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.
Original Meaning
Call to the Nations (117:1)
THE HYMN OPENS WITH A CALL to praise the Lord, but the directive is given to the “nations” (goyim). While goyim is applied to Israel as a political entity (cf. Num 14:12), the term typically refers to non-Israelite nations and people groups (cf. Zech 2:15; 12:3; Ps 79:1; 2 Chr 32:15). Psalm 117:1b parallels the first colon with the psalmist’s calling on the “peoples” (haʾummim) to extol the Lord. The unusual form haʾummim has generated considerable discussion and prompted a number of proposals.3 Because this term does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament, scholars have emended the text to read leʾummim, “peoples,” a term frequently paired with goyim.4 Hossfeld and Zenger suggest that haʾummim could be an Aramaism, a claim that is further substantiated by the presence of shabah (“extol”), an Aramaism in that same colon.
While the nations and peoples are addressed in the opening lines of Psalm 117 and in fact appear to be the recipients of the commands, they are not the intended audience. Psalm 117 is best understood as a “rhetorical imperative,” which suggests that the intended audience is not really the nations, rather, the speakers themselves.5 On this point, see below, Bridging Contexts.
Bridging Contexts
THE NATIONS. In Psalm 115:2 the nations mockingly inquired, “Where is your God?” Two psalms later, in Psalm 117, the psalmist calls on the very same nations to offer up praise to Israel’s God. Assuming that goyim and haʾummim in verse 1 refer to foreign nations, the question that remains concerns the role of the “nations” in Psalm 117. A number of scholars have followed the Briggses’ initial assessment that Psalm 117 is “of an entirely different temper towards the nations,” meaning that the nations no longer stand in opposition to Israel.10 As evidence of this “different temper” in Psalm 117, scholars such as Artur Weiser have suggested that the mention of the nations in verse 1 implies the participation of the nations in the worship of God. Weiser writes,
The meaning and purpose of life, for nations as well as individuals, finds its fulfillment in praising God. In the presence of God, the political and national barriers disappear, and across the frontiers of countries and states, [humans] are linked together in a bond which unites them in God in fellowship with one another.11
This somewhat generous reading of Psalm 117 appears most recently in the work of Hossfeld and Zenger. They contend that the psalm “is a call to praise directed to the nations and to Israel, and to bring them together in common praise of YHWH.”12 While appealing, such an intepretation appears somewhat forced. The Psalter is replete with examples of the nations’ being summoned to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, regarding his work in behalf of Israel; but as Robert Martin-Achard has noted, “The nations are most often called to sing the deeds of God in favor of Israel. They are witnesses to the goodness of God to his people but they do not benefit directly.”13 The position of Weiser and that of Hossfeld and Zenger attempts to read the psalm as an invitation to the nations to join with the people of God, but as Kraus has rightly cautioned, “this ‘universalism’ has its roots neither in a prophetic idea nor in a poetic exuberance, nor finally in an eschatological view of history”; rather, the call to the nations is rooted in the claim that Yahweh is indeed God Most High.14 In other words, the psalmist calls the nations to praise God and recognize Israel’s God as God alone. Whereas the nations apparently mocked the God of Israel in Psalm 115:2, in Psalm 117 they are now, rhetorically, a witness to the very same God and his faithfulness to his people. The psalmist declares that when the nations see the faithfulness of this God, Israel’s God, they will be compelled to lift their voices to the only true God. The psalmist does not call the nations to praise God because he has shown his love for the nations; rather, the nations are called to praise God because he has proven himself gabar (“mighty”) in behalf of Israel.
