Psalm 103
Given the
comments on my Facebook “synopsis” for yesterday’s blog post, I think that it
is really cool how this psalm begins.
Yesterday a number of my friends and I engaged in some conversation
about how we should respond to God versus how we typically respond to God on a
normal day. As if God desired to weigh
in on the conversation, we open with the words, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”
Here’s the
neat thing about these words. The words
are a reminder that David is giving to Himself.
David is telling himself that He needs to remember to bless the
Lord. David needs to not forget what God
has done for him. David needs not forget
about forgiveness and healing. David
needs to remember how God redeems him. David needs to remember how God crowns
him with love and mercy that he doesn’t really deserve.
It seems
as though it is David’s personal struggle that prompts the writing of this
psalm. David seems to have difficulty
remembering that he should praise God on a daily basis. He knows that he needs to remind himself how
to act towards God.
The
opening of this psalm really does bring me a fair amount of peace. I might forget to praise God as much as I
should. But at least I am not alone in
this. Furthermore, if God can love David
and David had this same flaw, then I can have hope that this flaw of mine will
not necessarily keep me from God’s love either!
The same is true for any of us.
Yes, we do need to remember to praise God more. But we don’t need to fear this flaw and we
don’t need to worry that this flaw will keep us from salvation.
From this
point on in the psalm, David turns to talk about the character of God. He has good reason to do so. We can always benefit from reflecting on the
nature of God. If we are His followers,
we are always in the process of becoming more like Him.
So what is
the nature of God? God cares about the
oppressed. God cares about the
afflicted. He cares about the people who
need protection. What about
humanity? Is it our nature to care about
those who need it? Or is it more in our
nature to care about those who care about us – especially those who can do
something for us?
We also
learn that God is merciful. He is slow
to anger. He is abounding in steadfast
love. Again, this is a quality that I
know I as a human being can learn. So
often I am quick to anger – especially as the stress level goes up. Or when my quality of sleep goes down. Or when I have too little “down time.” You see what I am saying? As the quality of my life decreases, I am
quick to anger. We all are, I
think. The triggers might vary from
person to person, but most of us have triggers that make us quick to be
angry.
Not so
with God. He is slow to anger. He is merciful. As David says, God does not deal with us
according to our sins and He does not repay us for our iniquities. For this, God is absolutely awesome and I
know I could benefit from spending more time contemplating how to accomplish
this same feat in being slow to anger in my life.
Having
pondered the nature of God, David again returns to ponder the nature of humanity. David starts by remembering that we are
dust. We are like a flower in a field
that is beautifully in bloom for a short amount of time before fading away. How many beautiful flowers have I seen in a
lifespan, only to go on with life eagerly anticipating the next flower to
bloom? So it is with God. He treasures each of us, anticipating our
bloom. Just as He is anticipating our
bloom, He is also present to experience the time after we fade as well.
How does
God respond when we fade from life? He
drives away our iniquity. He separates
us from our sin. He establishes those
who obey His commandments into His kingdom.
Indeed,
like David we should bless the Lord.
Like David we should remind ourselves of the importance of taking time
to bless God. He does incredible things
for us; we should praise Him! We should
also not forget that when we bless the Lord, we do it in the great company of
the saints and even the heavenly host!
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