David King, author
This week’s guide was written by guest author, David King.
Psalm 103 (NIV)
1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, 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.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,
so far has 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 mortals is like grass,
they 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.
After reading the passage, did you discover different things to be thankful for that you never thought about? What are they?
Reflect
Every time I read Psalm 103, the things that come to my mind are cold weather, leaves falling, football on TV, and turkey cooking. That is because I am probably not as spiritual as I ought to be. Those things are more related to our American culture than Scripture. But the reason I think of those things is because this is a psalm that is often used as a traditional American Thanksgiving, holiday passage. And while there is nothing wrong with using it around the Thanksgiving season, I pray that we would not limit it to that. I hope we will allow God to use it in order to bless us in other times. Just like it is okay to study Luke, chapter 2 at other times than just the Christmas season, Psalm 103 ought to be on our lips and in our heart each day of every year.
Our nation has gone through a lot of crises in the last six months. Fear, resentment, anger, rage, depression, and concern for health, safety, and livelihood are just a few of the challenges we face. The events of the last few months hardly seem real, and they seem like a bad dream we cannot wake up from. How do we “Train up a child in the way he should go…” (Proverbs 22:6a) when we are trying to figure out how the new routines of this new life are to be lived out? How do we find our way back to a normal life again? We have not yet discovered what the new “norm” is.
We start by understanding that God’s will for our lives is to be thankful. We may not know what God’s will is for our life and our family’s life in years to come, but we can know what God’s will is for our life five minutes from now. Listen to 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “…in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” That says to me that God’s will for my life is that I be a thankful person. That’s his will for all of us. If I will start right there and be thankful, God will eventually show his will for me and my family, even if I can’t see it right now. But the starting line is thankfulness.
In these kinds of days I often wonder, “What in the world do I have to be thankful for? I admit God wants me to be thankful, but thankful for what?” Do you ever have those thoughts? I must admit that at times I do. Yet, knowing that one of God’s desires for my life is to be thankful, I can go back to Psalm 103 and see the for what’s I have to be thankful.
This is one of the greatest praise psalms in all of the Bible. It is without a peer in all the world’s literature. It is the language of a man who has stirred up his soul to contemplate the goodness and faithfulness of his God. Here we see that David’s words are untouched by sorrow, though David knew sorrow. His words are undaunted by complaint, though he could have complained. His words do not reveal selfishness, though David experienced some selfish times. But from the beginning of this Psalm, until its last verse, the stanzas cascade like a torrent of thanksgiving. This Psalm is like a stream that gradually acquires strength and volume until its waves of praise swell like the waves of the sea.
Most of us are thankful for minor things that God does in our lives; we are thankful for home, health, happiness, and this great land, etc. But David shows us so much more to be thankful for. How often do we take the time to discover the deeper, underlying, magnificence and beauty of God? How often do we reach in and pull out the attributes, benefits, and handiwork of our God and discover how much they really mean to us? How often do we take the time to love our Savior who loves us so much? How often do we take the time to spare a tear for what he has done for us? How often do we go to him with praise and not merely petitions for ourselves?
It is true that we are supposed to pray for our needs, but if you place in one hand all of the petitions for our needs, and if you place in the other hand all of our thanksgivings for meeting those needs, I wonder if there might be a tremendous imbalance. Long before there was an American holiday set aside such as we know, David knew how to experience and offer thanksgiving. David’s heart overflowed with God’s goodness, and he was seeking to praise God in it all. I like the story of the preacher in the small, country church who prayed, “Lord, we may not be able to hold much, but we can overflow a lot.” I think David was like that.
And so, David teaches us how to be thankful and what to be thankful for. Tomorrow will begin to look at some things David teaches us to be thankful for in Psalm 103.
Respond
Before we can talk about our Lord’s blessings, we should look more deeply at who he is. Is that possible without a wellspring of praise rising up in you until you shout praise to the Lord?
Before we look at the reasons the Psalmist gives us for thanks, try to anticipate from this Psalm what the writer is telling us to do.
What are some things you are thankful for?