GOD IS MERCIFUL AND KIND TO US

Proclamation:

"Praise The LORD, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of The LORD endures forever.  Praise The LORD."  Psalms 117:1-2 (NIV)  

"O praise The LORD, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.  For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of The LORD endureth for ever.  Praise ye The LORD." Psalms 117:1-2 (KJV)

Explanation:

The unknown author of this psalm packed a lot of power into this, the shortest of all the psalms.  This global invitation to praise The Lord is followed by a truthful explanation and justification for doing so.  He says that God is merciful and kind to His people and that His Truth and His Word are both eternal.

Application:

The Lord, our God, is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.  He is so great, so good, and so awesome that we ought to praise Him continuously. (Psalms 34:1)  The only time that we should not be praising Him is when we are thanking Him.  In more than 42 verses, the Bible encourages us to thank God, and the most frequent justification for giving God thanks is that He is good, and His love endures forever. (Psalms 136:1-3)  God shows His loving merciful kindness to us everyday, multiple times each day. (Psalm 68:19)  We ought to praise Him and thank Him multiple times each day.