Psalm Meditation 1080 Second Sunday in Lent February 28, 2021 Psalm 117 1 Praise the Lord, all you nations! Extol him, all you peoples! 2 For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) To praise is to express strong approval of someone or something. To extol is to praise in a very enthusiastic way. The psalmist is calling on everyone to express our strong approval of God in a very enthusiastic way. Enthusiasm is to be filled with God (en theos.) We are to express all these things because God loves us and stands with us steadfastly (having a strong belief in someone), forever and always. The truth is, all these definitions can only point to what a moving experience it is to experience what it means to be loved by God. We can give God’s love all the intellectual assent we can muster and still not have any idea what the psalmist is talking about. It is only when we can move through all the barriers we erect against our emotions that we can know how the steadfast love and faithfulness of God feels. Many of us spend a lot of time and energy living up to the expectations God has for us, working to earn the love that we know God has for us. What if God loves us and that’s it. Anything we do from there is an act of gratitude. We don’t have to earn it, we don’t have to return it, we don’t even have to accept it. God loves us steadfastly, faithfully, and forever. Praise the Lord! February 22, 2021 LCM