Psalm 103 (Bible Study)
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Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not 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
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.6 The Lord works righteousness
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.
9 He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;[a]
he remembers that we are dust.15 As for man, his days are like grass;
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.
17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! -
Daniel 4
Introduction begin by reading Genesis 1:1-31
Biblical meditation is not a relaxation technique for emptying the mind but rather one that fills it with truth, using thought and memory to set the heart on fire. Here David, through inward dialogue, speaks to his own heart to bless the Lord.
Psalm 103 is how to work the Gospel into one’s own heart until it transforms.
Tim Keller
1. Who is being addressed in this psalm, and what does that teach us about meditation?
David commands his own soul and "all my inmost being" to praise the Lord. This psalm is addressed to “my soul.” Meditation is an inward dialogue with oneself in other words - to give yourself a talking to! David Martyn Lloyd-Jones said that meditation is talking to your heart rather than listening to your heart. (Psalm 42: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God.”) 1 David is “rousing himself to shake off apathy or gloom, using his mind and memory to kindle his emotion.” 2 Derek Kidner This means taking your heart in hand, reasoning with it and exhorting it until it “blesses and rejoices” in God. We are not at the mercy of our emotions. Meditation speaks truth to our hearts and emotions, sometimes pummelling them into submission. Have you experience of speaking truth to your own soul when you don't feel like praising God?
2. Define “bless.” How can you bless God? Why does it take your whole being to bless God?
NIV translation translates “Bless the LORD, O my soul” as “Praise the LORD, O my soul.” To “bless” something in the Bible is the opposite of “curse.” When we bless people, we affirm or delight in them and seek their delight and fulfilment. We bless when we seek to give them the desires of their hearts.
To bless God is more personal than praising him. It is intimate personal praise. 3
It means (1) to identify those things that he most desires and those things that would most glorify him, and then (2) to long for his joy and glory, and (3) to give him what accords with this joy and glory.
“Blessing God” seems to reverse our normal understanding of the word. God blesses us by bringing us joy and deep fulfilment. Obviously, God’s peace and fulfilment are not things we can bestow on him as he can on us. Yet the call to “bless God” points to a wonderful mystery. He is committed to us, so that our submission and enjoyment of his glory does bless him and bring him joy.
3. "Forget not all his benefits". What benefits do we forget? Why do we tend to remember our complaints but forget God's goodness?
What does God do [Ps 103:3-5]? How does each action benefit us?
First, he “forgives all your sins” (v3). This has to do with the guilt of sin. The legal liability is removed, no matter how extensive our sinfulness has been (NB: “all your sins”).
Second, he “heals all your diseases” (v3). NB: The Hebrew parallelism means Ps 103:3 heals and forgives isn't two different subjects. The same truth is stated in two ways, to aid understanding. Most commentators conclude that it means that God will deal with the guilt of our sin (v. 3a) and the suffering and damage our sin causes (v. 3b). Ps 103:3a is about “justification” (makes us right with God, pardoned and free from condemnation). Verse 3b is about “sanctification” (The Holy Spirit heals fears, anger, weakness that result from sin.
Nonetheless, there is a difference between God’s handling of iniquity [sin] and of diseases, which was made plain in David’s own case when he repented of his sin with Bathsheba. Forgiveness was immediate; but healing [of their baby] was denied, despite prayer and fasting… Relationship with God is paramount, this makes good sense, for sin [and guilt] destroys it, while suffering may deepen it (Heb. 5:8; 12:11).” Derek Kidner
Third, he “redeems your life from the pit” (v4). “The pit” is the grave. This is a confidence that he will be ushered into eternal life and the resurrection from the dead. 6
Fourth, he “crowns you with love and compassion” (v. 4b). The word “crown” implies that God’s love makes us feel honoured and built up. Hebrew word is chesedh, which is usually translated “steadfast love” or “unfailing love.” Chesedh means binding, guaranteed, covenant love ! It is not dependent on our performance. (See also Ps 103:17: God’s love is from “everlasting to everlasting.”) His love is a “crown” - an honour, a status that we get from God’s love, not from human honours. David is talking about a new identity that is ours when we experience his love through the Holy Spirit. We know we are adopted in to his royal family.
