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 forgiveth all thine iniquities:

Who healeth all thy diseases:

Who redeemeth thy life from destruction:

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies:

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things:

So that thy youth is renewned like the eagle’s.

Psalm 103v1-6

I love the Psalms! To me they are so rich in meaning and the portrayal of the character and purposes of God. They also describe the full extent of human emotions: cries from the depths of despair, and songs of triumph over enemies. Some of them give the history of Israel, some are prophetic utterances about Christ and most are songs of praise and prayer unto God. Is everyone of them a direct promise from God to be claimed by people of deep faith, or are they descriptions of the faithfulness of God and His loving kindness and tender mercies towards His people?

To understand the Psalms, we must first accept that they are poetry, not prose. This is so important. The Psalms express the truth of God’s character through the medium of poetry, which is descriptive language designed to paint a picture of God in our minds. They portray truth in artistic form. We understand this concept when reading every other form of poetry, but seem to set it aside when reading certain portions of the poetry of God.

When we read Psalm 23, we understand that God is not a physical shepherd. He doesn’t physically make us lie down in green pastures or lead us beside physical waters. He doesn’t lay out a physical picnic for us every time we do battle with the enemy of our soul. Has anyone ever experienced physical oil coming directly from heaven pouring down over their heads? Few people (except hill walkers and mountaineers) walk through dark valleys, and God’s rod and staff are not physical wooden sticks coming down from heaven to keep us walking in the right direction. It is figurative language that paints a wonderful picture of the loving and tender care of our heavenly Father toward us.

Yet so many people proclaim the “positive confession” He healeth all my diseases”. Is God lying about healing? Is healing something that only happened in Biblical times? Or, have we misunderstood and then misapplied this portion of Scripture? I know so many people whose faith has been damaged, or even abandoned because they “claimed” this promise, but never received it. God is not the author of confusion, the devil is. He wants us to understand what He is saying and be unshakeable in our belief that every word He speaks is absolute truth and can be relied upon with utmost certainty. So how can we understand this portion of Scripture and what is being portrayed in it.

We need to consider who is speaking in this Psalm. It is David, not God. Who is David speaking to? Himself, his soul. What is he doing with these words? He is encouraging himself to rise up and pour out his praise and adoration of God. He was a very eloquent and accomplished poet and song writer and he is using this style of expression. He is declaring to his soul that God has forgiven all his sins. He is also declaring to his soul that God heals all the soul sickness and disease that he suffers. This is not physical illness he is talking about, but soul sickness, e.g., periods of doubt and fear, periods when he has allowed his soul to suffer through his own wilfulness and disobedience. When he says that his life is redeemed from destruction (death) he is not saying that he will never die physically, but that his soul will live forever with God. It is his soul that is satisfied with good things, not his physical mouth. His physical strength is not continually renewed; we know that David’s strength weakened as he got older to the extent that he was forbidden by his general to go out to battle again, and he eventually died. These first 6 verses of Psalm 103 are not promises to be claimed, but David declaring to his own soul the faithfulness of God to him.

The rest of the psalm goes on to describe more fully the merciful and gracious love of God to all men everywhere who dare to trust Him the way David did. We cannot declare that every word written in the Bible is a personal promise to every individual believer. But we can declare that every word is absolute truth and that when we understand it in its context we will be built up and strengthened in The Faith.