📜WEB · Romans 15:11
What does Romans 15:11 mean?
"Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”"
— Romans 15:11 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,
and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore will I give praise to you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.”
Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”
Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I myself am also persuaded about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish others.
Explanation
Romans 15:11 is a short but pointed quotation from the Old Testament (Psalm 117:1), which Paul inserts into his letter to the Roman church as part of a chain of scriptural citations demonstrating that God's plan always included the Gentiles praising him alongside the Jews. In plain language, the verse is simply a call to worship: it summons "all you Gentiles" and "all the peoples" of the earth—not just Israel—to praise the Lord. It's a universal invitation to worship extended beyond any single ethnic or national group.
To understand its context, we need to look at what Paul is doing in Romans 15. The church in Rome was made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers, and tension existed between these groups over matters of practice, tradition, and identity. Paul spends chapters 14–15 urging mutual acceptance, using Christ himself as the model: Christ did not please himself but became a servant to both Jews (to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs) and Gentiles (so that they might glorify God for his mercy, v. 8-9). To back up this claim that Gentile inclusion was always part of God's design, Paul strings together four Old Testament quotations (from 2 Samuel, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah), and Romans 15:11 is the third in that chain, drawn directly from Psalm 117—itself the shortest psalm in the Bible, consisting entirely of a call for all nations to praise God.
Theologically, this verse reinforces a major theme of Paul's gosp
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