Count Your Blessings
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Count Your Blessings - Psalm 103:1-5
Count Your Blessings - Psalm 103:1-5
Welcome
1 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 not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Prayer
Announcements
Jerry
_____________________________________________________
Welcome my friends...
Wow, it is hard to imagine that we are already at the week of Thanksgiving.
We are just over a month away from Christmas, and that seems hard to believe
You’ve heard this before, but it seems like our days pass so quickly. We must make the most of each day. And I think you would agree with me there.
And with Thanksgiving just a few days away, I want to remind you that we need to be thankful, even when our days are tough, and we are weary, to stop and be thankful.
And so this morning, I have a message I want to share with you from Psalm 103, and I want you to consider this idea as we walk through the text, “Count Your Blessings.”
And the idea of counting your blessings is a good idea, it is good to be reminded, to not allow yourself to forget all that God has done for us.
I say that, so that we do not ever forget like James tells us in James 1:17 “17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, ....
So lets consider a few thoughts this morning.. We can count our blessings for many reasons, lets look at verse 1.
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
As we unwrap this Psalm, I want to encourage you here as we think about personal praise. So there is our first thought..
1 We Can Praise His Name…
As we open this beautiful psalm, David begins the text here, it is like he is rousing himself up, Kind of like, Wake up self, get up and shake off your despair, your gloom or self perceived defeat of the day.
Wake up and take upon yourself a new outlook...He calls upon himself, and likewise us to cry out blessings to the Lord our God. Bless the Lord, O My Soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Man, there is really a sense of urgency here. Men and women of God, do not wait any longer, stop and call out praise for the the Lord our God..
But some might say, but preacher what about the difficult days? What about those days when I am on the bottom?
Well, especially in those days, stop and change your perspective.
Listen to David back in Psalm 42:5
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation
David says why are you cast down, why are your gloomy, why are you stuck in the muck and mire of today.. wake up..
Turn your eyes upon Jesus and what happens there.. oh well looking to Jesus, looking to the Father, David says Hope in God for I shall praise him again..
When our eyes are upon Jesus, what else can we do but to love and praise the Lord our God, the one who is our salvation.
I think this is one of the greatest difficulties of life today, we stay focused on the difficulties, this has happened, this tore up, I have lost so much… and the list does on..
Is there anything in your life, anything that you are going through today that is to big for God?
No.…
All the reason more to praise his name.
I remember a pastor friend of ours who is home with Jesus, he got diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he said I praise the Lord even in the cancer, Why? I get to tell more and more people about Jesus.
It is a cry from the depths of our heart, O my soul… Personal praise comes from deep down, and it is the open and vocal acknowledgement that the Lord is good in all that He does!
I can and I choose to praise His name each and every day.
So stop for a moment and just ask, Lord, help me to keep my focus on you each day, so I can praise you all the more.
So what else does David say?
Well secondly this morning
2 Remember His Benefits...
Think for a moment, what all has the Lord done for you? Oh, I know there are many things that come to mind..
Well, lets look at it from David’s perspective. David is the King of Israel, and without a doubt he has enjoyed a marvelous life. Wouldn’t you think so??
He is the youngest of many sons, a shepherd boy for his father Jesse, and yet, in a divine moment, God had Samuel anoint him as King over Israel.
Then later one day at the battlefield, while he was there to bring supplies to his brothers, He rose up for God and the Lord gave him victory on the battlefield over Goliath.
His life is marked with joy and sorrow, ups and downs some victories and yes, some failures.. David’s life isn’t perfect.
But David knows this truth, God is faithful and here David appears to look back and faithfully praise God for all of His benefits.
Look at the text with me… verse 2 Psalm 103:2
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
There it is again, the call to pull oneself out of the gloomy state of self and to focus on the one who is deserving of all our praise.
But David adds to it here, forget not all his benefits....
Now this is really important, and here is why? The natural state of our minds, well it seems we tend to always hold onto the negative things of life.
We tend to think more often about our hurts, and disappointments...but here the call is to stop and think of the positives, especially what the Lord has done for us...
If I asked you to stop and think about all the Lord has done for you, how long would your list be?
You see if we take time to focus on the good things of God, we won’t have time to worry about the negatives...
Now I am not saying we don’t pay attention to some of those negatives, but I am saying they do not have the right to claim our attention all the time.
Why? God deserves that!!
Bless the Lord, o my soul and forget not his benefits..
There is something special I want to point out to you here.
In the Hebrew language, to say forgot, it isn’t that you didn’t think of it or it didn’t remember something. To forget mean it was a visible action of rebellion, disobedience.. you didn’t want to do it...
So when David says “forget not” all his benefits, he is saying purposefully, think back on all the good God has done for you.
And my friends, I challenge you today, instead of the negative, embrace the good, the good that the Lord has shown to you. Consider today how the Lord has blessed you!
It will make your life better!
To think on His benefits (and not my failures or someone else’s) causes me to rejoice for He has done so much for me and he’s not done yet!
The longer you live the more God does for you… Amen. So think on those good things.. Listen to Psalm 9, verse 1
1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
Give thanks to the Lord for all that you my friends have just remembered.. And praise the name of the Lord!
30 I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
So what are the benefits of the Lord?
What can we praise him for..
Now lets build off of this with our next thought, look at what else David says....
3 For His forgiveness...
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
forgiveness is one of His benefits.… and it is one we must remember.
