Psalm 103

What a beautiful poem describing the wonderful love and mercy and grace of God! God is so awesome. He is the greatest joy of my soul. He is The provider of all that is good.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” (Psalm 103:2-5)

I should remind myself of what God has done and does in myself everyday, forever. He forgives all my iniquity. That alone is more than enough. The most troublesome struggles in my life always has been moral and spiritual. The sense of guilt, having to prove myself, needing all kinds of things and people to justify myself, going through all kinds of troubles that I later found useless. Yet, God takes away the most fundamental problem of my life. He forgive all my iniquity.

He heals all my diseases. How many times I prayed for healing in my body and God answered? I can’t even count. Sometimes the answer came later than I wished initially, but there was always higher wisdom of God involved that meant to make me stronger and maturer. And there might even be some bodily weaknesses that will never completely heal as long as I’m in this side of heaven in this body. It’s okay. God will eventually heal all diseases completely and absolutely. I will be given a new body when the new heavens and the new earth come. God is a God who heals.

God redeems my life from the pit. I often fall and let myself be trapped in a pit of darkness, surrounded by guilt and condemnation, isolated from others, in dread and despair, in fear of death and hell, separation from God. However, God always comes and rescues me. He comes down, reaches his hands, lifts me up gently with his bottomless grace, and wins me back. He redeems me.

He crowns me with steadfast love and mercy. Though I myself have done nothing to earn such status other than being created by God (which also has nothing to do with what I have done), God crowns me and elevates me as His son. And his love and mercy are steadfast, never-changing, he does not change his mind. He is trustworthy for his love and mercy are steadfast.

He satisfies me with good of all things in this world, renewing me like the eagles, giving me new energies to fly high. There were more than hundreds of times when I was weak and restless, feeling like I couldn’t even move. Lying on the bed was the only thing I could do. And when I was awake during the day I felt like zombie, going about the duties of the day dragging myself, walking dead. But now I can’t actually imagine how it felt. I forgot the feeling in my body. I have new strength. God fills me with new strength from within. He is my strength.

“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)

God is a merciful and gracious God. How sweet are these words.. “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.” The unfathomable vastness of the universe demonstrates the infinitely great and steadfast love of God toward us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions.” By his love, our sins are forever removed from us, eternally separated from us. He is compassionate toward us because he knows us. He knows how weak and helpless we are, and he cares so very much.

He cares so much that he provided a way for us to be saved from our sin and its consequence, death. In his wisdom, he took away sin in us without compromising his character of perfect justice and righteousness. He paid the moral debt we owed him with the price of Jesus’ blood. He sent Jesus Christ his only begotten Son to die for us on behalf of us so that we can be accepted into the arms of God who is perfect and righteous. He loves us. That’s how much he loves us.

It is the good news that we should literally remind ourselves everyday. That he knows us to the bottom of our heart’s deepest motives and he still loves us to the extent of dying for us. Bless the LORD, O my soul!