Bless the LORD, O my soul

I am not too technologically savvy, and I have not yet figured out how (or even tried) to put songs from iTunes on my computer on my iPhone. So, I have just 5 songs on my iPhone that were purchased on my phone. I discovered a few months ago that if I'm trying to get dishes or cooking done in the kitchen but Bram is being clingy (which may be always), that if I play those 5 songs on my iPhone as I cook/clean, he will happily and peacefully amuse himself in the kitchen as we listen to the music together. I'm kind of sick of those 5 songs, but pretty much every day we listen to them at least once through because - it works! Well a few days ago, I noticed when the song 10,000 Reasons came on my phone, that Abram started singing along. He says "hoey 'ame" when Matt Redman sings "worship His Holy Name". He also croons a little bit at the "O my soul" parts. It's adorable. So this caused me to pause and think about this now-very-familiar song again, and I decided, I love it.

Matt Redman seems to draw from King David's own musings recorded in Psalm 103:

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
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,
and his righteousness to his children's children,
to those who keep his covenant
and remember to do his commandments.
The LORD has establishes his throne in the heavens,
and his kingdom rules over all.

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!

The call of David for his own soul to bless the LORD seems be founded in David's belief of God's righteous character, His eternality, His authority and Kingship, and His mercy toward the people of Israel. What great reasons to praise God, and like Matt Redman, I could and should go on to list many thousand reasons for my heart to praise Him. One interesting thing about this Psalm though - it's all about Jesus. He fulfilled those verses David wrote about God's merciful works, that "He does not deal with us according to our sins" and "as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us". Under the Old Testament law, sin could not be entirely dealt with. Every day Jews had reason to go make sacrifices, culminating on the one day each year, the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would make a special sacrifice to cover any forgotten sins or unknown sins of the Jewish people. Of these sacrifices the writer of Hebrews says, "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God" (Hebrews 9:13-14). The Jewish sacrifices outlined in the Old Testament could make a man ceremonially clean, that is purify his body so that he could serve and worship in the Temple, but those sacrifices were not enough to "purify our conscience from dead works". God finally and fully accomplished His greatest and most merciful work of the Christian's salvation, when Christ died on the cross, absorbing the wrath of God for all the sins of all those who would believe in Him. Thus, making true David's words here about how He does not deal with the believer in Christ according to his sins, because Christ took the punishment on Himself on the cross. Bless the LORD, O my soul!