The Lord Described in Verbs – Psalm 103

A text – Psalm 103:1-8

103:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits–
103:3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
103:4 who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
103:5 who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
103:6 The LORD works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
103:7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
103:8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

A reflection:

When I was in junior high school, our English teacher asked us to write character sketches. They were brief assignments to write (and also brief to grade, God bless her for how much work she did every week for us), but they made you really size up a character or a person you actually knew into maybe 6-8 sentences so that someone else would be able to recognize the person either by sight or by his or her deeds.

Psalm 103, verses 1-8, is a character sketch of the Lord God, using mostly verbs. It describes God by God’s deeds in relationship to each and every person. Only verse 8 sums up God’s character in adjectives, and they are the adjectives that apply to a person who lives out all the verbs from the verses that come before.

Which verb are you most grateful for? Forgives? Redeems? Crowns? Satisfies? Renews? Works vindication and justice? Makes God’s ways know to humans?

All of these verbs surely can be appreciated by us, and in response we might bless the Lord. How often do we bless the Lord? I know I could surely do it more often. This week I will try blessing the Lord as I start and end my walking workout each morning. The Lord deserves my tribute and I am determined to give it.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for doing so many things for your children. Help us to recognize this doing of yours and bless you for it each day.  Amen.