“Praise the Lord, my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, my soul,

and forget not all his benefits—

who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit

and crowns you with love and compassion,

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in love.

he does not treat us as our sins deserve

or repay us according to our iniquities.

as far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” - (Psalm 103: 1-4, 8, 10, 12-13)

Starting off, when I was reading this psalm, it was very difficult not to sing it out in my head as we have sung it before in our chapel. But more important than singing Psalm 103 is what it means. It is about praising God, remembering all that He has done for us, and knowing who God is to us. For this homily, I’m going to break this psalm down into a few parts.

The first of these parts is 103:1: “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my innermost being, praise his holy name.” Like with just about all scripture, there is so much that could be said about this, and we could always dive deeper, but I want to focus on the heart and soul- our inmost being. Jesus preached that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but even more importantly we are to love God with all our heart, mind, and body. God even tells us that we will have what we need if we do this. In Proverbs 12:11 we are told that, “Those who work their land will have abundant food.” We all work, and we all need food, so how good is it that work equals food? And how much more are we blessed that praise to God equals eternal life? It’s not that we deserve it or could even remotely work for it, it is that our actions, our words, and even our thoughts are in full view of God, so what else could we do that would be better than to praise God with all that He has given us, especially when He tells us that He will provide for us when we listen to Him?

Alright, the next part I want to move onto is verse 2: “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” And let’s be honest, that’s a lot of benefits, but the one I want to focus on is very well described in verse 8 of Psalm 103: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and rich in mercy.” This says a lot, but the first thing that comes to my mind is that our God is the best, because when I think about other religions I think about mighty beings with short tempers or indifferent attitudes, but that isn’t who our God is. Our God is a personal, loving, merciful, and even at times angry God. It reminds me so much that He is our Father, who loves us, pities us when we screw up, and yes, gets mad at times. But when He does get mad, of course we all know that we deserve it, and that even in His anger He remembers His promises and is merciful.

The next part is good to talk about, because it addresses how none of us are treated fairly. What I mean by that is very well said in Psalm 103:10: “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” The truth is that we all fall short of God’s standard that was perfectly shown to us in Jesus. And along these lines, there is so much good news for us, whether it is in Psalm 103: 12-13 where it says that our sins are as far from us as the east is from the west or in Matthew when Jesus tells us to not resist an evil person, but rather offer them more than what they take, walk an extra mile with them, offer them the other cheek, because when we do this- like we are told in Proverbs 12- we will be given all that we need. And when we offer more of ourselves, we are also following Jesus’ example and His teaching to love with our inmost being.

So, the message I’m trying to get out of these verses is this: love everyone as yourself, love God with all that you are and with everything that you have, give to those who take, and pray for your enemies, especially knowing that we serve a personal God who provides for us, loves us, and joyfully forgives us time and time again, no matter what. Amen.

Words on Psalm 103: Earl Raue

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