Psalm 103:1-12
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made 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 chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, September 17, is Psalm 103 verses one through 12. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made 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 chide nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us? Here into the reading zone begins with praises, Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that it was in me, bless His holy name, Bless the Lord, oh, my soul and forget not all His benefits. So it's beginning with Let's praise God. That's what it means to bless the Lord. Like we think of blessing is giving of gifts or maybe the holy presence of God. When we bless the Lord, it's not those things. It's praise, we praise the Lord and give thanks for what he does. And so the next piece of the psalm explains why. And I think that's an important piece of what what we focus on when we praise God is that it's not just praising him because he's praiseworthy. We always connect our praises of God for what he does. And that's what the psalm does here. It lists a number of things, forget not all His benefits, it says, He forgives iniquity. He heals diseases, he redeems your life from the pit. He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed. God certainly forgives our iniquity right now, through the blood of Jesus Christ by a confession and absolution. he redeems our life from the pit. And he crowns us with all of these things. And we see the the promise of God delivered to us now through the work of the church in the means of grace. And we look forward even more towards the day of the resurrection, when all disease will be taken away when our bodies are pulled out of the pit and raised to new life. And our youth is renewed like an Eagles forever. And continues, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. That's an important phrase there justice and righteousness is kind of the two code words for the work of the king in Israel is that they are supposed to do righteousness that is doing things that are the righteous towards God, and justice that is bringing about justice for the poor, as well as the rich equally for everyone. Then it continues, he made known his ways to Moses his acts of to the people of Israel. This is again looking at prays with a mind to what God has already done. God brought Israel out of Egypt and freed them from slavery and gave them to a prompt a promised land. And Moses recalling this and saying that we're praising him not just because he's praiseworthy, but because of how He has revealed Himself to us, that He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. It continues on where it's not always chiding or judging, but he forgives because God does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. That is, God does not punish us for our sin, at least not like in the typical way that people think of it. Like God doesn't sit up in heaven and say, Ah, you James Huenink Your sin is particular bad today. I will press the smite key on my keyboard and zap you know, that's not really how it works. God does not respond to our sin with all of the judgment that we deserve. He forgives us actually. And so he removes our transgression from us as far as the east is from the west and he provides his steadfast love to us by sending Jesus to die for us and rise for us so that he can be with us in our lives that's the end of our reading for today we'll see you on Sunday bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai