Praising God for His Blessings

Psalm 103:1-5, 10-18

GOLDEN TEXT: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”—Psalm 103:2

OUR lesson is a beautiful expression of praise and worship, together with the many reasons for such an attitude toward our great Creator. While the Psalmist had experienced much of the Lord’s mercy and favor, some of the blessings he mentions are no doubt spoken of prophetically. In the first five verses of the Psalm he calls upon his soul—himself—to bless Jehovah and to forget none of His favors. These he then narrates—the pardoning of all his iniquities, the healing of his diseases; redemption from the pit of destruction (death), crowning him with kindness and compassions, satisfying with good his desires, so that his youth or strength is renewed as the eagle.

These blessings of which the Psalmist speaks he could personally have enjoyed in only a small degree, compared with the experiences of the Lord’s people of the Gospel age. And taking this exhortation to ourselves how much reason we have to bless and thank God for all His benefits to us! First of all, we have received pardon for all our iniquities, both, inherited sin from our fallen parent Adam, and also forgiveness for the many imperfections of thought, word and act of which we are unwillingly guilty as, in our imperfect tabernacle, we strive to follow in the Master’s footsteps. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.” And, thank God for the assurance which follows, that “He is the propitiation for our sins,” and that we may “Joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”—I John 2:1,2; Rom. 5:11

The healing which the Christian is promised is not the curing of his physical ills, the keeping of his physical body in health, and strength, for this human life and all its interests he has been privileged to offer as a sacrifice, made acceptable by the imputation of Jesus’ righteousness. (Rom. 4:5-8; 12:1,2) The Christian has, however, frequent need of healing to the intent that as a new creature in Christ he shall be free from Character blemishes. To accomplish this healing he has need of constant application of the Word of God for correction and instruction in righteousness, in order that he may ultimately be “perfect, thoroughly furnished unto every good work.” The Apostle, again speaking of the Word of God, says that it is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit … and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” How thankful we should be for this sure means of examining our own hearts, ascertaining their true condition; and also the means for the elimination of soul-poisons of pride, selfishness or other works of the flesh, and their replacement by the graces of the Lord’s Holy Spirit, being thus sanctified through the truth.—II Tim. 3:16,17; Heb. 4:12,13; John 17:17

The Psalmist continues his list of reasons for blessing the Lord, and speaks of the redeeming of his life from destruction. That is to be a future experience for David, and so also for us in its full sense. However, even now we have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son, and when we have finished our course will be fully delivered in the First Resurrection. (Col. 1:13; I John 3:2) Truly our life has been crowned with God’s kindness and compassions; our mouth has been satisfied with good things, the, knowledge of His abundant grace and plan for blessing all the families of earth, and as a result our strength is daily renewed. The Apostle, in harmony with these thoughts of the Psalmist, exhorts us to “be strong in the Lord and the power of His might” and to “put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”—“in the evil day.”—Eph. 6:10-13

The refrain of a hymn is the chorus, the portion that summarizes the sentiment which is more particularly related in the verses. A reverent student of the Bible has compared the proclamation of God to Moses, recorded in Exodus 34:5-7, to the refrain of a hymn, speaking of it as “the refrain of the Bible.” In this interview with Moses God declares His attitude toward the fallen race, and His character, as “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that he will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

The Psalm from which today’s lesson is taken has been used by the writer referred to above, as one of the illustrations of this continuous thought running through the Word. It does indeed bear a striking similarity in its expressions of God’s knowledge of our frame, our fallen estate, His recognition that when we would do good we find ourselves unable to perform perfect works. And too, of His mercy which is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that reverence Him and to such as keep His covenant and remember His commandments to do them. As we mentally review the plan of the ages which our Father has been pleased to reveal to us, we are impressed with the fact that in it, this refrain is repeated over and over. And we rejoice that not only, we, but as the Psalmist says in verses 19 to 22, all His creatures in all places of His dominion shall ultimately see and appreciate His character and works, and “bless the Lord.”

QUESTIONS:

Is it possible for the Lord’s people to remember all of His benefits?

What kind of diseases may a Christian expect God to heal for him?

Enumerate some of the reasons why we should praise the Lord.

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