BOOK REVIEW: Bless the Lord, The 103rd Psalm

I was very awestruck when I first received this book, BLESS THE LORD, The 103rd Psalm, by Johanna Bluedorn. The beauty of this book, with quoting the 103rd Psalm in King James Version as it's text, is a book that draw you again and again in to see more meaning in these verses. This evening I read it to my children. My little girls, ages 2, 3 & 5 1/2 were drawn in very easily. Even one of my 13 year old girls was very interested in it. As we read each page, we discussed what that part of the verse meant, and how the picture correlated to it. The pictures all relate to a simple life of home, farm or town settings, somewhat old-fashioned, with great detail and beauty. There is so much in each picture, so I asked the children to look for things too.

My favorite page that personally touched me, was the portion of this verse that says: "Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His Word." In this picture lays a young boy asleep under two trees with his head on his dog and his Bible open on the ground. In the big beautiful trees tucked away in the leaves, hides two angels watching over him. Another page that I particularly liked was the portion of the verse: "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children's children." The picture shows a family walking through the woods - children, with parents ahead, and grandparents ahead of them. You might want two books, to be able to frame some of the pictures!

There are twenty-seven different pictures in this book which Miss Bluedorn used beautiful watercolors and ink combinations to illustrate the 103rd Psalm. This homeschooled, self-taught young lady is also the author and illustrator of five other books: My Mommy, My Teacher; The Lord Builds the House, The Story of Mr. Pippin, and Little Bitty Baby Learns Hebrew.

Each time you open this book, you will find new things in the pictures, and new thoughts for the verses. In reading this to my children, I am sure in no time, they can have this memorized, and have visuals in their minds for the verses. As a homeschool mom, one of our verses for our conviction of homeschooling is: "Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth." (Deut. 11: 18-21) This book will help us in our training our children.

As a Mind & Media Reviewer, I was not compensated for providing this review. I received this complimentary book in order to review it and am thankful for this opportunity.