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Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure

orange yellow morning sky over the ocean

“Bless the Lord, my soul. My whole heart,   

    Ever bless His holy name.” ~ Psalm 103.1


May I submit to you that to look not to your own needs but to that of others and to trust God to meet your needs is the most blessed way to live? As you approach this path, you find your self sensibilities going by the wayside forcing you to suspend judgment. What this says when you choose to live this way, is that you trust God more than you trust what you see. As you seek to bless the Lord, you fulfill his pleasure. You are living in real time by faith and not by sight. It feels strange at first, but then, seemingly out of nowhere, comes joy.


“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” ~ John 15:10-11


Consider the seeds of blessings and where they are sown to fulfill his pleasure.


“Bless the LORD, my soul. Forget not

    All His blessings to proclaim.” ~ Psalm 103:2


Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure on the path


When you don’t perceive God’s blessings, you are tempted to become or to remain hardened and embittered as seed that falls on the path and doesn’t take root. Instead, ask for a vulnerable heart that desires nothing more than to bless the Lord. Judah went from Tamar’s accuser to conceding that she was more righteous than he was. He went from having no concern for his brother, Joseph, or for his father, Jacob, to a self-sacrificing man who did whatever he could to minimize his father’s distress. God won’t refuse to give the gift of repentance to anyone who asks for it.


When you are consumed with Jesus, that becomes obvious when the relational, physical, and emotional storms hit. You feel the wind of the storm, but you are still standing. Your feelings have a place to go where they are not in charge, yet neither are they ignored. You are living with the end in mind and so although your feelings have to wait, they are acknowledged. You don’t have to fake it. Singing Psalm 103, you can be real in sorrow and in joy at the same time. You ask the Lord to build a bridge of connection that leads you to himself. Jesus is that bridge. He establishes the rapport that transforms relationships for all who come to him in trust and go through him to connect to others his way, following his lead every step of the journey that includes rest stops. It’s an almost surreal transformation where you want others in your life, but because God is your all-in-all and truly meets all your needs, you are clinging to him so that you no longer need to cling to others. This frees them up to be in your life because they want to be and not because they fear that you would fall apart without them. Bless the Lord, my soul. My whole heart, ever bless his holy name.


Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure in the rocks


Temptations to remain shallow are like seed that falls on rocky soil. When relationships can’t be maneuvered the way you want them to be, they can be easily rejected since there is no deep root. This was the folly of Amnon consulting his crafty cousin Jonadab about his alleged love for Tamar that turned into a hate that surpassed any love that he thought he had ever felt for her. Absalom sought to preserve Tamar’s dignity, but he did not wait for the Lord to avenge his sister. Instead he built up his own hatred toward Amnon over years until he plotted to have him killed. Rather than acting on shallow or misplaced love, you can choose to go deep into God’s word to know and love the only one who satisfies thus fulfilling his pleasure and considering the needs of others as more important than your own.


“Has not dealt with us as sinners,

    Punishing iniquity.” ~ Psalm 103:10

“Far as east from west is distant,

    He has put away our sin.” ~ Psalm 103:12


When the Lord is your closest relationship and you wait on him for all the other relationships that he has for you, it also frees you up to bless him and rejoice in him without having to wait for anyone else’s approval, without looking to see if others are happy with you before you can be at peace. No one else ought to have that kind of pull because whoever has that kind of pull over you is your functional god. When all your life is centered around the one true God and fulfilling his pleasure, you run it by his word before choosing what to think, say, and do. He helps you by his Holy Spirit that lives within you to discern and know whether or not he is pleased. If the Lord is pleased with you, then you can be pleased. You are not subject to anyone else’s judgment. Before your own master you stand or fall. You certainly care about others, and you do your best to try to please them. But if you have not yet been successful at pleasing them, you remain willing and available to try again whenever the Lord gives you opportunity. You continue to be ever thankful that the Lord placed these dear ones in your life for a time. You cherish the memories of countless shared experiences that are ongoing gifts of joy that you would not trade and that no one can take away. Meanwhile, you go on rejoicing in the Lord as you give to those he places in your path, not playing on the surface rocks but seeking to plant deep roots. The Lord knows whom he intends to set free by your desire to fulfill his pleasure, by your example of allegiance to him and his truth in the face of your trials. Bless the Lord, my soul. My whole heart, ever bless his holy name.


