Psalm 117:1 – Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord. 

Today we look at an entire psalm, but it is the shortest psalm.   If we were to divide the Bible by all 1,189 of its chapters, Psalm 117 happens to fall right in the middle.  That’s just a bit a trivia and comes to you at no extra cost!  While Psalm 117 is the shortest, it does contain a couple of powerful lessons. 

The first lesson we discover is that praising the Lord is not something we do only when we feel like it.  We are commanded to praise the Lord!  While it is my hope and prayer that Christians would always choose to praise God, let’s be honest with ourselves – sometimes, due to circumstances of life, we just don’t feel like praising God.  So, it’s good that we have a command. 

Why do we need this command? We need it because praising God changes things.  It changes our hearts, and lifts our spirits.  Furthermore, when we praise God we become open to God’s action in ways we might otherwise have missed.  Remember when Paul and Silas were in prison, at midnight they began to praise God.  Midnight – for some, midnight is a metaphor for the dark times of life.  Praising God during our dark times changes things.  It certainly changed things for Paul and Silas! As they prayed, God showed up in a mighty way and they were freed from their chains.  Praising God can free us from our chains, as well.

The second lesson we learn from this short psalm is that God’s faithfulness to us endures forever.  I think we have all been let down by other people, and we have probably let a few people down ourselves.  Even good people stumble and fall short.  God, however, is always faithful.  God’s love and mercy for us endures forever.  That is truly good reason to praise God!

Today, let us be mindful of praising God, especially during those times when circumstances make it appear dark. 

Posted Ramón Torres