lord among the nations. Psalm 22. You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Stand in awe of Him, all offspring of Israel. Psalm 30, sing praise to the Lord, O you His saints. Who is it that praises the Lord? It's the saints that praise the Lord. Who is it that praises the Lord? It's Israel that praises the Lord. Who is it that praises the Lord? It's God's people in covenant with Him. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Psalm 33, praise befits the upright. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, where? In the city of our God. That's Jerusalem. The mountain of His holiness, His holy mountain. That's Mount Zion. I will give thanks to you, O Lord. Psalm 57. Among the peoples. But who's doing the praising? Not the peoples. It's a songwriter. Praising the Lord in the midst of the peoples. I will sing praise to your name among the nations. That's the psalm writer praising the Lord among the nations. See the difference? This is a psalm that actually calls upon the nations to praise the Lord. First time that's seen in the book of the Psalms. They might by implication have some merit in terms of what follows. Certainly Psalm 150 says, everything that has breath, praise the Lord. That includes the nations. And so the nations get included, but not until this point. Not until this point in the Psalter. What's unique to this psalm, it's a call to praise the Lord all nations. Extol Him all peoples. All peoples have a reason to praise the Lord. All peoples have a reason to give thanks to the Lord. And so the atypical nature of the psalm is to be seen just in this. It's a call to the nations to praise him. Now, it's not a call to the nations to come to Jerusalem to praise him. Because again, they wouldn't be admitted. The Gentiles would not be admitted. The whole idea of a court of the Gentiles didn't exist in the time that this altar was collected and written. That's Herod's idea. When Herod made additions to the temple, 35 years, Jesus says the temple was being built. And you say three days, you're going to raise it up again. Well, he's talking about Herod's additions to the temple. What Herod did to make the temple in Jerusalem, some people consider it one of the seven wonders of the world. It was an incredible work of architecture. The people from all the world came to Jerusalem to see Herod's temple. That's the reason you had so many people gathered. Well, not just Jews, but others on the day of Pentecost. That's the reason you had so many people coming to Jerusalem at the time of the feasts, is because Herod's temple was just that splendor, filled with splendor. And the fact is, he put a place for the Gentiles to meet, because they couldn't get in to the inner courts. In the outer courts, there was a place for the Gentiles together. It wasn't so in the Old Testament. So this call to the nations to praise the Lord was not intended for a Gentile audience. It was intended for God's people who came to the temple, who came to the synagogue, who were the worshipers of God, to hear this word. They were to sing. Praise the Lord, all the nations. They were the audience because they were the ones who were to come to the recognition that what God is doing in the world is not just for Israel. Someone has said that what in the New Testament we read is the gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. From an Old Testament perspective, could be written, God so loved the world that he called Israel. The call of Israel was not simply for Israel. It was not simply for their good and for their benefit. We read that in Genesis chapter 12. God called Abram out of Haran to come into the land that he promised. And he said, I will make you a blessing. Not only will I bless you, but I will make you a blessing to others. And in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. That's the whole reason of the name change. Why did Abram become Abraham? Well, because of the promise you find in chapter 22 and chapter 17, that he will be not just an exalted father, but a father in many nations. that through Abraham's seed, the nations of the earth will come to know God. God came to know Abraham, so not only that he would teach his children and his family to walk in the ways of the Lord, but ultimately, their walking in the ways of the Lord will have international ramifications. And so, when you think of this psalm, in the context of the Hallel, the Egyptian Hallel, It kind of makes sense. Because it was the God of the Exodus who was first the object of their praise in Psalm 112. It was their reciprocal response to the God of Israel in his wonderful works in chapter 13. And then there was the God who came himself. took Israel out of Egypt, when Israel went out from Egypt. The actual Egyptian Hallel itself focuses upon the Exodus, the going out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language. That's in Psalm 114. But it doesn't end there. God's purpose is to take them through a wilderness Wilderness in which there's snares of death that encompass them. In Psalm 116, the pangs of Sheol that laid hold on