Summary
Gratefulness in Prayer
Psalm 103:1 opens with King David doing something striking: he is talking to himself. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." This kind of self-address is common in Scripture (Psalm 42:5; Psalm 104:1; Psalm 116:7). The "soul" in biblical usage is not merely a spiritual compartment but the whole person—mind, body, will, emotions, personality. David is summoning every part of himself to greet, thank, and praise the Lord.
The pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones once observed that the major cause of unhappiness in the Christian life is that we listen to ourselves rather than talk to ourselves. Left unchecked, the inner monologue rehearses yesterday's bad conversation, projects fear onto tomorrow, and whispers, "I don't know where God is" or "I can't make it through this." David's remedy in Psalm 103 is to stop listening and start preaching truth to his own soul.
What does he preach? Five benefits from the Lord, each one meant to be remembered and refused forgetfulness. Forgiveness—"who forgives all your iniquity"—the cleansing accomplished in the substitutionary death of Christ, the Lamb of God who bore the wrath of God for our sin. Healing—"who heals all your diseases"—chiefly the healing of sin's disease through the blood of Jesus, with the promise that every infirmity is finally undone in the resurrection. Redemption from the pit—the grave itself is conquered, so that to die in Christ is to be immediately with him in paradise, with our bodies raised on the last day to live with God body and soul forever. Steadfast love and mercy—a theme that pulses through the whole psalm (Psalm 103:8, 11, 17). And renewed strength—"your youth is renewed like the eagle's"—echoing Isaiah 40:31, a strength that comes not from our own resources but from radical dependence on God.
This is exactly the counsel Martin Luther gave his barber, Peter Beskendorf, when asked how to pray. Luther wrote a thirty-four-page reply in which he described his own practice: take a psalm, take a passage of Scripture, and speak it to yourself. Don't rise in the morning or go to bed at night without speaking two, three, or four passages of Scripture to your own soul. For Luther, prayer was Scripture-born. When the Word forms the prayer, the believer is rescued from the rut of repeating the same phrases, and prayer becomes fresh, specific, and rooted in what God has actually said see "Gratefulness in Prayer" 11-20-22.
The fruit of such Scripture-formed self-talk is gratitude. When Psalm 103 forms the prayer, thanksgiving naturally rises: Thank you, Lord, that you have forgiven all my iniquities. Thank you that my sins are cast as far as the east is from the west Psalm 103:12. Thank you for healing me of sin's disease through the blood of Jesus. Thank you for redeeming me from the grave, for your steadfast love and mercy, for the strength that lifts me up like an eagle's wings. The Word God gives us to remember becomes the Word we offer back to him.
This is grace upon grace: God supplies both halves of the conversation. He gives us, in Scripture, what to tell ourselves about him—his benefits, his promises, his character—and he gives us the very words to speak back to him in praise. Gratefulness in prayer is not a mood we have to manufacture; it is what happens when the soul stops listening to itself and starts blessing the Lord.
Video citations
- "Gratefulness in Prayer" 11-20-22 — Would you open your Bibles Please with me for our study today to Psalm 103. If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that in the Old Testament page 517. Psalm 103 for…