Introduction

1. Psalm 117 sets before us the glorious task of God's people both in the time of the OT and even now in the NT—Psalm 117 exhorts us to "Praise the Lord, all ye nations!" It calls us to live out what John Piper calls the goal of missions—to bring men from all nations to worship the Lord. Psalm 117 encourages us to grow in our understanding of the depth and the breadth of this task, especially by impressing upon us how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God in Christ for us as His people. And that is what I want to impress upon you today—I want to impress upon you what we will term the universality of God's salvation.

2. Point: The universality of God's salvation

   1. In the psalm's content

      1. Psalm 117 impresses upon us the universality of God's salvation. It tells us that God is saving men from all nations, not just from one nation. From all peoples, and not just one people. It reminds us that God's covenant faithfulness has been great toward us, not small. And it reminds us that God's truth has always been true, and always will be. These things all place in crystal clarity the universality of God's salvation. Because God is working so great a salvation, therefore, Psalm 117 tells us, then let us praise the Lord! This exhortation to "Praise the Lord" is both the Psalm's introduction and its conclusion. We must praise God from this psalm's beginning to its end. We see that from Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever!

   2. In the psalm's brevity

      1. Psalm 117 is the shortest chapter in the bible, and is the shortest psalm as well. You might think then that the psalm can only be concerned with a very little bit of information, but this is not in fact the case. No, the very brevity of the psalm is due to the comprehensiveness of its scope—it is because the psalm is speaking about the whole task of man, it is because it is speaking of all nations, it is because it has in view the whole sum of our salvation, that this psalm is so brief. In this way it speaks powerfully of the universality of God's salvation. The psalm need not specify what details it has in view, because in fact it has every detail of salvation in view.

3. Context: We can see this by relating the psalm to its context.

   1. Psalm 117 concludes a set of psalms most of which begin or end with the phrase, "Praise the Lord!" Take a quick look at Psalms 111, 112, 113, 115, 116, each of these begins or ends with an exuberant "Praise the Lord!" Psalm 117 brings this theme of praising the Lord to a conclusion, distilling the praises from the previous psalms into one small, pointed psalm of praise.

      1. Psalms 111 and 114 praise God's faithfulness and power in bringing His people out of Egypt in the Exodus, leading them through the wilderness, and giving them the land of Canaan as an inheritance.

      2. Psalm 112 praises God for how He blesses the righteous.

      3. Psalm 113 and 116 praise God for being the great God over all but yet mercifully condescending to save the poor and needy, and to save us from death.

      4. Psalm 115 praises God for being the true God above all the false gods of the nations.

      5. Psalm 117 draws together these strands of praise, praising God for His mercy and truth displayed in all his works of salvation. These words "mercy" and "truth" are covenant terms which bring the whole of God's covenant relationship with us into view.

      6. And so Psalms 118 and 119 then each respectively praise God for His mercy, which endures forever, and for His truth, the truth of His word.

   2. Psalm 117 is so short because it distills into one brief hallelujah all of the praise that is due God for how great a God He is, and for how great is the salvation which He is working on our behalf. So in Psalm 117 we praise God for the universality of His salvation.

4. Not universalism

   1. Now by saying that our salvation has a "universality," we must be clear to understand that this psalm is not teaching the doctrine of universalism, or universal salvation. The doctrine of universalism holds that God saves all men, everywhere, in every age. Some Christians believe in universalism, because for example, John 3:16 says that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son...that the world might be saved through him. But the doctrine of universalism is not taught in John 3:16, no, rather, what John 3:16 teaches is the universality of God's salvation. God is not going to save all men in the world; He makes that clear in John 10:26-29 as in other passages, where Jesus says:

      1. 26 "But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 "I and the Father are one."