them. That was the reality of the lessons of God's grace that were to be learned in the wilderness. when he says, I was brought low and he saved me. And the Lord preserves the simple. God is in the business of not just allowing his people to go through a wilderness and find suffering, but to learn from suffering, to profit from suffering, to benefit from suffering, to learn that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. To learn in the midst of trials and temptations and sufferings that you should worship the Lord your God and him only should you serve. They learned the lessons of his grace. So when they came to the borders of Canaan, they would not do the same thing their fathers did when they rebelled against God's word, that there would be a people who were truly holiness unto the Lord who could enter the land. But Israel also needs to know Not only that God is the God who brought them out and brought them through and brought them in to a land that flowed with milk and honey, a land of plenty, a land of prosperity, but Israel also needed to know it's not just for you. You see, the end of life is not just getting free from slavery and bondage. As wonderful as such a thing is, it's not just enduring the trials and tribulations and troubles of this present evil age. That's wonderful that we can. It's not just the prospect of entering into an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, unfading, reserved in heaven for us, as glorious as that hope is. It's the realization, Christian, you didn't get it just for yourself. God didn't deal with you in a way of grace and mercy because everything terminates with you. It's not just your own personal peace and happiness. It's not that only. But thankfully God cares for that. He does provide for that. But through that reality, we would shine forth to others, with the reality of the truth of the God we serve, the salvation we've received, the blessings that have been conferred upon us, that others would want to know what we know, that others would want to hear the message that we've received and believed. It's that we would not just receive the blessings of this kingdom, but that through that the kingdom would extend and prosper in the world, that we would show forth his praises. Not just speak forth his praises, but to show forth the praises of the God who has called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. That's the end of the reality of our salvation. You think of the psalmist, he speaks of it in Psalm 40, and he puts it in this way. Now, it's mostly in a Jewish context, likely, for him, but nonetheless, it's not just in a Jewish context. It has to go beyond that. He says, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me, heard my cry, drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bad. What a picture of what Egypt was like. Set my feet upon a rock. making my steps sure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. What God does for us is not just for us alone. Is that through us, the blessings of his grace will multiply. The blessings of his grace would extend to others. And I don't just mean this, we go around blabbing about what we know about the Bible. I mean that people see the monument of His grace evident in the lives of God's people. They turn around and say, hey, what gets with you? What's the reason for the hope that's in you? Why do you live the way that you live? What's your hope? I mean, in the midst of this world of so much tragedy and so much death and so much darkness and so much despair, why is it that you walk around as if you own the world? As if you have no fears. You get to tell them because I know the maker of heaven and earth. I know the one who to know is life eternal. I know the one to whom to know is joy unspeakable and full of glory. And this becomes open doors of witness, not because we're looking to go around and preach to everybody that's around us. Although, fine, if they'll listen, we'll do it. But the reality is that we're opening ears and opening eyes and making people inquire and making people just a bit envious because they see the kind of lives we live as God's people. That's the pity of it. There's so many people walk upon this earth and talk about Jesus and praise Jesus on Sunday and go to their places of employment and live their lives in this world as if they were just like the world. There's no difference at all. Having the same values, having the same practices, having the same attitudes, having the same grumpiness and complaining spirit. It's interesting how Paul tells the Philippians, do all things without grumblings and disputings. How about that? In a world of grumblings and disputings, in a world where everybody hates their jobs, hates their wives, hates their kids, not everybody does that, but people complain about it all the time. All the things they ought to love and delight and enjoy and have joy in, they're always complaining about. Paul says to the Philippians, Don't do that. You got no reason to do that. Do all things without grumbling, without griping, without complaining, that