This psalm looks on God, humans, and God’s mercy toward humankind: from these three, praise is born.
① 1Bless the Lord, my soul; all my being, bless his holy name!
2Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all his kindness; 3he forgives all your sins and heals all your sickness; 4he redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with love and compassion; 5he gives fulfillment to your years, and renews your youth like the eagle’s.
6The Lord restores justice and secures the rights of the oppressed.
7He has made known his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.
8The Lord is gracious and merciful, abounding in love and slow to anger; 9he will not always scold nor will he be angry forever. 10He does not treat us according to our sins, nor does he punish us as we deserve.
11As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his love for those fearing him; 12as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove from us our sins.
13As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him.
14For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
15The days of mortals are like grass; they bloom like a flower of the field;
16but the wind passes over it, and it is gone, his field will not see him again.
17But the Lord’s kindness is forever with those who fear him; so is his justice, for their children’s children, 18for those who keep his covenant and remember his commands, for those who put them into practice.
19The Lord has set his throne in heaven; he rules, he has power everywhere.
20Praise the Lord, all you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, you who obey his word.
21Praise the Lord, all his hosts, all his servants who do his will.
22Praise the Lord, all his works, everywhere he rules.
- Because of their origin and their inconsistency, humans are dust. They are also God’s creation and God’s children. God is all-powerful but his authentic greatness is his infinite capacity to love, to increase the flame of his love from his own fire. God’s characteristic is to be mercifully forgiving. In this regard, the psalmist uses a simple but grandiose image: the enormous distance between heaven and earth, the east and the west, is less representative of the greatness of God than of his merciful love. Christians will discover many resonances in this psalm:
– God is indulgent because he knows we are but dust, but also because he wanted to experience the human condition including suffering, death and even temptation.
– His pardon can be seen: the cross of Jesus Christ surmounting the world and history to the end of time.
– His covenant with Israel: definitive and universal.
– All the good that has come to us through Christ goes far beyond what the psalmist had hoped for: the truth of the Gospel and the grace of redemption leading us to eternal life.
– The permanence of the Church, the crowd of witnesses to Jesus Christ, those of yesterday and those of tomorrow, and finally our own experience of God in this life.
These are some of our reasons for hoping in God and for celebrating his immense glory.
