Psalm Meditation 1231 ¶Third Sunday After Epiphany ¶January 21, 2024 ¶Psalm 103 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm+103&version=NRSVUE (NRSV) ¶Our God is pretty amazing. Always ready to help out, to forgive, to heal, to redeem, to love, and fill us with good throughout our lives. All this for a bunch of people who have nothing to offer in return besides our love and faithfulness. And even if we don’t return God’s love, God loves us, because that is the nature and choice of God. Whether we offer God love, hate, or indifference throughout our lives, God continually loves us. It isn’t even that God loves us as a way to spite us; God loves us all the time. ¶There are times in which it seems good and right to blame God when things go against us. They do, no use pretending that things go well for each of us every day. There are days and times in which bad things happen, and there are times in which bad things pile up way to high for us. However, it is not God who causes those things, or who uses bad things to test our faith. God is the one who is with us through all the bad that goes on in and around us. Simply because God is standing there doesn’t make it God’s fault. That God is standing there is evidence that God is not one to run out on us when times get rough. ¶I knew folks when I was growing up who would say, ‘Praise the Lord anyway.’ when things would not go their way. The psalmist doesn’t ask us to bless the Lord anyway, the psalmist reminds us to bless the Lord. As we are willing and able to bless God we begin to notice that God loves us. God still loves us whether we notice or not, when we notice God’s love is able to penetrate our lives more deeply as we make room for all that God has to offer us. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits— “ ¶January 15, 2024 ¶LCM