He Loves Us

A Reflection on the Psalm for November 3rd, 2019:
Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

PSALMS 145

R. I will bless your name forever, my King and my God.

1 I will extol thee, my God and King, and bless thy name for ever and ever. 
2 Every day I will bless thee, and praise thy name for ever and ever. 

R. I will bless your name forever, my King and my God.

8 The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 
9 The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made. 

R. I will bless your name forever, my King and my God.

10 All thy works shall give thanks to thee, O LORD, and all thy saints shall bless thee! 
11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and tell of thy power, 

R. I will bless your name forever, my King and my God.

13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations. The LORD is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. 
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.

​R. I will bless your name forever, my King and my God.

---

I read the psalm with difficulty this week. "I will extol thee, my God and King, and bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day I will bless thee, and praise thy name for ever and ever." To bless someone is to say good things about them. I actually read that this week and thought, "Nope. That's not me." The truth is, in various ways — through my thoughts, my actions, and my words — I don't always praise God and bless His name as enthusiastically as the psalmist seems to. I often get bogged down in the pain of the world and the pain in my life and at some points blessing God's name is pretty far from my mind. I think this makes sense and I think God understands our pain, our sadness, and even our disillusionment. As Christians we are called to be not of this world, but we are called to live in it and to love the people in it. As a result, there will inevitably be pain and sadness because bad things happen.  


It's easy to feel guilty about not always wanting to praise God. I know I should do it, but I don't always want to. I think that guilt comes to me so easily because I'm prone to building God in my own image. As humans, we are so transactional in nature. From a human perspective, it's so hard to wrap my mind around a love that is truly unconditional. The most beautiful human relationships can come really close to being unconditional, but they never quite get there. But it's not so with God. He loves us. End of sentence. As the Jesuit, Father Greg Boyle writes, "God is just too busy loving us to have any time left for disappointment." The psalmist even points to this aspect of God's character this week: "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love."  

"He loves us. End of sentence."

Tweet

God is so gracious and merciful. He understood our pain and sadness so much that centuries after this psalm was written He sent His son Jesus to die on the cross to reconcile us to Him. And that's astounding. But the world is still a sad place to be at times. And it's okay to be honest about that because God is still gracious and merciful. My friend is always talking about the "already, but not yet" nature of the world we live in. We live in this tension where Jesus has already come into the world and brought the message of hope and love, but all the brokenness of the world has not yet been restored to the way God intended it to be. It’s a beautiful and a hard place to find ourselves. So when the state of our world and the state of our lives call for more lamenting than praising we're invited to bring that to God too. We're invited to bring that to the One who is gracious, merciful, compassionate, and faithful; confident that He is big enough for our questions, "upholds all who are falling”, knows our pain, and loves without condition.  


Thanks be to God. Praise God.


Morgan MacKenzie

---