Bless the Lord Oh My Soul

Psalm 103:1 ESV

Bless the Lord , O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

One of the primary ways we train our souls to love God is by preaching the Gospel to our souls. The more your soul sees the cross of Jesus, the more gratefulness and adoration will well up within you. Humans are conditioned to respond that way to sacrifice. And it would be difficult to imagine a greater sacrifice than what Jesus did. 

If you have the opportunity to travel the world, one phrase that almost universally resonates—across every kind of culture—is the familiar line from Psalm 103:1 “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

Break this phrase down. David is training his soul by preaching to it. David told his soul how to feel and how to respond to the Gospel: Soul, bless God, whether you want to or not. He was not just singing a pretty line; he was talking to himself, challenging his soul to step up. Scripture describes this habit, saying, “David strengthened himself in the Lord” (1 Samuel 30:6, esv). 

It’s truly a lost art of Christianity, a beautiful discipline. Instead of taking cues from your current mood, the fickle culture, the people around you, or, even more tragically, from social media, look your soul in the eyes and tell it to look to the cross, to the resurrection. Command your soul to drink in the kindness of Christ, whose bruised and splintered shoulders carried the weight of your sin. 

Look to the cross where Jesus suffered incredibly for a sin He never committed so that you could rejoice greatly in righteousness you never deserved.