Psalms 117
What Happens in This Chapter
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.
Praise the LORD, all you nations. Praise him, all you peoples.
1O Praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
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.
2Do this because his loving kindness toward us is great, and because the LORD's faithfulness lasts forever. Praise the LORD.
2For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.
"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."
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