Week 6
Day 2

    Listen:

Psalms Celebrating Redemption and Salvation by the Lord

“Forget not all His benefits.”

Psalm 103

Of David.

Bless Jehovah, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless the name of His holiness.

Bless Jehovah, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits:

Who pardons all thine iniquity;

Who heals all thy sicknesses;

Who redeems thy life from the ditch;

Who crowns thee with mercy and compassions;

Who satisfies thy mouth with good,

So that thy youth may renew itself as the eagle.

Jehovah does justice

And judgment for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses,

To the sons of Israel His actions.

Compassionate and gracious is Jehovah,

Slow to anger and great in mercy....

For as the heavens are lofty above the earth,

So His mercy is mighty on those who fear Him....

As a father has compassion upon sons,

Jehovah has compassion upon those who fear Him.

For He knows our formation;

He remembers that we are dust....

But the mercy of Jehovah is from eternity and even to eternity upon those who fear Him,

And His justice to the sons of sons;

To those who keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His precepts to do them.

Jehovah has established His throne in the heavens

And His kingdom rules in all.

Bless Jehovah, ye His angels,

Mighty in power,

Doing His Word,

To obey the voice of His Word.

Bless Jehovah, all ye His armies;

His ministers who do His good pleasure.

Bless Jehovah, O my soul!

Bless Jehovah, O my soul (v. 1).

AC 1422. I will bless those who bless thee [Gen. 12:3]. That this signifies all happiness to those who acknowledge the Lord from the heart, is evident from the signification of a “blessing,” as involving all and each of the things that are from the Lord, as well those that are good as those that are true; thus celestial, spiritual, natural, worldly, and bodily things....

[2] Among the ancients, “to bless Jehovah,” or “the Lord,” was a customary form of speech.... We read that Zacharias and Simeon “blessed God” (Luke 1:64, 2:28) . Here it is evident that “to bless the Lord” is to sing to Him, to proclaim the good tidings of His salvation, to preach His wisdom and power, and thus to confess and acknowledge the Lord from the heart. Those who do this cannot help but be blessed by the Lord, that is, be gifted with those things which belong to blessing, namely, with celestial, spiritual, natural, worldly, and bodily good. These blessings, when they follow each other in this order, are the good things in which there is happiness.

But the mercy of Jehovah is from eternity and even to eternity upon those who fear Him (v. 17).

AC 8717:3. ...Divine Blessing is to be happy to eternity. The Lord regards such things as are of brief duration, as relatively are the things of this world, no otherwise than as means to eternal things. Therefore also the Lord provides for the good, who receive His mercy in time, such things as contribute to the happiness of their eternal life: riches and honors for those to whom they are not hurtful, and no riches and honors for those to whom they would be hurtful. Nevertheless to these latter He gives in time, in the place of honors and riches, to be glad with a few things, and to be more content than the rich and honored.

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