Psalm 103:5
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.
One of life’s greatest blessings is the ability to enjoy simple pleasures, to be satisfied. It is possible to have all that the world has to offer and yet still find no pleasure in anything, no satisfaction. David, in this passage, reminds his soul to bless the LORD because He satisfies him with good. Here, David doesn’t talk about the things that God gives but rather the satisfaction that He brings our way. If you look keenly, God is the actual good and thus the satisfaction. This is the same idea that David communicates in Psalm 16:2:
I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”
Only in God do we have anything that is good and therefore satisfaction. To not have God is to not have good and therefore to never be satisfied. If you have ever enjoyed any good in this life, if you have known satisfaction, then you have a reason to be grateful. In God, as the Preacher would say in Ecclesiastes, we can enjoy food, marriage, and our work. Simple things can turn out to be cause for great satisfaction. And with that comes a renewal of our souls. All we can do as we ponder on this is, like David, to bless the Lord with all that is within us.
Reflections
1. In what ways have you enjoyed being satisfied by God?
2. Do you agree with the Psalmist that apart from God we have no good thing?
