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Psalm 117 (LXX 116) - Praise the Lord, All Ye Nations

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This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.

Psalm 117 is the shortest Psalm and, by the standard modern chapter divisions, the shortest chapter in the Bible, but it is not small in scope. It calls all nations and all peoples to praise the Lord because His mercy has become mighty over us and His truth endures forever. The Psalm stands at the hinge between Israel’s praise and the world’s praise. In two verses it announces the catholicity of the Church: universal and whole in the true faith, embracing people from every nation.

Psalm 117 (LXX 116) - Praise the Lord, All Ye Nations

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 117
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 116
Accepted authorNot named; Alleluia is the superscription.
Period in author’s lifeNo personal life-setting is given; this is liturgical praise with universal horizon.
Christ prophecy statusStrongly Christological and missionary. The praise of all nations finds fulfillment in Christ, through whom the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy.
Coptic lectionary/service useThe St Bishoy trilingual Agpeya prints the complete hymn in the Eleventh Hour (Vespers), p. 131, and the Midnight First Watch, p. 238.
Numbering issueThis note embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 116, the short two-verse hymn between the LXX split Psalm 115 and the great Paschal Psalm 117.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 117 belongs to the Hallel Psalms and is astonishing for its brevity and reach. Israel is not here told merely to praise among the nations, but the nations themselves are summoned. This universal call becomes one of the Old Testament’s clearest anticipations of the Gospel’s expansion beyond ethnic Israel.

St Paul quotes the Psalm in Romans 15 as evidence that the Gentiles were always meant to glorify God for His mercy. He also insists that Christ confirms God’s promises to Israel. The Psalm is therefore not an appendix. It is a missionary trumpet.

Special Literary Note: Why So Short?

Psalm 117 has the shape of a concentrated summons: one call to praise and one reason for praise. Its brevity is not a defect. It is compression. The nations are called, and the reason is the Lord’s abundant mercy and enduring truth. A brief prayer can hold both a worldwide invitation and a confession of God’s faithfulness.

Its placement is also striking. In the NKJV numbering, it stands immediately before Psalm 118, the great Paschal Psalm of the rejected stone and the day the Lord has made, and before Psalm 119, the longest chapter in Scripture. A reader may contemplate the sequence as brief universal praise, Paschal trust, then long obedience in the word.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

No local geography dominates the Psalm. Its geography is the world itself, all nations, all peoples. Its summons crosses borders without erasing Israel’s place in God’s promises.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 116:1, all nations are summoned

116:1 Alleluia. Praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye peoples.

The Psalm wastes no words. The nations are summoned directly. Praise is not the private property of one people. All peoples are called to offer it to the Lord. This universal summons is not a guarantee of the final salvation of every individual.

Augustine hears in this the expansion of the covenant through Christ. He identifies the true Jerusalem with God’s people and challenges those who have broken communion: “Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations” (Psalm CXVII, §1).1 An editorial note in the NPNF edition identifies his opponents as Donatists. His argument concerns the Church’s communion, not a license to despise others.

Theodoret of Cyrus reads the summons in the light of the apostles’ mission and the Spirit’s gift of thanksgiving. In his Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 117, §§1-5, he includes Jews dispersed among the nations in the call to the peoples and brings believers from Jews and nations together in praise for God’s mercy and fulfilled promises.

A two-verse Psalm can carry the whole missionary horizon of Abraham’s promise, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” and Paul’s witness that the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy. The Abraham wording here is a paraphrase of Genesis 12:3, not a quotation from Brenton.

In the Letter to Marcellinus, St Athanasius reports an old man’s teaching that the Psalter can serve as a mirror for the soul and give its reader words for prayer. The old man notes exceptions for prophecies about the Savior and some concerning the Gentiles. St Gregory of Nyssa, in On the Inscriptions of the Psalms, Book I, chapters 1-3, connects the Psalter’s musical teaching with formation in virtue and the blessed life. These are reflections on the Psalter as a whole, not direct commentaries on these two verses. They invite us to ask whether our prayer is becoming as generous as the Psalm’s summons.

