In Jason Dohm's sermon titled 'Worthy of Praise,' he expounds on Psalm 117, emphasizing the universal call to praise God for His boundless merciful kindness. He contrasts the brevity of Psalm 117 with the lengthy Psalm 119, illustrating that both are inspired by the Holy Spirit for different purposes. The sermon outlines four major points: a detailed explanation of Psalm 117, God's timeless plan for His merciful kindness to extend beyond Israel, the assurance that the psalmist's appeal for universal praise will be fulfilled in eternity, and an exhortation not to delay in praising God or becoming a conduit of His grace. Dohm emphasizes that God's merciful kindness is not only vast in quantity but also powerful in transforming sinners. He ties the Old Testament message to New Testament teachings, showing that the inclusion of Gentiles in praising God was always part of God's plan, as evidenced by Paul's writings in Romans and the vision in Revelation 5. The sermon concludes with a call to action for believers to recognize their privilege and obligation to praise God and to be a blessing to others.

The title of the sermon this morning is, Worthy of Praise! Psalm 119 has 176 verses, it's the longest chapter in the Bible. Psalm 117 has two verses, It's the shortest chapter in the Bible. The same Holy Spirit that gave us Psalm 119 and those 176 verses that takes forever to read also gave us Psalm 117 and the two verses. It just goes to show us that the Holy Spirit knows very well that we need different things at different times.

He gives us different things at different times and these two Psalms are definitely a demonstration of that. Our psalm, Psalm 117, is about the unbounded extent of the merciful kindness of God. And how He is so worthy of being worshiped for it. So there's your two point sermon right there. Praise the Lord, and He deserves that praise.

One of the things that causes him to deserve it is the unbounded extent of his merciful kindness towards us. Charles Spurgeon said it in this way, This Psalm which is very little in its letter, is exceedingly large in its spirit, for bursting beyond all bounds of race or nationality, it calls upon all mankind to praise the name of the Lord." Amen to that. It is a call for all mankind to praise the name of the Lord because of His merciful kindness. So as we come to these two wonderful verses, let's ask God to help us. Here we are, O God.

Every one of us a debtor to Your merciful kindness. It's not a person in this room who's not a debtor to Your merciful kindness. You haven't treated any one of us as our sins deserve. Not for a day of our lives, not for an hour of our lives. So we do praise you.

We do see it, God, that You ought to be praised, because Your merciful kindness is great toward us. Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Here's a road map for the time. Four major headings. The first, I want to give you a brief explanation of these two verses.

So as we normally do, we'll sort of go phrase by phrase and just talk about what it means. Two, I want to show you that it was always God's plan for the extent of His merciful kindness to be unbounded, that isn't new with the New Testament at all. Three, I want to prove to you that the psalmist's appeal will be fulfilled. So all the peoples are going to praise him. And then four, I want to beg you not to wait.

There will be two specific exhortations there. Don't wait for this and don't wait for that. But I'm not tipping my hand now, we'll get there. All right, major heading number one, brief explanation of these two verses. Just an obvious observation about the text.

Just look at Psalm 117. The first three words begin and end the psalm. So if you want to know what the psalm is about, that's what the psalm is about. Praise the Lord. This psalm is a call to praise.

We are being called upon to recognize the goodness and the greatness of Jehovah. So you see, Lord, spelled in all capital letters, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that's to indicate to us the word that is being translated. It is Yahweh, if you transliterate the Hebrew word. It's the most holy name for God. It is this self-existing God who has no beginning and who has no end.

This phrase, praise the Lord, you could actually have it be the whole psalm. It could be self-contained because it is self-sufficient. What do I mean by that? This God of Scripture is almighty. There's nothing that He can't do.

He called all the worlds, the whole universe, into existence out of nothing. He just spoke and it was. And He is all-knowing. There's nothing that can be known that he doesn't already know, including things that are completely unseen, like all of my motivations and thoughts are known to him. And that's true of everyone who ever has lived or will live.

And he's everywhere present at all times. We have a hard time even describing this, but just to come at it from the other direction, I'd say there's nowhere that he isn't. There's a Puritan, I forget who it is, that says, he's everywhere center, nowhere boundary. In other words, he's never on the outer edges of anything. He's always completely present everywhere that there is.

