Psalm 103:1-2 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:
Are these words describing what's going on in your soul? In this Psalm, David wasn't trying to focus on how we feel in our souls like some of his other Psalms, for in this Psalm he called upon us to do something completely different. Instead of focusing on every other thing that has a name that may have an influence on our soul, the call right from the word go in this Psalm is to kneel, to bless, and to salute only one Name, the Lord's name.
The Hebrew word בָרַךְ Barak means exactly that: to kneel down, to bless, and to salute. Check the posture, David describes, dear friend. Please do not miss this, because David urged us to bless the Lord and bring into remembrance all He has done in the past, for in it, He will uplift our souls! This does not mean we deny what we feel. This does, however, mean as soon as we turn our attention to the great things that the Lord has done for us, we bring our whole being unto the Lord and His Lordship and worship Him for who He is, kneeling down in front of Him who is great, and we bless His holy name. In doing so, we focus on Him, and by kneeling down under His holy Name, all other names and all other things that may want to have a say over our souls, get declared far less under the holy Name of the Lord and the great things He has done in the past for us.
By kneeling our souls before the Lord and placing the focus on His goodness of what He does and has done for us, David releases statement upon statement in this Psalm that uplifts, feeds, nourishes, and cleanses our souls! How blessed aren't we to kneel down in front of Jesus as Lord and bring into remembrance the work of the cross in us?
Listed next in Psalm 103, it shows us why we bless the Lord, as He gave us forgiveness, healing, and salvation, crowning us in lovingkindness and tender mercies, nourishing us, and renewing us in His holy Name.
As we bow before Jesus, the result of who He is and what He has done for us will truly be: Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy Name.
Amen