Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Psalm 103: Praise the Lord, O my soul…

How Well do you Know God?

1       Praise the Lord, my soul…
       Wih all my inmost being — praise His holy name.
2       Praise the Lord, my soul, do not forget not all His benefits…
3       Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases;
4      Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.
5      Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

6     The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
7     He made known his ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel:
8     The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9     He will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever.
10    He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11    For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear    him—
12    As far as the east is from the west, He removed our transgressions from us.
13    As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him—
14     For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.
15    The life of a man is like grass, he may flourish like a flower of the field…
16    The wind blows over it and it is gone - and its place remembers it no more.
17    But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him,

       and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18    With those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

19    The Lord has established his throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all.
20   Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.
21    Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you his servants who do His will.
22  Praise the Lord, all His works everywhere in his dominion.  Praise the Lord, my soul.
 
How Well do you Know God?
God is someone worth getting to know… getting to know and understand God is the only way to become a Christian in truth.  Would anyone follow a complete stranger without knowing a little about him first?   
He does many good things for us:
Verses 1-5  He pardons our sin. We are restored into the favor of God, who gives blesses us with many good things.  God still forgives, even as we are still sinning and repenting.  But it is Christ alone who forgives us all our sins—it is He alone who heals all of our sickness.  Only through the Holy Spirit, by the graces and comforts of His Spirit, we recover and are delivered from the evils around us—we become filled with new life and joy, looking toward eternal life and unspeakable joy.   
 
Verses 6-14  God truly is good to all—
He has a special manner of goodness to Israel. He has revealed himself and His grace to them. Through them and His word to them we may understand His precepts, the ways He requires us to walk in—His promises and purposes. He always has a heart full of compassion for HIs people.
 
How unlike God, are those who take every occasion to lie, cheat, and steal…to chide and have a heart of bitterness.  They never know when to cease!  What would become of us, if God should deal with us the way we deserve?  The Scripture says a great deal about the mercy of God, and wether we realize it or not, we all have experienced a lot of it.  The Lord considers our frailty and the folly of our souls… how little we can do, how little we can bear.  His love and compassion will appear when we are willing to look to Him and receive it.  
Verses 15-18 How short is man's life, and so uncertain!  A flower in the garden that is under the gardeners great care will last that much longer, be stronger—provided with shelter and food by the gardener.  The wild flower of the field, is here compared—it is not only withering in itself, but exposed to the cold blasts and liable to be trodden upon by the beasts of the field.  Such is man without God. God considers this, and pities him, but give the man his own choice to make—does he know God’s mercy is better, because he can never outlive it? 
The Lord’s righteousness, the truth of his promise, shall be always available from this generation to the next—when taken hold from by children and on to their own children.  God’s mercy shall be preserved on to them all.
Verses 19-22 He who made all—rules all—both by a word of power. He does all through that which He created and does all to His own glory. Let all his works praise him. So it is when we are born of God. Such it will be forever in heaven—nor can we be perfectly happy now—until we can take pleasure in perfect obedience to the will of our God. Let each redeemed heart sing, Blessed be the Lord, O my soul.


No comments:

Post a Comment