Bless Jehovah, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, he calls twice because worship demands we stir ourselves with all our might, not drowse through it. Memory is treachery itself, hoarding grudges while letting God's mercies slip away; we must drag it back to duty and count what He has done.
AI summary
The repetition shows the weight of it: bless the Lord. We forget His benefits, all of them, not just some, and yet they are innumerable, beyond our merit, pure mercy; God therefore appointed remembrance ordinances and promised His Spirit to bring these things back to mind, that we might show gratitude and strengthen our faith.
AI summary
A man who talks to himself this way is no fool; he is rousing his own heart to praise. The soul must do the work, all of it, heart-work, not mere lip-service, and to praise rightly we must remember His mercies, for to forget them is to be both unjust and unkind.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 103:1-5