Garry continued looking at psalms of thanksgiving tonight, focussing on Psalm 103. Like so many psalms, this begins and ends with an exhortation to praise the Lord. This time, however, it begins with self-encouragement: ‘praise the Lord, O my soul’. Sometimes we have to exhort ourselves to praise God (see 1 Sam 30, where David, when faced with loss and an army of followers who now wanted to stone him, found strength in God as he encouraged himself in the Lord.)
Psalms give us reasons to praise God, reasons which focus on the nature and actions of God. This gives us stability, for even when our personal circumstances may be tragic and difficult, God’s unchanging nature gives us reasons for praise. All of us have a tendency to be short-sighted when it comes to troubles: the troubles loom larger in our vision than God! We have to make a conscious effort and choice to focus on God who is forgiving (Ps 103:3, 11-12), compassionate (Ps 103:4, 13-14), healing (Ps 103:3), slow to anger and rich in love (Ps 103:8, 17). The past illuminates an insecure, uncertain future for us, because God does not change.
God’s love and compassion literally encircle our lives and we are ‘stuffed full’ by a God of abundance who satisfies our desires with good things. Just as an eagle’s feathers are continually renewed to enable the eagle to fly well, so too God renews and refreshes us. His laws are good and we can have hope in justice and righteousness becuase of His just and righteous nature. As we dwell on these many things, David encourages us all to praise God – angels, heavenly hosts, all God’s works, as well as his own soul.