He's almighty, he's all knowing, he's everywhere present. And He deserves to be praised just for being that way. In a sense, we could stop the psalm there. Praise the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, this self existing God who is almighty and all knowing and everywhere present. Just think of who this God is and praise Him because He is that way.

But the phrase praise the Lord isn't self-contained. The psalmist gives us a specific reason for his call to us to praise this God. And it's that this God exercises a great merciful kindness toward us. That there is an abundant mercy joined with kindness that he exercises towards all of his creatures, especially these image bearers, the men and women who have lived and are living and will live on earth. The psalmist reasons this way.

Because God is like this, He is worthy to be praised by everyone. There's no one who doesn't experience this abundant merciful kindness, and so there's no one who shouldn't, who's exempted from this call to come and praise Him. So that's what the psalm is about. Let's go phrase by phrase. The first phrase of verse 1.

Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. So as always, all means all. No one is exempt from this call to praise. All are called to praise God. This is an unbounded call to praise.

The King James, and the New American Standard, and the ESV, and the NIV, basically all the major translations that we like, except for the translation that we use here, render it nations instead of Gentiles. Praise the Lord, all you nations. That Hebrew word normally means the nations out there, meaning thinking of it through the Hebrew mind. There's us, and then there are all the other nations of the world. It means all those other nations, and that's why the New King James renders it Gentiles, because it's the non-Jewish nations, it is the other nations are called to praise Him.

So really, the psalmist is a Jew. It's a call from the inside of the Jewish people to all those nations across the whole rest of the earth outside the Jewish nation to come and join in the praise of God. The second phrase of verse 1, Laud him all you peoples. Two things I'd like to say here. First, lauding, did you use the word laud this week?

I did not, you didn't either, you know you didn't. First, lauding is like praising, but the Hebrew word being translated here literally means, according to Strong's definitions, to address in a loud tone. So the psalmist is calling for us to praise the Lord, but he's calling for a certain kind of praise, loud praise. And the thought is that God is so worthy of praise that it shouldn't be whispered praise. That whispered praise just isn't enough.

That whispered praise just isn't fitting. That we ought to be loud in our praise because of how good God is. That's the thought that the psalmist is bringing us to. Second, peoples, laud him you peoples. Peoples is different than Gentiles or other nations from the first phrase.

Peoples means a collection of persons or a community of persons distinct by geography or family or language. So it's sort of a smaller community than a nation. A community of people that are distinct by geography or that are distinct by family. It's our family should come and praise Him. Or it's a community distinct by language.

Everyone who speaks Ch'cha'ewa in a couple of weeks, I'm going to be where they speak Ch'cha'ewa in Malawi. The people who speak That language ought to come and praise the Lord. And this language, and this language, all you peoples, laud Him, praise Him loudly. So think of a tribe or a people group. The missions term here is a people group.

The earth is filled with different people groups. All the people groups ought to come and praise the Lord. Second half of verse 2. For His merciful kindness is great toward us. So verse 2 gives us the reason why all people, all peoples and all nations are called to praise God.

It's because of His merciful kindness and its abundance toward us. What God has extended to us is mercy. We deserve one thing for our thoughts and our words and our actions. But He's going to bypass what we deserve for our thoughts and words and actions which are so unworthy of Him. But He's going to bypass the treatment that we deserve for that.

But it's more than just mercy. If someone had wronged you, you could just not respond in kind and leave it at that. And you would be merciful towards them. But God does so much more for us than just not responding according to what we deserve. But He exercises an active kindness towards us.

He acts in His kindness. He acts in a favorable disposition towards us. And what God has extended to us is kindness. It is a favorable disposition that extends itself into actions, good being done to us, But it's more than just kindness. If someone was good to you, nice to you, favorable towards you, you could just reflect that back on them and act in kindness to them.

But no, no, no, that's not what God does. He's extending kindness exactly opposite of what we deserve. It's a merciful kindness. So it is mercy, but it's so much more than mercy because of the kindness. And it is kindness, but it's so much more than mercy because of the kindness.

And it is kindness, but it's so much more than just kindness because of the mercy. It is the joining together of these two things that are so marvelous and such a wonder to sinners to think that God would act toward us. In both mercy, not treating us as we deserve, and in kindness. A favorable disposition towards us that causes Him to do good to us. And it isn't a little, it's a lot.

