David sings here, “Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being bless his holy name!”. He sees in faith that the entire universe and all that is in it belongs to God and that it all reveals God’s steadfast love for us. Psalm 103 is one of the most beautiful of the Psalms, and one of my favorites. In it, David expresses a deep faith in the infinite goodness of God. David’s heart is full of joyful praise for God that arises from his deeply intimate relationship with God.

What has David discovered about God? He has come to realize that God is infinitely generous and that He has bestowed many benefits on us. The greatest benefit that God has bestowed on us is His forgiveness for our sins. His infinite generosity is revealed in the fact that even though we are sinners, “he heals all [our] diseases, and redeems us from the pit.” Indeed, “he crowns us with love and compassion” (verses 3-4). This is why David can sing with great joy about it, even though the Messiah who was promised had not yet come.

David could proclaim with confidence that “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” Why? Because he had experienced God’s compassion personally. He knew the depth of his sins, what he had done with Bathsheba and what he had done to her husband, Uriah, the Hittite. He knew that, in all righteousness, God could have struck him down and sent him to the pit. Yet, that was not his experience. Rather, he came to know even more the infinite compassion and forgiveness of God.

Are we not also aware, as David was, that God is slow to anger, that he does not hold on to his anger forever with us? Have we not also experienced God’s abounding love and His gracious forgiveness? “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (verses 10-12).

God is well aware of our frailties, but he challenges us too. He knows only too well that we are dust, that our lives are like the grass, here today and gone tomorrow. In faith, David knew that God’s love toward us is infinite and everlasting, that it has not changed from the beginning and that it will never change. It is we who must change, turn away from our sins.

The thing that David and we ourselves are challenged to reflect on every day is that God’s love is unbreakable toward those who fear him and keep true to the covenant relationship of love he has established with us. That love was revealed in its fullness in Jesus Christ. We no longer await the Messiah, as David did. We know that our Savior has come into the world. His love for us became visible and tangible to us in Christ Jesus.

Lord, we lift up our voices in joyous praise to you, just as David did so long ago in this beautiful psalm. In confidence and joy, we pray that you give us the graces we need to be your faithful and generous instruments of love toward all the people we know and encounter in our lives. We pray these things in your name, Jesus. Amen!

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