Psalm 103 - Praise the Lord, O My Soul

Praise the Lord, O my soul

All my inmost being praise his name !

Praise the Lord, O my soul

And forget not all his goodness.

He forgives all of my sin

and heals all my diseases

He redeems my life from the pit

Crowns with me grace

Crowns with me love

And I'm satisfied.

The words from Psalm 103 make up the lyrics to one of my all time favorite praise songs. I tried to find a version that I could play here because it is absolutely beautiful and the words are SO meaningful.

Just read them again and think about what they express!

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL
ALL MY INMOST BEING, PRAISE HIS NAME

Ever done that? Have you ever taken time to praise God with EVERYTHING that is in you?

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL
AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS GOODNESS

Why don't we take some time this week to think about ALL the ways that God has been good to us. Stop moping and whining about why life "isn't fair" and think about how BLESSED we truly are?

For example:

HE FORGIVES ALL OF MY SIN
HE HEALS ALL MY DISEASES
HE REDEEMS MY LIFE FROM THE PIT
HE CROWNS ME WITH GRACE
HE CROWNS ME WITH LOVE

What more could I possibly want? Nothing.

From everlasting to everlasting
The Lord's love is with those who fear Him
and His righteousness with their children's children!

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+103&version=NIV

Psalm 102- Prayer of the Afflicted

There is undoubtedly much pain and suffering in the world today. Earlier in the week, I was thinking back to some friends of the past and a few in the present that have endured physical and/or emotional pain in such a way that God was completely glorified through their struggles. I wondered in my mind if faced with the same dilemma, would I be able to demonstrate the same strength of faith. Oh, how I pray I would and how I pray that I am NOT put to the test.

This psalm is a prayer of a man afflicted with physical pain. It is a great reminder to me that our God never slumbers or sleeps (Psalm 121:3-4). He is not ignorant of our pain and suffering but desires to free us from our chains of afflictions.


1.Hear my prayer, O LORD;
let my cry for help come to you.

2.Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.

12.But you, O LORD, sit enthroned forever;
your renown endures through all generations.

18.Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the LORD

19.The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth,
20.to hear the groans of the prisoners
and release those condemned to death."

Psalm 101 - A Far Cry From Blameless

¹ I will sing of your love and justice;
to you, O LORD, I will sing praise.

To me, this is the easy part of this psalm to agree with. I love singing and especially singing praise songs but if you read the rest of the psalm it begins to raise questions.

CAN I do what this says?
DO these words really describe me?

READ ON:

I will be careful to lead a blameless life—
when will you come to me?
I will walk in my house
with blameless heart.

³ I will set before my eyes
no vile thing.
The deeds of faithless men I hate;
they will not cling to me.

⁴ Men of perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will have nothing to do with evil.

⁵ Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret,
him will I put to silence;
whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart,
him will I not endure.

⁶ My eyes will be on the faithful in the land,
that they may dwell with me;
he whose walk is blameless
will minister to me.

⁷ No one who practices deceit
will dwell in my house;
no one who speaks falsely
will stand in my presence.

⁸ Every morning I will put to silence
all the wicked in the land;
I will cut off every evildoer
from the city of the LORD.

It makes me think of Paul's words in Romans 7:

....18)I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do;

no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I that do it,but it is sin living in me that does it.

NO! - I am far from perfect and there is NOTHING I can "DO" that will make me worthy of God's grace. I may not always be blameless and humble but, thankfully, when God looks at me, he sees His blameless, sinless Son, Jesus Christ.

Because of this grace, I will continue to sing His praise!!

Psalm 100 - We Are His

¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

² Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his ;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.


Thank you God for your enduring love and faithfulness!

What more needs to be said?...