you may be the children of God, blameless in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. You're going to shine out. You're going to just shine forth as stars in the midst of the darkness of the universe. How many times you walk out at night and the eye just grabs that thing up there? My wife tells me it's Venus. I stop on my tracks every time I see it and say, man, look at that. Look at that. Or you see the moon in any one of its stages. Or you see something of just the beauty of the night sky. You see those lights that shine forth. And God's people are to shine forth just like that and cause people to be stopping in their tracks and being arrested and asked, what's going on? What's the reason for the hope that's in you? You're stranger than the sun. You're unique. You're one of a kind. You don't come across people like you. Sadly, they don't meet many consistent Christians. This is what God's people are to be like. This is what Israel was to be like. They were not just to be saved for themselves. Isn't it interesting? God brings them out of Egypt, brings them through the wilderness, brings them into the borders of Canaan. And what do they do? They send out a couple of spies and spy out the land. I happen to end up in the house of a prostitute named Rahab. What happens? In the midst of a mission that's basically to bring judgment upon the Canaanites, the iniquity of the Amorites whole, to bring judgment upon the inhabitants of the land, you have inhabitants of the land and the whole family that are saved. Because they've heard about Israel's God. You've heard about what Israel's God has done. And Rahab gives a confession of faith that's stirring, it's moving, it's genuine, it's real. So it's not just ethnicity, folks. A woman of faith becomes part of the nation of Israel and she's in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. The Canaanite is saved. and his family are destroyed because of their sin and their unbelief. It's not just ethnicity. God has something else in mind. God has in mind ultimate salvation of the world, the ultimate in gathering of the nations, the ultimate reality that Abraham's seed will bless the world. Just as we can complain that Christians don't do what they're supposed to do, they don't fulfill their calling very faithfully, Israel failed as well. Israel failed as well. We got lots of company in this whole business of failing to keep what our calling should be, to honor God in what he's called us to do. But this psalm calls them back. This psalm calls them back to the recognition it's not just for us. As we come and we meet in this temple, as we come and we meet in the synagogue, as we come and we remember the God of the Exodus, the God of the great act of deliverance that he effected for his people out of Egypt, into the wilderness, into the place of promise. It's not just for us. Praise the Lord, all nations. extol him, all peoples. They were the audience, remembering that their calling was not just to take blessings for themselves, but to receive the blessings that they in turn might be true Abrahamites who bless others, who bless others. Through them, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Many passages in scripture present this pattern. I won't turn you to others, but just keep that in mind when you read the Old Testament. See how often that's the end game, that Israel will fulfill its purpose for the blessing of the nations. Then we want to look at the argument of the psalm itself. There is the call to praise the nations. Again, Israel is actually commanding the nations. It's in terms of the imperative. It's in the form of the verb in which It's a command that's given. All the nations are commanded to praise the Lord. All peoples are commanded to extol Him. Why? Why? What's the reason? What's the argument? It's not going to surprise you what the argument is. At least the first part. For great is His steadfast love toward us. Israel's saying the nation should praise God for his steadfast love toward us, towards Israel. Hear this Roman Gentiles? You see what Paul quoted in Romans? All those Gentiles that thought, hey, we could live without these Jews. We don't need these Jews. They're just a bunch of, they're nuisances. Look at their practices. Look at what they eat and what they don't eat. We don't like that. Maybe you don't like their dress. Maybe you don't like other things about them. We don't like the days they keep. They don't really contribute much. They don't contribute much. You Gentiles, you're in this whole thing of the gospel because of them. They're not in it because of you. It's God's promise to Israel that you've received. It's the reality of God's covenant love towards Israel that guarantees the blessing will overflow to the nations. As the covenant terms are that Israel will be God's people for the express purpose of bringing the blessing of Abraham to the nations. Again, it's not just for themselves. You have the Canaanite woman that came to Jesus She wants her daughter healed. And Jesus rebuffs her at first. He says, it's not fit to give that which