Psalm 103:1

‘… all my inmost being …’

I can’t seem to get past this phrase!

All my inmost being is to praise his holy name.  What else could occupy my inmost being?  What else does occupy my inmost being?

For such a small sounding word, it is huge in its implications and consequences.  If all my inmost being is occupied and taken up with praising my Lord’s most holy name, surely that would bring with it an incredible peace and a sustaining joy – a peace and joy not easily shaken, distracted or disturbed.

How can I get all my inmost being to praise his holy name?  God has given me his all; his love, his devotion, his blessings, his plans and purposes, his guidance, inspiration and thoughts, and all that he holds dear in the form of his son, which cost him greatly.

I don’t know what King David’s motivation was when he wrote this Psalm.  Maybe he was being distracted and/or shaken and was seeking to remind himself to praise the Lord with all that he was.  And maybe I keep writing to avoid the point.

‘All’ is the point; ‘… all my inmost being.’

But how do I achieve this?  If all my inmost being is praising his holy name, surely this is springing out of, and as a result of, all my inmost being loving my God and being thankful to him for all his goodness.  This, in turn, will lead to my worshipping him with a totality of being.  And, as a bi-product, this affects the enemy; this is warfare against all that would distract, disturb and discourage, enabling me to continue thanking and praising.

To praise and worship my God with all of me requires my effort and a deliberate decision.  It requires my focus to be on him and not on my situation.  It requires my conscious engagement in remembering who he is and what he does.

Praising and worshipping God gives him what he is due and worthy of, and, out of his incredible love and grace, gives us so many great consequences.  It proclaims truth, it protects me, it brings me peace and joy, it increases my love for God, it defeats the niggles of the enemy (he hates us worshipping God and will do anything to stop us), it reminds me of past blessings and of God’s character.  It reaffirms, it lifts up, it gives strength.  And it is wonderfully cyclical; the more I thank him, praise him and focus on him, the more he occupies my inmost being with his abundant love, causing me to thank and praise him all over again.

‘Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.’

Soul and inmost being – to praise and worship God is my instruction to you.