(Bless the Lord O my soul) who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:5)
It is inevitable that as we get older our bodies will become increasingly weaker — at least typically. At a certain point in life, tissues and organs begin to age at a faster pace until they eventually fail — that’s just the way it is. If we’re not careful, the same thing can happen to us in a spiritual sense. By that I mean, as life comes at us with its disappointments, trials and tribulations, our inner man can began to break down, become weak and even die if we don’t do what is needed to combat these issues and sustain the spiritual man. In other words, just like the physical body needs to fed with nutritionally beneficial foods, exercised and cared for, our spirit man needs the same kind of attention.
David reminds us that the Lord, who is good, provides good things for us. Not only does He provide our daily physical bread but also gives us the Word we need from Him each day that we might thrive and become what He has called us to be. To that end, He also allows certain situations to touch our lives in order that our faith muscles are exercised and that our weaknesses come to light. All of this serves the purpose of empowering and enabling us to overcome this world. To ignore what our spirit man requires for growth and strength would be akin to letting ourselves go, physically, and perhaps hastening a premature death.
Obviously that is not the will of God, and so as followers of Messiah, we should resign ourselves to the fact that we will be faced with tests, trials and difficulty. At the same time, the Lord sustains us during difficulty by satisfying our mouth with “good things” — His Word. As it is written, “The Word is holy, just and good” (Romans 7:12); “the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it” (Deuteronomy 30:14). When the Word is in our heart, then it is in our mouth. Therefore, it is beneficial to our spirit man and our physical body to declare the Word of God with the authority that has been given to us. As we do, though the body may in fact grow weaker, the eternal component within — the soul — grows ever stronger. And so, as David said, “Bless the Lord, O my soul!”
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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