The Scripure:
Psalm 103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
The Song:
Bless the Lord, Oh my soul:
And all that is within me,
bless His holy name.
For He has done great things!
Hallelujah!
He has done great things!
Hallelujah!
He has done great things!
Bless His holy name.
For as long as I can remember singing that song, I've always sang the "and all that is within me" part with the thought of blessing God with ALL that I've got, blessing Him with my very best, blessing Him to the best of my ability, blessing Him from the depth of my being with every ounce of energy and love and loyalty I can come up with...
And I still think those things are true expressions of my worship through that song (and not a 'wrong' way to sing the song)... But those words "and all that is within me" became fresh for me this weekend during Ward Church -- God gave me a new spin on it...a new way to worship Him through a song that I've heard and sang for years and years!
We were singing "bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me." And I was painfully aware - more aware than I would like to be- of the things in me that do not bless God - my selfishness, my lack of patience, the unbridled words in my head and heart and mouth...just to name a few. So the song lyric (which also happens to be scripture!) became my prayer -- may ALL that is within me be something that blesses the Lord...and may He get rid of all the things in me that do not bless Him.
Sometimes God allows us to forget about ourselves as we worship Him...and sometimes He allows us to come face to face with the reality of ourselves as we worship Him - and then we're able to worship Him even more wholeheartedly as we realize our wretchedness and how much He loves us in the midst of our pitiful state.
I don't know if this is really making sense through a blog post...but it made all kinds of sense to my heart on Sunday.
And then we moved on to "and He has done great things..." -- Yes, He has!!! So many great things. Some of the great things I'm thanking Him for right now: forgiveness, mercies that are new every morning, abundant patience, gracious understanding, wholehearted love.
If you have a few minutes and want to worship through this song, here's a youtube link to it (just click the arrow):
