Rce
OPINION —
The psalmist supplies us with several reasons for praising God in Psalm 103. At the start of his list is “forget not all of His benefits” (v. 2). In v. 3-8 he enumerates some of those. Applicationally speaking, this is a part of the psalm where there is plenty of room for us to personalize the psalm by thinking about the “benefits” we’ve experienced from our Father’s hand.
But the psalmist doesn’t stop here, and neither should we. He goes deeper by answering the question, “Why do we have all of these blessings?”
We don’t have them because of who we are, we have them because of Who God is. Beginning in v. 9 we are told He is “compassionate, and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” This is the psalmist in church, singing his song! This is our song too. It is not a song about how great we are, it is a song about how great God is! That’s the only one worth singing.
This description of God occurs half a dozen times in the Old Testament. It is used by Moses (Exodus 34:6), Nehemiah (9:17), Joel (2:13), Jonah (4:2), and the psalmist (86:15, 103:8), to make sure that God’s people never forget who their God is. Remembering this about our Father will help us to integrate Him into every part of our lives.
There were some photos that came out about a decade ago that showed a crow riding on the back of an eagle! Initially, it was quite a sensation, but then other pictures surfaced showing other crows and even blackbirds riding on the backs of eagles. Biologists explained that since eagles are predatory, when they come near the nest of smaller birds like crows and blackbirds, those birds respond like a dog protecting his territory. And sometimes they even landed on top of the eagle.
There was another curiosity. In all these pictures, the eagles never seemed to be bothered by the passengers they had acquired. The biologist offered the explanation that all the eagles had to do was start soaring upward and their passengers would drop off and leave them alone. The smaller birds would do this because they knew eagle was leaving their territory and was no longer a threat. We can learn from the eagles that soaring upward in praise is a good way to rid ourselves of the problems that have hopped on us and we are carrying around.
We can do this because, “The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all” (v. 19). I know it doesn’t always look that way, but it’s the truth. It didn’t look like God was ruling when Pharaoh and his army were about to catch up to the Israelites at the Red Sea, but He was. It didn’t look like God was ruling when Daniel and his three friends marched into captivity, but He was. And it didn’t look like God was ruling when Joseph and Nicodemus placed the body of Jesus in the tomb, but He was.
We can praise God because no matter what it looks like, He is ruling over all!
Find more of Bruce’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com.
