Psalm 103

Scripture:

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 forget not all 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
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 The Lord works righteousness
   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 chide,
    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 high as the heavens are 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 does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;
    he remembers that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes 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 word,
    obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Devotion:

We began this week with David talking to his own soul, which is a stranger thing to do than it sounds. It means he knew his heart well enough to know it would drift toward forgetting if he did not actively steer it back. So he made a list, not because the benefits of God are a management technique, but because gratitude this wide and this deep does not sustain itself. It has to be rehearsed. 

And then the week showed us where that list came from. Moses heard the name of God proclaimed in the wake of Israel's worst failure, a name built on mercy and hesed and the slow, relentless patience of a God who does not repay us according to what we have earned. Paul took that same character and named the event that made it possible, a God rich in mercy who moved toward people who were dead and raised them up and seated them in the heavenly places, so that the coming ages would have something to marvel at forever. 

That is what you bring to worship on Sunday: a week's worth of sitting inside a love that is from everlasting to everlasting, that was proclaimed on a mountain, that was sung by a shepherd, and that was finally and fully demonstrated on a cross. Your response to all of that belongs to you alone, and it is the most honest thing you will bring through the doors. 

HEAR about it:

Respond:

Write your response to God. What has He spoken to you this week through Psalm 103? What will you do about it? A prayer, a commitment, a confession? Make it honest and make it yours.

Prayer and Reflection:

Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.

Lord, You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and I have spent a week sitting inside what that actually means. Moses heard it on the mountain. David sang it in the psalm. Paul named the cross as the proof of it. I come to You today with whatever this week has turned up in me, the gratitude I have not been saying out loud, the forgetting I have been too comfortable with, the application I am still deciding whether to follow through on. Take all of it, and let what is real in me meet what is real in You. Bless the Lord, O my soul. In the name of Jesus, Amen. 

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