      2. Here Jesus clearly says that some people "are not of my sheep." That is the reason they are not saved, and that is the reason they do not believe. But those whom God the Father has given to Christ, those whom God has chosen, has has unconditionally elected to save, only those particular people will Christ save. We call this the doctrine of "particular redemption," or "limited atonement," that Christ's atoning work is only accomplished and applied to the limited number of people whom God has elected to save. This is the third point of the 5 points of Calvinism:

         • Total depravity,

         • Unconditional election,

         • Limited atonement,

         • Irresistible grace,

         • Perseverance of the saints.

   2. So God is not saving all people universally as universalism teaches. Yet there is still a universality to His salvation. He is saving people from all nations, from all times and places, because of how great His mercy is, because of how enduring His truth is through all ages. There is no sin too great for Him to forgive, there is no sinner too lost for Him to save. This is the universality of God's salvation.

Text. Now that we understand the point of the Psalm, have looked at its context, and have protected against universalism, let's take a closer look at the text of the Psalm itself.

1. Structure. Here's how it is structured:

   1. Exhortation: First, it gives the exhortation: "Praise the Lord, all nations," and then it repeats that exhortation in different words.

   2. Explanation: Second, it gives the explanation: "2 For His mercy is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting."

   3. Exhortation: Third, it ends with the exhortation with which it began: "Praise the Lord!"

2. Exhortation

   1. Praise the Lord

      1. This exhortation to praise the Lord means that we should tell the Lord how great He is, thank Him for the great things He has done for us, recount the ways we love Him, sing and even shout for joy to God for His wonderful deeds to the children of men. It means to honor Him, to exalt Him, to show forth His glory in every way we can. It is "to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever;" it is "the whole duty of man."

   2. Exhortees – All nations

      1. Within this exhortation we have a reference to the exhortees, and here we come to a most fascinating point in this psalm, a point which some of the Jews of the Old Testament found incredibly difficult to swallow, and which Jews today still find baffling. Who should praise the Lord? Who is obligated, and who is invited, to do so? The psalm immediately tells us: all nations, all peoples! All nations and peoples should praise the Lord! This language is as broad and all-encompassing as you can get. It is not speaking only of the nation of Israel, or the tribe of Judah. No, it is saying that even the Gentile nations, even those whom God has formerly cast off as not His people, even those unbelieving Gentile nations must praise the Lord.

         • We see this in that the words the Psalm uses to refer to the nations and the peoples here are the standard ones used to refer nations other than Israel, even to unbelieving nations such as Egypt, who had enslaved Israel, or the Canaanite nations, who constantly sought to kill God's people, to take away their promised land, to draw them away and entice them into pagan worship. The word for "nations" here is goyim, and the word for "peoples" is amim.

         • You see, in these words, "all nations," the Psalm is already telling you,

           • Matthew 5:44-45 "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 "that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."

      2. Now this exhortation for even the Gentiles--the dirty, lazy, nasty, bloodthirsty, evil goyim--to praise the Lord no doubt came as a shock to some of the Israelites of the Old Testament. Aren't those nations ones that could never be saved?! That would never praise the Lord? But here God calls them to praise Him too. How could God call these nations to worship Him when they are so evil? So unrepentant?

      3. Oh Lord, are You truly righteous? Are You truly just? This neighbor of mine is a liar, and a thief, he's full of malice, and he plots against me; if there ever was a man dead in his sin it's him! If he tells me tomorrow that he repented of his sins, I'm not sure I'll believe it! Why are you trying to convince me that he might just be able to praise You?

3. Explanation.

   1. Well, the psalm goes on immediately to give the explanation. Why does God call the sinful nations to praise Him? Because God called Israel to praise Him, and Israel was just as sinful as the rest of the nations of the world. "Do you not remember, Israel," God says here, "how great my mercy toward you has been?" Verse 2 reads,

      1. For His mercy is great toward us, And the truth of the LORD is everlasting.

   2. God did not choose Israel because of any glory they had in themselves, but only because of His own merciful kindness, and to show His own glory. His choice of them was an unconditional election. God said in Deuteronomy 7:7-9:

      1. 7 "The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His mercy to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

   3. And so Israel should respond only in the spirit of Psalm 115:1, saying

      1. Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But unto Thy name give glory Because of Thy mercy, because of Thy truth.

