Be Still And Know

Psalm 117 'Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him, all you people of the earth. For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the Lord!' So reads the whole of Psalm 117. It’s the shortest psalm but it has an enormous message which embraces the whole of the Bible. That is to say, every single person needs to join in praising God. Praising him isn’t confined to a little group of fervent believers. He is God of the world and so needs to be worshipped by everyone. I love the fact that all the churches I know draw together people from a number of different nations. Some of them choose to display the flags of the countries that are represented in the congregation and this seems to me a wonderful way of affirming this great psalm. Although God had a very special relationship with the people of Israel, it was never his intention that they alone should worship him. God’s heart was always for non-Jews as well as the Jewish nation. When the apostle Paul wrote to the