I do not know a more uplifting Psalm than this--so heart-searching and yet so cheering and comforting and heart-warming. One of the things which Stanley Jones regrets in his great book "The Christ of Every Road" is the loss of what he calls "God-consciousness," in the world to-day. Few things will do more to quicken our consciousness of God and to make Him real and near to us than to repeat this psalm over and over to ourselves.

It is worthwhile memorizing.

(Read vs. 1, & 2)

Wm. Law says that the best Xtian is not the man who prays most, but the man who is most thoughtful. Certain it is that thanksgivings are the wings of prayer, and we will never get any distance in prayer unless we can find some-thing to be thankful for. It breaks my heart to see so many of you lying here year after year in [?] little or no progress. [Following lines crossed out, "And I often wonder that you do not grow desperate and bitter against God".] Your patience and cheerfulness is a constant wonder to me. And I am often amazed that you do not grow bitter against God for what has happened to you. And yet, even when your bodies are so weak and weary, I know that many of you possess in your hearts that peace which passeth all understanding of which the Lord Jesus said "Peace I leave with you my peace I give unto unto [sic] you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

If it seems difficult to find something to be thankful for, let us remember the old Scott's woman who thanked the Lord that altho' she had ainly twa teeth, they were forniust gie another[?]. (English)

And now let us turn again to this beautiful Psalm, and see some of the things there are to be thankful for. (Read vs. 1-3.)

I never can give up the hope that we will soon discover the secret of receiving healing from the hands of God, Himself, as the sick folk did in the days of our Lord's earthly ministry. vs. 4 "who redeemeth thy life from destruction," or as a French translator puts if "who lifts thy life from the ditch," "who crowneth thee with loving kindness & tender mercies!"

What a glorious contrast. Surely no golden crown is so good as this--to be crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies. Ps. 103 (p.3)

Read vs. 5--How strong and serene is the eagle's flight! What a splendour of view is his, as he soars aloft in that celestial silence, with no aeroplane's engines to deafen his ears. And yet to our God-given minds are possible then even more glorious flights of imagination into such heights serene as no mere eagle ever dreamed of. They are worth taking--those flights of the imagination. They are our way of forgetting the narrowness of your bed and the weariness of your body especially when they lift you to heavenly places with Christ Jesus.

Let one of them lift us now into the sublime spaciousness of this Psalm as we read it again from verse 8.