and you will have praise from

Every so often, I read a passage in the Word and can feel the excitement of the writer behind it. I imagine someone with quill to scroll infused with the Spirit and scribbling madly to contain his excitement long enough to capture the divine inspiration. Some of Paul's letters, for instance, begin with or end with this flourish of praise for the Lord.

This morning's reading for me was Ps103, and you can almost sense the same growing rush of love. David begins with a simple command to all to bless, but then as he starts running through the list of the great deeds done by God, I imagine him getting louder and beginning to stand up and raise hands and look to the heavens until by v17, it's a full-throated scream.

I don't know anything about the transliteration from Hebrew to Greek to English, and whether exclamation points are meant to be included or not. In my NAS, Ps103 ends with a few of them. But no matter the version and the inclusion or not of marks, if you can go through Ps103 and not end with David in effusive gushing of love, I don't know what to tell you. Oh, wait. I do. Too bad for you, Luke.