An insomniac's Psalm 103: Verse 22

"Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion."

"All his works" will include all the exciting things you saw God do---the conversions of impossible people, the suitcases of smuggled Bibles that made their way past the Communist checkpoints to a people thirsty for salvation.

But it will also include the works you thought went horribly wrong---all the suffering you had that seemed to no purpose, all the prayers that seemed unanswered. The wisdom of the Tapestry Maker in that day will take your breath away.

In 2 Corinthians 12:11 Paul does something distasteful to himself by listing his good works to an unfriendly Corinthian audience, in order to establish his credentials for the sake of the gospel, saying: "You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you."

We creatures likewise ought to commend God's works to one another, but if we do not---and since, because of our finite minds, even the best of us are inadequate---God does not find it a bit distasteful to boast about his own works:

"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth? Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt, to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?" (Job 38:22-27).

In the midst of a festive parade in Jesus' honor, the Pharisees took umbrage and rebuked the Lord. He replied: "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out" (Luke 19:40).

"Bless the Lord, O my soul!"

After this glorious heavenly sight of angels and hosts and the beasts and the inanimate world all praising and blessing the Lord---of "things that cannot be told, which man may not utter" (2 Corinthians 12:4)---the psalmist again finds himself alone in his room, as do I.

It is my soul that God has been after on this sleepless bed. For the King who cares for the teeming Hosts cares even for me. The great final scene will have to tarry a while, till every last soul who would join this joyous throng is brought in.

"And the Lord answered me, 'Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end---it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:2-3).

In the meantime, "Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let all that is within me bless his holy Name."

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