It’s only two verses long, but as Old Testament scholar Derek Kidner says, “This tiny psalm is great in faith, and its reach is enormous.” Psalm 117 may be the Bible’s shortest psalm, yet it contains an impressive amount of teaching concerning the message of the gospel and the priority of missions. As the fifth psalm of the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118), it focuses on the greatness of God’s love. After their seventy-year captivity in Babylon, the chastened Jewish remnant returned to Israel, grateful for the love of God which had preserved them as a nation in spite of their great sin. How much more then, should we delight in the greatness of God’s love, knowing that it has been expressed to us through the atoning death of His own Son! At the very beginning of the Bible, God taught that the gospel was to be for all national and ethnic groupings. He told Abraham that all peoples on earth would be blessed through his lineage (Genesis 12:3). The Jews forgot this, neglecting their responsibility, just as we often neglect ours. But God’s good news is not just for Israel, and it’s not just for us who are currently saved. It is for everyone everywhere. Here is a true Christian universalism—not that all people will be saved regardless of which god they believe in, but rather that all people may be saved through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16). So the psalmist calls upon “all nations” and “all peoples” to praise the LORD and extol Him. Two reasons are given. First, because of the greatness of His steadfast love. In Hebrew, this word “great” conveys the idea of someone or something prevailing over something else because of its superior qualities. So God’s love prevails over every enemy, every obstacle. Sin, death, and the devil may threaten God’s children, but His grace is greater, and it must prevail. Second, we should praise God because His faithfulness is eternal. This means that He is true and reliable, and will always be so. If God’s love prevails, His faithfulness endures. His character is firm and unshakable. Aren’t you thankful for this? We may be forgetful and inconsistent. We may change our minds. But God’s plans and promises are as fresh and intact now as on the day they were made. This will also be true tomorrow, and a thousand years from now. “Praise the LORD!” This is how Psalm 117 ends. But as Kidner points out, if we pray or sing this psalm, it “recoils” on us, “with the obligation to make its invitation heard beyond (our) walls and (our) immediate circle.” So let us extol the God who saved us, and let us go out and sing His praises to the nations! For further meditation: