Show Don't Tell: Psalm 103

Instead of saying "David praised God for forgiveness and compassion," count the benefits. Of David. "Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Commanding himself to remember. The list: "who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies, renews—six benefits. Eagle youth—moulting renewal. "The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel." Ways to Moses—intimate knowledge. Deeds to Israel—public demonstration. "The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love." Exodus 34 echo. "He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities." The mercy math: "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." Immeasurable height, impossible distance. "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." Dust-memory. "The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him." Grass gone, love remaining.