1. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Soul music is the very soul of
music. The psalmist strikes the best key-note when he begins with stirring up
his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion and
exhorts himself as though he felt that dullness would all too soon steal over
his faculties, as, indeed, it will over us all, unless we are diligently on the
watch. Jehovah is worthy to be praised by us in that highest style of adoration
which is intended by the term bless. Our very life and essential self
should be engrossed with this delightful service, and each one of us should
arouse his own heart to the engagement. And all that is within me, bless his
holy name. Many are our faculties, emotions, and capacities, but God has
given them all to us, and they ought all to join in chorus to his praise.
Half-hearted, ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should
render to our loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and
soul and mind for the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a
comprehensive claim for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace. The
psalmist dwells upon the holy name of God, as if his holiness were
dearest to him; or, perhaps, because the holiness or wholeness of God was to
his mind the grandest motive for rendering to him the homage of his nature in
its holiness. By the name we understand the revealed character of God,
and assuredly those songs which are suggested, not by our fallible reasoning
and imperfect observation, but by unerring insperation, should more than any
others arouse all our consecrated powers.
2. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. We need again and again to bestir
ourselves when we are about to worship God, for it would be shameful to offer
him anything less than the utmost our souls can render. These first verses are
a tuning of the harp, a screwing up of the loosened strings that not a note may
fail in the sacred harmony. And forget not all his benefits. Not so much
as one of the divine dealings should be forgotten; they are all subjects for
praise. Memory is very treacherous about the best things; by a strange
perversity, engendered by the fall, it treasures up the refuse of the past and
permits priceless treasures to lie neglected; it is tenacious of grievances and
holds benefits all too loosely. Observe that he calls all that is within
him to remember all the Lord’s benefits. God’s all cannot be praised
with less than our all. Let us read our diaries and see if there be not choice
favors recorded there for which we have rendered no grateful return.
3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Here David begins his list of blessings received, which he
rehearses as themes and arguments for praise. He selects a few of the choicest
pearls from the casket of divine love, threads them on the string of memory,
and hangs them about the neck of gratitude. Pardoned sin is, in our experience,
one of the choicest boons of grace, one of the earliest gifts of mercy, in fact
the needful preparation for all that follows it. Till iniquity is forgiven,
healing, redemption, and satisfaction are unknown blessings. Forgiveness is
first in the order of our spiritual experience, and in some respects first in
value. The pardon granted is a present one—forgiveth; it is continual,
for he still forgiveth; it is divine, for God gives it; it is
far-reaching, for it removes all our sins; it takes in omissions as well
as commissions; and it is most effectual, for it is as real as the healing, and
the rest of the mercies with which it is placed. Who healeth all thy
diseases. When the cause is gone, namely, iniquity, the effect ceases.
Sicknesses of body and soul came into the world by sin, and as sin is
eradicated, diseases bodily, mental, and spiritual will vanish, till “the
inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick.” Many-sided is the character of our
Heavenly Father, for, having forgiven as a judge, he then cures as a physician.
He is all things to us, as our needs call for him, and our infirmities do but
reveal him in new characters. God gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and his
grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually we are daily under his care, and he
visits us, as the surgeon does his patient, “healing” still (for that is the
exact word) each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles his skill;
he goes on healing all, and he will do so till the last trace of taint
has gone from our nature. The two alls of this verse are further reasons
for all that is within us praising the Lord.
The two blessings of this verse the psalmist was personally
enjoying; he sang not of others but of himself, or rather of his Lord, who was
daily forgiving and healing him. He must have known that it was so, or he could
not have sung of it. He had no doubt about it, he felt in his soul that it was
so, and, therefore, he bade his pardoned and restored soul bless the Lord with
all its might.