   4. Israel must call other nations to praise the Lord, because of how great God's love is, because He desires to save sinners from every nation, from every tribe, tongue, and people. In the end it does not matter what your national identity is, nor does it matter how great of a sinner you are; what matters is that God has set His love on you, and calls you to be His own. Will you not listen, O Israel?

   5. Mercy and truth.

      1. The reason why we desire for God to glorify His name in Psalm 115:1 is because of His mercy and His truth. Here in Psalm 117 we hear these two words repeated again. They show up many times together in scripture. Why is that? It is because these words, mercy and truth, are covenantal language. They speak of the whole scope of God's covenant relationship with His people.

      2. Mercy.

         • Mercy. The first word, mercy, is hesed in Hebrew. It is often translated mercy, kindness, lovingkindness, faithfulness, covenant faithfulness. It binds all these ideas together, to speak of God's faithful benevolence toward us, how He has committed Himself to save us, to be our God, to love us, to forgive us for our sins, cleanse us from them, and draw us into communion with Himself.

         • Great. Here in 117:2 God reminds us that His lovingkindness is great toward us. This word "great" is actually one that means something closer to "powerful." The Greek translation of the OT translates this Hebrew word for "great" with the Greek word for "power," kratos, from which we get our word democracy, the power of the people. God's mercy toward His people is powerful; it accomplishes their salvation. This is emphasizing that your salvation does not depend first and ultimately on you, no, it depends wholly on the power of God to save you. "Once you were dead in your sins...but God, who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ," and so it is by God's grace alone that you have been saved.

         • And so you see that God's mercy, God's covenant faithfulness is powerful! So praise Him for it! And don't tell God that He can't save the Gentiles. He can. He did.

           • Ephesians 2:11-13 "remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh -- who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands -- 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

         • It is because God showed this same great grace and mercy to His covenant people in the OT that He now mercifully has welcomed you into salvation, and into His covenant people.

           • Ephesians 2:19 "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."

         • Now if God has shown you such great mercy, will you not be merciful to those who are in the household of God, as well as those who are outside? Will you be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful? Hear Christ's own words in Luke 6:34:

           • Luke 6:34-36 "if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. 35 "But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. 36 "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful."

      3. Truth

         • Second, the psalm speaks of God's truth. It says,

           • And the truth of the LORD is everlasting.

         • The Hebrew reads, the truth of the Lord is "to eternity." It has its origin in God Himself, who is eternal, who is before all worlds, before all time. God, in His eternal counsel has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass, and has also predestined men, electing some unto salvation, leaving others to be reprobate unto damnation. God has revealed His truth, especially the truth of His saving love toward us which is found in His covenant, and which is accomplished by the only Redeemer of God's elect, Jesus Christ. He has revealed this truth to us in His words spoken throughout the history of His saving work and now has summed up those words for us in scripture, in the Bible. And His eternal plan of salvation, of election and reprobation, which He has now revealed in His word, will accomplish that task for which He has sent it. His promises are sure, His word never fails; "The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever." (Is. 40:8) The truth of God's word became flesh in the person and work of Jesus Christ; it was revealed in that greatest of fashions in His person, His preaching, His life, death, and resurrection on our behalf, dying in our place to take the punishment we deserve and fully pay for all our sins, rising from the dead for our justification and to demonstrate the power of His illimitable life which He now pours out into our hearts by His Holy Spirit. This saving truth of our God, revealed in Christ, applied to us by the Holy Spirit, will never fail us. It will endure unto all eternity.

         • And so do you see the greatness of God's power to save you? You do not have to earn God's love by your works. You do not have to generate your own guarantee that God's truth will endure forever. No, your salvation depends wholly on God's sovereign power, and not on your own strength. So praise the Lord for how great His salvation is toward you! But also, praise the Lord that His salvation is great enough even to save those Gentiles whom you can hardly believe God can save. He can save them, and He will!

      4. Romans 15:7

         • Paul tells us how this psalm must be applied in the church in Romans 15:7, and so dwell with me for a few moments on Romans 15:7 in order to receive the full benefit of God's grace toward us in this psalm. Turn there in your bibles, and as you are turning there I want you to notice one aspect of this psalm which continues to vex Jews today: Verse 1 of the psalm tells the Gentiles to praise God, and v. 2 of the psalm says that God is merciful to the Jews. One Jew writes about this:

           • "We can understand why the Jews would want to praise God, because we were the ones He redeemed. But why should the nations praise God because of His kindness to us?"

           • And the answer he gave is that of "Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak of Lublin, an 18th century Chassidic rabbi better known as the Seer of Lublin."¹ Rabbi Yitzchak's answer is that the Gentiles have many evil plots against the Jews, and they know God has been very merciful to the Jews by foiling the malicious plots of the Gentiles. By implication, God is not merciful to the Gentiles.

           • But other Jews come closer to the truth of this psalm. The 12^th century Rabbi David Kimchi says that the psalm is speaking of the time in the future when the Messiah will come.

         • What Paul tells us in Romans 15:7 is that this is in fact the case, that the Messiah has come, and for this reason, the Gentiles DO receive God's mercy, and praise Him for it. Look at what Paul says there:

           • Romans 15:7-12

             • 7 Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

             • 8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written:

               • "For this reason I will confess to You among the Gentiles, And sing to Your name."

             • 10 And again he says:

               • "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people!"

             • 11 And again: [and here Paul quotes from Psalm 117:]

               • "Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!"

             • 12 And again, Isaiah says:

               • "There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope."

         • God has now in fact included the Gentiles into the household of God. The church in Rome was filled with both Jews and Gentiles, and those two communities found it hard to accept one another. The Jews were circumcised, the Jews had the promises made to the fathers, the Jews did not eat unclean foods, the Jews observed the OT feast days as more special than other days of the year. The Gentiles did not maintain these Jewish religious and cultural distinctives. Throughout the whole of Romans ch. 14 Paul exhorts us not to condemn one another in debatable issues of outward practice and preference such as these, saying in 14:1 "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things." But Paul drives this point deeper in ch. 15; the point does not only have to do with matters of preference. It has to do with the greatness of God's mercy, with the unconditional nature of His election, with the fact that "by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves—it is the gift of God—not of works, lest anyone should boast."

         • There is a theological movement today called the New Perspective which claims Paul's chief concern in Romans, which I certainly agree is a great concern of his here in the final chapters of Romans, is this relationship between Jews and Gentiles. Some who promote the New Perspective appear to be redefining Paul's doctrine of justification in the earlier chapters of Romans so that all it means is that Gentiles are received into the outward covenant community, into the visible church. And so salvation is only an outwardly visible thing. They term this the "objectivity of the covenant." But thereby those proponents of the New Perspective are ignoring that Paul squarely grounds this outward inclusion of the Gentiles into the visible church here in the final chapters of Romans on the inward inclusion of the Gentiles into the invisible church, by grace alone, through faith alone, by the free imputation of Christ's righteousness alone, which is undeniably the core of Paul's doctrine in Romans chapters 1 through 8. But here even in chapter 15, Paul still grounds the outward inclusion of the Gentiles on the free imputation of Christ's righteousness alone, received by faith alone.

         • We see this in ch. 15:7, "Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received you." Christ has received you not only without regard to your outward preferences, but also without regard to the fact that you are a sinner, even, that you were dead in your sins. THIS is the reason you must also receive one another—because Christ has received you.

