“Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.”
– Psalm 117:1
Hi James and Ellen,
Having just two verses, Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm song in the Psalter of 150 psalm songs and the shortest chapter of any of the 1189 chapters found in the 66 ‘living books’ that make up the Old and New Testaments. The combined 66 ‘living books’ in the Old and New Testament is the Bible. The choir that sang in the temple that was in the city of Jerusalem may have used this psalm song as a chorus for several other psalm songs that were sung. This psalm song has been referred to as being an expanded Hallelujah. The definition of Hallelujah is to laud or to sing sacred acclaims to a Sovereign Being. God is the Sovereign Being Who is referred to in this psalm song. Verse 1 says, “Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.” This explicit mandate to always praise and extol the LORD – Who is God, is explained in the second verse. Because God’s unmerited love for His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids is totally unconditional, God’s unearned faithfulness towards His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids will endure forever. The core directive of this psalm song – with absolutely no exceptions, is for all planet Earth allocated guys, gals and kids to recognize God as the singular author and the Divine regulator of absolute truth. To unequivocally internalize God’s unbounded love and unwarranted devotion for His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids – per your grandpaa’s understanding of what is written about throughout the Bible, is to purposively accept what God – as God the Spirit, prompted different guys to record in a variety of missives. Your grandpaa believes that a fallen angel – Lucifer, uses an embedded sin spirit who was handed – because of Adam’s abject disobedience, a wide open window into every single designated planet Earth soul to in every way possible that is at his disposal to mute God’s salvation message and to keep God’s name from being personally glorified.
How have you been and how are you now responding to God’s unearned love for you and for His unjustified faithfulness towards you? Are you feeling awed or are you taking for granted what God has done and is doing for you? How do you think that the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were God’s specially chosen guys and gals, felt about God at the time when this psalm song was scribed? This psalm song’s author scribed his psalm song around 2,500 years ago. A number of psalm songs were written in this time period to celebrate God – as LORD, liberating His specially chosen guys and gals from Babylonian servitude. God’s specially chosen guys and gals had returned to the city of Jerusalem and to the land area that God had given to them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . with a God prepared heart to worship and adore only Him as their Heavenly Father. God’s specially chosen guys and gals – after they had blatantly rebelled against God’s specifically directed worship and life commands which He had given them through Moses resulting in God chastising them to become exiled slaves in a foreign country, came to ardently commit themselves to devotedly venerate God – as LORD. Even though at the time that this psalm song was authored, God’s specially chosen guys and gals were keenly desiring to serve God, the fervency towards God by God’s specially chosen guys and gals did not last.
How strong is your Christ-follower passion or zeal? How would you measure a Christ-follower’s passion or zeal? Your grandpaa believes that the sub-community of non-Christ-follower guys, gals and kids who are now claiming the United States as their residence site is growing exponentially. Your grandpaa also believes that there is a very fast growing community of deceived Christ-followers who are acquiescing to a perverted mindset belief that God – as God the Son, should not be required to be the central faith criterion for other religions to adhere to. This same community of duped Christ-follower guys, gals and kids are accepting as a real viability the possibility that guys, gals and kids can achieve nirvana through other entities or ways. The guys who authored the United States constitution employed mutual and consensual belief/faith principals that are totally centered on God and on the Living Word to write what they wrote to be adopted as the general standards for governing within the United States. These pro-Christ-follower standards have over the years been stripped so much by legislatures and courts that to say that the United States is today a Christ-follower nation would be a disingenuous statement to make. Even though there is still a ‘conservative’ bent within the United States populace, that bent is often put under the influence of wanting to give a foolish pass to a guy, gal or kid who . . . in the hope that the guy, gal or kid will have an epiphany and change to honoring and exalting God – as God the Son, as his or her Lord and Savior. It took a radical wakeup call from God for His specially chosen guys and gals to again worship only Him. What kind of wakeup call do you think that God will cause to happen to have His specially elected guys, gals and kids in the United States return to passionately want to serve Him? (Almost exactly fifteen years have passed since the original missive of this chapter was written. The assassination last week of a young Christ-follower – Charlie Kirk, has young people standing up for their faith leading to a movement that has young people all over planet Earth turning to Christ as their Lord.)
Psalm 117 (1098)