The Long and the Short

Praise the Lord, all nations; Sing His praises, all peoples!  Psalm 117:1  NASB

Praise the Lord – We spent more than 180 days looking through the longest psalm in the Bible (Psalm 119).  After all that time, I wondered if the shortest psalm carried the same theme.  So, here it is, just two verses:

הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־יְ֖הֹוָה כָּל־גּוֹיִ֑ם שַׁ֜בְּח֗וּהוּ כָּל־הָֽאֻמִּֽים

כִּ֥י גָ֘בַ֚ר עָלֵ֨ינוּ | חַסְדּ֗וֹ וֶֽאֱמֶת־יְהֹ֘וָ֥ה לְ֜עוֹלָ֗ם הַֽלְלוּיָֽהּ

Praise the Lord, all nations, laud Him, all peoples.

For His kindness has overwhelmed us, and the truth of the Lord is eternal. Hallelujah!  (Chabad)

You probably recognize some of the Hebrew words.  הַֽלְל֣וּ (hăl^elû’), יְ֖הֹוָה (YHVH – His personal name), כָּל (all), חַסְדּ֗וֹ (His ḥesed), וֶֽאֱמֶת (and truth – ʾĕmet), הַֽלְלוּיָֽהּ (hallelujah).   We don’t have to spend much time on these.  But we should notice that these themes, or words associated with these themes, appear in the 176 verses of Psalm 119.  The poet sticks to the same points—in the longest and the shortest versions.

Now let’s look at the other important words here.  We can start with כָּל־גּוֹיִ֑ם (all nations).  The root is gôy, a word usually associated with the Gentiles (only occasionally a description of Israel).  The psalmist commands (it’s an imperative) all nations to praise YHVH.  This is interesting.  We might have expected a command to praise “God,” that is, ʾĕlōhîm, the title of the Divine Sovereign.  After all, most religions, pagan or otherwise, have some sort of divine being.  But the psalmist doesn’t tell the nations to praise their own god.  He tells them to praise the personal God of Israel, YHVH.  He is the God of all people.  There is no other God to praise.

This claim flies in the face of the “many paths to God” religious mistake.  It also has some serious implications for the Christian claim that the Christian faith follows the same God as Israel.  According to this verse, the only true God is the God of Israel, not the God of Augustine, Tertullian, or Chrysostom (or Luther or Calvin).  That’s a very harsh claim but it seems to me one that is supported by the attempt of Christianity to replace Israel or claim that Jews must convert in order to really be “saved” (the equivalent of demanding that Jews accept the Trinity).  There’s a lot packed into אֶת־יְ֖הֹוָה כָּל־גּוֹיִ֑ם.

Now the psalmist repeats his command to praise this particular God, but with another verb.  This time he uses šābaḥ.  The nuance is important.  “The word, šābaḥ, however, in the majority of cases is used to praise God for his mighty acts and deeds.”^[1]  While hallelujah emphasizes the attitude of gratefulness, accompanied by joy, šăbb^eḥû-hû (“laud Him”) puts the emphasis on God’s amazing handiwork among men.  This is followed by synonym for the first command.  Who should laud Him for all His majestic deeds?  All ʾūmmîm, that is, all “peoples” the progeny of ʾēm, the Hebrew term for “mother.”  You’ll recall the verse in Genesis 3 concerning “the mother of all living.”  The psalmist informs us that since all people ultimately come from the ancestry, we are all related to the One God who brought forth the first parents.  Therefore, we should all serve the One God who made all this happen.  You’ll notice that the word is plural.  It does not distinguish Jew from Gentile.  Everyone is connected here.

The first verse of the shortest psalm gives rise to some incredible claims; claims which challenge most of our modern religious thinking and social prejudices.  The second and last verse adds even more, as we shall see.

Topical Index: ʾūmmîm, peoples, tribes, šābaḥ, laud, hăl^elû’, praise, Psalm 117:1

^[1] Cohen, G. G. (1999). 2313 שָׁבַח. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 897). Moody Press.