Bless The Lord O My Soul!

I remember studying Psalm 103 many years ago.  I put many of the verses from this chapter to memory and since then I have returned to this portion of scripture often for encouragement.

David had a secret.
He had THE secret.
And we unpack this secret here within the first 2 verses of the chapter.

Verses 1-2 say this, “Bless the Lord O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.  Bless the Lord O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”

David is speaking to His soul here and He is commanding his emotions and his mind and his will to come into alignment with who God is.  While he had plenty of reasons to feel defeat and depression over circumstances out of his human control, we see him denying the depravity a place of influence in his life.  We see his great resolve here: BLESS the Lord, soul!  BLESS Him with ALL you have, soul, including mind, body, and spirit!  BLESS the Lord, soul, and don’t you dare forget all He has done for you!

You and I have the beautiful honor and privilege of managing our emotions this way too, and insisting upon a better way of living - for ourselves and for those around us!  By simply commanding our soul to behave differently, to think differently, and to respond with action differently.

We also see David making a commitment to remember all that God has done for Him.  We've got to do the same.  One of the surest ways to slip into sin and bitterness is to forget all that He has done for us... all that He has brought us through... the price He paid!

Verse 3-5 begins to list out the absolutes about God.  I heard one pastor once call these verses the "All Benefits", as they are absolute truths about the Lord and include the word ALL when referencing them.

These benefits… the ones we get from blessing His name… include:

    He forgives
    He heals
    He redeems
    He crowns
    He satisfies

These are the things Jesus paid for on the cross.  These are the things promised to those who live for Him - fully and completely.  And by us living in response to these truths… these absolutes… Jesus gets what He paid for!

You and I cannot afford to forget who He is.  We must remind ourselves as often as we can!

Maybe it’s time to begin directing our soul into a lifestyle of worship that leads us directly to the Father’s heart.