“And His righteousness continues

    To their children and their seed,

To all those who keep His cov’nant

    And his laws recall and heed.” ~ Psalm 103:18


Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure in the thorns

(amid distractions)


You are tempted to seek your own pleasure when seed is sown among the thorns which chokes out your ability to fulfill his pleasure. Stay focused on God’s covenant with you that secures his everlasting love for you. Joshua, in the face of many choices before him, chose to serve the Lord.


God tells us who he is in his word because we need to know that he is the only God and that he made us for himself. He has no need to brag about himself. His glory is obvious. He tells us who he is so that we aren’t deceived when others claim what only he can deliver. He does not need our praises, but we need to praise him for our own good. He is a jealous God for our own good. There can be no other. No competition for our hearts. Singing Psalm 103 it’s clear that we run on God alone. Bless the Lord, my soul. My whole heart, ever bless his holy name.


“He with love and mercy crowns you,

    Satisfies your years with good;

So that you will, like the eagle,

    With youth’s vigor be renewed.” ~ Psalm 103:5


Are you aware that you were heading to destruction and that it was God’s kindness that diverted you from it? When you understand that deep in your soul, you bless the Lord from the depths of your being.


“He redeems you from destruction,

    And with you He kindly deals.” ~ Psalm 103:4


“For as high as are the heavens

    Far above the earth below,

Just as great to those who fear Him

    Is the steadfast love He’ll show.“ ~ Psalm 103:11


To fear God is to respect him. You anticipate and trust that whatever he brings about in your life is a necessary part of his faithfully 

loving you. He is either keeping you from something you want that would hurt you, or he is using the hurts he brings to grow you.


“For our frame, He well remembers;

    That we’re merely dust He knows.” ~ Psalm 103:14


“As for man, like grass, his days are;

As the meadow’s flower, he grows. When the wind has blown upon it,

In a moment it is gone;

In the place where once it flourished, It will nevermore be known.” ~ Psalm 103:15-16


God teaches us about the formation of relationships through the fall of relationships. The foundations of relationships are allegiance and a restoring of allegiance. Without the breaking of loyalty, we wouldn’t learn the value of it, that it took the death of the Father’s and the Holy Spirit’s closest relationship to restore it.


No sooner was Peter reinstated in his relationship with the Lord Jesus than he began to get distracted inquiring about what would become of John. Jesus then asked him a rhetorical question and redirected his thoughts: “What is that to you? You follow me!”


The Lord forever shows us how important our loyal union to him is by how much it cost him to purchase it back once it was broken. To have faith in him, trusting that God did this out of love for us is the least we can do, yet what we must do to fulfill his pleasure. If we don’t trust Jesus, we spit in his face, not caring at all that he died to save us. He knows our frame. We are weak and must depend on God since without him we are like flowers that fade to dust and can do nothing. He made provision to help us remember whose we are periodically, using all of our senses, through the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. We remember that we are one with him when we take in his presence of body and blood. It’s this communion with him that is a sign pointing to the fact that we are connected to him always and also points us to look forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. It is beyond our ability to imagine this wedding feast and the everlasting, perfect marriage that proceeds from it. But we can use our senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, to do all we can to try to imagine it. We can also use all of our senses to keep ourselves from idols when each of those senses are filled up with the one true God.


“In the heavens by the LORD’s hand

    He established there His throne.

Over all is His dominion;

    He is King and He alone.” ~ Psalm 103:19


Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure in the good soil


“But the LORD’s great loving kindness 

    On all those who fear His name,

From eternity continues

    To eternity the same.” ~ Psalm 103:17


You are tempted to seek your own timing. Wait for the harvest as you continue to plant and water with eyes on Jesus who has the perfect timing when he will bring about the results.


