Praise the Lord, all his works

"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."Psalm 103:19-22

The Psalm started small: one soul talking to itself. Now look how big it has grown. "The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all." After remembering the benefits, the forgiveness without measure and the Father who knows the dust, David lifts his eyes and sees the throne. Everything he gave thanks for comes from Someone who rules over all.

And then he calls everyone in. Angels, praise him. Heavenly hosts, praise him. All his works, everywhere, praise him. It's as if the gratitude of one man no longer fits inside him and needs a choir the size of the universe. Notice: the one who started by commanding his own soul ends up calling the angels. Gratitude grows like that. It starts in one heart and never stops.

There's a lesson hidden in that order. David didn't start with the angels. He started with himself. First "praise the Lord, my soul," then "praise the Lord, you his angels." Sometimes we want the whole world to praise before our own mouth opens. The Psalm teaches the opposite: the gratitude that travels far starts at home, in the soul of one person who decided to remember.

And the last verse goes back to the first: "Praise the Lord, my soul." The Psalm is a circle. It begins and ends in the same place, but the one reading it is not the same. In verse 1 it was a hard command. In verse 22 it's a natural response. That's what a week of remembering God's benefits does to us.