Praise the Lord!

¹ Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
² Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and 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’s. Psalm 103:  1 – 5

There are times when, like David, we need to encourage ourselves about the goodness of God. If we wake up one morning and just feel a bit out of sorts, or life is not going well, this is a great psalm to read to remind ourselves of all God’s wonderful ways.

The psalm exhorts us to praise the Lord. Praise is a gateway into the presence of God. Psalm 100 tells us ‘to enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise’. This is not because God’s gates only open with praise; indeed there are times to rush to God in our distress for his comfort and grace. However, praise reminds us of who we are worshipping and why. As we think, speak, sing or shout his praises, it is our hearts and spirits that are enlarged and our vision of both God and the wonderful possibilities for our lives that is changed.

David then goes on to encourage us to remember all God’s benefits – and who do they benefit-  us!  He forgives our sins, heals our diseases and redeems our life from the pit. If that is not enough he crowns us with love and compassion.  A crown is what a king or queen wears to show their royalty or in past times the winner was crowned to show their success. God elevates us with love and compassion. The psalm says many times that God is compassionate to us. He feels deeply for us in our weaknesses and distress.

God also satisfies our desires with good things – God only gives good gifts because God is good. God does not give us bad gifts anymore than we would give bad gifts to our children, no matter how wayward they were. God does not send sickness, pain, poverty, unhappiness and so on. Indeed his desire is to lift us out of these things and give us good gifts. He wants to satisfy our desires, not keep disappointing us. ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights’ (James 1: 17).  

Finally, as if all that was not enough, God renews our strength like the eagle. In the Bible the eagle is a symbol of vigour and God does not want us weak – he wants us strong in him. God has such wonderful plans and purposes for our lives. He wants to fulfil our dreams; he wants to give us good things; he wants our lives dripping with his love and grace. This psalm is a source of huge encouragement to us and as we read it, let our spirits soar again with praise and thankfulness to our amazing, wonderful God.