His merciful kindness is great toward us. There is an abundance of merciful kindness. And it's powerful in its effect on us. So it's great in those two ways. Great is in a lot of it.

And then great is in the power of it to affect us. I can't believe James read this in the call to worship, but I'm going to go right back to Hebrews chapter 7 and something that James already read this morning. Listen to Hebrews 7.25. Therefore he, Jesus, therefore Jesus is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Have you ever had just a little glimpse of how sinful you really are?

You really have no idea when you first are born again. You really think God just sort of nudged you over onto the right side of the line. Most of us felt that way when we were first saved. Some of us not, but most of us felt, oh God help me across the line. You couldn't even see the line before God dealt with you.

We couldn't even see the line, but God takes us and he saves us to the uttermost. His blood cleanses us to completely clean. And then he conforms us into the likeness of his Son. He is able to take the greatest sinner. That's what the Apostle Paul says he is.

I'm the chief of sinners. I'm the worst of sinners. I'm the greatest of sinners. But God saved me to the uttermost. He made me completely clean.

And now He's making me look more and more and more like His perfect Son. I think we could say that His merciful kindness is great toward us. And of course, like Hebrews 7.25, we can now look back through the New Testament lens. Psalm 117 was surely wonderful to them in the Old Testament. But how much more us that we can say, oh, the ultimate expression of the merciful kindness of God being great towards us, abundant but also able to save us to the uttermost.

The greatest reflection of that is in Jesus Christ and who He is and what He did for sinners. There's nothing like Jesus as a demonstration of the merciful kindness of God being great toward us. The Second half of verse 2. And the truth of the Lord endures forever. Some render it truth and other translations faithfulness.

So the truth of the Lord endures forever or the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. The good translations are about 50-50 on the word that they pick for that. Both are appropriate translations but they are related in this way. When a spouse is faithful, we say he's true to her. He's true to her.

He made promises to her, he's keeping. She's true to him, she made promises to him, she's keeping those promises. They're true to each other. They're faithful to each other. Because God's merciful kindness is secured for us by His exceedingly great and precious promises, and Because not one good thing of all that He has promised will fall to the ground, all will come to pass.

I just want to keep drawing on that language that we learned in the book of Joshua. He promised us all these things and not one word of the good that He promised us fell to the ground. Every single one came to pass. That is God. That is what Psalm 117 is saying here.

The truth of the Lord endures forever. He has spoken truth to His people, made promises to His people, and He'll be true to His people. I might want to at least paraphrase that as the trueness of the Lord endures forever. It's really more about God than the enduring truths, although you could certainly preach a sermon on the enduring truths here. It's really about the trueness of the God who reveals those enduring truths.

And then the very end of verse 2, praise the Lord. There is a long version, a Hebrew word for God, and we would transliterate it Yahweh, and then there's a short version which is Yah, it's really indicating the same thing, it's the long version in the first Praise the Lord, And then it's just the short version, Yah, which is where we get Hallelujah. So that's really what you have here ending the psalm. Hallelujah. Praise be to God.

Or maybe even better yet, boast in God. That word praise really means boast. If you were going to praise your mother, it would be about how she's the best mother. It's that sense. Our boast is in God because we have such a great God.

Now, if you've been thinking about what I've been saying, you should have a question. Doesn't this only apply to the recipients of God's merciful kindness. In other words, the call to praise the Lord, isn't that applied really just to believers? Because they've experienced God's merciful kindness. I would start by saying That it's undeniably true that the recipients of God's saving mercy in His Son Jesus Christ have the highest privilege and the highest obligation to praise the Lord.

In other words, no one has a greater privilege in praising God than people who have been washed white as snow by the blood of Jesus Christ. No one has a higher obligation to praise the Lord than someone whose sins have been pardoned and made right and forgiven. That is the person with the highest privilege and obligation to praise the Lord. But having said that, I would point to Matthew chapter 5. Turn to Matthew chapter 5, please.

Matthew chapter 5, Jesus gives us a call to godlikeness. And the argument is, believers have God as a father, so they should act like their father and then he tells us how God acts. Matthew chapter 5 I'll be reading verses 43 through 48. Matthew 5, 43 through 48. Jesus says this, Matthew 5, 43.

