The Good Stuff in the Middle

In my continued reading of the Psalms, I have reached the "middle" of the Bible with Psalm 117. The King James version of the Bible has 1189 chapters. There are 594 chapters before and 594 chapters after Psalm 117. And just like an Oreo cookie, there is some good stuff in the middle. 😊

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.

Psalm 117 may be one of the shortest chapters in the whole Bible, but that doesn't mean it doesn't contain some big truths. The beautiful simplicity found in Psalm 117 answers three important questions for us.

1st- What? "What are we supposed to do?"

If you are ever wondering what to do in life….read Psalm 117. It makes things crystal clear in the first three words. It states, "Praise the Lord." The question is not whether or not you will praise or worship something. The question is what you will praise and worship. We were built to praise. This is the way God made us. The world is full of things and people to worship. Unfortunately there are lots of distractions with ourselves, our lives, things happening in the world around us. We often get wrapped up in praising and worshipping things other than God, but you will only find true joy, peace, hope, and love in praise of the LORD.

2nd- Who? "Who is supposed to praise the Lord?"

Again Psalm 117 makes this pretty clear. It states that, "all nations....all peoples" should praise the Lord. You are not exempt. There is no skipping out. Whether you think you should or shouldn't is not even a question. Psalm 117 reminds everyone they are to praise the Lord. This means whether you are in the midst of blessing or in the midst of suffering, you must praise the Lord. This means whether you think you need God or you think you don't, you must praise the Lord. That is the only option.

3rd-Why? "Why would you want to praise the Lord?"

God could have been like my dad and simply said...."Because I told you to", but he didn't! He gave us more than just obedience to draw us to praise and worship Him. There are many wonderful reasons which should lead us to praise him because He is so awesome! Psalm 117 gives us a couple of those reasons: His great love and His faithfulness endures forever... Sounds like pretty good reasons for our praise!

Obviously many of the Psalms talk about praising God. It is an important concept and direction for us to follow. Like last week's Flashback Friday group sings: