Rodgers > Outside Reading 2

PSALM 103

Praise the LORD, O my soul: all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-

Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles?



Imagination has always run quite rampant through my brain cells, although I had much less control over it as a child. Days would fill up quickly with endless to-do lists: sweep out the floor of my golden palace behind the house [a small dirt clearing under two bushes], exercise my award winning Thoroughbred, Flash [known by most of the world as a broom-stick], and rescue innocent forest animals from the evil Canadian trappers [running breathlessly around the house, picking up dozens of Beanie Babies that I had hidden earlier]. So it was not a rare occurrence for me to lie on my bed at night, blinking into the darkness with wild scenarios playing through my head. A common game I played was “What if God walked into the room?”- a favorite that I now see labeled as possibly sacrilegious.

There I was. Six and three-quarters years old, minus two front teeth, lying under my rainforest-themed comforter. A loud knock would echo through my room.

“Who is it?” I would cry out in a singsong voice.

“It’s God” the owner of the knock would reply. “Can I come in?”

“Well of course you can!” I would reply gleefully.

Suddenly my room would be flooded with light. A man, who strongly resembled King Triton from The Little Mermaid, would stride into the room, outfitted in a glowing white robe, and sit on the edge of my bed. Glory and might pulsed from his very being. He was the creator of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the end. And he was sitting four inches away from me. Scooting to the edge of the wall, I would pull the covers next to me back a bit, and then pat the empty space I had made. Smiling, God would put down his glittering scepter, and carefully wiggle in next to me. I would reach down and pull the blankets up so that they rested right underneath our chins, and a feeling of warmth would flood over me. I was snuggling with God.


It’s easy in today’s society to cast God as the scapegoat for all of our problems. When a spouse cheats on us, we lose our money in the stock market, or a loved one dies, we look up to the sky, raise a clenched fist, and scream out in anguish, “God, why are you doing this to me?”

Although this may come as a shock to some, God is not out to get you. In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. First of all, we were created for God, by God, to bring glory to Him. We belong to him, and he calls us his “sons and daughters.” Not his slaves, not his robots, but His own children. The evil in this world: the death, the pain, the brokenness, is all a result of our own disobedience. We damn ourselves to hell every day when we choose our sinful lifestyle over the love of our Savior. God is not there to punish us and watch us suffer, but to give us a life of fulfillment in Him. Psalm 103 attests to this when the author relishes on His characteristics. He forgives us of our sins. He heals us of our sicknesses. He reaches down to us, when we are drowning in the pit of our sin, and saves us. And he doesn’t stop there- no, once He pulls us out, the Bible says that he crowns us with love and compassion. He doesn’t chastise us or condemn us, or punish us for getting ourselves into the pit. He knows us completely, all of our innermost thoughts, and He loves us the same. This is the beauty of his grace. We must be willing to scoot over a little bit in the bed that is our life, and let Him crawl next to us. It is at that moment that we will understand that He is the only one that will truly never leave us or forsake us.