Bless the Lord, O My Soul: Rediscovering Praise in Psalm 103

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at some of my favorite psalms, or at least psalms that hold some of my favorite verses. They’ve all been special to me at different times in my life, which is why I wanted to share them.

Psalm 103 is no exception. About this psalm, Charles Spurgeon wrote, “There is too much in the Psalm for a thousand pens to write,” and I feel that heaviness as I attempt to write this morning. It’s meant far too much to me, though, not to try.

One thing that stands out about this psalm is that the author never asks God for anything. There’s not one request here. Psalm 103 is pure praise from start to finish, and God loves it when we praise and thank him, because he deserves all the praise we can give and more.

I have to admit, though, that there are times when I’m not in a “praise” mood. If you ever find yourself in that frame of mind, with your problems overwhelming you, do what I do — turn to this psalm and pray it to God. Your focus will move away from you and your situation and onto God, where it belongs.

The psalm starts like this:

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name! (Psalm 103:1)

The author is telling himself to praise the Lord, to speak well of God. I get the feeling he’s in that mood I mentioned above, knowing he should worship God but not necessarily feeling it. So he orders himself to give God the praise he deserves.

Have you ever been in church when you were too sleepy, tired, or bummed about your favorite team losing the night before, and you just weren’t excited about worship? Sometimes we go through the motions of worship, mouthing words without thinking about them. David commands himself to bless the Lord in his very soul, with all his being, to put his whole self into his praise. We do well to give ourselves that same admonition.

In verse 2, the psalmist says to “forget not all his benefits.” You don’t feel like praising? Here’s an idea: take a moment to think about all that God has done for you. This is exactly what he does here: he starts counting his blessings one by one. That’s an instant mood-changer. No matter what life is hitting you with, you can always stop and meditate on all the Lord has done for you. What are some of God’s benefits?

Verses 3-19 list the things God has done for us that should generate words of thanksgiving and praise on our lips. And he starts with the greatest gift we can ever receive – forgiveness (verse 3). Every good thing in our life begins here. Without forgiveness of our sins, none of the rest of the list matters. Without forgiveness, we have no future, no hope at all. But God offers forgiveness at no cost to us. Oh, the price was high, but Jesus paid it for us on the cross.

God not only forgives us, but he “heals all your diseases.” The writer could be referring to physical diseases here, and if so, we can acknowledge that every time we’ve been healed, it’s been due to God. He might have acted directly, or perhaps he used medicine or doctors, who receive all their knowledge from him, but God was the cause. Or the author may be speaking figuratively, connecting healing with forgiveness, so he could be talking about how God cleanses us from sin. Either way, it’s all due to God’s mercy.

In verse 4, God redeems us, including both saving us from harm through his power and redeeming us from sin through Jesus, who gave his life as our substitute to purchase our freedom from the penalty of death. God crowns us with “lovingkindness.” This is the first of several uses of the word “chesed” in Psalm 103. It’s God’s loyal love, his steadfast love, his love for us that never ends, no matter what we do. God crowns us with his steadfast love and compassion, giving both to us at a much higher dose than we deserve.

God satisfies our lives with good things (verse 5), such that when we ponder all he’s done for us, our physical, emotional, and spiritual strength is renewed. He’s a righteous, holy God who protects us from injustice (verse 6). If you’ve ever been saved from this, it was God who did it. This is the same God who revealed himself and his ways to Moses all those years ago (verse 7). We would know nothing of God if he hadn’t shown himself to us. We take this for granted, but we only know him because he’s revealed himself to us.

I underlined verses 8-12 in my Bible long ago. Verse 8 says that God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy (steadfast love).” I’m in awe of that sentence. Not only is God great, but he’s also good. He has every right to be angry and merciless to me, but that isn’t who he is. This is actually a quote from Exodus 34:6, and is part of what God revealed about himself to Moses. He’s a merciful, compassionate God, full of grace. Despite our rebellion against him, God will not always “strive with us” (accuse us), and he won’t stay angry with us by harboring a grudge. When we turn to God for forgiveness, he gives it!

Verses 10-12 bring me to my knees in thanksgiving. It overwhelms me. He has not dealt with me according to my sin (verse 10). He hasn’t given me what I deserve, because what I deserve is for God to turn his back on me. Why? Because “so great is his mercy (steadfast love)” for me. It’s because of his love that his children aren’t bound for eternity without him. In this case, I love praising God for what he hasn’t done.

How great is God’s love for us? It’s as high as the heavens are above the earth (verse 11), meaning that it can never be measured. You can never fully grasp the magnitude of God’s love for you. You can only know that he loves you more than you’ll ever be able to understand. At the same time, when God forgives us, he removes our sin as far as the east is from the west. In other words, it’s gone. Our sin was dealt with on the cross, and it no longer exists. You can choose to wallow in memories of bad things you’ve done, but you don’t have to, because God doesn’t. He’s wiped your record clean. If there’s one thing I want my children to know, it’s that I love them. But even my love for them pales in comparison to how much their Heavenly Father loves them (verse 13).

The psalmist reminds us that God knows that, as humans, we’re fragile and helpless. Our physical lives are relatively short (verses 14-16), though, as Spurgeon says, God “never overloads us, and never fails to give us strength equal to our day.” But…

Verse 17 has one of those important “buts” in the Bible: We’re feeble, weak, and finite, but God’s steadfast love for us is eternal, with no beginning and no end. It’s his love that sustains us and strengthens us as we strive to obey him and follow his commands. It’s only by his grace that we’re saved from the penalty of sin, but once we become his through faith in Christ, it’s God who empowers us as we, out of gratitude for what he’s done, strive to be more and more like him.

It’s in verse 19 that the psalmist reaches the peak of his praise for the Lord. God is sovereign over all of creation. There’s nothing that exists that isn’t under his control. Nothing in your life is beyond God’s ability to handle, and every bad thing in your life is there because God allowed it. This alone is worthy of praise and surrender to him, our King.

Having said all that’s in verses 3-19, the psalmist comes to his logical conclusion. He’s overcome with the glory of the Lord, so he shouts in verses 20-21 for everyone and everything in creation — people, angels, and even all the mighty works of God — to praise him. All creation should proclaim God’s glory.

In verse 22, the writer speaks to his soul just as he did in verse 1, urging himself to bless the Lord, but this time with an even greater appreciation for who God is and what he’s done:

Bless the LORD, O my soul.

Reflect on what God has done for you. Think about his love, forgiveness, redemption, justice, mercy, grace, compassion, and patience. We get all these things without ever deserving them. No matter what’s happening in your life right now, it’s always a good time to stop and count your blessings. Go ahead, name them one by one. Then let your soul bless the Lord.