“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”
Psalm 103:1
We don’t know the Psalmist’s frame of mind, when he penned these words. He may have been in deep despair or profoundly troubled. But he is not content to remain there, and he knows the solution. He must take himself to task, and speak forcefully into his own heart and soul. And so, perhaps in spite of how he feels, David commands his soul to bless the Lord.
You may be discouraged or despairing this morning. You may not feel like blessing the Lord, but if you should follow David’s example, the feelings will follow. Charles Spurgeon, who was often plagued with depression and despair, wrote the following words at just 20 years of age:
“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.
Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.”
May God help us to turn from the destructive path of self-pity, and turn our hearts and souls to the Great Physician, who is Himself, the true balm for every sorrow!