is holy to the dogs. I've been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You Canaanite woman, don't abide. She won't give up. Wait a minute, wait a minute, Lord. You show steadfast love to this people. There must be some hope for me. There must be some hope for me. If Israel has so much goodness that you shower upon them, and they're no prize, there must be something left for me. She says, but even the dogs under the table eat that comes off of the master's table. There must be a blessing still. And she won't give up. And Jesus says, I've not seen such great faith, not in all of Israel. The woman won't give up. She knows there's a blessing left for her. This God's great faithfulness, His steadfast love, His covenant commitment to go to the end, a full commitment that will not let us go, that He shows to His people, will be for all who have the faith of His people. Rahab. is included. Ruth the Moabitess is included. Gentiles are included. Not because of ethnicity, because of faith. They said come to believe in the God of Israel. And the blessing of God is not just for Israel only. It's that through Israel all the families of the earth should be blessed. Why should you Gentiles extol his name, why should you praise him? Look at his committed love that goes to the distance, that will not cease, the love that never lets us go. It's with the Israelite, why wouldn't it not be with me? If I turn to him and look to him in faith, well, lo and behold, it is. God's not a respecter of persons. God's not, it's not ethnicity, it's faith that's the key. And as I see God's steadfast love. Yeah, I think Paul probably thought of this when he wrote 1 Timothy. And he says, God's had mercy on me. I'm a blasphemer, injurious, the worst of humanity. Look what God's done for me. Why has he done it? He sent me forth as an example for all who will believe after me. Hey, if God's had mercy on Paul, why would I be excluded? Mercy was given to a persecutor of the church. Seems like anyone can find mercy with God. That's the point. Greatest is steadfast love to Israel and the faithfulness, the trustworthiness, the trustworthiness of the Lord is ever enduring. It will not cease. It's always available. It's always reliable. And again, anyone can apply. Anyone can apply. And the reality is, is not just that anyone can apply because of the blessing to Israel, is that through the true Israelite, our Lord Jesus Christ, now the blessing goes out to the nations with formal intent and purpose. Make disciples of the nations, what Jesus commanded. The Word of God goes forth to the nations. And the nations are now called upon explicitly and clearly to praise Him, to extol Him. Why should they do it? Because God has this great track record of covenant love and enduring faithfulness. And He can be trusted and He can be looked to as one who will receive our praise, who will accept our persons, who will bless the nations, and hence is worthy of the praise of all for who He is and what He has done. Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol Him, all peoples. You know, to us, that's axiomatic. If you were an ancient Jew, it wouldn't be. That'd be awfully weird that you're doing that in the temple. But yet, the reason is, you've got to know, Israel, these blessings are not just for you. And yet, the Gentiles can see his great faithfulness towards us, those steadfast love toward us and the faithfulness that is ever enduring. Let all who has breath praise the Lord. Let's go to him and pray. Father, how thankful we are that you are the God who called Israel to be a nation, not just for their good and benefit, but that the blessings of your covenant love would extend to all peoples in all places. We're thankful that what was not done because of Israel's failure, because of their unbelief, because of their rebellion, because of their proneness to apostasy and idolatry, yet you have sent into the world the one who is the true faithful Israelite, our Lord Jesus, the one who has come to be the minister to the circumcision for the purposes of showing forth your faithfulness and then showing forth to all the nations the reality of the mercy and covenant kindness and love of a God who calls the nations into fellowship with himself. So we're thankful for all that Jesus has brought. We're thankful for the praises that should be a crescendo into your ears from your worshiping people. We pray that even today, as we consider this small psalm, we would see its significance. We would see the importance of understanding the universal scope of your commitment and love to the world that so desperately needs the gospel of the Lord Jesus. We ask you to hear our prayers, to bless us as your people, to give us the realization It's not just for ourselves, we've been given such privileges, is that we might shine forth the truth of the gospel to others all around us. So help us to fulfill our calling, both by word and by deed, by prayer and by supplication, by the support of gospel ministry and gospel endeavor. We ask that you'd hear our prayer as we come to you in Jesus' name, amen.