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 iniquities; Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption;
Who beautifies and dignifies and crowns you with loving-kindness
And tender mercy; Who satisfies your life with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle (Ps. 103:1-5).
Living the spiritual life, perceiving the Lord’s faithfulness in His mercy and loving kindness is to express gratitude all day long. In the midst of our trials and pains, in the midst of sorrows and diseases, the song remains, His mercy and loving kindness endure forever; I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress; in Him I will trust (Ps. 91). The greatness of the mercy of the Lord is shown in the broken body of our Lord, when stricken with many blows to heal us; when He was hanging on the cross, connecting heaven and earth, reconciliating God and men. But it did not stop there. His mercy and loving kindness continued in the person of His Holy Spirit, Who is in each one of us believers until the end. Overlooking the trials and pains that come our way, instead, concentrating on the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord is to agree with Him that He is faithful at all times. There is a point in time for all of us to exercise our faith trough difficulties.
The writer of the book of Lamentations although, reflecting upon the horror he witnessed in the calamity that had befallen Jerusalem, had words that recognized God’s mercy and loving kindness, and words that calls us to accept God’s corrections. He said, … He has filled me with bitterness; He has made me drink to excess and until drunken with wormwood; He has also broken my teeth with gravel; He has covered me with ashes; and You have bereaved my soul and cast it off far from peace; I have forgotten what good and happiness are and I say, Perished is my strength and my expectation from the Lord. O Lord, remember my affliction and my misery, my wandering and my outcast state, the wormwood and the gall; my soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed within me. But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not; they are new every morning; great and abundant is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being; therefore, will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him; the Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him (Lam. 3:15-25).
Light from the Word 