Day 173. Psalms 103-105

Psalm 103
In the great hymn of praise—and it is a very great hymn indeed—certainly one of my favorites—the psalmist begins by commanding his "soul" to bless the LORD. The word "soul" is a confusing choice here. The Old Testament does not know a concept of the soul in the way the Greek philosophers did, as a non-corporeal, immortal expression of a person, linked to the body and yet independent of it. When the voice of the psalm says—"Bless the LORD, O my soul"—he is speaking to his own self. The "soul" here is the being which lives in personal relationship to God—the soul is the part of us which God helps, heals, redeems, and satisfies with his "steadfast love and mercy" (103:4). The psalm celebrates that intimate, personal relationship that the voice of the psalm has with God. God is to him like a loving parent. "As a father has compassion for his children," he says, "so the LORD has compassion for those who fear him" (13).
The LORD understands us better than we understand ourselves. He makes allowances—"he remembers that we are dust" (14). He knows that our existence, unlike his own, is fleeting. The shortness of human life is a recurring theme in the Book of Psalms, and it is always compared with eternality of the LORD, whose "steadfast love" is "from everlasting to everlasting" (17). The LORD is the one who is worshiped for his faithfulness. He kept his promises to Israel. He keeps his promises to individual believers. Therefore, according to the psalmist, he is altogether worthy of the praise, not only of mortals, but of "angels," those "mighty ones who do [God's] bidding, obedient to his spoken word" (20). These spirits also are commanded to "bless the LORD" together with humankind—which is what both humans and angels were created to do. Indeed the whole universe—all God's works are commanded to "bless the LORD" (22)—together
with the soul—the self—of the psalmist—a single unity of worship. No corner of the LORD's dominion is exempted from obedience. What a wonderful psalm! It is certainly in the running to be my favorite.
Psalm 104
Again the psalmist calls upon his soul—his own self—his whole being--to "bless the LORD," together with the whole creation. This a creation psalm—in poetic terms it describes creation and ascribes to God the creator, absolute authority over it. God first creates the heavens (104:2) and then the earth and the sea (5-9). The gift of water sustains wild animals and birds (10-12)—water "makes" them. God makes "darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out" (20). God makes darkness; darkness "makes" a refuge for the animals of the night. Human beings, creatures of the day, also fit into this picture, "going out to their work, and to their labor until the evening" (23). All things fit together into a single stupendous whole, and the "wisdom" of the LORD is responsible for all of it. But for the psalmist, human beings are not the final link of this chain of being. In the sea God created living
things "both great and small," but the most wonderful by far is "Leviathan"—the psalmist has in mind a whale, perhaps, a enormous beast which God makes just for the fun of creating—for the sport of it. Indeed all creation is made "the sport of it"--for God to delight in, and to keep him company, and to give him something to take care of. (Everybody needs a job.) He gives every creature "food in due season" (27). His attention is life to them; his neglect of them is death (29). The voice of the psalm resolves to "sing to the LORD as long as" he lives, and to "sing praise to [his] God while [he has] his being" (33). While he has his soul he will use it to praise the LORD. And as he ends his hymn, he humbly craves God's favor for his "meditation," and once more commands his "soul"—he can never do it too often--to "bless the LORD" (35).
Psalm 105
This hymn of praise --#105--retells the story of Israel, the story of the "offspring of Abraham . . . , his chosen ones" (6), in order to demonstrate that the "steadfast love" of God always keeps its promises and is continually "mindful" of the covenant he has made with his chosen ones. God chose the people of Israel when "they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in [the land,] wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, and he allowed no one to oppress them" (12-13). He chose them from among the nations and protected and provided for them because they are his "anointed ones" and his "prophets" (15). The psalmist tells the story of how God used Joseph "who was sold as a slave" (17), to provide for his people in a time of famine. And when Israel was reduced to slavery in Egypt, God used his "chosen" servants Moses and Aaron, to smite Egypt with plagues and to bring the people out
with signs and wonders. He cared for "the children of Abraham" in the wilderness, providing them miraculously with food and water—all this he did because he "remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant" (42). So God remembered the covenant he had made so long ago (11), he brought Israel out of Egypt "with joy, his chosen ones with singing" (43). And as he had promised, he gave them the "lands of the nations" and established them there, "so that they might keep his statutes and observe his laws" (45). So that by their obedience they might fulfill their destiny as God's chosen ones.