Psalm 117 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 117 (1928 BCP) is the psalm Laudate Dominum in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer (1928). At only two verses it is the Psalter's brief summons to the nations to praise the Lord for his mercy and enduring truth. In the 1928 monthly cycle it completes the Twenty-fourth Day at Morning Prayer, immediately after Psalm 116.
Prayer Book Text and Daily Office Appointment
The Prayer Book prints Psalm 117 under “The Twenty-fourth Day. Morning Prayer.” Its compact form does not make it slight: the command is universal, and its reason is the Lord's steadfast mercy and truth.
O PRAISE the LORD, all ye nations; * praise him, all ye peoples. 2 For his merciful kindness is ever more and more toward us; * and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise the LORD.
The order matters. Psalm 116 has ended with thanksgiving in Jerusalem's courts; Psalm 117 turns that grateful witness outward, calling “all ye nations” and “all ye peoples.” The Office therefore closes the morning's sequence not with a private religious feeling but with praise addressed to the whole human family.
Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised.
Psalm 113, which begins the group appointed earlier in the same office, already names praise from east to west. Psalm 117 concentrates that breadth into its opening imperative: those not previously named as Israel are not spectators of the Lord's praise.
Scripture in the Church's Prayer
Paul explicitly quotes Psalm 117:1 while explaining why Jewish and Gentile Christians are to receive one another. That apostolic use gives a precise Christian reason for reading the Psalm in the Church without treating it as a warrant to erase Israel: Christ confirms the promises made to the fathers, and the nations glorify God for mercy.
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
The Psalm's plural addressees are thus heard in a concrete ecclesial setting: mercy does not establish a Gentile church over against Israel, but calls the nations to glorify the God whose truth confirms his promises. Its final “Praise the LORD” is the response of a gathered people, not an abstract slogan.
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Revelation supplies the same horizon in a later New Testament vision: a multitude from every nation praises God and the Lamb. The Church's recitation of Psalm 117 trains that hope as present prayer, while leaving the Psalm's own language of divine mercy and truth intact.
Historical Christian Interpretation
Augustine reads the two verses ecclesially. His interpretation is historically located in the fourth and fifth centuries and uses the Christian language of “all nations”; it should be received as a witness to the Church's catholic praise, not as permission for contempt toward Jewish people.
These are the courts of the Lord's house, this all His people, this the true Jerusalem. Let those rather listen who have refused to be the children of this city, since they have cut themselves off from the communion of all nations.
For Augustine, the Psalm's praise is inseparable from communion: its universal address rebukes schism because the Lord gathers a people across nations. He then identifies the two grounds named in verse 2 as mercy and truth, relating both to God's saving action and judgment.
The merciful kindness of the Lord is ever more and more towards us, since the furious tongues of hostile nations have yielded to His Name, through which we have been freed: and the truth of the Lord endures for ever, whether in those things which He promised to the righteous, or in those which He has threatened to the ungodly.
John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale's nineteenth-century commentary likewise anchors its Christian reading in Paul's actual citation, rather than merely assuming a later devotional association.
The Christian explanation is Apostolic, for S. Paul cites this verse when arguing for the union of Jews and Gentiles in one Church.
Their account of verse 2 notices the force of the Psalm's language for overflowing mercy. It is interpretive commentary, not an alternative translation of the Prayer Book's words.
It is not then the mere strength, but the unbounded vastness of God's mercy which the Psalmist would fain describe, poured out in such abundance upon the Gentiles as to whelm them in a fathomless deep.
Use in Worship
Psalm 117 is especially apt as a doxology after testimony, intercession, or thanksgiving. In the 1928 monthly cycle it follows Psalm 116's individual voice of answered prayer; together they teach that God's deliverance moves the worshipper toward the praise of all peoples. Its two verses also make it suitable for singing when a brief but explicitly catholic act of praise is needed.
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Morning Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 116 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 118 (1928 BCP)
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
External Links
- The 1928 BCP Psalter: Psalms 101–150 (Justus Anglican)
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 117
- Neale and Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 117, Laudate Dominum, verses 1–2, Twenty-fourth Day, Morning Prayer, p. 487, Justus Anglican, “The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalter,” Psalm 117.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command (Authorized Version, 1611), Psalm 113:1–3, Bible Gateway, “Psalm 113:1–3 KJV”.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command (Authorized Version, 1611), Romans 15:8–11, Bible Gateway, “Romans 15:8–11 KJV”.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command (Authorized Version, 1611), Revelation 7:9–10, Bible Gateway, “Revelation 7:9–10 KJV”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 117, §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 117”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 117, §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 117”.
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms: From Primitive and Mediaeval Writers; and From the Various Office-Books and Hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites, vol. III, Psalms LXXXI–CXVIII (London: Joseph Masters; New York: Pott and Amery, 1871), p. 508, commentary on Psalm CXVII:1, Internet Archive, “A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III”.
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms: From Primitive and Mediaeval Writers; and From the Various Office-Books and Hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites, vol. III, Psalms LXXXI–CXVIII (London: Joseph Masters; New York: Pott and Amery, 1871), p. 508, commentary on Psalm CXVII:2, Internet Archive, “A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III”.