Psalm 117:1 NKJV
“Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”
It was such a great blessing when the door of the gospel opened to the Gentile (non-Jewish) world. Since the entirely-Jewish disciples never saw that coming (though the prophets had spoken of it), they wrestled with the truth that God had visited the Gentiles (Act 11:1-18). It all started with Cornelius, a Gentile who was “…a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always” (Act 10:2 NKJV). Though, as a Gentile, he was still “…without Christ…having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12 NKJV), Cornelius “gave generously” and “prayed to God always”. The LORD took note of that!
The Holy Spirit must have been preparing Cornelius for God’s mighty visitation. Earlier in history, the Psalmist had said, “Praise the LORD, all you Gentiles! Laud Him, all you peoples!”, as in our text today. Certainly, this was a prophetic utterance, which Paul made reference to in Romans 15:11, and it touched the day of Christ, when we, the non-Jews, would be brought into God’s covenants of promise. The Apostle added an insightful truth, saying, “I serve like a priest in preaching the Good News from God, in order that the Gentiles may be an offering acceptable to God, dedicated to him by the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:16 GNT). Hallelujah!
According to Paul, in Christ Jesus, we are to be “an offering acceptable to God, dedicated to him by the Holy Spirit”. Notice, the Apostle did not say, ‘…that the Gentiles may GIVE an offering.’ Rather, that our lives, first of all, are to “BE an offering acceptable to God”, before the offerings we give. Hallelujah! By the gift of prophecy, the Psalmist foresaw us praising the LORD, and, by the gift of apostleship, Paul saw us as an acceptable and dedicated (set apart) offering to God! In other words, we are an offering set apart to praise God. That picture beautifully identifies us with Christ: for He is the only other Offering who was set apart and praised God (Mat 11:25 AMP). Hallelujah!
Pst. Emmanuel