For Teaching
Psalms 117: What the Passage Says
5 claims across 2 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.
Not a sermon outline. What Psalms 117 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.
The Chapter in a Sentence
This psalm calls on all nations and all peoples to praise the LORD, and it gives the reason: his loving kindness toward us is great, and his faithfulness lasts forever.
Claim by Claim
Words Worth Explaining
Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.
- 117:1
- Where the King James prints LORD in capital letters, it is standing in for the personal name of God in Hebrew (the four letters usually written YHWH). Jewish readers by this period did not say the name aloud, substituting the ordinary word for "lord," and the translators followed that practice while marking the difference with capitals. "Nations" and "peoples" translate words normally used for the peoples outside Israel, so the psalm is addressing foreigners.
- 117:2
- "Merciful kindness" translates the Hebrew word *hesed*, which has no single English equivalent: it means the loyal, committed care one party owes another inside a binding relationship, mixing love, generosity and reliability. "Truth" here does not mean accuracy as opposed to lying; the Hebrew word means steadiness or dependability, being someone whose word holds. The closing "Praise ye the LORD" is the Hebrew phrase *hallelu-yah*, the source of the English word "hallelujah."