Here's some of my homework for this week, I am Charting Psalm 103 right now and was so excited about the meaning of this that I thought I would share! (It might be redundant to you, but to me it was so neat to see how just observing the verb tense of these verses could bring about a new revelation of who God is!)
Please note, this is only one part of the homework that I do... first I had to color-code all the different observations I made, do background research on the writer, when he wrote it, who he wrote it to, and THEN I can do the following process. Per chart (doing 5 charts this week on 5 Psalms) I might make 20 observations, but I choose 4 of them that "trigger" a question about the author's intentions, the significance for the original readers, etc, then I go from there.
OBSERVATION: v.3-5 VERB TENSE: Present Progressive: Who Forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies
INTERP Q: Why are the verbs in this passage present progressive tense?
A: David is emphasizing that God did not do it once, nor is he going to do it someday… he’s saying God has been forgiving, is still forgiving and is going to continue forgiving all his iniquity. This is the same for “…heals all diseases, redeems from the pit, crowns with steadfast love & mercy, satisfies with good as long as you live…” He has done it, is doing it, and will continue to do it. And the best thing is David is saying this to himself, reminding himself to not forget all the Lord’s benefits that are present progressive. Why did he need to remind himself to not forget? Because he had experienced the immense benefits of forgiveness and redemption after the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the sin of ordering the murder of her husband Uriah. He realized he did not deserve these benefits at all, but that the Lord was going to give them all the same, and continue to do so, so he praised God even though perhaps he did not see the results immediately of his forgiveness and redemption, he was hanging onto the truth of who God is (was and will be too.)
TIMELESS TRUTH: The benefits of the Lord are not limited time offers. They are constant, continual and limitless to those who believe.
APPLICATION: Do I believe this? Sure its easy to believe when life is going well, but what about in crappy times? I'll leave my personal application out... why don't you ask the Lord how he wants you to apply this truth... =) And read the whole Psalm... I pray it encourages you as it has encouraged me!!
Love,
Jillian
