Little Psalm, HUGE Command

Praise the LORD, all you nations;

extol him, all you peoples.

For great is his love toward us,

and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.

Praise the LORD.

-Psalm 117

I did my undergrad work as an English Major, and for some reason, during that time, a loathsome relationship grew between the standard “Who, What, Where, How and Why” organization of a letter/announcement/ invitation/ etc., and me. They are all important in any of those correspondences, don’t get me wrong, but I think it takes the creativity our of writing; it takes the voice away from the writer.

The writer of this Psalm, though, creatively used this standard tool to get the point across, yet he did it in such a creative way, one can’t help but be amazing from both a writer’s perspective and from the perspective of being a child of the King.

Simply put, here is the What: Praise the Lord

the who: All you nations

another What: Extol Him

another who: All you peoples

the Why: For great is His Love toward us, and His faithfulness endures forever

the How: Praise the Lord!

Case closed. It doesn’t get simpler than that! It’s pretty clear what we are to do, who is to do it, why we are to do it, how we will accomplish it.

The word ‘praise’ comes from Old English, Old French, and Late Latin (as you probably know, my undergrad also included a minor in linguistics, but I wont bore you with the IPA or too much of the etymology, though it is interesting!), and simply means to glorify, to value, to prize, to love, to show worth, to commend, to celebrate, and, as of later English terms would go, to give props.

The word ‘extol,’ too, refers to all of the above definitions, with the addition of ‘making high,’ and ‘lifting up.’ It is also synonymous with ‘belaud’ which means ‘to praise greatly.’ (Though, as a linguist, I must point out that no two words can be 100% synonymous, other wise one would cancel out the other eventually…but that’s another discussion.)

So, when the writer of this very short Psalm tell us three times to ‘Praise the Lord,’ ‘Extol Him,’ and again to ‘Praise the Lord,’ he means it! The whole earth is commanded to praise the Lord, glorify the Lord, value the Lord, prize the Lord, love the Lord, show the Lord’s worth, commend the Lord, celebrate the Lord, make high the Lord, lift up the Lord, praise the Lord greatly, and, yes, even give props to the Lord!

Why are we supposed to do this? Because, as the two verses say, “for GREAT is His LOVE toward us, and His FAITHFULNESS endures FOREVER!”

Who is to do this? EVERYONE! Every tribe, tongue, and nation is commanded to do this! Wow! What a day that will be we He hears the choir of the nations bow down, worship Him, saying, “You are worthy, OUR Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” (Revelation 4.11)

But in this filthy, sinful world, how will this ever be done? What about those who have never heard? Let me draw you over to Romans 10.14-15:

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

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