The shortest chapter of the Bible is just two verses long: “Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 117:1-2). Yup, that’s the whole song right there, and I bet they sang it over and over again because it is short and easy to memorize.

I have not yet encountered it as a worship song in English, but there is a Spanish praise-chorus version that I learned from Puerto Rican Pentecostals many years ago. Over the last few years I have been glad to join in as it is sung with real gusto by the Mennonite church (yes, the Mennonites) in Las Matas de Farfán in the Dominican Republic.

Just as we have seen in other psalms along the way (Psalm 66, 96, and 100, to name just a few), so also Psalm 117 sings out with the conviction that the love of God reaches far beyond Israel and aims at the redemption of all the world: “all nations” and “all peoples” are invited to sing about the Lord’s “steadfast love toward us.”

How big is that ‘us’ supposed to be? In the plan of God, ‘us’ is intended to include all those nations and peoples. That’s often hard for us to get: we want the ‘us’ who are beloved of God to be differentiated from the ‘them’ who are the bad guys who will forever be the unbeloved castoffs. But scripture’s vision is big: come on along, all you nations and peoples, because God doesn’t want anyone left out.

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We praise you, Lord, for your immense love toward us, steadfast and faithful, enduring forever: fill our hearts with such delight in your grace, as we joyfully invite all the world to come along and revel in the redemption that you have established for us.