Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits

Psalm 103 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
² Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
⁵ Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

⁶ The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.
⁷ He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
⁹ He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
¹⁰ He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
¹² As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
¹³ Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
¹⁴ For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
¹⁶ When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.
¹⁷ But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
¹⁸ To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.

¹⁹ The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.
²⁰ Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!
²¹ Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will.
²² Bless the Lord, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion;
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Most often when we pray we ask the Lord for His blessing, His provision, His protection, His deliverance. The psalmist says:  Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits.     The psalmist goes on then to name some of those benefits.    Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.    We need to understand, like the psalmist, that these things and more are the benefits of being a child of God. When you have a benefit package where you work, you don’t need to petition and ask your employer for those benefits. Your vacation pay, sick pay, holidays, health benefits etc are part of the conditions of your relationship with your employer. In the same way, all the benefits of God, all His promises are ours based on the relationship we have with Him, as children, as heirs of the kingdom, through Jesus and the finished work of the cross. So rather than asking God for what He has already provided, we should thank Him. Like the psalmist we should bless the Lord for what He has already done, for all His benefits.    

The psalmist says:  The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.     The psalmist says:  So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.    This too, we often get mixed up and confuse. We sometimes fear God because we think He is angry with us because of what we have done.  The psalmist says:  He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.    We expect that God is angry with us because that’s how we would respond to what we have done. God though determined from the beginning that He would not strive with us. Rather than have an ongoing cycle of sin and sacrifice, God made another way to deal with our sins.  He doesn’t treat us the way we deserve to be treated. He doesn’t reward us according to our iniquities. Romans 6:23 says:  The wages of sin is death.   So death is the reward we deserve for our sin. The verse continues though saying:   but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.       The psalmist says:  The Lord performs righteous deeds And judgments.      The Lord does judge. Many people are deceived into believing that there is no longer judgment for sin because of the cross. God judges, but He judges righteously. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says:  He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.     For those who are in Christ, who believe in Him, we are judged according to His righteousness, not our own unrighteousness. The fear we have for God is not then a fear based on God’s judgment against us, but rather it is reverence and respect, which is earned through God’s love for us, His lovingkindness toward us.    1 John 4:19 says:  We love, because He first loved us.   The love we have for God, is our response to the love He has for us, demonstrated in the cross of Christ, through whom our sins are forgiven.

Finally the psalmist says:  The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will. Bless the Lord, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the Lord, O my soul!    He acknowledges the sovereignty of God. He encourages all those who obey the voice of God’s word to bless Him. In truth the angels, the hosts of heaven, all of creation have no choice. They were not created with a free will as we were. They bless the Lord in all that they do for who He is. Like the psalmist, we ourselves need to daily remind ourselves, who have a choice to:   Bless the Lord, O my soul!     We need to know and understand all that He has done for us and all that He has provided for and to us, all of His benefits, not that we ask Him, but that we thank Him and bless Him.

Here is a link to a song, may it be your prayer, today and every day.  Amen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3K3roEF36k