Although in its original context Psalm 117 did not possess the missiological thrust that many Christian readers might infer, the text did become part of Paul’s argument in Romans 15:7–11 regarding the inclusion of the gentiles. Paul writes, “Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (vv. 8–9). In many ways Paul has simply restated the idea present in Psalm 117: God will be faithful to his people and the nations will recognize the mercy of God. But Paul then extends the interpretation of the text by citing Psalm 117 and three other Old Testament texts (Deut 32:43; Ps 18:49; Isa 11:10) as evidence of God’s desire that all people recognize Israel’s God. Most telling is the final line in Romans 15:12, where Paul writes, “in him [Jesus], the Gentiles will hope.” The nations have moved from being passive observers to active participants. In the original context of Psalm 117, the nations were merely meant to serve as choristers, as those who give testimony of what they see and know. But as Leslie Allen has reminded, “Israel’s would-be hired choristers were destined eventually to become [Israel’s] partners in faith in the international religion of the New Testament.”15
Contemporary Significance
PSALM 117 WAS A CALL to worship Israel’s God because of his hesed and ’emet (“steadfast love” and “faithfulness”). As suggested above, the psalm likely addressed a serious concern among those who had experienced the exile and returned home to less-than-idyllic circumstances. This psalm reminded them that despite their circumstances, God had remained faithful to his people—so faithful in fact, that even the nations would testify to that truth.
Psalm 117 calls us to celebrate, even now, this “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” of our God. While some wring their hands over comments suggesting the demise of the church, Psalm 117 invites Christians to look again and to ponder the faithfulness of the God we serve. His faithfulness is indeed everlasting (‘olam). So faithful is this God that all nations shall lift their voices in recognition. As James Mays rightly notes, praise “is not complete, not what it should and must be, until all are drawn into its faith and joy. Until the answer of praise arises from every people on the globe, the LORD is not recognized as the one and only God.”16 Until then, we remain steadfast in our proclamation, hallelu yah. This God is the hope of us all (Rom 15:12).
1. The first word in verse 2, ki (“for”), introduces the rationale for praise and is a constituent part of most hymns. See Gunkel, Introduction to the Psalms, 29.
2. Of the two medieval Bibles to follow this tradition is the edition princeps on the Masoretic Bible in Venice (1525). See the brief discussion in Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 222 n.1a.
3. Note that ʾummim, absent the definite article, appears in Ps 108:4.
4. Kraus, Psalms 60–150, 390. While haʾummim does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament, the word ʾummim, which is missing the definite article, does appear in Ps 108:4.
5. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalm 3, 223.
6. McCann, “The Book of Psalms,” 1150. In 2 Sam 11:23, for example, the term appears in connection with military imagery. In Isa 42:13, Yahweh is described as a “mighty warrior” or “champion” (NIV) who prepares for battle with his enemies, and in Zech 10:6 and 10:12 the verbal form appears with God’s strengthening his people so that they will become like mighty warriors.
7. Goldingay, Psalms 3, 350.
8. Hossfeld and Zenger understand the suffix on ‘alenu to refer to both Israel and the nations (Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 224). “The nations are called on by Israel here to praise YHWH because he has proved his love for Israel and for the nations” (italics original). Such a reading seems unlikely.
9. Fanie Snyman, “Reading Ps 117 against an Exilic Context,” VT 61 (2011), 116.
10. Charles A. Briggs and Emilie G. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the book of Psalms, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1909), 402.
11. Artur Weiser, The Psalms, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1962), 721–22.
12. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 226. Italics original.
13. Robert Martin-Achard, Israël et les nations. La perspective missionaire de l’Ancien Testament, Cahiers théologiques 42 (Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1959), 52.
14. Kraus, Psalms 60–150, 391. See also Hans-Peter Mathys, Dichter und Beter: Theologen aus spätalttestamentlicher Zeit, OBO 132 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994), 292–97.
