BELOVED: EVERYDAY LIVING WITH RHANKS GIVING HEART TO THE LORD! HERES WHAT KING DAVID SANG UNTO THE LORD! PSALMS 103 BLESS THE LORD OH MYSOUL ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME BLESS HIS HOLY NAME. BELESS THE LORD ALL MY SOUL FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS!!!! The Expansive Movement of Worship Thats the way the psalm begins—David prodding himself and prompting and urging himself and stirring himself up to bless the Lord. To bless means to say good things about the Lord in a spirit of admiration and gratitude and wonder. So David prods himself: Bless the Lord, soul; remember his benefits, speak of his wonders, tell of his greatness. Then, after two verses of self-prodding, follow 17 reasons for blessing the Lord from verses 3–19—17 benefits that David has not forgotten, things about God that he cherishes and that make his soul bless the Lord. And when he comes to the end of the list in verse 19, he can no longer settle for just calling his own soul to bless the Lord. He has remembered so much of God that he cant be satisfied until all the angels and all the works of creation join him in blessing the Lord. Verse 20.: Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word! Bless the Lord all his hosts, his ministers that do his will! Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul! Gods Initiative to Reveal Himself There is something about worship that is very expansive. There are impulses in it that want to be ever widening and stretching and swelling and increasing and enlarging and snowballing. It begins with Gods initiative: he reveals who he is and what he is like (sometimes like the explosion of Mount Pinatubo blowing rocks 98,000 feet into the sky over Luzon; sometimes like a hen gathering tiny yellow chicks under her wing). Spiritual Perception and Partial Response And then, by the grace of God, we see the revelation of his glory. We see it in past benefits and wonders. We see it in present mercies. We see it in future promises. But there is always a sense of shortfall between our spiritual perception of the greatness of God and our spiritual affection in worshiping God. The intensity of the heart never seems up to what his glory deserves. Prodding Our Souls to Worship Thats why one of the most common impulses of genuine worship is to plead with your own soul: Bless the Lord, O my soul! Come on, soul, where are you? Why do you sleep before this God? Why are you dull and sluggish? Wake up! Look at what God has done! Look at what he is like! We feel like part of us sees and begins to feel and respond to the greatness of Gods holiness. But part of us doesnt. So we preach to ourselves, Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. All that is within me. Not just part of me. Genuine worship is almost always conscious that our response to God is only partial. All that is within us—every fiber of our being—is not blessing God. But the very recognition of this shortcoming is worship—our sense of discontent that our soul isnt fully kicking-in signals how great the worth of God really is. Otherwise we wouldnt be pressing for a deeper response. And crying out against the shortcoming of our soul, like David does, is even more worship. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me—not just some of me, not just half my heart, not just half my energy, not just half my mind, but all that is within me—bless his holy name. Calling All Creation to Join Us in Worship But the expansive impulse of worship doesnt stop there. We want worship to expand and take over all of our being—all that is within me, bless his holy name! But we want more than that. When you have really seen the greatness of God, and you know that there is only one God over all the world and all the universe, the impulse of worship expands to say (v. 20), Bless the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word . . . (v. 22) bless the Lord all his works, in all places of his dominion. In other words, its not enough for everything in us to bless the Lord. We want everything in the universe to bless the Lord. The joy of worship is expansive. Our joy in blessing God increases as more and more of Gods creation joins us in blessing the Lord. This is what the universe was made for—God created us for his glory (ISAIAH 43:7); he chose us for his names sake (JEREMIAH 13:11); he saved us for his everlasting praise (EPHESIANS 1:6, 12, 14). So worship moves, with its expansive impulse, from Gods initiative to reveal himself, to our spiritual perception of his glory and partial response, to our prodding and urging our own souls to bless him, to our calling all creation to join us in praise. sanctuary. One Thing Has Remained the Same But one thing has remained the same, and that is what this psalm is about. God remains the same. Verses 15–18: 15) As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16) for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 17) But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him, and his righteousness to childrens children, 18) to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 03:28:17 +0000
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