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?

Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. The call for believers to love their enemies and to bless those who curse them, is a call to act like God acts. Sometimes people refuse the offer of His Son Jesus Christ for an entire lifetime. Sometimes for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, sometimes all the way till death. And they receive so much goodness from Him every day.

He never treats them like they deserve to be treated. Think about the book of Joshua. We just came out of it. What happened to the Canaanites? They were annihilated.

They were wiped off of the map. Why was that? Because God was paying the wages for sin. He was finally treating them as they deserved. After 500 years of persistent patience, God finally treated them as they deserve.

Don't wonder, don't marvel that God wiped the Canaanites off the face of the earth. Marvel that God waited 500 years to wipe them off the face of the earth. Above all, look at the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, consider how He was treated in the last 24 hours of His life. And consider that the way He was treated was himself taking on the treatment that sinners like me deserve. So, the mocking, I deserve that.

The spitting, I deserve that. The beating, I deserve that for my rebellion against this persistently good and patient God. His death, I deserve that. My friends, many of the Puritans used to preach it this way. If you have not trusted Jesus and entrusted yourself to Jesus, your sins which are many and great, there are so many sins against this God, And though you don't think much of them, they're great.

They're clinging to you. They're clinging to you. All of those sins are clinging to you unless you've trusted Jesus and entrusted yourself to Jesus. And yet, God has sent His Son from heaven. So the only reason they're clinging to you is that you will not come to him to have life.

He offers life. He paid for life. But you won't come to him to have life. So every time the clock ticks, your guilt increases. We don't think of it that way, but Puritans thought of it that way.

You've refused His provision for your sins another second, another tick of the clock, and another tick, and it makes your guilt worse. Refusing His Son is worse than your other sins, and you let another second go by. And so your guilt isn't static staying the same until you happen to sin again. No, the clock ticked again. And so it's more sin that you've refused his son for another second, his son who left heaven and shed his blood for you.

Need to slow down. Jesus left heaven and shed his blood to pardon sinners, but you won't go to him to have life, and the clock ticks, and the clock ticks, and the clock ticks, and your guilt mounts. The fact that His merciful kindness is great towards us should terrify us. Would you do nothing with that? And delight us.

Depending on who you are. Major point number two. Major heading number two. It was always God's plan for the extent of His merciful kindness to be unbounded. He never intended to just bottle up His merciful kindness within the borders of Israel.

Turn to Genesis chapter 12. Turn to Genesis chapter 12. It is true that God allowed the nations to chase their own inclinations to show us what we would do if He just left us to ourselves to chase the things that our hearts really love. Consider Genesis 12, I'll be reading verses 1-5, follow along. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you and In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed God told Abram and then changed his name to Abraham, but God told Abram that he would bless him. Why? That you may be a blessing.

God blessed Abram in order that he could be a blessing. God made him a nation, and not just a nation, a great nation, so that in this great nation all the families of the earth should be blessed. My friends, Jesus is the lamb slain before the foundations of the earth. Before anything was made, he knew the name of every person he would die for. He knew the name of every person he would die for.

He knew the name of every person that he would shed his blood for. God established this family line, we're watching it happen in Genesis 11. God established this family line, the children of Abraham, through which he would send a savior. That's why Abram, he's establishing a line and sending the Savior through that line. To fulfill these promises that he would bless Abraham to be a blessing, that he would make him a great nation, that all the families of the earth should be blessed.

And so this is the core of the argument Paul is making when he quotes Psalm 117 in Romans 15. So turn to Romans 15. We'll see where Paul quotes our psalm, psalm 117. Paul quotes it to make this argument that God's plan was always for his merciful kindness to be unbounded in its extent, not never to be bottled up within Israel. Who is he writing to?

He is writing to Rome, the church at Rome. What is the church at Rome? A mixed church. Got Jews in there, got Gentiles in there. Paul is writing to them saying, receive each other.

This was always God's plan to make us one. Romans 15, I'll read 7 through 12. Romans 15 starting in verse 7, Therefore receive one another just as Christ also received us through the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision to Jews for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written, for this reason I will confess you among the Gentiles and sing your name." He's quoting Psalm 18 verse 49. He's quoting David saying that he would confess God among the Gentiles and sing of his name.

