Echoed throughout these two Psalms is this account of God’s love, with faithfulness at the core.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever. (Psalm 118:1)

What would be God’s love be if not at least faithful, or eternal?

Yet, we have these intense proclamations repeated, again and again, the fervor almost palpable, as if King David were personally praising all through the millennia.

It’s interesting how Psalm 117 is this concise statement that is essentially reintroduced into the next Psalm, sprinkled throughout. It feels as though David had to pen down that idea so many times to fully realize how vast the gap is between our perceptions and God’s reality.

Though our ideas of faithfulness and forever are all mapped differently, God transcends all that to grant us the vision of all the earth in accordance that faithful love will endure forever.

Joy, yes. Victory, yes. Justice? Amen.

It is faithful love, however, that David pulls into this concept of eternity.

It is a beautiful thing to picture the witness and exultations of princes and paupers in rhythm, bearing songs of absolute joy to the One who turns out the stars and lifts them back up daily. And to know our songs will hold beyond today, tomorrow, the years to come, eternity is a boon beyond all others.

The very direct Psalm 117 and the bountiful Psalm 118 illustrate a beautiful duality of how praise is praise, whether you need one paragraph or a whole thesis to draw it out.

“Shout” by the Isley Brothers is a song of absolute joy, the energy unlike any other song I’ve known. It is with that kind of energy I hope to one day to express in awe of what God is for us, past, present, future.

Whatever we need to express to get us shouting in response to God’s faithfulness, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it,” as Psalm 117:24.

God is good. God is goooood!