God Is Good – Psalm 103:1-8

A text – Psalm 103:1-8

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
² Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—
³ who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good as long as you liveso that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

A reflection:

This psalm, credited to David, is very familiar to me: someone talking to his or her soul about the nature and deeds of God. I suppose some Sunday School teacher had us memorize it, back when our young brains could easily memorize things. And it has stuck.

This God is surely the subject of action verbs. God forgives all iniquity, heals all diseases, redeems life from the Pit or the grave, crowns with love and mercy, satisfies with good. One couldn’t really ask for more. But not only that, vindicates and works justice for all the oppressed, and is, most familiarly, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

I suppose if you can’t think of any iniquity you have, and you’re never sick, and you are sure you won’t die, and you never need anyone to be loving or kind to you, and you are completely satisfied, well then, this God can’t give you anything you haven’t got already. And if you believe everyone in the world is fairly treated and overpaid and never need someone on their side to get justice, well, then we don’t need this God. But just writing out those two sentences has made me sit and shake my head while typing. God is abundantly good. Let’s be thankful and definitely appreciate God all the time.

A prayer:

 Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being gracious to us. Help us to remember your goodness and mercy every day and give thanks for our relationship with you. Amen.