Bless the Lord, my
soul; all my being, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, my soul; and do not forget all
his gifts… For as the heavens tower over the earth, so his mercy
towers over those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed
our sins from us… The Lord has set his throne in
heaven; his dominion extends over all. Bless the Lord, all you his angels, mighty in
strength, acting at his behest, obedient to his command…[1]
I recall my days in the Baptist
church when the pastor would tell us that, when we accept Christ as our Lord
and Savior, all of our sins are forgiven—past, present, and future. Our passage negates that premise, as does the
prophet, Ezekiel, when he declares: “…If the just turn away from their right
conduct and do evil when I place a stumbling block before them, then they shall
die … and the just deeds that they performed will not be remembered on their
behalf.”[2] If someone was to protest, saying, “That was
before Jesus died and rose,” I would respond, “God does not change.” God does forgive all our sins—past, present,
and future—nevertheless, not without repentance. If there is no sorrow over our sins, then we
exhibit that we are not born again, that God’s nature is not within us. It is this nature within us that our passage
alludes to.
Bless
the Lord, my soul. I have, in the
past, wondered, “Why does the psalmist tell his soul to bless the Lord; why
does he not just praise the Lord?” The
second sentence goes to explain this: All
my being, bless his holy name! This
tells us that everything we say and do should go to exhibit the nature of God,
His goodness—even our thoughts. It is
only in this way that we can bless the
Lord.
St. Augustine clarifies: “I suppose
that he speaks not of what is within the body; I do not suppose him to mean
this: that our lungs and liver, and so forth, are to burst forth into the voice
of blessing of the Lord … but this is not the meaning here. All this relates to the ears of men. God has “ears”:
the heart also has a voice. A man speaks
to the things within him, that they may bless God, and says unto them, ‘All
that is within me, bless His holy Name!’”
When we speak tell our soul to do things, what we are doing is reminding
ourselves that everything we think, say, and do should portray Christ-likeness.
The saint continues: “Do you ask the
meaning of what is within you? Your soul
itself. In saying then, ‘All that is
within me, bless His holy Name,’ it only repeats [that which precedes it], ‘Bless
the Lord, O my soul,’ for the word ‘bless’ is understood: Cry out with your
voice if there be a man to hear; hush your voice when there is no man to hear
you. There is never lacking one to hear
all that is within you… When you go to
church to recite a hymn, your voice sounds forth the praises of God. You have sung as far as you could. You have left the church; let your soul sound
the praises of God. You are engaged in your
daily work; let your soul praise God. You
are taking food; see what the Apostle says: ‘Whether you eat or drink, do all
to the glory of God.’ I venture to say:
When you sleep, let your soul praise the Lord. Let not thoughts of crime arouse you; let not
the contrivances of thieving arouse you; let not arranged plans of corrupt
dealing arouse you. Your innocence, even
when you are sleeping, is the voice of your soul.”[3] When we turn our minds towards this
direction, we are proving that God’s nature is within us, that we are children
of God.
Bless
the Lord, my soul; and do not forget all his gifts. We can only remember to bless God if we
recall the gifts He has given us. St.
Augustine teaches us: “The rewards of the Lord cannot be before your eyes
unless your sins are before your eyes. Let
not delight in past sin be before your eyes, but let the condemnation of sin be
before your eyes--condemnation from you, forgiveness from God. For thus God rewards you: so that you may say,
‘How shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?’ … You have rewarded
good with evil; He rewards evil with good. How have you, O man, rewarded your God with
evil for good? You who have once been a
blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious have rewarded blasphemies. For what good things? First, because you are
[existing]--but a stone also is. Next,
because you live—but [an animal] also lives. What reward will you give the Lord for His
having created you above all the cattle and above all the fowls of the air, in
His image and likeness? Seek not how to
reward Him. Give back unto Him His own
image. He requires no more: He demands
His own coin (Mt 22:21). Think … of all
the rewards of God [by] thinking over all your wicked deeds, for as many as are
your sins, so many are His rewards of good. And what present, what offering, what
sacrifice, can you ever tender unto Him?
What will you reward the Lord with? … Reward Him not from your own. God does not will to be rewarded from your
own. If you reward Him from your own, you
reward sin…. All that you have you have from Him [because] sins only [do you
have of] own. He does not wish to be
rewarded from yours; He does [desire] from His own.”[4] For example, love has God given us—love is
not of our own making—therefore, love for Him and love of neighbor is what He
desires—requires—from us. Justice is
from Him; therefore, justice He desires of us.
