Psalm 103

What more joyful theme can there be than the one for this Hymn: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!  His recompense or reward to the saint is His provision of every need.  Meditate on vs.3-5, on every word.  For example, in the first line of vs3:

·         Who is it that forgives all your iniquities?  The LORD, Yahweh.

·         What does it mean to forgive?  Not to ignore but to pardon, an act which requires a qualified atoning sacrifice, the Seed of the woman, Jesus!

·         What does He forgive?  Iniquities are the perverse, depraved deeds in which we have engaged; anything that has incurred guilt.

·         How many does He forgive?  How many times do you see all in this Song (cf. v2-3 and 21-22)?  Are there any limitations (cf. v9 and v11-14)?

·         Whose iniquities does He forgive? 

The benefits of the LORD are not bound up in His whims or moods; they are founded in His marvelous Name (v8-10).  The reference to Moses in v7 takes us back to that time when, on Mt. Sinai, Moses asked God to reveal Himself (Ex. 33:18).  God did two things (Ex. 33:19): He showed His glory or goodness (Ex. 33:20-23) and He proclaimed His Name (Ex. 34:5-7).  That Name of God (and parts of it) appear all over the Old Testament as an encouragement to God’s people.  This is our God: merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy (v8). 

Paul, in Ephesians 3:14-19, prayed that the saints would comprehend the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ.  Do you see the many dimensions of God’s love in today’s Psalm? 

·         His mercy to those who fear Him is as high as the heavens, v11.

·         The removal of the transgressions of those who fear Him is a distance as wide as the east is from the west, v12.

·         His fatherly pity reaches as deep as our frame demands, v13-14.

·         His mercy is as long as two eternities, v15-18.

Let us join the angels, the hosts of heaven and all His works in blessing Him today.  This is the invitation specifically made to those who fear Him (v11, 13, 17).  And don’t you love the way it reads?  He didn’t say remember all His benefits.  You have known these from the day you trusted in Christ alone as the promised Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  On that day you knew His forgiveness, His healing of your soul, His redemption, His lovingkindness and tender mercies, and the satisfaction of knowing Him.  You knew all this.  So now don’t forget all His benefits.  In other words, don’t leave your first love.  And engage your soul, who you are at the very deepest point of existence, in blessing (adoring, saluting, praising) the LORD!