This is the time of year our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving. One of the most beautiful and favorite of the Psalms reminds us of God’s gifts and blessings to us. This psalm of David is not a prayer, not a supplication; there is no word of complaint—it is all praise.
It is also very personal. David is talking to himself—“Praise the Lord, O my soul…” He is reminding himself of God’s blessing, of the benefits of belonging to God.
God wants us to read this favorite Psalm in the same way—make it personal. Remind yourself of God’s blessings in your life, especially your salvation
Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV) Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. (2) Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-- (3) who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, (4) who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, (5)who satisfies your desires with good things…
Notice in v. 2 David reminds himself not to forget God. It’s as if just as he reminds himself of God’s blessings, he becomes conscious of how easy it is to forget.
Sometimes it seems the more we are blessed the easier it is to forget Him. What is so memorable to one generation is forgotten by the next. Unless, of course, adversity comes into our lives. Then we suddenly remember why we need God.
The Children of Israel are good examples. Saved from their slavery in Egypt, they were led to the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey, with wells that they themselves didn’t have to dig, and vineyards and olive trees they did not plant. (Deut. 6:10-11)
Before entering the Promised Land, Moses reminded the people, “When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery” (Deut. 6:11b-12).
Moses is reminding them that the day was coming when things would be good—the economy would be booming, people would have jobs and homes, and so on, but they must remember that God was the source of their blessings.
Yet, over and over, throughout their history, the Israelites forgot what God had done for them. They turned to false gods and embraced wrong ways of living. Nations forget God because people do. This is a very personal Psalm. Before we cast stones at our nation, we need to get personal.
Psalm 103:3 (NIV) –who forgives all your sins… The very first thing David rightfully is thankful for is the forgiveness of his sins. Did you know that only God can forgive sin? This is why Jesus was so often in trouble—He forgave sins.
The religious leaders wouldn’t stand for that. They accused Jesus of blasphemy because only God can forgive. That’s exactly the point. Jesus was God in the flesh. He could, would, and did forgive.
Forgiveness is the greatest of all gifts we can receive from God. It is true that we need to thank God for our homes and jobs and wealth and all our material possessions. But where would we be if we were to acquire all these things and lose our souls?
The forgiveness of our sins is the greatest benefit you can ever receive from God. You can receive it only because God gave His son to die on the cross to gain it for us. How many of our sins does God forgive?
Verse 3 says—all of them, and verses 11-12 tells to what extent He forgives: Psalm 103:11-12 (NIV) For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. 12As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
When David wrote this Psalm he did not have the knowledge we have. He looked at the moon and stars and sun, and knew there was a vast distance between the earth and them.
Today we know that the farthest object we can see is perhaps 10 billion light-years away (I’ll let you figure that distance for yourself). The point is, God’s love is so great it cannot be measured.
Then David, still pondering God’s great love, is bowled over by the forgiveness that God’s love gives us. So he talks about as far as the east is from the west God has removed our transgressions.
The circumference of the earth is 24,010.5 miles. But that doesn’t measure the distance of east from west. Don’t miss the greatness of this promise. Notice, God does not promise to remove our sins as far as the north is from the south. Why not? Because those distances are limited.
There is a limit to the northern and southerly directions. If you travel far enough north you will reach the North Pole. And if you go beyond it you are then going south—and if you travel far enough you will reach the South Pole, and start back north. Limits!
But there is no limit to the east or west. You can begin traveling from here straight east, and you would cross the eastern U.S., the Atlantic Ocean, travel through Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, China, Japan, the Pacific Ocean, and arrive again in the U.S.
Always you would be traveling east. You would never cease traveling east. Or you could do the same thing traveling west. In other words, God’s love and forgiveness are immeasurable.
Jesus, through His redeeming grace, has brought us from the bondage of sin to true freedom in Christ. We are forgiven absolutely. Because we are forgiven, He then blesses our lives with His presence and guidance. He has promised an inheritance beyond our wildest dreams.
Psalm 103:3b-4 (NIV) … and heals all your diseases, (4) who redeems your life from the pit…
Secondly David is thankful that God heals all our diseases. Now this does not mean that, because you are a Christian, you will not get sick or suffer from a disease. It also does not mean that, because you are a Christian, you have the right to be healed on demand.
Some people teach this but it is bad theology, it is not scriptural, and it simply is not true. Believers do get sick and, in fact, many Bible passages teach that God can use our sicknesses for His purposes.
David is thankful that God is in the healing business. When you are hurt or sick or afflicted with a disease, and then get well or are healed, as most often we are, it is God who has brought us back from the edge of the pit—death.