4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. By purchase and by power the Lord redeems us from the
spiritual death into which we had fallen, and from the eternal death which
would have been its consequence. Had not the death penalty of sin been removed,
our forgiveness and healing would have been incomplete portions of salvation,
fragments only, and but of small value, but the removal of the guilt and power
of sin is fitly attended by the reversal of the sentence of death which had
been passed upon us. Glory be to our great Substitute, who delivered us from
going down into the pit, by giving himself to be our ransom. Redemption will
ever constitute one of the sweetest notes in the believer’s grateful song. Who
crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Our Lord does nothing
by halves; he will not stay his hand till he has gone to the uttermost with his
people. Cleansing, healing, redemption are not enough; he must make them kings
and crown them. The princes of God’s family do not earn the crown, for it is
mercy, not of merit; they feel their own unworthiness of it, therefore he deals
with tenderness; but he is resolved to bless them, and, therefore, he is always
surrounding their brows with coronets of mercy and compassion. Our sin deprived
us of all our honors, but he who removed the sentence of death by redeeming us
from destruction restores to us more than all our former honors by crowning us
anew.
5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, or rather, “filling with good thy soul.” No one is ever
filled to satisfaction but a believer, and only God himself can satisfy even
him. Many a worldling is satiated, but not one is satisfied. God satisfies our
very soul, our noblest part, our ornament and glory; and of consequence he
satisfies our mouth, however hungry and craving it might otherwise be.
Soul-satisfaction loudly calls for soul-praise, and when the mouth is filled
with good it is bound to speak good of him who filled it. Our good Lord bestows
really good things, not idle pleasures; and these he is always giving;
shall we not be still praising him? So that thy youth is renewed like the
eagle’s. Renewal of strength was granted to the psalmist so that he grew
young again. Our version refers to the annual molting of the eagle, after which
it looks fresh and young, but the original does not appear to allude to any
such fact of natural history, but simply to describe the diseased one as so
healed and strengthened that he became as full of energy as the bird which is
strongest of the leathered race, most fearless, most majestic, and most
soaring. He who sat moping with the owl in the last psalm here flies on high
with the eagle: the Lord works marvelous changes in us, and we learn by such
experiences to bless his holy name. To grow from a sparrow to an eagle, and
leave the wilderness of the pelican to mount among the stars, is enough to make
anyone bless the Lord.
Thus is the endless chain of grace complete. Sin is
forgiven, its power subdued, and its penalty averted; then we are honored,
supplied, and our very nature renovated, till we are as new-born children in
the household of God. O Lord, we must bless thee, and we will; as thou dost
withhold nothing from us, so we would not keep back from thy praise one
solitary power of our nature, but with all our heart and soul and strength
praise thy holy name.
6. Our own
personal obligations must not absorb our song; we must also magnify the Lord
for his goodness to others. He does not leave the poor and needy to perish at
the hands of their enemies, but interposes on their behalf, for he is the
executor of the poor and the executioner of the cruel. When his people were in
Egypt he heard their groanings and brought them forth, but he overthrew Pharaoh
in the Red Sea. Man’s injustice will receive retribution at the hand of God.
Mercy to his saints demands vengeance on their persecutors, and he will repay
it. No blood of martyrs will be shed in vain; no groans of confessors in prison
will be left without inquisition being made concerning them. All wrongs
shall be righted, all the oppressed avenged. God will make the tyrant bite the
dust; often he visits the haughty persecutor even in this life, so that “the
Lord is known by the judgments which he executeth.”
7. He made known his ways unto Moses. Moses was made to see the manner in which the Lord deals
with people; he saw this in each of the three periods of his life, in the
court, in retirement, and at the head of the tribes of Israel. To him the Lord
gave specially clear manifestations of his dispensations and modes of ruling
among mankind, granting to him to see more of God than had before been seen by
mortals, while he communed with him upon the mount. His acts unto the
children of Israel. They saw less than Moses, for they beheld the deeds of
God without understanding his method therein; yet this was much, very much, and
might have been more if they had not been so perverse. It is a great act of
sovereign grace and condescending love when the Lord reveals himself to any
people, and they ought to appreciate the distinguished favor shown to them. We,
as believers in Jesus, know the Lord’s ways of covenant grace, and we
have by experience been made to see his acts of mercy towards us; how
heartily ought we to praise our divine teacher, the Holy Spirit, who has made
these things known to us, for had it not been for him we should have continued
in darkness unto this day.
