Praise the LORD, O my soul

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Praise the LORD, O my soul

Sermon Series “Praise the LORD, O my soul” (Psalm 103 & 104) 1

Psalm 103:1-10

Andy Nagahara

Starting today, I will be speaking over 4 or 5 Sundays on Psalms 103 and 104. Both of these psalms begin and end with the exhortation: “ Praise the LORD, O my soul.” Today, we will read through chapter 103 verse 10. Let’s start by reading this entire section.

0 Of David.
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.
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.

1. Let us command ourselves to praise (1-2)

I will read the first two verses again.

0 Of David.
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–

First, let’s focus on the title of this sermon and the theme of these two chapters: “Praise the LORD, O my soul.”

Have you caught yourself exhorting or admonishing yourself recently? I think most of us can recall a time of difficulty or struggle when we prompted or encouraged ourselves not to give up and to keep on trying.

The psalmist is commanding his soul to “praise the LORD.” This command is necessary because without it, his soul would neglect to praise the LORD. The psalmist goes on to command: “all my inmost being, praise his holy name.”

The psalmist was in a situation in which he needed to encourage his whole being to abide in the Lord. This is not a top-down command in which he is looking down on himself.

Regardless of our circumstances, we can easily become neglectful in our praise of the LORD. When things are going well, we forget to praise the LORD, and when things are difficult, we find it difficult to praise the LORD. If we continually fail to praise the LORD, we will miss out on the power that God is offering us, and this creates a vicious cycle in which we become weaker and weaker. This is because when we don’t praise the LORD, we forget the many blessings of the past and we forget that it is God’s plan that sustains our past, present, and future. Like this psalmist, we need to urge our souls to praise the LORD, especially in the face of difficulty.

2. To realize who the Lord is and what he is like (3-5)

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.

This part of the psalm describes who God is and how God’s character impacts our life.

The LORD
forgives all your sins
heals all your diseases
redeems your life from the pit
crowns you with love and compassion
satisfies your desires with good things.

Through the coming of Jesus Christ into our world, God has demonstrated that these are not casual promises that he doesn’t intend to keep. He has kept his promises to this day.

I have been forgiven and I am forgiven! My sickness may not be cured here on this earth, but when I go to heaven, I will be released. Even if my body fails, my life is with God for eternity. Love and compassion give us life and become a crown that encourages others. Your desires are not selfish desires and they are satisfied by the good things of God, becoming a beacon of hope for other people.
　This is your reality. Let us command our souls to “Praise the LORD” so that we do not forget. In doing so, our souls are refreshed and strengthened.

3. The Lord’s justice and mercy (6-10)

Why does God change us into people who are strengthened and refreshed?　This is because of God’s mercy and because of his hope for us. He wants us to be people who act with righteousness and justice. Let’s read verses 6 to 10.

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.

People often misunderstand God’s anger and judgement. This is often due to misinterpretation of scripture and not understanding God’s true will. You could say that Jesus came into the world to resolve this misunderstanding. There are many parts of scripture that can be misconstrued to be the opposite of what it is actually trying to convey. So how can we resolve the contradictions we find in the Old Testament? Jesus is the answer. We need to interpret scripture through the words, actions, and perspective of Jesus.

The passage we are looking at today is somewhat straightforward and we don’t necessarily need to rely on Jesus to interpret it. Jesus is always on the side of those who are weak. And that is what he desires from us。
Sadly, we are self-centered people who are often so focused on our own good that we worry about how helping the weak might negatively impact us. This is the opposite of what the LORD models for us by being “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, not always accusing or harboring anger forever.”

Even so, the Lord does not “treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities”. Today, I want you to meditate on these two ideas: “Praise the LORD, O my soul” and “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” When other people offend us, we often sulk about what they did and treat them coolly, but God is not like that at all. When we praise God, our hearts cannot remain hardened toward other people. That is yet another reason why we should continue to command our souls to“Praise the LORD.”

(Prayer) God, our souls praise you. No matter what our circumstances, we believe that all things are under your control. As the psalmist confesses, we believe that you forgive all our sins and heal all our diseases. You redeem our life from the pit and crown us with love and compassion. You satisfy our desires with good things. Please speak to each of us so that our souls can continue to trust in you and not be confused by our circumstances In Jesus’ name we pray.

Summary

Today’s psalm reminds us of the need to encourage our own souls when we lose sight of God’s blessings. Let us grow closer to the Lord by encouraging our hearts to remember that the promises given to us from verse 3 and on, are not just for other people, but also for us.

For Discussion

Why do we need to command our souls?
If the Lord does not repay us according to our iniquities, how does he repay us?