Two Thoughts from Psalm 103

Last night, Michelle and I were praying from Psalm 103, which is one of my favorite passages. A couple of thoughts struck me as we read. The first was a thought from verses 14-17. It is a simple thought, but one that is deeply reassuring to me:

“For he knows our frame he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him…”

That image that we are dust feels so true some times. There are times when you feel weak, dry, insubstantial, like dust. You feel passing and light, tossed around by the wind. You feel breakable. Your life feels like it is small. We tire and crack. And in the end it all blows away. But then the hope…the love of the Lord is forever. When our life feels insubstantial and tiring, the love of God is real. It is solid. It lasts. It is the ultimate reality. The love of God is firm and substantive, rich and full. And God’s love is for those who fear him, people like you and me who can seem to face the reality of God because we are so fleeting and weak. We are small and humble before God, and his love is for us. His love for us is everlasting. The reality behind our life is the unchanging, solid love of God. That is good news.

The second thought is from verses 20-22:

“Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!”

Most times when I read this Psalm, these are the verses that are the least exciting for me. Telling the angels to bless the Lord seems sort of distant from my life, sort of hard to imagine, and frankly, I figured angels know better than I do that they ought to praise God. Isn’t that what they do all the time? It is weird if God’s angels don’t praise him.

But then I realized, perhaps we ought to marvel at the fact that the angels praise God? Perhaps it is a wonder that the angelic hosts bow their knee. Have you noticed how every time an angel appears in the Bible, they have to say, “Don’t be afraid!”? Have you ever imagined what it would be like to actually see the leader of the heavenly army, like Joshua did, or be visited by the cherubim who guard the very presence of God, like Ezekiel, or be stopped on the road by a angel sent to kill you like Balaam? It would be terrifying! John, in the book of Revelation had to be told not to worship the angels because that was his instinctive response to seeing one. Perhaps if we realized the fierceness and the beauty of angels we would marvel that they submit to anyone at all. We might be amazed that they bow down to any being or worship anything. We don’t expect a tornado to obey anyone’s command? We don’t expect the sun to do what someone says? Lightning and volcanoes and stars and fires do not submit to anyone, why should angels? Why should the warriors of heaven? Perhaps if we knew the nature of angels we wouldn’t find an angelic rebellion so surprising?…Until we encountered God. Because God is the one who commands, and the angels obey. God is the one who speaks a word, and the fiercest most uncontrollable beings in existence do what he says. God, with the voice to shape winds and waves and flame, whose whispers break mountains and melt glaciers, God is to be feared and obeyed. All his works submit to him. All his works praise him.

Even the angels.
Even the forces of nature.
Even the dust.

Because this same God is the one whose love is from everlasting to everlasting. Alleluia. Amen.