Observe how prominent is the personality of God in all this
gracious teaching—He made known. He did not leave Moses to
discover the truth for himself, but became his instructor. What should we ever
know if he did not make it known? If Moses needed the Lord to make him known,
how much more do we who are so much inferior to the great lawgiver?
8. The Lord is
merciful and gracious. Those
with whom he deals are sinners. However much he favors them they are guilty and
need mercy at his hands; nor is he slow to show compassion on their lost
estate, or reluctant by his grace to lift them out of it. Mercy pardons sin,
grace bestows favor; in both the Lord abounds. This is that way of his which he
made known to Moses (Exodus 34:6), and in that way he will abide as long as
the age of grace lasts. Slow to anger. He can be angry, and can deal out
righteous indignation upon the guilty, but it is his strange work; he lingers
long, with loving pauses, tarrying by the way to give space for repentance and
opportunity for accepting his mercy. Thus deals he with the greatest sinners,
and with his own children much more so: towards them his anger is short-lived
and never reaches into eternity, and when it is shown in fatherly chastisements
he does not afflict willingly, and soon pities their sorrows. From this we
should learn to be ourselves slow to anger; if the Lord is long-suffering under
our great provocations how much more ought we to endure the errors of our
brethren! And plenteous in mercy. Rich in it, quick in it, overflowing
with it; and so had he need to be or we should soon be consumed. Above the
mountains of our sins the floods of his mercy rise. All the world tastes of his
sparing mercy; those who hear the Gospel partake of his inviting mercy; the
saints live by his saving mercy, are preserved by his upholding mercy, are
cheered by his consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through his infinite and
everlasting mercy. Let grace abounding be our hourly song in the house of our
pilgrimage.
9. He will not always chide. He will sometimes, for he cannot endure that his people
should harbor sin in their hearts, but not forever will he chasten them; as
soon as they turn to him and forsake their evil ways he will end the quarrel.
He might find constant cause for striving with us, for we have always something
in us which is contrary to his holy mind, but he refrains himself lest our
spirits should fail before him. It will be profitable for any one of us who may
be at this time out of conscious fellowship with the Lord, to inquire at his
hands the reason for his anger. When his children turn from their sins he soon
turns from his wrath. Neither will he keep his anger forever. He bears
no grudges. The Lord would not have his people harbor resentments, and in his
own course of action he sets them a grand example. When the Lord has chastened
his child he has done with his anger: he is not punishing as a judge, but
acting as a father, and therefore after a few blows he ends the matter, and
presses his beloved one to his bosom as if nothing had happened; or if the
offense lies too deep in the offender’s nature to be thus overcome, he
continues to correct, but he never ceases to love, and he does not let his
anger with his people pass into the next world, but receives his erring child
into his glory.
10. We ought
to praise the Lord for what he has not done as well as for what he has wrought
for us; even the negative side deserves our adoring gratitude. We have never
suffered as we deserved to suffer. Every power of our being might have been
rent with anguish, instead of which we are all in the enjoyment of comparative
happiness, and many of us are exceedingly favored with inward joy; let all that
is within us bless his holy name.
11. Boundless
in extent towards his chosen is the mercy of the Lord; it is no more to be
measured than the height of heaven or the heaven of heavens. “Like the height
of the heaven” is the original language, which implies other points of
comparison besides extent, and suggests sublimity, grandeur, and glory. As the
lofty heavens canopy the earth, water it with dews and rains, enlighten it with
sun, moon, and stars, and look down upon it with unceasing watchfulness, so the
Lord’s mercy from above covers all his chosen, enriches them, embraces them,
and stands forever as their dwelling-place. The idea of our version is a very
noble one, for who shall tell how exceeding great is the height of heaven? All
this mercy is for them that fear him; there must be a humble, hearty
reverence of his authority, or we cannot taste of his grace. Godly fear is one
of the first products of the divine life in us; it is the beginning of wisdom,
yet it fully ensures to its possessor all the benefits of divine mercy, and is
indeed here and elsewhere employed to set forth the whole of true religion.
Many a true child of God is full of filial fear, and yet at the same time stands
trembling as to his acceptance with God; this trembling is groundless, but it
is infinitely to be preferred to that baseborn presumption which incites people
to boast of their adoption and consequent security when all the while they are
in the gall of bitterness. Those who are presuming upon the infinite extent of
divine mercy should here be led to consider that although it is wide as the
horizon and high as the stars, yet it is only meant for them that fear the
Lord.