Fifth, he “satisfies your desires” in such a way that “your youth is renewed like an eagle’s” (v5). This is God’s gift of hope. Fledgling eagles soaring on the wind depict boundless strength. “The poet realises that the opportunities which life offers lie before him just as they did in the sunny days of his youth.”7
In light of our new identity, assurance of the resurrection, our confidence that God will sanctify us in holiness, we have a full and hopeful future. If we grasp these four actions of God — justification, sanctification, resurrection, and adoption — we will find renewal of our strength.
The best way to meditate on this is to ask this question: What happens to me when I forget this particular benefit? Meditate on the practical benefits of each blessing and the cost of forgetting.
• Justification gives us a freedom from the past. When I forget justification, I have guilt and regret about the past. I live in bondage to idols that lie that they will make me feel better about myself.
• Sanctification gives us an assurance that God is working in the present. When I forget sanctification, I give up on myself and stop trying to change.
• Resurrection gives us a certainty about our future. I am not afraid of ageing and death.
• No one’s lack of approval should destroy us - God honours us. When I forget my adoption, I have fears. I try to hide my faults from God and myself. I don’t pray with candour.
• God wants to satisfy us with good things. Are you suffering? God will use that for your good [Rom 8:28].
4. Remarkable claims are made about the believer’s status before God in Ps 103:8-19? Which of these claims do you most need to grasp personally right now? How does the cross shed light on these claims?
First, v8-9 God is "merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love". Luther says that God’s wrath is his “strange work.” God’s anger is what happens when his goodness meets our rebellion and sin. God’s anger is a temporary phenomenon. After he deals with our sin through his redemption, his anger will cease. He will not keep it forever, but his love is permanent (1 Cor. 13:8-13).
Second, v10 tells why God’s wrath should not be feared; he will not make us pay our own debt!
Third, v12 "as far as the east is from the west" not "north and south" (which have two poles).
How does this total forgiveness change the way you think about daily mistakes?
This makes no sense without an understanding of the cross. Jesus made full payment of sin on our behalf, as David said (“he will clear the guilty”).
Fourth, He Knows Our Frame: v13–14 Does it comfort you to know that God doesn't expect perfection from you, but intimately understands your human frailty?
Fifth, the Grass Withers: v15–16 remind us that human life is fleeting like grass. How does the promise of God’s everlasting love (v17) anchor your anxieties about growing older or facing hardship?
In light of the cross, the righteous requirements of the law are fully met in us, who live according to the Spirit.” In Christ: “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in you” Rom 8:11 Our adoption is referenced in Ps 103:14. In Christ: “For you did not receive a spirit . . . of fear . . . but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’” (Rom. 8:15). In Christ: “Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). Not only do we have the personal relationship with God as his children, but we have the status of “heirs.”
5. What do the beings in Psalm 103:20-21 have in common?
They are beings created by God and are all perfectly obedient to God. Ps 103:19-22 implies this: when we learn to rejoice in who we are in Christ and begin to live in accordance with that, we join the symphony of praise and blessing already happening in the universe. When we bless the Lord, we find the rest of the universe singing to us and with us! “How doth all the world…sing to a sanctified soul.” 9 Jonathan Edwards
In 103:19-22, David tells us that it is only when praising God that he truly experiences oneness with all creation, for it is then that he realises what all nature is doing - rejoicing in God! Christian meditation gets us to oneness in nature by stimulating our analysis and reflection — and having it centre on the glory and grace of God. 6. Meditating on Christ has been called “preaching the gospel to yourself.”
1 D. M. Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965), p. 20.
2 Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1973), p. 364.
3 Derek Kidner, p. 364.
5 Derek Kidner, p. 365. 6 Derek Kidner, p. 365. 7 Weiser in Derek Kidner, p. 365. 8 Derek Kidner. p 365.
9 Jonathan Edwards in his first “Miscellanies,” in Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 13, Thomas A. Schafer, ed. (New Haven: Yale Uni Press, 1994), p. 163
