“Fatherly Care and Sovereign Rule”
“Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name! 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 eagle’s.”
(Psalm 103:1–5 The Holy Bible, English Standard Version)
https://accordance.bible/link/read/ESVS#Psa._103:1-5, accessed 11-18-2019.
I am being besieged by Psalm 103:2-3 right now. The preacher at the church we are attending quoted it in his sermon yesterday. This morning, the “3-Minute Retreat” put out by Loyola Publishing used Psalm 103:2-3 as the basis of their daily meditation.
Motyer comments insightfully about Psalm 103. “The blend of changeless fatherly care and endless sovereign rule is the distinctive stress of this psalm.”[1] I need both of those things right now: fatherly care and sovereign rule. The changeless and endless modifiers are also very important.
All the verbs in verses 2-5 (except for “renews” in verse 5) for what God does for us are participles. In Hebrew, participles often suggest continual action that flows out of the character of the one who is acting. God is continually forgiving, continually healing, and so on.
The retreat master for the 3-minute retreat writes, “God’s compassion is abundant. There are times in life when we feel so unlovable, so unforgiveable that we want to hide. We may think that if we just ignore what is going on in our lives, ignore what needs healing and forgiveness it will just go away. Thankfully, God does not act that way. Rather, God waits patiently to receive us and to forgive us again and again. This is why our souls sing out, ‘Bless the Lord, my soul.’ ”
Yes, right now, I would very much like to hide. But there is nowhere to hide. (I try to hide in the refrigerator. I eat when I’m stressed and when I am depressed. Of course, I like to eat anyway.)
Perhaps I could try hiding in
God. Now there’s a thought!
[1]J.A. Motyer, The Psalms, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition; ed. D. A Carson et al.; Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 551.
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