12. Sin is
removed from us by a miracle of love! If sin be removed so far, then we may be
sure that the scent, the trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone.
There is no fear of its ever being brought back again. Our sins are gone; Jesus
has borne them away. Glorify the Lord for this richest of blessings. The Lord
alone could remove sin at all, and he has done it in a God-like fashion, making
a final sweep of all our transgressions.
13. To those
who truly reverence his holy name, the Lord is a Father and acts as such. These
he pities, for in the very best of people the Lord sees much to pity, and when
they are at their best state they still need his compassion. This should check
every propensity to pride, though at the same time it should yield us the
richest comfort. Father feel for their children, especially when they are in
pain; they would like to suffer in their stead, their sighs and groans cut them
to the quick: thus sensitive towards us is our Heavenly Father. His pity never
fails to flow, and we never cease to need it.
14. For he knoweth our frame. He knows how we are made, for he made us. Our make and
build, our constitution and temperament, our prevailing infirmity and most
besetting temptation he well perceives, for he searches our inmost nature. He
remembereth that we are dust. Made of dust, dust still, and ready to return
to dust. We too often forget that we are dust, and try our minds and bodies
unduly by excessive mental and bodily exertion; we are also too little mindful
of the infirmities of others, and impose upon them burdens grievous to be
borne; but our Heavenly Father never overloads us, and never fails to give us
strength equal to our lot.
15. As for man, his days are as grass. He lives on the grass and lives like the grass. Corn is but
educated grass, and man, who feeds on it, partakes of its nature. The grass
lives, grows, flowers, falls beneath the scythe, dries up, and is removed from
the field; read this sentence over again, and you will find it the history of
man. As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. He has a beauty and a
comeliness just as the meadows have, but alas, how short-lived! A large
congregation always reminds us of a meadow bright with many hues, and the
comparison becomes sadly true when we reflect that as the grass and its
goodliness soon pass away, just so will those we gaze upon, and all their
visible beauty. Happy are they who, born from above, have in them an
incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever.
16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. Only a little wind is needed, not even a scythe is
demanded, for the flower is so frail. A puff of foul air fails not to lay low
the healthiest son of man. And the place thereof shall know it no more.
The flower blooms no more. It may have a successor, but as for itself its
leaves are scattered, and its perfume will never again sweeten the evening air.
Man also dies and is gone from his old haunts, his dear home, and his daily
labors, never to return. As far as this world is concerned, he is as though he
had never been; all things continue in their courses as though they missed him
not, so little a figure does he make in the affairs of nature. True, there are
enduring memories, and an existence of another kind coeval with eternity, but
these belong not to our flesh, which is but grass, but to a higher life, in
which we rise to close fellowship with the Eternal.
17. But the mercy of the Lord
is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him. Blessed but! How vast the contrast between the
fading flower and the everlasting God! How wonderful that his mercy should link
our frailty with his eternity, and make us everlasting too! From old eternity
the Lord viewed his people as objects of mercy, and as such chose them to
become partakers of his grace; the doctrine of eternal election is most
delightful to those who have light to see it and love wherewith to accept it.
The to everlasting is equally precious. Never will those who fear
Jehovah find that either their sins or their needs have exhausted the great
deep of his grace. The main question is, “Do we fear him?” If we are
lifting up to heaven the eye of filial fear, the gaze of paternal love is never
removed from us, and it never will be, world without end. And his
righteousness unto children’s children. Mercy to those with whom the Lord
makes a covenant is guaranteed by righteousness; it is because he is
just that he never revokes a promise, or fails to fulfill it. Our believing
children and their descendants forever will find the word of the Lord the same;
to them will he display his grace and bless them just as he has blessed us. For
our descendants let us sing as well as pray.
