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Psalm 103 reads as follows: Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, Bless his holy name, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, and heals all your diseases, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s, the Lord works vindication, and justice for all who are oppressed, He make known his ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel, The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, He will not always accuse, No will he keep his anger forever, He does not deal with us according to our sins, Nor repay us in according to our iniquities, For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him, So far as the east is from west, so far he removes his transgressions from us, As a father has compassion for his children, So the Lord has compassion for those who fear himk For he knows how we were made, He remembers that we are dust, As for mortals, their days are like grass, They flourish like the flower of the field, For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place knows it no more, But the steadfast love of the Lord is from Everlasting to everlasting, On those who fear him, And his righteousness to children’s children, To those who keep his covenant, And remember to do his commandments, The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, And his kingdom rules over all, Bless the Lord, O you his angels, You mighty ones who do his bidding, Obedient to his spoken word, Bless the Lord, all his hosts, His ministers that do his will, Bless the Lord, all his works, To all places of his dominion, Bless the Lord, O my soul. The last verse of this psalm is key, in that is tells of the importance of the soul in the relationship with the Lord. It is the inner person who is being called into that special relationship with the Lord. One of the things that this psalm really points out with regards to prayer is just an understanding of how the Lord may work and what needs to be discussed in prayer. This psalm is showing that the Lord doesn’t value all that going on with equanimity. We work on the plane of logic and may apply that thinking to our own prayer life. In math, one plus one logically equals to and there is the idea of equal justice. A sin logically would have an equivalent punishment. Here though the Lord is valuing other things rather than what we think he may be valuing. And in our seeking of the Lord in prayer, it is also important to ask the Lord what is of value to the Lord in this situation, rather than just automatically imputing our own value, someone else’s value, the value of the times or the value of society on this. There might be a proper equivalency where all roads meet, but there may not be as well and we need to seek what the Lord’s great love is telling us first and foremost. Here it is obvious that the Lord has a great love for individuals, and to those individuals his love is given as high as the heavens, so great is that love. The Lord may value that love much more than those person’s sins, which may be removed from his sight as far as east is from west, because, he doesn’t value these sins or hold them in the exact way we would think. He removes them because there are greater values. He has compassion for his children, this is apparently a greater value, for those who fear him, which is the least means they regard his presence. The Lord values his own great love for us and qualities about us, and this is what is important to understand in trying to discern the Lord’s plans going forward. A punishment for sins may be proper but there is a danger that we will carry it forward, not remove it ourselves and keep it around or subtly not take chances on the Lord’s goodness for us because after all, we are sinners and not deserving of this goodness. It is important to understand this psalm because the sin might be not enough to separate ourselves from seeking the Lord but we may not be seeking the Lord wholly because we feel compromised by our own sins and feel that these sins have compromised us against what the Lord has. We might separate ourselves from what the Lord still has for us, in a sense letting the sin reign on. But a theme repeated in this psalm is that the Lord rules, not sin, and its ramifications. And then we can say, Lord you win, you were right, I am a sinner and look what happened. The Lord doesn’t necessarily want us to lose out on what he has for us because of sin. Whatever the sin is or was, it compounds or tends to compound into letting the sin win so to speak, and losing sight of the Lord’s will which includes what he may have in his thoughts and plans for you and what he may have kept for you despite your erroneous ways. This is why, it is important that the sin can possibly be removed far away as this psalm says, and far away so it doesn’t get in the way of what the Lord still has for you, even though you might have missed the first call due to the consequence of sin, the removing of it brings about the next chance or the second chance and brings to the forefront what the Lord is valuing, which is in the context of his great love. The Lord removes the sins, gets them in the far distance, so they don’t get in the way of his plans for you. So even in the midst of sin, there is the possibility of repentance, removal and of getting back into the Lord’s best plans which is in accordance to what is valuable to the Lord. So even from a place of sin, it is still prudent to seek what the Lord values, even in its specifics. Because that getting back and then getting the sins out of the way, also means getting back to what the Lord values. And this psalm clearly says, the Lord values his own great love for us. The content and specifics of this great love may vary, but it is vast and according to this psalm is as high as the heavens so there is a decent amount of searching to do in prayer to find out about his love. If it is that great, that large really, then there is a lot to find out. While there is an awareness of sin and what that can bring, at some point the sin if removed is forgotten and the focus is the soul and what the Lord now has or has kept for us. He does not repay in the way we think we would be repaid. It may be something relatively minor and slightly noticed to us that we did that was a great thing in the sight of the Lord. Verse 10 does say the Lord does not deal with us according to our sins, so the question is how does he deal with us. He deals with us out of his own compassion as a father would have compassion on his own children according to this psalm. But the father owns this compassion and because it is his, he deals from out of his compassion and what will arise from this compassion. Here man’s days are compared to the fleetness of grass which flourishes only briefly. What is to be valued, is the everlasting love of the Lord, which rules over brevity. His kingdom rules over all including brevity, which he saves us from with an invitation to eternal fellowship. In the earlier verses, verse 3 cites the Lord’s benefits, he forgives all your iniquities. He heals all your diseases. Since later in this psalm, it says he removes sins, as far as from east to west, we could impute that he also removes diseases, as far as from east to west. In prayer, ask for the removal not only of sins but also for the removal or separation from diseases, where also the disease is as far away from you as east is from west. The sin may or may not tie together with a disease but both can be cast into the distance. Like sin, a health problem may be getting in the way of what the Lord values, of what the Lord wants from you and for you. He redeems your life from the Pit, meaning he can take us from the worst situations, and still crown us with his steadfast love, meaning, his love it right front and center or at the head of what we are doing and who we now are, it isn’t a trailing thing but right out in front for all to see. The good is long lasting and satisfies as long as you live. A very powerful verse is the one mentioning the renewal of the youth like an eagles. The Lord can take you right back to earlier years, whether it be physically, mentally, or otherwise but he can do this and it fact might do this if it pleases him. Youth can be lost easily and quickly, but to be renewed like the eagles, indicates a type of soaring to the renewal, where it flies high, comes above, and reaches past and above all that may have since intervened against the strength of youth, time included. The laws of time, are beneath the doctrine of renewal of the youth. The doctrine of the Lord comes first. Finally, the ending part of this psalm shows how there is the reality of angels, of heavenly hosts, that work for the Lord, do his bidding in the case of angels, do his will in the case of ministers so we can see the Lord’s hand in their actions and presence as a reality of the Lord’s dominion.
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