In fact, Jesus said you will produce a harvest 100, 60, or 30 times what you planted. Do you believe him though you don’t yet see it? He wants you to live by faith and not by sight. In this way, you fulfill his pleasure like Abraham trusted God’s promise concerning Isaac even in light of God’s direction that seemed to contradict it. Job learned to live through patience with friends who doubted his integrity because his life didn’t look blessed for a time. Singing Psalm 49 you learn that men will praise you when you do good things for yourself, but though people may honor you, if you are not wise, your end is the same as the beasts that perish. The Lord asked Baruch if he seeks great things for himself. He then tells him to seek them not. In the end, Job was vindicated by the Lord and blessed his friends by praying for them. In the face of the Lord’s giving and in the face of the Lord’s taking away, and as he worked through his conflicting and condemning feelings, he blessed the name of the Lord and fulfilled his pleasure by trusting in him in spite of all his losses. He received many good things that he did not seek for himself to the chagrin of his friends who were certain that they would be commended by the Lord rather than Job.


Can you accept, as Job learned, that suffering is an opportunity for blessings by how you respond to them? If Job hadn’t suffered, he wouldn’t have had the chance to show his allegiance to God. We would all still be wondering if Job loved God or just the relationships and stuff God gave to him. How you respond when it all gets taken away shows your true colors, whether your love for God is real or fake. You have a choice when you suffer. You either dig in your heels and curse God in your pain or you search your heart, embrace repentance, and bless God’s name with all your heart just as you did before your pain.


Singing Psalm 103 you fulfill his pleasure and get high


Though it’s not your intent or motivation, when your desire is to fulfill his pleasure, you cannot help but feel good over time without second-guessing yourself, without lingering guilt, not wondering if you’ve made a mistake or broken the law, not fearing consequences, no let downs after the high, and no withdrawals.


When your mind wants to connect with the Lord but your heart is not there, cry out to God and don’t wait until your heart wants to. Lay it all out there before him. He will know what to do with it, how to sort through it and make sense of it. Let him know what’s on your mind that makes you want to connect with him. Let him know what your heart fears. What makes your heart reluctant to cry out to him? Sometimes there are no words but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. When you are willing to fulfill his pleasure by obeying him, waiting for his answer, and putting your pleasure on hold, you will get to a high place that you cannot quite describe with words. You will feel serene in your standing with him knowing the Lord is yours and you are his. You came to him when you were weary and burdened, and he gave you rest for your soul as promised. Your peace is pure, free and clear with no regrets. You are drug-free but high nonetheless. It's what Stephen likely felt when he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father after he spoke the truth to those who opposed God. He asked the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit and asked also that God would not hold the sin against those who were in the process of stoning him.


“He shall intervene with justice

    For all those who are oppressed;

For their sake the LORD takes action,

    Governing in righteousness.” ~ Psalm 103:6


“Like the pity of a father,

    Has the LORD’s compassion been.” ~ Psalm 103:13


You are in a battle for your affections. Will you believe that God cares for you or will you believe the lie that the serpent gave to Adam and Eve? Convinced that God didn’t care about them, they took matters into their own hands. If you are anxious and taking matters into your own hands, could the source of that be that you have been deceived into believing that God doesn’t care for you? Singing Psalm 103 you know armies have been employed to help you win that battle. And the Lord Jesus, the perfect combination of commander-in-chief and compassionate father, has already won the war. He enables you to fight the good fight of faith with confidence that your sin is atoned for and your labor is not in vain. God is not only perfectly able but also exceedingly willing to care for you. You might have never known the pity of a father. But in singing Psalm 103 you learn that such a thing exists, and it originates from your father who made you. Don’t spurn the perfect discipline that your heavenly father sends in love to save you. Don’t fall for the lie that he has nefarious self-interest for sending pain your way.


Imagine that you had the power to do almost anything. Would you choose to obey the voice of God’s word to fulfill his pleasure? Michael and Gabriel did and do because they know he is good and what pleases him is only good. Lucifer didn’t and doesn’t because he believes himself to be better than God. What would you do?


Might I suggest that God’s grace would incline your heart so that you would not only obey him but that you won’t want to stop? And like the holy angels, you will one day indeed not be able to stop yourself from fulfilling his pleasure!


“Bless the LORD, you mighty angels,

     You that hear and do His will.

Bless the LORD, all you His servants

    Who His pleasure do fulfill.

Bless the LORD, all you His armies,

You His works, with one accord

In all parts of His dominion;

O my soul, O bless the LORD.” ~ Psalm 103:20-22



May 1, 2022 - October 4, 2024


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