Psalm 103
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget his benefits-
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the Pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6 The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
14 For he knows how we are made; he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for mortals, their days are like grass;
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,
18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.
22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Psalm 103 is one of the most familiar of all the psalms. You probably remember singing it in worship services, hearing it read around Ash Wednesday and during Lent, and you may even have memorized pieces of it without even realizing they were committed to memory.
The first and last lines of this psalm are the same, “Bless the Lord, O my soul”. Verses 1-5 have the form of a hymn. Verses 1 and 2 begin with an invitation to praise. To “bless” as used in this context means to show God honor. Some scholars believe that it means to bend the knee before God. Blessing the Lord is to use your whole self to be grateful to God.
In my own life, I have found it to be life giving to remember the blessings that God has given me and to turn that gratefulness around into blessing God. At times, the exhaustion of worry and frustrations in my life clouds my view of God. Instead of remembering what God has done for me, I remember what God seems to have left undone in my life.
Verse 2 reads “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits”. The following verses in the psalm list some of those benefits- forgiveness, healing, redemption and even a crown of steadfast love and mercy- to name a few. Spend some time slowly reading over this entire Psalm again- making a list of all the things God has done for you, according to this Psalm.
I find it comforting that the first thing that is listed in verse 3 is forgiveness. Take some time to confess your sins to God.
Look over that list again- and think through the specifics as they apply to your own life. What pits have you been redeemed from? What “good” can you see in your own life? How have you seen God’s “slow anger” in your own life?
Now, read verses 11-12. You are forgiven. As far as your mind can comprehend, that is how far God takes your sin away from you. Take a moment to thank God for his forgiveness.
One of this psalms most frequently used words is “all”. “All” is used to remind us that God rules over all, loves all, takes care of all things, and is worthy to be praised by all things. There is nothing that God does not deserve and there is nothing that he does not hold in his hands.
Take one of the things you are worried about and lay it before God. Read the reminders that are found in this psalm and apply them to this situation in your life- remembering that God is with you.
I remember sitting in a class in seminary and the professor asked us to describe God. One of my classmates described God as vengeful, angry, and destructive. The person who was sitting next to me turned to me and said, “whoa, that guy is a little heavy on the OT.” Psalm 103 is a good place to start when talking with someone who perceives God in the OT to be simply a God of wrath and judgment. In his Elements of Old Testament Theology, Claus Westermann writes,
The poet has no intention of contesting God’s activity in wrath. But he makes a distinction. God’s activity in wrath is limited; God’s goodness knows no boundaries (v. 17). The same is true of sin and its forgiveness. If God compensated man commensurate with the way he sins, then one might despair. But here too, God is inconsistent; his forgiving goodness is immeasurable. One might even say that the entire Psalm deals with the incomprehensible excess of God’s goodness.
What more can we say than, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” May you bask in the grace and love that God offers you, no matter your situation. May this psalm serve to remind you that God’s intention is to give you good gifts and true life. Amen.