Blessings and Praise

Inspiration from the King James Version

Psalm 103
A Psalm of David

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 forget not all his benefits:
3) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4) Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;
5) Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagle's.

In the above verses, David makes an obvious connection between forgiven
sin and the healing of sickness. The essence of sin is to be separated from
God, and the essence of the healing of sin is to seek a relationship with God.

To bless the LORD is to remember that He is the source of ALL our blessings. The Psalmist David blesses the LORD with his entire being. (146:2). Verses 3-5 speaks of healing of diseases. My reference says that He is not bound to healing but every healing comes from Him. I tend to disagree a bit, because the Bible says that God IS NOT A LIAR, and He says by His stripes we are healed. Now, He does not specifically say whether he will heal us on this world or the next, but he WILL heal us. Not only that, but he also says that anything we ask in His name it shall be done according to our faith as long as it is in his will or "not amiss". To me that says healing. God is truth, therefore He cannot lie. What He says, He WILL do.

8) The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.
9) He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger forever.
10) He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11) For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12) As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13) Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him.
14) For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15) As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16) For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

In verses 8-14, our LORD is merciful. If he dealt with us according to our sins, none of us would be able to stand before him. This is verified by Psalm 130:3. There is no way to compare the divine with the mortal; the mercy of God is greater than the heavens.

This happens to be one of my favorite passages. I have shortened it quite a bit, but my favorite verses are included. As the total passage is 22 verses, I felt that the verses which I included told the most "notable " part of the passage.

Just for a tid-bit more information, I don't know if I am just not observant or what, but I hope there are others that didn't realize this, but I always associated blessings as "gifts" such as what God pours down up on us, but the light bulb just came on in my brain, with the help of the NIV and I learned that blessing is also praise. I always knew that praise was a gift of sacrifice to the LORD, but I never put Psalm 1o3 in the same light until now. By saying Bless the LORD , O my soul, he's actually saying praise the LORD. Goodness! Was my light bulb dim or what?! I have ALWAYS liked that verse, but I guess I just liked the way it was worded rather than really studying it and it's meaning.

I'm telling you, this blog has been a true blessing for me. I have learned so much since I started doing this. Especially this type of post. I knew kind of what I wanted when I started, but I never realized how it would evolve and help me to mature in my Bible knowledge or help my relationship with God to mature.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!

Love & Prayers,