Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 117
The Hundred and Seventeenth Psalm.
The hundred and seventeenth is a solemn acknowledgment of Gods mercy and fidelity, and an exhortation to all the world to praise him for it.
1. O Praise the Lord, all yea. nations; praise him, all ye people.
2. For his mercifull kindnesse is great toward us; and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.
Paraphrase. All the heathen nations of the world, and all the people dispersed over the face of the earth, have a singular obligation, as well as the children of Israel (Abrahams seed according to the flesh) to praise and magnify the name of God (see Rom. xv. 11.) and that especially for his great and transcendent mercy toward them in the work of their redemption, and the promulgation of his Gospel to them, wherein his promise of mercy to Abraham and his seed for ever, i. e. to his true spiritual posterity, to the sons and heirs of his Faith, unto the end of the world, shall be most exactly performed, and therein his fidelity, as well as mercy, manifested.
Annotations on Psalm CXVII.
V. 1. Nations] That foreign foreignall the nations here, and in the next word, foreign all people, signify in the greatest latitude all the nations and people of the Gentile world, even foreign the whole creation, and foreign the whole world, Mar. xvi. 15. appears both by Mat. xxviii. 19. where parallel to those phrases in S. Marke is no more than foreign all the nations here; but especially by Rom. xv. where for a proof of Gods purpose that the Gentiles should be received into the Church, and joyne with the believing Jews in one consort of Christian love and faith, and praise God together in the same congregation, the proof is brought as from several other texts, so from these words in this Psalm. And this not onelyonly by express citing v. 11. And again, Praise the Lord all ye nations, and laud him all ye people, but also in the front of the testimonies by the phrases foreign for the truth of God, v. 8. foreign for the mercy or pitty (of God) v. 9. both which are here mentioned v. 2. For thus the discourse there lies, Christ was a minister of the circumcision, i. e. was by God appointed an instrument of the Jews greatest good, preaching the Gospel first to them, calling them to repentance, &c. and this for the truth of God, i. e. to make good Gods fidelity or performance of covenant to them, foreign to confirme the promises made to the fathers, i. e. to Abraham &c. foreign, and that the Gentiles for his mercy might glorify God: where though this preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles was a work of mercy, not so much as promised to or lookt for by them, and so there is nothing but foreign pity, compassion toward them; yet is this an effect of that ministery of Christ, which was foreign for the truth of God, i. e. a completion of that promise made to Abraham, that he should be the father of many nations, which had never its perfect completion till the Gentiles came, and sat down with Abraham, became sons of this faith of Abraham, in this kingdome of heaven, the Church of Christ. And exactly to this sense the second verse of this Psalm is to be understood, as the reason why all the Gentile world is to praise and magnify the name of God, foreign foreign&c. because the mercy of God is strong upon us, foreign was confirmed say the Lxxii. and Latine, and the Syriack foreign, from foreign grew strong, was in full force upon us, i. e. all that mercy which is promised to Abraham for his spiritual as well as carnal seed, is fully made good foreign upon us (in which respect those words Rom. xv. 8. foreign — to confirme the promises of the fathers, may reasonably be thought to refer to these words in this Psalm, the making good of Gods mercy to us, being, as in words, so in sense, parallel to confirming the promises to the Fathers) and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever, i. e. Gods fidelity, which consists in an exact performance of his promise, endureth to the end of the world; because though the Jews for their unbelief were cut off, yet the Gentiles, the seed of Abrahams faith, were grafted in, and so Gods promise of making him a father of many nations fully performed in the vocation of the Gentiles, at the time of the Jews obduration and apostasy. Thus much is manifest; yet perhaps it may be farther observable, that the foreign strong here attributed to the mercy of God, is the known title of the Messias Isa. ix. 6. For though the late Jews have endeavoured to interpret that place of Hezekiah, whom they there style foreign the Lord of eight names, Talmud tract. Sanhedr. c. Chelek; yet the Targum and others have resolved it to belong to the Messiah, and so foreign, and foreign to be two of his names. And so indeed the mystery of our Redemption is to be looked on as an eminent exertion of the power of God, Act. ii. 33. the Incarnation is shewing strength with Gods arme, Luk. i. 51. and the Angel that brings the news of it, and (as the Jews tell us) hath his name correspondent to the imployment he manages, is Gabriel, from this word foreign strong. And so above all, the power was remarkable in his Resurrection, which was wrought by Gods right hand, Act. ii. 33. & v. 31. to this adde that foreign,foreign which follows, is taken notice of to be another of the names of the Messiah; and the Midrasch Tehillim observes, that that word comprehends all the letters in the Alphabet, א the first, מ the middlemost, and ת the last, as Rev. i. 8. he is called Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.