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Psalm 103-104 What Part Am I Holding Back?
posted Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Despite all of the marvelous descriptions of God's caring and concern for us here, I felt led to the beginnings and the endings of both chapters:
"(103) My WHOLE being, praise the Lord; all my being, praise His holy name. My WHOLE being, praise the Lord and do not forget all His kindnesses... Everything the Lord has made should praise Him in all the places He rules. (104) My WHOLE being, praise the Lord ... My WHOLE being, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."
At first, I wondered what the big deal was -- why all this repetition? At first blush, I took "my whole being" to mean that I should "give it all I've got" when I praise God. And yes, He's certainly worthy of that. But then God directed me to Deuteronomy 6:5, where it says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength." Jesus added in Matthew 22, "all your mind."
The heart describes our emotions; the soul, our spiritual being; strength represents our physical bodies, and the mind both our will and our thoughts. That pretty much describes our whole being.
So perhaps these beginnings and wrap-ups of each chapter, usually so very important in setting the tone of a speech, are guiding us to ask the question we may not want asked of us -- "So what part am I not using to praise the Lord?" Am I using my emotions? What about my soul? (That should be an easy one.) Am I praising God with my physical body or am I holding out on that part, reserving it for myself? I have to remember that praising God isn't reserved for just Sunday mornings, so that question about the physical body is a 24/7 kind of thing. Ouch!
And then there's the mind. It's not just about doing a quiet time or absorbing a sermon. It includes those thoughts when we see something we know we shouldn't be looking at, and it includes that ever-so-strong will -- what we choose to do.
That's a lot, Father -- to command us seven times in two chapters to make sure that our praise for You is coming from our emotions, our actions, our thoughts, and our strong wills, in addition to our soul. But then again, Your Son didn't hold back on the cross, did He? His thoughts, actions, and emotions were controlled by His strong will and His desire to please You. His soul was His vital connection to You that orchestrated it all.
Verse 22 in chapter 103 says, "Everything the Lord has made (all these parts of our being) should praise Him in all the places He RULES." Father, rule in all parts of my whole being. Don't let me selfishly hold any back from You. Your Son didn't.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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