Throughout this Lent series, we have listened to God’s love be personalized through Psalm 103. If this Psalm shares anything with us, it is that the one who is ultimately in charge in Heaven and on Earth loves us. The God, who is Love, is the one who has the power to forgive, and redeem, and satisfy. This God has the power to enact justice and promote righteousness and does so because they are compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. This same God lavishes us with mercy and forgiveness instead of treating us “fairly.” All we have to offer this God is our fragile, dusty little lives, and this God chooses us to belong and values us according to our belonging and nothing else. Because we belong with and to this God, we are loved from everlasting to everlasting!
This last section of the Psalm, verses 19-22, is so unbelievably wonderful when we read it on this side of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection -
"The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul."
Jesus, who is one with God (John 10:30), who came to reveal what it means to live a life worthy of the Lord, a life fully conformed to the image and likeness of God (Colossians 1:10; Genesis 1:26). Jesus, who is the rightful king and ruler over heaven, who angels do his bidding and obey his commands. All of heaven and all of earth - everywhere is his dominion.
Jesus, being fully God, surrendered to the utter fragility of being fully human as well. Jesus humbled himself into the muck and the mire, the wind and the storm, the pain and the suffering of all that is being fully human. Eating and drinking and sleeping and crying and sweating and bleeding. All of it, he did all of it, until every speck of dust was fully embraced and no part of the human experience was left untouched. The king of the universe surrendered fully and completely even to death. Jesus was filled with compassion and grace even for those who were killing him (Luke 23:34), for they were not taking his life; he was giving it freely (John 10:17-18) - because he had the power and the goodness to do so.
Psalm 103 begins with all the beautiful things that God offers us, Jesus forfeited those things. He was treated unfairly, counting the total cost and bearing the unbearable burden so that we could experience the full benefits of debt forgiveness and mercy. It was because he was completely secure, completely held, completely unified with the being and doing of God through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was able to be made of dust, unmade, and remade. The breath of the Spirit who breathed life into Adam and Eve filled Jesus and made him new. So that we, today, can be people of a New Covenant, following a New Command, worshiping in the New way of the Spirit, cooperating with God, who is Love, who is still making all things NEW.
As we take a deep breath, let’s hear the King of Kings declare his heart for us, first person, through the last few lines of Psalm 103:
My Father has established my throne in heaven, because beloved, I am in charge. [insert your name here ____________], I invite you to join in with the chorus of the angels who see me and know my love and my way. When you let me love you, and love one another as I have loved you, it fills me with Joy! So sing and celebrate with me, ____________, you who respond to my love, for I am working in you and throughout your whole life to heal and restore and make all things new!
And we, the Beloved Dustlings, cry out in response:
Praise the Lord, my soul!
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