And again he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. This is Deuteronomy 32. You would think, oh this is a New Testament verse. The Gentiles rejoicing with the Jews. No, this is Deuteronomy.

And again, praise the Lord all you Gentiles, laud him all you peoples. Here's our Psalm, Psalm 117. And again, Isaiah says, there shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles should hope. The Gentiles should hope." Paul quotes David in Psalm 18. In the song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32, they would have been singing this.

This is in the Psalm song of Moses. He quotes Psalm 117, our Psalm. He quotes Isaiah 11 to make the argument, God always planned for the church at Rome. God always had it in his mind that Romans and Jews would be together in a church and worship him together. That the middle wall of separation would be broken down in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God always had that in his mind. He was never bottling up his merciful kindness in Israel. He was making Israel a reservoir of his goodness that he would then pour out on the nations. That's what the Great Commission is. So the Great Commission, the taking of the good news to the nations, was always the plan of God and it is on display at the church in Rome.

So Paul writes them, receive each other. God always meant for this. Major heading number three, The psalmist's appeal will be fulfilled. Turn to Revelation 5. I know this is one of our favorites.

I couldn't resist. Revelation 5. Wow, we should have sung this song this morning, shouldn't we? Revelation chapter 5, follow along as I read verses 1-10. This is how it ends.

Or it doesn't end. This is A description of eternity. This is how it ends. It's a terrible way to say that. This is a description of eternity.

That's better. Revelation chapter 5. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it.

So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and you have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth." What the psalmist calls for in Psalm 117 is a description of eternity. In eternity when the saving work of the Lamb is on display, Every tribe will be there to praise Him for it. Every tongue will be there to praise Him for it. Every people will be there.

Every nation, all represented before the throne. In John chapter 10, John chapter 10 is the good shepherd chapter. In John chapter 10, Jesus says this, As the Father knows me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep, and other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will hear my voice. There will be one flock and one shepherd, he's preaching to Jews, he's preaching to Israel, he says I'm going to lay down my life for the sheep. I'm going to die for the sheep.

I have other sheep outside the bounds of our family, of our people, of our nation. And I have to bring them into this fold too and there will be one flock and one shepherd he did it he did it I'm here you're here have one great shepherd. Major heading number four. Don't wait. Don't wait.

Don't wait for what? Two things. Number one, don't wait to be filled with praise. Don't let these great truths go by you and leave you unaffected. Praise the Lord.

Is this an invitation to praise? Yes, but it's more than that. Praise the Lord. Is this a command? Yes, it's imperative.

It says, do this. But I'm thinking of it as an enticement to praise God. A holy enticement. It's bait. So I'm saying to you, friends, take the bait.

Take the bait. Don't be afraid of this hook. Take the bait. Find yourself on this hook, praising the Lord. This psalm is a call to consider and recognize and give voice.

And not just to whisper it. God is so great in His merciful kindness toward us that he deserves loud praise. Secondly, to be a channel of grace. Just think of Genesis chapter 12. God blessing Abraham, who by the way, Abraham wasn't a Jew, Abraham was a Syrian.

The descendants of Abraham became known as Jews. Abraham was a pagan Syrian and God blessed him and his purpose for blessing him was that he would be a blessing. He made him a nation, and the purpose of the nation was that all the families of the earth would be blessed. That's us! That's us!

God has blessed us to bless. He has made us a holy nation in order that all the families of the earth be blessed. Think of the privilege. I suppose on the authority of Scripture I could command you, but having received the great merciful kindness of the Lord, do you have to be commanded to be a channel of the goodness that you've experienced? Say it isn't so!

Say that you don't have to be commanded to be a channel of God's goodness. God, I thank You for the psalm. And I do pray that we would learn its lessons, and I do pray that we would be full of praise. We wouldn't get so entangled with a thousand things that these great fundamental truths don't hardly ever come into our minds. And when they do, they don't move us.

Oh God, let us be moved to praise. God, let us be a channel of grace. I thank you for your abundant blessing on us. But we know that This is not intended to be a termination point for it, but that you bless that we might be a blessing, that you've made us into a holy nation, that all the families of the earth might be blessed. We pray it in Jesus' name, Amen.