"Short and Sweet"

Scripture Passage

Psalm 115; Psalm 116; Psalm 117; Psalm 118

(Get it? "Short and Sweet"?)

Scripture Focus

Praise the LORD, all you nations.
     Praise him, all you people of the earth.
For he loves us with unfailing love;
     the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever.

Praise the LORD!
                                  (Psalm 117 NLT)

Observation

Short and sweet, huh? Psalm 117 has to be the shortest psalm in Scripture! (I checked, BTW—it is.) And the theme of the psalm captures a predominate theme of the book of Psalms—“Praise the Lord, because his faithful love never fails!”

At some point, after reading so many psalms that resonate with this predominate theme, a reader might be inclined to say, “Okay, okay—enough already…I get it!” But I’m not convinced we do get it. At least, if my response is, “I get it” rather than, “Wow, Lord—you’re worthy to be praised,” the irony is, I probably don’t get it!

How remarkable it is that “he loves us with unfailing love”—that his “faithfulness endures forever.” Think about it—God’s fundamental posture toward every one of us (no exceptions!) is one of faithful, unfailing love.

I don’t think, deep down, that most of us believe that most of the time. Okay—I’ll only speak for myself and say that too often, I live as if God’s fundamental posture towards me is one of disappointment or rebuke or challenge. The Bible says otherwise. The Psalms in particular say otherwise. If the Bible is true, God’s foundational attitude towards me…God’s knee-jerk response to who I am…is love.

The more I understand that, the more liberated I am to serve the Lord with gladness. The better I understand that, the more likely I am to genuinely offer the Lord the glory due His name. So teach me today, Lord…remind me today…that your love never fails and your faithfulness endures forever.

Praise the Lord!

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