A Prayer for the New Year - Let All That You Are Praise the Lord - Psalm 103 - Episode #170

Well hey there! Welcome back to the podcast, and I hope you had a truly blessed Christmas. Celebrating the birth of Jesus, of God with us, and pondering what that has meant for you personally. How has your life changed because of what Jesus has done for you? The little pause between Christmas and a new year is a time to reflect on this and to thank God for as many things as come to mind when you consider what your life and what your eternity would be without Jesus. 

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Quick bit of info and then we’ll jump into this special new year’s episode. If you are like me, you often have a word for the year, and looking back at the end of December, it’s really something to see what the Lord did. Now I have had years when I did not have a word for the year, it just wasn’t something the Holy Spirit laid on my heart and I just did not have one. Many years, though, I do get a sense of a word that the Lord wants me to be aware of, in a way, and to see Him do things in my life that glorify Him, mature and sanctify me. The word isn’t magical - it’s just a way that I sit up and pay attention and take note of things He does. I often write down Bible verses that have to do with whatever word God has given me, and I like to write out praises and thanksgiving in my daily Bible study journal thanking Him for things throughout the year. I have a little printable download that is all about the 2024 word of the year, and it is yours by clicking the link in the show notes. Also, I wanted to share that I have been dealing with some “new” issues with my health, you might know I was diagnosed with heart failure in 2016 and I have been dealing with thyroid problems for a couple of decades now, and so this health problem cropped up recently and you know, my team at the Cleveland Clinic has told me many times that quality of life management is sort of the overall goal of my health care, and this is just another layer to that. It just is what it is, and God is so good, so gracious to me, I am not at all questioning the Lord and do not want to be whiny or complaining about any of this. Sharing this is more to let you know, if you are used to seeing me around and I’m sort of missing in action, this is why. And there are some other things going on that have to do with other aspects of life for my hubby and I, and this is the season of different things, I suppose, so that’s what’s going on. Not gonna share more than that on a platform like this, I have adults kids and a husband and it can get weird for them if I overshare so I’ll leave it at that. But I am mostly at home, and still able to podcast and am also hoping to start sending an email weekly with links to the new podcast episodes for both shows and I have bandwidth to create some free items to share with my email list, so if you’d like to get those, if you grab the 2024 Word of the Year free item I created for you all, then you’ll be added and will start getting emails with podcast links starting in the new year. 

 

Thank you for listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, which can be found via the Edifi app, as well as all the places you find podcasts. This is episode number 170.

 

Psalm 103. Written by David. An astounding passage from the Bible that can transform the way we pray, the way we see the Lord at work in our circumstances, and the way we view ourselves. For those reasons and so many more, Psalm 103 is the focus for the final episode of the podcast for 2023, and I am treating it as a blessing for each one of you, no matter when you find yourself listening to this episode. 

 

I’ll be reading from the NLT today. 

 

Psalm 103 A psalm of David.

1 

Let all that I am praise the Lord;     with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

2 

Let all that I am praise the Lord;     may I never forget the good things he does for me.

3 

He forgives all my sins     and heals all my diseases.

4 

He redeems me from death     and crowns me with love and tender mercies.

5 

He fills my life with good things.     My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

6 

The Lord gives righteousness     and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

7 

He revealed his character to Moses     and his deeds to the people of Israel.

8 

The Lord is compassionate and merciful,     slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

9 

He will not constantly accuse us,     nor remain angry forever.

10 

He does not punish us for all our sins;     he does not deal h