COUNT (Psalm 103)

Psalm 103:15 talks about how even flowers of the field (like this

one) are transitory, just as we are in our earthly existence.

(Part of a series on the 48 psalms recommended for study during times of "feeling down," from pastor/counselor David Seamands' book Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

Psalm 103 has a lot in common with an old hymn, “Count Your Blessings,” that from time to time has helped lift me out of emotional doldrums. First published in a hymnal for young people, it later reached an international audience when evangelist Gypsy Smith used it in his London crusades. The London Daily reported: “Men sing it, the boys whistle it, and the women rock their babies to sleep on this hymn.” During the great revival in Wales, it was a must-sing at every service along with “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” and “O That Will be Glory.”  Its author, Johnson Oatman Jr., wrote hymns on the side after his “day job” in the mercantile and insurance businesses. When he died in 1922, he left behind 5,000 hymn texts, the best-known probably being “Higher Ground,” “No, Not One,” and “Count Your Blessings,” whose chorus resounds:

 Count your blessings—name them one by one; 

Count your many blessings see what God hath done.

With that, Oatman summarized the whole of Psalm 103, in which David simply praises God. Praise and gratitude are God’s remedy for “feeling down,” and this psalm is a great starter list for any of us.
  

ALL, ALL, ALL

The word “all” is prominent:

*ALL his inmost being praised God (v. 1)

*ALL God’s benefits were remembered (v. 2)

*ALL our sins can be forgiven (v. 3)

*ALL healing comes from Him (v. 3). I’m aware that some sectors of faith claim that if you’re a true Christian, God will give you perfect health. Miracles of healing do happen, but they are rare and are not the norm.  It is true that when we’re sick and get well, it’s the grace of God that we can overcome illness. (I write this as I cough off the remnants of a cold, remembering times when I gasped for breath with pneumonia, but through modern medicine—a grace of God—I lived.)  If healing is in the atonement, why hasn’t healing come for people like “Joni,” paralyzed Christian author and artist who has inspired millions toward a closer walk with God? The answer to that must wait until heaven.

*ALL the oppressed will find justice (v. 6). This may not happen suddenly, but it’s God’s will that this wrong will be made right. For example, witness today’s ministries to women caught in sex slavery—pulled from it, one at a time. Or children removed from abusive homes and put in Christian foster homes.

The final “all’s” of this psalm refer to the scope of praise to God. It’s “all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will” and “all his works everywhere in his dominion.” 

THAT PART ABOUT SIN

Many years ago I received a phone call from a young woman who was frantic about losing God’s love because she’d yielded to sexual sin. I went to her apartment and listened to her cries for mercy. I wondered how to comfort her with the assurance of God’s forgiveness for confessed sin. At just the right time, God reminded me of this duo of verses, memorized long before:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. (vv. 11-12)

This was written long before Columbus sailed across the ocean and didn’t fall off the ledge—contrary to the common fear that the earth was flat. Later, others would sail around the world, “proof” of roundness. North and south are established points on our globe--there are north poles and south poles. But east to west have no “poles.” They blend continually.

THE BIGGEST THANK-YOU

After exploring the grandeur of the universe, the psalmist comes back to our human condition. Like flowers and grass, we don’t live forever on this planet. Yet through the promise of eternal life we can anticipate His mercy and a life after this one—with Him. Johnson Oatman got it “right,” reminding us (as do the final stanzas of Psalm 103): 

So, amid the conflict, whether great or small,

Do not be discouraged, God is over all;

Count your many blessings, angels will attend,

Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.