Praising God with Our Whole Being
“Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!”
Psalm 103:1
There are times when we take the Lord’s Supper that it can become perfunctory. If we are honest with ourselves, some days we struggle to engage our minds, much less to reach down to the full depths of our soul. Yet David sets an example of praising God in the 103rd Psalm. He helps us see that God does not just want us to eat a meal or have some quiet time. Instead, he wants us to engage with him with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul. To help us get into this mindset, let us focus on what David meditated on in His worship
“God forgives all our iniquity and heals all of our diseases (v. 3)” – The Lord’s Supper is designed for us to remember that our relationship with God was ruined by how we turned our back on him. The wages of sin is death, but God has taken those wages and placed it on His Son. Due to that, he has removed death from us, not by making our fleshly bodies immortal, but by redeeming us so that we can be resurrected to a new body, unaffected by disease and illness
“God redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with steadfast love and mercy (v. 4)” – Sin does not just ruin our relationship with God, it also ruins our lives. It enslaves us and captures us in a life of misery and despair. But Jesus’ death means that we are no longer slaves, but instead are adopted children. We have been blessed with all of the spiritual blessings. It is not due to anything that we have done, but because God loves us and wants to lavish them on us.
“God remembers our frame that we are but dust, and completely removes our iniquities (v. 14, cf. v. 12)” This passage is so beautiful. It gushes with an appreciation of how loving our God is. God cares for us so much that he wants to forgive us. As our Creator, he understands our weaknesses. He removes our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. As we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we remember that this is not just words. He has sealed our forgiveness with the death of His Son. His words were confirmed by His actions.
When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we need to ensure that we focus on his love for us. It is easy to be distracted by the things of the world, or by our physical frames. This time is dedicated to focusing on God and everything he has done for us. Like David, we bless the Lord with all our heart.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!”
Psalm 103:1