18. Children
of the righteous are not, however, promised the Lord’s mercy without
stipulation. The parents must be obedient and the children too. Those who run
off to any other confidence than the finished work of Jesus are not among those
who obey this precept; those with whom the covenant is really made stand firm
to it, and having begun in the Spirit, they do not seek to be made perfect in
the flesh. The truly godly keep the Lord’s commands carefully—they remember;
they observe them practically—to do them; moreover they do not pick and
choose, but remember his commandments as such, without exalting one
above another as their own pleasure or convenience may dictate. May our
offspring be a thoughtful, careful, observant race, eager to know the will of
the Lord, and prompt to follow it fully; then will his mercy enrich and honor
them from generation to generation.
This verse also suggests praise, for who would wish the Lord
to smile on those who will not regard his way? From the manner in which some
people unguardedly preach the covenant, one might infer that God would bless a
certain set of people however they might live, and however they might neglect
his laws. But the word teaches not so. The covenant is not legal, but it is
holy. Its general aim is the sanctifying of a people unto God, zealous for good
works.
19. The Lord
has prepared his throne in the heavens.
Here is a grand burst of song produced by a view of the boundless power, and
glorious sovereignty of Jehovah. His throne is “fixed,” for that is the word;
about his government there is no alarm, disorder, perturbation, surprises or
catastrophes. His matchless sovereignty is the pledge of our security, the
pillar upon which our confidence may safely lean.
And his kingdom ruleth over all. Over the whole universe he stretches his scepter. He now
reigns universally; he always has done so, and he always will. To us the world
may seem rent with anarchy, but he brings order out of confusion. A clear view
of his ever active, and everywhere supreme, providence is one of the most
delightful of spiritual gifts; he who has it cannot do otherwise than bless the
Lord with all his soul.
Thus has the sweet singer hymned the varied attributes of
the Lord as seen in nature, grace, and providence, and now he gathers up all
his energies for one final outburst of adoration, in which he would have all
unite, since all are subjects of the great King.
20. Bless the Lord,
ye his angels, that excel in strength.
They see in nearer vision the glory which we would adore. To them is given an
exceeding might of intellect, and voice, and force which they delight to use in
sacred services for him; let them now turn all their strength into that solemn
song which we would send up to the third heaven. That do his commandments,
hearkening unto the voice of his word. We are bidden to do these
commandments, and alas we fail; let those unfallen spirits, whose bliss it is
never to have transgressed, give to the Lord the glory of their holiness. They
hearken for yet more commands, obeying as much by reverent listening as by
energetic action, and in this they teach us how the heavenly will should
evermore be done.
21. Bless ye the Lord,
all ye his hosts. To whatever race of creatures you
may belong, you are all his troops, and he is the general of all your armies.
All creatures should unite in praising their Creator, after the best of their
ability. Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. In whatever way you
serve him, bless him as you serve. The psalmist would have every servant in the
Lord’s palace unite with him, and all at once sing out the praises of the Lord.
We have attached a new sense to the word ministers in these latter days,
and so narrowed it down to those who serve in word and doctrine. Yet no true
minister would wish to alter it, for we are above all bound to be the Lord’s
servants, and we would, beyond all other ministering intelligences or forces,
desire to bless the glorious Lord.
22. Bless the Lord,
all his works in all places of his dominion.
Here is a trinity of blessing for the thrice blessed God, and each one of the
three blessings is an enlargement upon that which went before. This is the most
comprehensive of all, for what can be a wider call than to all in all places?
See how finite humans can awaken unbounded praise! Redeemed man is the voice of
nature, the priest in the temple of creation, the leader in the worship of the
universe. Oh that all the Lord’s works on earth were delivered from the vanity
to which they were made subject, and brought into the glorious liberty of the
children of God: the time is hastening on and will most surely come; then will
all the Lord’s works bless him indeed. The immutable promise is ripening; the
sure mercy is on its way. Hasten ye winged hours!
Bless the Lord,
O my soul. He closes on his key-note. He
cannot be content to call on others without taking his own part; nor because
others sing more loudly and perfectly will he be content to be set aside. O my
soul, come home to thyself and to thy God, and let the little world within thee
keep time and tune to the spheres which are ringing out Jehovah’s praise. O
infinitely blessed Lord, favor us with this highest blessing of being forever
and ever wholly engrossed in blessing thee.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
