Biblical Lessons on Thankfulness and God's Faithful Benefits

Psalms 103 teaches us to be thankful for God's benefits and not forget them.

David's psalm reminds us to praise God for his holiness and love.

We should count our blessings instead of our crosses and remember God's kindness to us.

The Holy Spirit inspires us to praise God and thank Him for His benefits and love.

Música Música Psalms 103, especially verses 1-6, gives the true and hungry believer in Jesus Christ outstanding insight and instruction as to being thankful and to not forget all of his benefits. Let's read beginning in verse 1. Praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being. Praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of his benefits. Verse 3 Who forgives all of your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Who satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Verse 7 He has made his ways known to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever. Verse 10. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like the flower in the field. The wind blows over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him, and His righteousness with their children's children, and with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. Verse 19. The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all of His heavenly hosts. You servants who do His will, praise the Lord, all of His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul. As we read these inspiring scriptures by the Holy Spirit, and as a believing child of the Most High God, this psalm ought to invoke a chorus of praise in our hearts too, just as it did in David's heart over 2,000 years ago. The Holy Spirit inspired David to write his wonderful masterpiece of extolling his creator. And we can see that David was most likely older and more mature and could recount all of his crises in life that he had come through and even had been delivered from. And this reminds me in the New Testament A paralelo que seems appropriate to mention here, that is found in James 1.2, when James instructs us to count it all joy when we go through trials and tribulations that come with being a child of God. Someone wrote in regards to this particular scripture, counting it all joy to say, count your blessings instead of your crosses, Count your gains instead of your losses. Count your joys instead of your woes. Count your friends instead of your foes. Count your smiles instead of your tears. Count your courage instead of your fears. Count your full years instead of your lean. Count your kind deeds instead of your mean. Count your health instead of your wealth. Count on God instead of yourself. I thought this New Testament parallel was very appropriate in the expression of praise that is due to God alone as we reflect on the exclamations of God's goodness in each of our lives as these years pass by. We should note here that the Greek term for praise or bless the Lord are the same interchangeable in their meaning And the Greek word is pronounced barak, and it means to bless or praise God as an act of adoration. King David expressed a series of the eruption of praises or blessings to God, depending on what the translation or the version of the Bible you use. Even though we read all the Psalms in chapter 103, We are going to look mainly at the first five verses to catch the flavor of this man of God whom God considered a man after his own heart. In the first verse of our chapter, David begins with a series of heartfelt outpouring to God when he exclaims, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. This outburst of David is an enthusiastic devotion in honor of the Almighty who is the self-existing being who has made himself known to David and had entered into a covenant relationship with him and Israel. We too, like David, have so much to be thankful for in our covenant promise with the Most High God who has given his Son Jesus Christ to live within us as promised by his own words in Ezekiel 36, 24-28. For I will take you out of the nations. I will gather you from all countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your impurities, from all of your idols. I will give you a new heart e vou colocar um novo espírito em você. Eu vou removem de sua alma a stone e vou dar uma alma de sua alma. E eu vou colocar meu espírito em você e movem você a seguir meu decrees e be careful de manter meus laws. Bom, muitos de nós sabemos que Deus Deus realmente vive dentro de nós e nós não somos o mesmo individual que nós nos eram em respeito to the old life in nature. To bless the holy name of God is to praise him for his inherent holiness who totally is pure and lives with no sin. Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil, O Lord. You cannot tolerate wrong. King David had a gift of being able to express himself with everything that was within him to do so. O que é que você disse a Deus em times de worship? O que que voc se sente com a palavra de Deus de ser capaz de dizer como voc ama Ele O que que voc n come mas a presen de Deus em voc being able to tell him how much you love him The words would just not come But the presence of God on and in you made you know that words were not necessary I praise God that David was gifted to be able to express what many people are not able to say to God in these times because we see his love for his creator involved everything that was within him. It involved his intellectual, emotional, and physical aspect of his feelings for God. And I believe these are summed up with one's entire being in the words heart, soul, mind, and strength of other scriptures. As are described in Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 11. In loving the Lord our God with all that is within us. Have you ever been through a long, dark battle in your life where you were totally in agony and at times thought you might not make it through the night? And then there came a time when you experienced the dark clouds roll back and you found yourself free of the heavy weight and the agony you carried. I have been there. You find yourself so overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving and joy, the overpowering appreciation that you break down and weep for lack of ability to adequately thank your generous Creator for His kindness to you. And this is what happened to David many times over as we read especially throughout the Psalms. When life is good, we human beings are very forgetful of our Lord's benefits and graciousness towards us. We are reminded throughout scripture to remember or not forget. This, of course, applies to the benefits and kindness of God that we should always hold a mental fresh remembrance of that he has done for us personally. Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16 gives us the instruction to be happy in your faith and rejoice and be glad-hearted continually always. So, as in the New Testament, is the same with David in caution that we should not forget all the benefits of the Lord God Almighty. When we think about the benefits associated in the natural, say with employment or retirement or investments, but how often do we ponder or meditate or reflect upon the benefits of our great Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I would like us to re-read our main scripture today and see again that verses 3-5 mark out wonderful benefits that ought to be life-giving, stimulating, and strengthening to our spirits and souls as we ponder upon them. First, I am going to read from the New Living Bible Translation version of these scriptures, then we'll go into the Amplified. Verse 3 Who forgives all your sins and heals your diseases? Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion? Who satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles and the Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed? Now the Amplified version. Verse 3 who forgives every one of all of your iniquities, who heals each one of all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy. Verse 5. Who satisfies your mouth, your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagles, strong, overcoming, soaring. Did you see that as we read the five benefits, they are expressed with the following words, forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, and satisfies. These are promises, dear ones. These promises belong to the redeemed, faithful, and sincere followers of the Lord God Almighty. I don't know about you, but when I read verse 4, which again says, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. I am so thankful for the price that it cost my dear Savior to rescue me from the very pit He Himself went down into in order for me to have eternal life and spend eternity with Him. What a cost! And what a Savior we serve, dear Church! so our redemption in which we partake of is a benefit we could say is almost twofold first we are redeemed from the guilt of our sins this Jesus accomplished as the perfect sacrifice for sin he was the lamb of God who was without spot or blemish John chapter 1 verse 29 declares the next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said look the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world you see Jesus by his death upon the cross satisfied the justice of God and therefore became the perfect ultra efficient redeemer of mankind as Job went through his bitter trial he declares in Job chapter 19 verse 25 For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He, the last one, will stand upon the earth. You see, we too have the perfect blessing, solution, and plan that gives us direct privilege of this blessing as we submit to the holy commands of the Scripture for the pardon of our sins. There is another way in which we shall be redeemed and it is mentioned and affirmed by Apostle Paul in Romans 8, verses 23-25 And not only the creation, but we ourselves too who have and enjoy the first fruits of the Holy Spirit a foretaste of the blissful things to come groan inwardly as we await the redemption of our bodies from sensuality in the grave, which will reveal our adoption, our manifestation as God's sons. Verse 24 For in this hope we were saved, but hope the object of which is seen is not hope. For how can one hope for what he has already seen? For if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure. We ourselves are groaning inwardly, waiting for our adoption of our bodies, which will reveal our adoption as God's sons. Verse 24 tells us that in this hope we are saved. Apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter 15 verses 4 through 6 in regards to this hope. He says, For whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, that by our steadfast and patient endurance and the encouragement drawn from the scriptures, we might hold fast to and cherish hope Verse 5 And now may the God who gives the power of patient endurance steadfastness and who supplies encouragement grant you to live in such mutual harmony and such full sympathy with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may unanimously, with united hearts and one voice, praise and glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. You see, our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ depends upon our steadfast and patient endurance that we gain from Holy Scripture so that we might hold fast to and cherish the hope of eternal life that awaits all who are faithful and are conforming to their wonderful and powerful Savior through the help and power of precious Holy Spirit. Romans 8, Chapter 19 through 21 declares, for even the whole world, creation, all nature, awaits expectantly and longs earnestly for God's Son to be known, awaits for the revealing and disclosing of their Sonship. For the creation the nature was subject to frailty and futility, condemned to frustration, not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of him who so subjected it, yet with the hope that nature creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption and gain an entrance into the glorious freedom of God's children. Hallelujah! There is a story regarding a boy who delayed and put off his salvation invitation. And the story starts by saying, How many more days do you want to spend in rebellion against God? I am reminded of that little boy who ran to the train, and just as he reached the platform of the train, the train moved off and left him. and he stood there panting and watching the train. Now in the distance a man said to him, You did not run fast enough. No, the boy said, I ran with all my might, but I didn't make it because I didn't start soon enough. Many a man will rush up and find the gates of heaven closed and say, like the little boy, I didn't start soon enough. this young boy knew that he was putting off his call while he was putting it off but the tragedy was he knew he missed out entirely when it was too late because he started too late in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 15 Paul tells young Timothy to study and be eager to do your utmost to present yourself to God approved, tested by trial, a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing, accurately dividing, rightly handling, and skillfully teaching the word of God. The apostle's instruction is life-saving for all who will heed his exhortation to study and show themselves approved to God. now speaking about one of the other benefits which our main verses discuss in Psalms 103 we saw that forgiveness of all of our iniquities are forgiven by our great creator God and Father in heaven but what we really need to understand is that our heavenly Father through our Lord Jesus Christ will forgive all of our past sins listen to this only for those who submit to the will of his Son in obedience. Listen to what Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 6, verses 17 and 18. But thank God, though you were once slaves to sin, you've now become obedient with all your hearts to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed, to which you were committed, verse 18, and having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness, of conformity to the divine will in the purpose, thought, and action. You see, our pardon for all past sins does depend upon our personal yielding or obedience to the terms of God's divine plan of salvation. We have the perfect one who set the perfect pattern for us regarding this obedience to God. Hebrews 5, verses 8 and 9 declare, Although he was once a son, he learned active, special obedience through what he suffered. And his completed experience, making him perfectly equipped, he became the author and source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey him. King David tells us that we benefit from the blessing and promises in healing of our diseases and we must look at the proper perspective here and understand this blessing is promised this benefit does not intend to suggest that as God's children we can expect absolute and continual healing from every illness so that we will never die. When in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 and then in the first Peter chapter 2 verse 24 it is quoted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed. The word translated healed can mean either spiritual or physical healing. In these two scriptures it is speaking of spiritual healing. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. And this verse is speaking about sin and righteousness and not necessarily about sickness and disease. So therefore being healed in both of these verses is referring to being forgiven and saved, not necessarily physically being healed. Sometimes people are physically healed when they place their faith in Jesus Christ. But this isn't always the case. Sometimes it's God's will to heal and sometimes it's not. It is always up to God to know what is right and good, just like in the case of Paul when he was given a thorn in the side. God still performs miracles and he still heals people of sickness and disease and pain. And we know we shall have what we ask and that he hears us. But we also know that it is not always his will to heal us when we make a peel. Our full healing of physical healing awaits us in heaven. Revelation chapter 21 verse 4 tells us that. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be anguish, sorrow and mourning, neither grief nor pain anymore, for the old conditions and former order of things have passed away. There will be no more pain sickness disease suffering or death There will be no more mental illness physical illness and spiritual sickness There will be no more pain sickness disease suffering or death There will be no more mental illness physical illness and spiritual sickness So healing pertains to both physical and spiritual sickness deficiencies, and disease. Just want to make note in reference to healing. In James 5, verse 14, the instruction is, Is anyone sick among you? let them call on the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. So this calls on the faith to be in action on the part of the one who is sick and needs healing just like the sick man on the stretcher who was lowered through the rooftop when he was so desperate for Jesus to heal him. Now the other benefit that Psalms 103 talks about is a crown of compassion and loving kindness. Revelation 3.21 declares, He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit beside me on my throne, as I myself overcame, was victorious, and sat down beside my Father on his throne. What tender mercies and compassion of our Most High God and Father when he invites us to be a part of the family of God. He adopts us and gives us promises of being an heir of the eternal God family. And not only that, he promises a crown that we will be seated next to him on his throne. You see, the eventual crowning of God will be for those who again are obedient to the end. John chapter 14 verses 1 through 3. Do not let your hearts be troubled, distressed, agitated. You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God. Believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on me. In my Father's house there are many mansion, places, homes, and if it were not so, I would have told you. For I am going away to prepare a place for you, and when I go and make a place ready for you, I will come back again and I will take you to myself, that where I am you may also be. This will be the ultimate expression of the kindness and compassion of our Lord God. As a true believer in Jesus Christ, we should be diligent to hold fast by faith to this expectation because it is possible to lose the hope of one's crown if we fall off the path. The last benefit that Psalms 103 discusses is found in verse 5. Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth will be renewed like the eagle. Well, it appears that this scripture is speaking about satisfaction. David says the Lord satisfies our desires with good things. Well, there are many commentaries who take a good, I like to say a good shot, at trying to explain this one. And Mr. Barnes, who is a biblical commentator, even said that he had no idea as to the meaning of this verse. This verse is also talking about satisfying a desire. This is speaking about a course of years that seems that as long as you live or your days of old, you will be satisfied because of the good things that God supplies you with. Verse 5 also mentions, catch this, Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Did you know that an eagle usually enjoys a long and vigorous longevity? This verse can mean your demeanor and life will be like that of a youth and you will continue to soar as the great majestic eagle. Look at Isaiah chapter 40 verse 28. Have you not heard? The Lord is an everlasting God. the creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, and they will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Another verse very fitting for this last benefit that David teaches is found in Psalms 92, verses 12-15. I have no doubt whatever in what verse 5 teaches us about who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle? I believe we could sum it up as those who walk with the Lord and are obedient, will walk and grow in spiritual maturity and in His word, we will be recipients of God's gracious benefits even in old age. Their bodies may grow old and weak, but their minds and hearts will be youthful because the savor for his word and ways possess a vibrant vigorous at the thought and promise for eternal life and the life beyond. Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, Therefore we do not become discouraged, utterly spiritless, exhausted, and weary, as through fear. Though our outer man is progressively decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being progressively renewed day after day. For our light momentary afflictions, this slight distress of the passing hour, is evermore and abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory, beyond all measure excessively, surpassing all comparisons and all calculations of vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease. let us remember that benefits in the Hebrew are defined by all that God has given us it means reward and recompense benefits are like promises let us never let down but let us pray and hope we'll be greatly inspired where one feels weak and tired we never want to grow weary or thankless or half-hearted in our walk with the Lord let us always have lips of praise and adoration to our wonderful God and Father and to our dear Savior for what he has done for us in making all these wonderful benefits and promises possible for our home going Hallelujah and praise be to our God Thank you.

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