Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. (Ps. 103:1)
Expanded Passage: Psalm 103:1-5
Standing in the room where John Wesley died, all I could think was, “This is holy ground.” The father of the Methodist movement breathed his last at age eighty-seven, surrounded by friends and fellow ministers who hung on his every word that morning in March of 1791. The popular account of his death reported that Wesley’s last words were, “The best of all is, God is with us”—a beautiful confirmation of the doctrine of assurance that Wesley had championed in his ministry.
It’s true that was the last full thought he expressed, but the last words Wesley spoke were actually lyrics of a song. He was trying to quote a hymn by Isaac Watts. The verse goes, “I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath, and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers.” In his weakened state, all Wesley could manage was, “I’ll praise . . . I’ll praise.”
That’s not a bad way to go to heaven—offering a sacrifice of praise. It’s not a bad way to live, either. In good times and bad, we can praise the Lord. After all, we already know enough Hebrew to join David in celebrating the goodness of God in Psalm 103, because the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord” is “hallelujah.”
Hallelujah, my soul!
Join David in his “hallelujah!”
Bob Black is a third-generation Wesleyan minister and professor emeritus of religion at Southern Wesleyan University (SC).
© 2025 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