15. Allen, Psalms 101–150, 118.
16. Mays, Psalms, 372.
Original Meaning
Reason for Praise (117:2)
IN VERSE 2 THE PSALMIST PROVIDES the reasons why the nations should praise and extol Israel’s God. Given the exhortation for the nations to praise God, one might anticipate that the psalmist will offer a rationale similar to that found Psalm 86:9—that God has made all the nations of the earth. Strikingly, however, the reasons indicated in Psalm 117 have nothing to do with the nations themselves and everything to do with God’s relationship with Israel. Verse 2a suggests as much in explaining that “great is his love toward us.” The fullness of that statement, however, is somewhat lost in translation. The psalmist refers to Yahweh’s “love,” his hesed, and while hesed can be translated “love,” it often connotes a sense of loyalty and covenantal fidelity. Consequently, the psalmist points to God’s fidelity or covenantal loyalty to his people as reason enough for why the nations should recognize Yahweh as worthy of praise. To make the point even more emphatically, the psalmist employs the verb gabar, which can refer to the might or power of a military conqueror.6 Verse 2a could be translated, “Because his commitment has been strong over us.”7 The prepositional phrase ‘alenu can be translated “toward us,” with the NIV, but the preposition could also be rendered “over us.”8 Understood in this way, the psalmist contends that because of his hesed, God’s steadfast love, God has stood strong and been mighty “over us,” so suggesting that God has stood over Israel in protecting her despite all that has occurred.
This claim is extended in the second half of verse 2 with the psalmist’s assertion that Yahweh’s faithfulness (’emet) will be forever. Both terms in verse 2, hesed and ’emet, are part of the “grace formula” found in Exodus 34:6. Fanie Snyman suggests that the reference to Exodus 34 likely provided an assurance that would have been critical “in a time when there would be some doubt as to whether Yahweh’s love and faithfulness are indeed still present in the life of the people.”9 According to the psalmist, it will be the very fact of Yahweh’s love and faithfulness that will elicit praise from the nations.
Bridging Contexts
THE NATIONS. In Psalm 115:2 the nations mockingly inquired, “Where is your God?” Two psalms later, in Psalm 117, the psalmist calls on the very same nations to offer up praise to Israel’s God. Assuming that goyim and haʾummim in verse 1 refer to foreign nations, the question that remains concerns the role of the “nations” in Psalm 117. A number of scholars have followed the Briggses’ initial assessment that Psalm 117 is “of an entirely different temper towards the nations,” meaning that the nations no longer stand in opposition to Israel.10 As evidence of this “different temper” in Psalm 117, scholars such as Artur Weiser have suggested that the mention of the nations in verse 1 implies the participation of the nations in the worship of God. Weiser writes,
The meaning and purpose of life, for nations as well as individuals, finds its fulfillment in praising God. In the presence of God, the political and national barriers disappear, and across the frontiers of countries and states, [humans] are linked together in a bond which unites them in God in fellowship with one another.11
This somewhat generous reading of Psalm 117 appears most recently in the work of Hossfeld and Zenger. They contend that the psalm “is a call to praise directed to the nations and to Israel, and to bring them together in common praise of YHWH.”12 While appealing, such an intepretation appears somewhat forced. The Psalter is replete with examples of the nations’ being summoned to praise Yahweh, the God of Israel, regarding his work in behalf of Israel; but as Robert Martin-Achard has noted, “The nations are most often called to sing the deeds of God in favor of Israel. They are witnesses to the goodness of God to his people but they do not benefit directly.”13 The position of Weiser and that of Hossfeld and Zenger attempts to read the psalm as an invitation to the nations to join with the people of God, but as Kraus has rightly cautioned, “this ‘universalism’ has its roots neither in a prophetic idea nor in a poetic exuberance, nor finally in an eschatological view of history”; rather, the call to the nations is rooted in the claim that Yahweh is indeed God Most High.14 In other words, the psalmist calls the nations to praise God and recognize Israel’s God as God alone. Whereas the nations apparently mocked the God of Israel in Psalm 115:2, in Psalm 117 they are now, rhetorically, a witness to the very same God and his faithfulness to his people. The psalmist declares that when the nations see the faithfulness of this God, Israel’s God, they will be compelled to lift their voices to the only true God. The psalmist does not call the nations to praise God because he has shown his love for the nations; rather, the nations are called to praise God because he has proven himself gabar (“mighty”) in behalf of Israel.
