Bless the Lord, especially in the bleak times...

---

My last post was a tad bleak, I know. I was feeling bleak with discouragement regarding the topic of addiction as well as the harshness of this world. Yet, that’s OK - from time to time. The Psalms are full of human feelings as they reflect the human condition and emotions as they go up and down and all around. 

I am behind a few days on my Advent book readings and wouldn’t you know it, when I picked it up to read this morning I discovered that I was right where I needed to be!

Psalm 103:1 - “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name”.

In the English translations of the Bible, the soul is mentioned more times in Psalms than any other book. As I read through Psalm 103, building myself up with encouragement in God’s Word I see that to actively bless the LORD through my soul I must first not forget all His benefits - which listed in verses 3 - 5 are: who forgives all my iniquity; who heals all my diseases; who redeemed my life out of the pit; who crowns me with steadfast love and mercy; who satisfied me  with good so that my youth is renewed like the eagles. And then this Psalm goes on in 17 more verses to declare the awesomeness of the LORD and all those verses build me up and enable my soul to declare “Bless the LORD!” No matter that specific solutions may not be at hand, the Lord is specifically worthy of blessing. Specific problems in our lives can send us in search for specific solutions. What if there is no present specific solution? 

Faith. That is where faith comes in. Faith that we serve a God who is beyond our comprehension. In the times when I am frustrated with what I see, well, bless the LORD O my soul!

In closing, I wanted to write down the way the Hebrew Interlinear Bible literally translates to bless the LORD. I love the way it sounds.

Psalm 103:22

Bless you - Yahweh - all of deeds of him - in all of places of dominion of him - bless you - soul of me.