PSALM 103:1 | BLESS THE LORD
Psalm 103:1 ESV says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”
Sometimes you must command your soul to bless the Lord, even when you don’t feel like it.
Sometimes you must look at yourself and call for worship and thanksgiving, even when the situation around you seems dire.
Sometimes blessing God doesn’t feel natural, but that doesn’t change the goodness of God and his worthiness of worship.
The strength and depth of our worship are tested in trials and seasons of stretching. When everything is going the way we expect, it is easy to stand up on a Sunday and lift our hands in praise to God! It is easy to come before God in thankful prayer after blessings have come into your life. Proverbs 19:4 talks about this, saying, “Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend.” The human heart is prone to follow the path of least resistance. We are drawn to riches, excitement, and momentum and driven away from boring, stagnant, and challenging things.
Business leaders, marketing experts, and even pastors know this at a fundamental level, but the way of the kingdom stands out from the way of the world.
Where businesses and entertainers strive to captivate our momentary attention, God is after our eternal destiny. A social media ad is only interested in your attention and engagement; God is after your freedom and holiness.
This means that God can use trials, loss, and even mundane moments to bring about transformation. This realization reshapes how we view praise and worship. It redefines what an appropriate moment of thanksgiving is. We might echo what the psalmist wrote 60 chapters earlier in Psalm 34:1 ESV, saying, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
When we are convinced that God is always worthy of praise and thanksgiving, we can learn to discipline our hearts and inner being to align with this truth. Psalm 103 becomes a secret weapon of praise.
The objective today is simple: bless the Lord. The transformative truth is that because of God’s goodness and his mission to bring you into freedom and intimacy with him, we can bless God no matter what we face. Take this opportunity to call out worship from your heart and realize that even if you feel dry and empty this morning, you can still praise the Lord.
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