Starting and ending with yourself isn’t a good thing, except when it is. Take Psalm 103, for example.

            “Bless the LORD, O my soul,

                        and all that is within me,

                        bless his holy name!   Bless the LORD, O my soul, . . .” (Psalm 103:1-2^a)

             The psalm ends with the same words: “. . . Bless the LORD, O my soul!”  (Vs. 22)

Why does the psalmist begin with talking to his own soul? I can think of two opposite reasons. Perhaps the psalmist was so full of praise that he couldn’t contain it. There are people like that. And there are times like that. There are times when we are so full of gratitude and praise that, even if we don’t know God very well, our hearts are so supercharged that we have to speak to our hearts (or our soul) to encourage even more gratitude and praise. Today is such a day for me. It is a beautiful, cool, autumn day in the late summer, and my sweetheart is coming back home later today.

But there is another possibility. Perhaps the psalmist was struggling with some really difficult things in his life and had to talk to himself. Someone has said that “sometimes we need to listen to ourselves, and sometimes we need to talk to ourselves.” They have a wonderful saying in England that I’ve come to love: “Have a word with yourself!” Sometimes we all need to do that, to have a word with ourseleves. That is a frequent chorus in the song of my life.

Whatever the reason he had for encouraging his soul to give thanks, the psalmist had lots of reasons to praise God.

             “Bless the LORD, O my soul!

and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity,

                        who heals all your diseases,   who redeems your life from the pit,

                        who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,        who satisfies you with good

                        so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.          The LORD works righteousness

                        and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses,

                        his acts to the people of Israel.           The LORD is merciful and gracious,

                        slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.          He will not always chide,

                        nor will he keep his anger forever.     He does not deal with us according to our sins,

                        nor repay us according to our iniquities.        For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

                        so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;      as far as the east is from the west,

                        so far does he remove our transgressions from us.     As a father shows compassion to his children,

                        so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.       For he knows our frame;

                        he remembers that we are dust.          As for man, his days are like grass;

                        he flourishes like a flower of the field;          for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

                        and its place knows it no more.          But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

                        and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant

                        and remember to do his commandments.       The LORD has established his throne in the heavens,

                        and his kingdom rules over all.”

And then, as if his own soul’s praise wasn’t nearly enough, the psalmist encourages the very angels to praise God. Indeed, all of God’s works are told to praise God. And as C.S. Lewis said, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”

“Bless the LORD, O you his angels,

                        you mighty ones who do his word,

                        obeying the voice of his word!           Bless the LORD, all his hosts,

                        his ministers, who do his will!            Bless the LORD, all his works,

                        in all places of his dominion.

(Psalm 103:1–22, English Standard Version)

Nevertheless, the psalmist ends as he began: with telling his inmost being (his “soul”) to praise the LORD.

Gratitude and praise should embrace all of what God does for me, for us, for the universe. But it begins and ends with a personal decision to praise and give thanks.