Christologically, this becomes the voice of the Church after Pentecost. The nations do not merely hear about God; they are summoned to praise Him from within the communion Christ creates.

Psalm 116:2, mercy and truth endure forever

116:2 For his mercy has been abundant toward us: and the truth of the Lord endures for ever.

The word “For” gives the reason for the universal call. Praise begins with what God has done: His mercy has been abundant toward us, and His truth endures. Israel has known His mercy, and those called from the nations are invited to give thanks for it too.

“Toward us” makes the singers receivers of mercy, not its owners. God’s gift is not our achievement or a possession with which one people can exclude another. We learn to say “us” with gratitude, alongside others whom God calls. Theodoret directs attention away from boasting: salvation comes through mercy, not as a reward for our own accomplishments (§4).

Augustine calls mercy and truth “those two things, loving-kindness and truth,” and says that the Lord’s truth endures “whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He hath threatened to the ungodly.”2 He connects mercy with liberation through Christ’s Name and truth with God’s promises and judgment. Mercy is not sentimental softness, and truth is not cold accuracy. Together they ground praise in the faithful God.

Theodoret links the truth that endures to God keeping His promises of salvation (§5). This is fulfilled in Christ, “full of grace and truth.” In John 1:14 the Word Himself becomes flesh, revealing God’s faithfulness without erasing His promises to Israel.

Romans 15, the Gentiles glorify God for His mercy

New Testament anchor, Romans 15:11, NKJV

“Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”

In Romans 15:7-13, Paul urges believers to receive one another as Christ received them, to the glory of God. Christ became a servant to the circumcision to confirm the promises made to the fathers, showing God’s truth; the Gentiles, in turn, glorify God for His mercy. These belong together. Christ honors God’s promises to Israel while calling the nations to rejoice with His people. Paul’s appeal moves toward shared hope in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The inclusion of the Gentiles is not a late adjustment to God’s plan. Paul finds this call in Israel’s own Scriptures. The Church’s Eucharistic thanksgiving can echo that shared praise, as an application of his witness.

This gives the Psalm its spiritual edge. A soul cannot pray Psalm 117 honestly while despising the people God is calling. The Psalm stretches the heart until prayer becomes ecclesial, missionary, and humble. The one who has received mercy learns to desire that mercy for all.

Receiving one another can begin with a concrete act: invite someone outside your usual circle to a conversation or a parish meal, and listen without assuming their story. Respect their freedom to decline. Receiving others does not require anyone to accept abuse, resume unsafe contact, or abandon prudent boundaries.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

The St Bishoy trilingual Agpeya presented by Fr Jacob B. Nadian prints the complete two-verse hymn in the Eleventh Hour (Vespers), p. 131, and the Midnight First Watch, p. 238. These placements describe that printed witness; they do not establish an appointment in every watch or in all current practice.

As a personal application, the Psalm can widen our evening and nighttime prayer to include people beyond our own circle.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

This Psalm pairs with Pentecost icons, apostolic mission icons, and icons of the nations gathered into the Church. Its visual world is catholic and expansive, the Spirit descending and the Gospel going out to all peoples.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Pray beyond your own circle. Let your prayer widen until it includes the nations.
  2. Receive the Church as catholic in truth, not merely in size. Universal praise is anchored in mercy and truth together.
  3. Refuse spiritual narrowness. The Psalm rebukes every instinct to make God’s praise tribal. Offer a safe, gracious welcome to someone outside your usual circle.
  4. Praise because mercy has become mighty over us. Gratitude grows when salvation is seen as gift, not entitlement.

Footnotes

  1. Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXVII, §1, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, volume 8. ↩

  2. Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXVII, §1, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, volume 8. ↩

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