When David thought of the blessings that he has personally received from the Lord, forgiveness is at the top of the list.
Look at verse 3 Psalm 103:3
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
When the Lord comes and touches us, he heals and forgives us. Those two words, heal and forgive they go hand in hand.
Now healing can refer to the healing from a physical aliment, a sickness or a disease, but, it can also speak to the spiritual wound as well.
The word “iniquity” is one of the words that refers to the ingrained corruption of the heart of mankind. It is iniquity in a persons life that leads to open trespasses and sins..
We could pull from just one moment of David’s life and understand it better. That moment in where he saw Bathsheba, bathing on the roof top. Oh what he held, iniquity, in his heart at that moment led to the greater actions.. those sins that followed...
When David turned to God after his sin, the Lord forgave him. And the Lord healed his heart, the sickness of his soul.
5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Now listen, that healing didn’t mean there would be no consequences, oh no, sin always has consequences.. But, the Lord can heal and help us as we return to him in repentance.
Oh one benefit of the Lord is that he forgives our iniquity, our sin and he heals all our diseases..
But that is not all my friends, what else does David speak of, what other blessings, does he find at the Lord’s hand?
well, redemption is a great benefit of walking and knowing the Lord.
4 He Redeems Our Life...
Man, I like that… redemption is a term we should hold close to our heart and mind friends...
The term “redeem” means “to buy out” and it was used uniquely in the idea of purchasing a person out of slavery. And David knew the Lord had “saved’ his life and redeemed him, kept him from the pit or more literally hell.
Listen to what he says in verse 4
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
David’s sin, had been forgiven, when he called out to the Lord and repented, Nathan the prophet told him in 2 Samuel 12:13, the Lord has put away your sin.
His redemption ensured that his guilt had been removed and the sentence of death has been taken away and it was placed upon another, the Lord Jesus would became our substitute, his death on the cross forgave sin… He purchased us back from the pit, from destruction..
And look, What Jesus did on the cross forever settled the issue of sin. Sins past, sins present and sins done in the future… this was done not only for David but for us as well.
Charles Spurgeon said ...“Redemption will ever constitute one of the sweetest notes in the believers grateful song.”
But look where our redemption leads my friends.. David says not only has God redeemed him, but God is the one “who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy...”
Someone once said “...God doesn’t do anything halfway...”
His forgiveness, his cleansing us from sin, the healing he has provided for our souls, and His redemption...it doesn’t end there.
David goes on and says that He will crown us with something more precious than gold or silver, instead grace, God’s grace has prevailed and we are crowned in steadfast love and mercy.
What does this mean?
The crown invokes the imagery of a royalty, and I would remind you that we are, for we are called the children of the living God. God has made us one of his family by His love and given us all the benefits of inhabiting His family.
The steadfast love of God is the Hebrew word “Hesed” and that word is a covenant, loyal love which is faithful and enduring and because it is rooted in God’s covenant with man, it is steadfast, unending … it is bound to us as repentant sinners who have given their live over to the Lord Jesus and are His children.
The mercy God extends to us is the compassion rooted in the care a mother or father has for their children. The love we have for our children is a picture of God’s care for us, oh but better for His ways are perfect and right
His mercy toward us is meant to heal, to soothe and restore.
And so when yo look at these things together, we see our Father, because of His covenant love keeps his promises and that compassion is overflowing with tender and restorative care
David knew the Lord had forgiven, healed and restored his life. He had the evidence of it.
But what about us?
We are restored, that is part of the Lord’s benefit my friends. Our status before Him isn’t just one of mere legality, but it is relational, God has elated and renewed our life before him.
He has loved us and renewed our life that we might stand before Him in truth and righteousness.
Now there is one more benefit that David speaks of for us to examine as we being this text to a close.
Lets consider this last idea...
5. We are Satisfied and Renewed
When we think of satisfaction, perhaps our mind speaks to being pleased or having enough.. but truthfully in our flesh, in our natural man, are we ever truly satisfied
But truly the Lord is able to bless and satisfy our souls. Look at verse 5 with me. Psalm 103:5
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
One benefit of the Lord is true satisfaction, one that is not bound with earthly pleasures or similar things, but it truly a soul satisfying peace that the Lord gives and my friends it is truly a good thing.
What a blessing that our Father seeks to ensure that our soul is filled with good things, and when our soul is full, David says that our youth is renewed like the eagles..
Renewal is something that people long for? Ponce de Leon was on a quest seeking to find the so called “fountain of youth”, and even today, people look for all those things that will make them youthful, younger filled with better strength or energy..
But here David reminds us that the Lord does this for his children.
You see in God’s covenant love and forgiveness we who are in Christ are made new… Man, do we think of this enough.
If anyone is in Christ He is made new…
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
It isn’t just that you are blessed, oh, man it is more than that friends, you are transformed in Christ.
Think of this, as one of the benefits of the Lord is this, the old you is gone, and in Christ suddenly you are made well, whole, and here David says your are renewed like that of aneagles wings.
That beautiful majestic bird, those wings take it from the earth, and with mighty waves they pull it further and further up and over this earth into the high places..
The benefit of the Lord is that you can now fly high in Christ and listen, you will ascend into his presence… and what a blessings that da will be..
But until this. You are blessed and the blessings of God are truly to great to count my friends, the Lord has done so much for us.
Our lungs and voice testify to all these things...
Praise his high and holy name my friends...
Lets pray
