1 Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 117:1–2 (ESV)
Through the Bible: Psalm 111-118
Psalm 117 is the middle chapter of the Protestant Bible. It’s also the shortest chapter. For many Bible readers, it takes longer to find Psalm 117 than it does to read it.
Now, I know that’s ultimately a quirk of history. The chapter divisions came centuries after the Psalms were written, and the final arrangement of the biblical canon came centuries after that. But just because something is a quirk does not mean it is a coincidence. And just because it wouldn’t necessarily mean anything to a practicing Catholic or an orthodox Jew doesn’t mean it can’t whisper something true to you and me.
This tiny psalm stretches farther than almost any other. It calls not just Israel, but “all nations” and “all peoples” to praise the Lord. Remarkably, the nations are invited to praise God for His steadfast love “toward us”– that is, Israel. Israel’s experience of grace becomes an invitation instead of a possession. The blessing of God was never meant to terminate on His people. It was meant to travel through them.
That matters because sometimes we unconsciously shrink God into a tribal deity. My God. Our church’s God. Our denomination’s God. Our nation’s God. But the God of Scripture refuses to stay boxed in by borders. The psalmist throws open the doors and invites the whole world inside.
“Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!”
Right there in the middle of Scripture is a reminder that God’s heart has always extended beyond one tribe, one nation, one language, one people. His steadfast love reaches farther than our borders. His faithfulness stretches longer than our history.
But there is something else that stands out to me about the fact that Psalm 117 is the exact middle chapter of the Bible. 594 chapters come before it, and 594 chapters follow it.
And in the middle of all of it—
the judgment and wrath,
the mercy and sacrifice,
the teaching and admonition and lament,
the prophecy and history,
the genealogy and law,
the wisdom and correction,
the gospel and apocalypse—
in the middle of everything God’s Word contains, there stands the shortest chapter in the Bible, reminding the world of God’s steadfast love for all peoples.
Two verses.
A tiny psalm.
A massive invitation.
Now, notice what surrounds Psalm 117. It sits between Psalm 116, a deeply personal psalm of gratitude—“I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice”—and Psalm 118, the great celebration that declares, “This is the day that the Lord has made.” Right in between personal worship and public celebration stands a missionary call to the nations.
But there’s more.
Psalm 117, the shortest chapter, lives just two doors down from Psalm 119, the longest. Before Psalm 119 spends a hundred and seventy-six verses delighting in the greatness of God’s Word, Psalm 117 uses two verses to remind us who that Word is for:
Everybody.
The apostle Paul understood that. In Romans 15, he quotes Psalm 117 as proof that God always intended to gather the Gentiles into His praise. This tiny psalm was already whispering about the Great Commission long before Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world.
Maybe that is why the psalm is so short. Its message is simple enough for every tribe and tongue to learn by heart.
“Praise the Lord.”
Other Posts for today’s Reading:
- Day 148: Everywhere, All the Time, Praise (Psalm 113)
- Day 118/148: A Songbook Big Enough (Psalms 88 and 118)
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