         • In vv. 8-9 Paul corrects the Jews who would not want to receive the Gentiles, the Jews who thought that God did NOT show His saving mercy to the Gentiles, by explicitly mentioning the mercy and truth of which Psalm 117 speaks:

           • Romans 15:8-9 "8 Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,"

             • And up to this point a Jew would be saying, "Oh yes, that's right, it is we Jews, the circumcised, children of the fathers, who receive God's promises, who receive God's truth.

             • But then Paul goes on and says that not only Jews, but also Gentiles would receive God's mercy:

           • "9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy."

         • What Paul is impressing upon us here is that our treatment of believers and unbelievers alike needs to be the direct outworking of God's free grace toward us in Christ. And so Paul does not tell the Jews they are saved by God's laws, by His requirements, by His conditions laid upon them, or by their fulfillment of those conditions. Paul says rather that the Jews were saved by God's mercy, which is the truth, which was expressed to them by God's promises. It was not God's law that saved the Jews, but God's promises. Not God's requirements for them to fulfill, but His prior commitment to bless them. Paul declares in Galatians 2:15-16 the truth which true Jews must believe:

           • Galatians 2:15-16 "15 "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 16 "knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."

         • God saved Abraham by His promise, which He gave 430 years before the Law of Moses. And likewise God saves you today by His promise, and not His law. And so when we face our brother or sister, even an unbeliever, no matter how sinful they may be, we must extend God's promise first, and His law second. Now certainly the law has a use in showing men their sin and driving them to Christ for mercy, and it is right to use the law in that way. But when it comes to whether or not we will accept and receive the unacceptable and rejected, we must give them God's promised mercy first, and call them to heed His law second.

   6. Implications. The practical theology of the New Testament flows from the priority of God's promised mercy. God's mercy in Psalm 117 bears tremendous implications for our church life, and our personal life as Christians.

      1. How dare we claim that God has forgiven us, and then not forgive our brother! Must he meet our standards before he can be forgiven?

      2. How dare we greet only those who greet us, and not bless those who curse! Are not those who hate the Lord those who most need to hear of God's mercy?

      3. How dare we not actively welcome a visitor into our church, into our fellowship, into the worship of our God, but rather only give him a list of conditions he must fulfill before he can become part of our clique. For we are not a religious social club, but the community of the redeemed!

      4. How dare we allow differences of culture or food or preference or personality to become a way to demean our brother, to push him out of our presence, to seek his harm? "Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died." (Romans 14:15)

      5. How dare we give only the most popular, only the most wealthy person, only the person highest in our esteem, the best place at our table, the best place in our worship service, and make the poor man stand in the back or sit on the floor? For in Christ mercy triumphs over judgment! (James 2:1-13)

      6. I tell you the truth, the temptation to give those around us only God's law and not His promise, only His condemnation and not His mercy, is a deep and pernicious evil, and if you see this evil in your heart, ROOT IT OUT!

      7. For great to us has been His mercy, and the truth of His promises endures forever. Tell me one thing--Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? It was by the hearing of faith, which receives God's promise of mercy in Jesus Christ.

4. Exhortation.

   1. And is there any greater, any more central, any more vitally gripping reason for us to praise the Lord?

   2. And so Psalm 117 ends with the exhortation,

      1. Praise the Lord!

   3. The word for this final sentence in the psalm in Hebrew is "Hallelujah!" It literally means, "Praise the Lord!" "Hallelu-" means praise, and "ja" means YHWH, the Lord. You know that sentence in Hebrew already. The reason you know it is that Christians across the world, from every Gentile nation, we all learn to praise the Lord with this one phrase, with this Hebrew word, "Hallelujah!" We have begun to live out precisely what this psalm tells us to do—even we Gentiles have come to know the Lord's mercy, and His truth, and so we praise Him, coming from every tribe, and tongue, and nation.

   4. So my friends, come and learn of the greatness of our God, and of the greatness of His salvation. Come to this psalm to learn of the universality of God's salvation. God can save even you! If you repent of your sins, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. If you have done so, then join with us and praise the Lord!