Psalm 103:1-5
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.
Reflect
David King, author
I heard a story about a young boy who was asked to give a prayer before dinner. Prior to bowing his head to pray, he looked at the food on the table. He then closed his eyes and prayed, “Lord, I don’t like the looks of it, but I’ll thank you and eat it anyway.” Do you ever feel sometimes like that little boy—you are not really certain what you have is the best thing, but then you find yourself thanking God regardless? Often times I wonder where to begin. I know I have a lot to be thankful for, but how do I go about knowing where to start and what to include?
When you study Psalm 103, you discover that David teaches us how to be thankful, what to be thankful for, and where to begin. We begin by speaking the attributes of God. Observe the first verse of Psalm 103 again: “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His Holy Name.”
That is where every soul must start. Before we can thank God for his blessing, we must thank him for his being. We must recognize who he is. Who is this One whom David is talking about? He is the One who provided a table in the wilderness, fed Elijah by the brook, took an ocean and paved a highway of mercy, made the sun stand still for Gideon and his army, delivered his people from their enemies numerous times; he provides my needs from his riches in glory. A pretty good place to start thanking God is to thank him for his being.
David urges us to engage all of our intellectual, emotional, and volitional powers in blessing and magnifying the Holy Name of our God. That phrase, “…His Holy Name” embraces every attribute of the person and nature of our God. When we survey his attributes, it is easy to see why the hymn writer of old said that he was “lost in wonder, love, and praise.”
We live in a time when we are encouraged to adopt unworthy views of God and of his Word. It is a day when we are being told, “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s good to believe in God, but do not go overboard.” We live in a day and age where apathy reigns, and furthermore, there is a passion for apathy. Let that sink in for just a moment because it may be difficult to understand: there is a passion for apathy. Yes, I know those two words contradict each other, but in other words, people today are apathetic and they choose to be that way. They desire to stay that way, and they do not want that apathetic spirit in them to be challenged. What a sad reality! That is the new world we live in today.
Consequently, it is important and wholesome that we come to this psalm because it is like an oasis in our lives as we see his beauty and the glory of the Trinity. In kaleidoscopic splendor, we see the portrait of a God who loves us so much that he spared not the blood of his only Son Jesus. We see a love refusing to let go of the souls of men and women. And when we recognize that, we condition ourselves afresh in the holy art of worship. That’s why John recorded Jesus as saying, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). In other words, both, in spiritual attitude and in Biblical truth, we are to bless the Lord with all of our soul, and all that is within us, we should bless His Holy Name.
We are to be a thankful people, and when giving thanks, that is where we can begin—by speaking the attributes of God. But there is something else we must do, and we will look at that tomorrow as we dive into the deep waters of this psalm.
Respond
Is giving thanks ever obligatory to you? Do you find yourself knowing you need to give thanks but not really wanting to? Or not knowing where to begin?
Soak on the thought: “a passion for apathy.” What does that mean to you?
What are some attributes of God that you can be thankful for?