David is remembering the many times when he was literally at death’s door, and God brought him back from death. Or, as he writes it, from the edge of the pit. That’s what David is thankful for. God is the healer of the body as well as the soul.
Psalm 103:5 (NIV) Who satisfies your desires with good things…
Here’s something I believer—Only a Christian can ever be completely satisfied, because only God Himself can truly satisfy him. What does God satisfy with? David says, “Good things.” Not rich things—not many things—not everything you ask for, but “good things.”
God meets your every need with His holy blessings on your life. And these He is always giving so that from every moment to every moment He is satisfying your soul with good. Never stop praising Him.
Psalm 103:4b (NIV) …and crowns you with love and compassion.
Vv. 6-18 elaborate on this: God works righteousness and justice for the oppressed (v. 6); God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (v. 8); He does not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever (v. 9); He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities (v. 10); indeed, His love is from everlasting to everlasting…with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children (v. 17).
All these statements are talking about God’s graciousness and mercy. The very best is found in v. 13. Psalm 103:13 (NIV) As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
(v. 2, …forget not…)
In spite of all these benefits, God knows that we are prone to forget Him. One of the reasons Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper was so we would not forget what He did for us.
His broken body and shed blood remind us that He paid the penalty we each deserve because we are sinners. We are reminded that Jesus took our sin guilt upon Himself so that we could become righteousness and spend eternity in God’s heaven.
To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe these things about Jesus, and that God the Father raised Him to life again three days later. When we believe these things, and trust Him to be our Savior, it is a commitment of the rest of our lives to Him.
This kind of belief should make a difference in our lives, in how we live. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites, Deut. 6:5 (NIV) Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Should be a no-brainer—but we tend to forget that to be a follower of Jesus means something. It means we love God and that we, Matt. 6:33 (NIV) …seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
We want to love God with everything we are, and we want to seek His kingdom every day, we often forget Him. We are so involved in the world we forget His benefits.
I don’t mean “the world” in a bad way. I just mean that we get so busy and wrapped up with living life—jobs, family, school activities and so on that God is kind of left out. There is danger when we forget God.
When we forget God we lose track of why we are here. Our selfish nature takes over. Here are some things I have observed that happen when we forget God’s benefits:
Jesus onetime said, "To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others.” (Matt. 11:16). Sometimes we act like selfish, obstinate, stubborn, “the world revolves around me”, children. When that happens:
Church becomes more a place for our own satisfaction rather than a hospital for sinners and lighthouse for a lost world. We care for our own comfort more that reaching the unchurched. We are stubborn about our own desires rather than being willing to do whatever it takes to reach our community and the next generations.
Rev 2:4 (NIV) Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.
When Del Norte was first started there was a desire to grow a church in the Bel Air area, then in the Del Norte neighborhood. They wanted to touch people’s lives with Jesus Christ. Do we still have that same kind of excitement, or are we in a “protect what we already have” mode?
Matt. 28:19 (NIV) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations… Is it the Great Commission or the Great Suggestion? Jesus said, "Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.”
James 4:2 (NIV) You do not have, because you do not ask God. These few words contain the secret to both the power or the powerlessness of the average Christian.
Many are making poor progress in their Christian life, and have so little victory over sin because of neglect of prayer.
Many churches are asking, “Why does the Church of Jesus Christ have so little impact in the world today?” Why does the average church member live on such a low plane of Christian living? Why does Jesus Christ get so little honor from the church today?
Could it be that we have not because we ask not? Could it be this simple? Yes, I’m afraid so. Think about what we mostly pray for: health issues, to heal the sick, and so forth. That’s good.
But do you pray for victory over sin every day? Do you live a life of victory? Do you have a constant awareness of the presence of Jesus Christ in your life? Maybe, just maybe, you have lost God’s power.
. A missionary went to tell the lost about Jesus. He told them he had the most important news about God and His love through Jesus Christ.
One of those he was talking to asked, “If this news is so important why hasn’t someone told us about it sooner?” When you forget God, it is no longer important to share Jesus Christ, because he is no longer important to you.
Matt. 5:13-14(NIV) You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. This may be the saddest of all.
Jesus said that Christians are to bring some sense into a senseless world. He also said about the approach of the end times, Mat 24:12, Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
There are many signs in our nation today that we have forgotten God and our love has grown cold. As the influence of the church has decreased, the rise of lawlessness and immorality has increased. There is a direct correlation between the two.
You do not know how much good you could do by simply living a life of praise and obedience. You can begin to make a difference in some lives right now. And those lives will touch other lives. The most important thing for you and our church is to praise the Lord and forget not all His benefits.