Psalm 103 … Consider All His Benefits

Originally posted: 11/23/2020

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, (103:1-2).

If this Psalm doesn’t get us excited, then there is something seriously wrong deep down within our soul. Perhaps it means we have forgotten All His Benefits. Perhaps these current times, living in a pandemic world, in a nation filled with political unrest and animosity, in a time permeated with uncertainties and skepticism, have brought about a kind of spiritual amnesia.

David, as was his habit, regularly engaged in soul talk, a pep-talk for his soul. We all need that. When we place our faith in Christ and are born-again, while our spirits are brought to new life, our souls are not regenerated; and the soul (our mind, will, and emotions) is in constant need of reviving. God’s Word, revealing All His Benefits as a result of His mighty deeds, is our inspired source for soul talk.

Consider All His Benefits

Almost every verse in today’s psalm declares some aspect of His Benefits. That was David’s intent; to rehearse All His Benefits so that his soul would not forget. Even at a glance, it is evident that His Benefits are extraordinarily incomprehensible. And in compiling his list of the Lord’s Benefits, David wrote about:

His forgiveness; His healings; His redemption; His lovingkindness; His compassion; His satisfying renewal; His righteous judgments; His miraculous manifestations; His grace; His longsuffering; His mercy; His eradication of sin; His Father heart of love; His sympathy; His everlasting love; His righteousness bestowed; and His sovereign eternal reign over the heavens and earth.

The Hebrew word translated as Benefits offers an interesting perspective.

Benefits: “1576. גְּמוּל g^emûl: A masculine noun indicating recompense, benefits, something deserved, dealings, doings… It indicates a deserved receipt for something, whether accepted or returned … which the Lord … or a person may render. God’s good deeds amount to benefits received from Him (Ps. 103:2)…” Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance

As I considered David’s inventory of All His Benefits, somehow the Hebrew word didn’t seem to line up. For I was instantly reminded, none of us deserve His blessings.

“There is none righteous, not even one;
¹¹ There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
¹² All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one,” (Romans 3:10-12).

He does not bestow His blessing on us because we somehow deserve to receive gifts from Holy God; there is not even one of us deserving. Only God can make us fit to receive All His Benefits. We need to remember that faith has always been the only means by which we can be declared righteous and deserving before Him.

Then [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness, (Genesis 15:6:).

“Behold, as for the proud one,
His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith,” (Habakkuk 2:4).

But there was One, only One Who lived a righteous life; One Who understood and sought God; One Who never turned aside; One Who always did good. Only One. And He came to take away sin.

You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin, (1 John 3:5).

It is only when we have placed our faith in the atoning death of the only Savior, the sinless Jesus Christ, that we receive His righteousness.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, (2 Corinthians 5:20).

It is when we come to know Him through faith in Christ, and have been made the righteousness of God in Him, that we receive All His Benefits.

…To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ² Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; ³ seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, (2 Peter 1:1-3).

And we need to remind our soul that the recompense we receive through our faith in Christ is every spiritual blessing in Him!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (Ephesians 1:3).

All His Benefits are available to all who believe and live by faith.

• All His Benefits are abundantly higher and greater than we can even fathom, maintained by His supreme lovingkindness.
  • For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him, (103:11).
    • But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, (Romans 5:8).
    •  Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, (Ephesians 3:20).

• All His Benefits extend wider than the east is from the west, rooted in His unfathomable love.
  • 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, (103:12-14).
    • so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God, (Ephesians 3:17-19).

• All His Benefits are bestowed through His eternal lovingkindness and upheld by His righteous covenant in Jesus Christ.
  • 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, (103:17-18).
    • Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, ²¹ equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever, (Hebrews 13:20-21).

How do we respond to All His Benefits?

Let us also follow David’s example and engage in our own soul talk, that we would coach ourselves to remember All His Benefits, and with all that we are, we would Bless the Lord.

Bless: 1288. בָּרַךְ bāraḵ: A verb meaning to bless, kneel, salute, or greet. The verb derives from the noun knee and perhaps suggests the bending of the knee in blessing… Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance [emphasis added].

• Let us Kneel before Him; let us come before Him with all that we are, in humble worship.
  • Come, let us worship and bow down,
    Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, (Psalm 95:6).
  • Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, (Romans 12:1).

• Let us Salute Him; let us give Him with all that we are, the honor and respect He alone deserves.
  • I will praise You with all my heart, Lord my God,
    and will honor Your name forever, (Psalm 86:12 HCSB).
  • When you eat or drink or do anything else, always do it to honor God, (1 Corinthians 10:31 CEV).

• Let us Greet Him; let us seek Him every day with all that we are, that we would never let a day pass without meeting with Him in His Word and in prayer.
  • Seek the Lord and His strength;
    Seek His face continually, (1 Chronicles 16:11).
  • Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, (Colossians 3:1-2).

Oh, let us Bless the Lord, with all that we are and all that is within us, that we would never ever forget All His Benefits!

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, (103:1-2).

Let’s Grow Together!