St. Augustine goes on to clarify: “If
you … choose to reward Him from your own, you will lie. He who speaks a lie, speaks of his own (Jn
8:44). If he who speaks a lie speaks of
his own, [then] he who speaks truth speaks of the Lord’s. What is ‘to receive the cup of salvation’ but
to imitate the Passion of our Lord? ‘I will receive the cup of Christ; I will
drink of our Lord’s Passion.’ Beware
that you fail not. But, ‘I will call
upon the Name of the Lord.’ They then
who failed called not upon the Lord; they presumed in their own strength. [Return to the Lord], remembering that you are
returning what you have received. So
then let your soul bless the Lord, as not to forget all His rewards.”[5]
As
far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. How far is the east from the west? It can be far; nevertheless, it can be
near. We live on East Burgess Road; but,
as soon as you cross Palafox St., it becomes West Burgess. Therefore, what is the psalmist referring to? Let’s listen to the explanation of St.
Augustine: “When sin is remitted, your sins fall [and] grace rises; your sins
are, as it were, on the decline [and] grace, which frees you, on the rise… Your grace is born; your sins fall. You are, in a certain manner, made new. You should look to the rising and turn away
from the setting. Turn away from your
sins; turn unto the grace of God. When
your sins fall, you rise and profit.”[7]
When St. Augustine said, “You should
look to the rising and turn away from the setting,” he was referring to a
practice in the early Church wherein the catechumens, prior to being baptized, looked
toward the west while they renounced Satan and then turned away towards the
east, towards Christ.[8]
This is also why the main doors of most
Catholic Churches are facing west. You
enter, leaving Satan and the world, going east, towards Christ.
The
Lord has set his throne in heaven; his dominion extends over all. As St. Augustine states, “Who but Christ has
prepared His throne in Heaven?” This
brings up another question: Why did Jesus ascend in His manhood? Is it not because, by virtue of His work on
earth and His death and resurrection, man can overcome his enslavement to sin,
ascending into an image of Him? Do those
in His kingdom resemble Him or the world?
Bless
the Lord, all you his angels, mighty in strength, acting at his behest, obedient
to his command. Blessing the Lord
and obedient to his command goes
together. It is impossible to bless the Lord and be disobedient. It is for this reason that the psalmist
continues: Bless the Lord, all you his
hosts, his ministers who carry out his will. Bless the Lord, all his creatures, everywhere
in his domain.[9]
We must constantly remind ourselves
to allow our soul, the inner man, to control our physical bodies. If we believe God is who He says He is—GOD—must
that not require obedience? Many people
justify their sins by saying, “I’m not perfect; God knows my heart.” It is true that we are not perfect. It is also true that God knows our hearts;
however, we do not know our own hearts.
The prophet Jeremiah warns us that the pride of our hearts beguiles us.[10] He also reminds us, “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?”[11] Sinful man believes he has a good heart;
nevertheless, he does not know his own heart.
Many people thin that, because they believe in Jesus and have accepted
Him as their Lord and Savior, God will not hold them accountable for their
sins. They believe they have a good
heart. Judah, the southern kingdom,
believed they were serving God; nonetheless, God told Jeremiah, “This people’s
heart is stubborn and rebellious.”[12] We will be better off believing our hearts
are sick, repent, and ask the Physician to heal us; and then command our souls,
“Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being,
bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, my
soul; and do not forget all his gifts.”
[1] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Ps 103:1-2, 11-12, 19–20.
[2] Ibid.,
Eze 3:20.
[3]
Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin:
Expositions on the Book of Psalms, 1888, 8, 503–504.
[4]
Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin:
Expositions on the Book of Psalms, 1888, 8, 504.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.,
508.
[7]
Augustine of Hippo, Saint Augustin:
Expositions on the Book of Psalms, 1888, 8, 508.
[8] St. Cyril’s Catechetical
Lectures, lect. xix. Tr. p. 259.
[9] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Ps 103:21–22.
[10] Ibid.,
Je 49:16.
[11]
Catholic Biblical Association (Great Britain), The Holy Bible:
Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, (New York: National
Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, 1994), Je 17:9.
[12] New American Bible,
Revised Edition., (Washington, DC: The United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, 2011), Je 5:23.
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