Although in its original context Psalm 117 did not possess the missiological thrust that many Christian readers might infer, the text did become part of Paul’s argument in Romans 15:7–11 regarding the inclusion of the gentiles. Paul writes, “Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed and, moreover, that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (vv. 8–9). In many ways Paul has simply restated the idea present in Psalm 117: God will be faithful to his people and the nations will recognize the mercy of God. But Paul then extends the interpretation of the text by citing Psalm 117 and three other Old Testament texts (Deut 32:43; Ps 18:49; Isa 11:10) as evidence of God’s desire that all people recognize Israel’s God. Most telling is the final line in Romans 15:12, where Paul writes, “in him [Jesus], the Gentiles will hope.” The nations have moved from being passive observers to active participants. In the original context of Psalm 117, the nations were merely meant to serve as choristers, as those who give testimony of what they see and know. But as Leslie Allen has reminded, “Israel’s would-be hired choristers were destined eventually to become [Israel’s] partners in faith in the international religion of the New Testament.”15
Contemporary Significance
PSALM 117 WAS A CALL to worship Israel’s God because of his hesed and ’emet (“steadfast love” and “faithfulness”). As suggested above, the psalm likely addressed a serious concern among those who had experienced the exile and returned home to less-than-idyllic circumstances. This psalm reminded them that despite their circumstances, God had remained faithful to his people—so faithful in fact, that even the nations would testify to that truth.
Psalm 117 calls us to celebrate, even now, this “steadfast love” and “faithfulness” of our God. While some wring their hands over comments suggesting the demise of the church, Psalm 117 invites Christians to look again and to ponder the faithfulness of the God we serve. His faithfulness is indeed everlasting (‘olam). So faithful is this God that all nations shall lift their voices in recognition. As James Mays rightly notes, praise “is not complete, not what it should and must be, until all are drawn into its faith and joy. Until the answer of praise arises from every people on the globe, the LORD is not recognized as the one and only God.”16 Until then, we remain steadfast in our proclamation, hallelu yah. This God is the hope of us all (Rom 15:12).
1. The first word in verse 2, ki (“for”), introduces the rationale for praise and is a constituent part of most hymns. See Gunkel, Introduction to the Psalms, 29.
2. Of the two medieval Bibles to follow this tradition is the edition princeps on the Masoretic Bible in Venice (1525). See the brief discussion in Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 222 n.1a.
3. Note that ʾummim, absent the definite article, appears in Ps 108:4.
4. Kraus, Psalms 60–150, 390. While haʾummim does not appear elsewhere in the Old Testament, the word ʾummim, which is missing the definite article, does appear in Ps 108:4.
5. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalm 3, 223.
6. McCann, “The Book of Psalms,” 1150. In 2 Sam 11:23, for example, the term appears in connection with military imagery. In Isa 42:13, Yahweh is described as a “mighty warrior” or “champion” (NIV) who prepares for battle with his enemies, and in Zech 10:6 and 10:12 the verbal form appears with God’s strengthening his people so that they will become like mighty warriors.
7. Goldingay, Psalms 3, 350.
8. Hossfeld and Zenger understand the suffix on ‘alenu to refer to both Israel and the nations (Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 224). “The nations are called on by Israel here to praise YHWH because he has proved his love for Israel and for the nations” (italics original). Such a reading seems unlikely.
9. Fanie Snyman, “Reading Ps 117 against an Exilic Context,” VT 61 (2011), 116.
10. Charles A. Briggs and Emilie G. Briggs, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the book of Psalms, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1909), 402.
11. Artur Weiser, The Psalms, OTL (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1962), 721–22.
12. Hossfeld and Zenger, Psalms 3, 226. Italics original.
13. Robert Martin-Achard, Israël et les nations. La perspective missionaire de l’Ancien Testament, Cahiers théologiques 42 (Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé, 1959), 52.
14. Kraus, Psalms 60–150, 391. See also Hans-Peter Mathys, Dichter und Beter: Theologen aus spätalttestamentlicher Zeit, OBO 132 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1994), 292–97.
15. Allen, Psalms 101–150, 118.
16. Mays, Psalms, 372.