Forget None of His Benefits! - Part 1

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Well, as you know, of course, Thursday is Thanksgiving, and almost every person in our country will celebrate the holiday with food and family and football – but what won't happen in most homes this week is thanksgiving.  Most won't truly express any thanks to God, and even those who take time to sort of mentally or verbally list what they're thankful for still typically won't take time to express their gratitude to God for those things.  Listen carefully – there is a huge difference between saying I'm thankful and actually giving thanks to God for the blessings that you enjoy.  Sinful man, as a habit, does not give thanks to God – in fact, keep your finger at Psalm 103, but look back at Romans 1 and just remember what Paul says there.  Romans 1:21, talking about how God has revealed Himself in the creation; he says, "Even though they knew God" – mankind has seen the truth about God in the creation and has understood that truth.  This is always a reminder, by the way, that God doesn't believe in atheists – He has given every man a clear understanding of Himself in creation, and the only way that someone lands differently is to suppress that truth, according to Romans 1.

But how does sinful man respond to this revelation of God?  "They knew about God" from the creation, verse 21 says, "they did not honor Him as God."  The word honor is literally glorify, they didn't glorify Him as God – and this isn't accidental; notice verse 28, "they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer."  You see, the sinner's response to God is willful rebellion, willful rejection of God's right to rule their lives, willful rejection of the lordship of their Creator.  So, sinful man refuses to glorify God as God – but notice in verse 21, there's a second manifestation of man's hard heart.  "For even though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or give thanks."  At the core of human sinfulness is a refusal to give God thanks – it's what our Lord said in Luke 6:35; He says, God "is kind to ungrateful and evil men."  You see, rebellion against God doesn't begin with atheism – I love the way Os Guinness puts it; he says, "Rebellion against God does not begin with a clenched fist of atheism, but with the self-satisfied heart of the one for whom 'thank you' is redundant."  Gratitude is one of man's chief duties toward the God who created us and sustains us, but unbelievers manifest their hard hearts by refusing to give God thanks.  I don't think it can be put any better than French Huguenot pastor Jean Daillé said; he said, "Thankless men are like swine feeding on acorns, which, though they fall upon their heads, never make them look up to the tree from which they come."

But, at the same time that unbelievers are prone by nature to be ungrateful, let's just admit that even we, as believers, often struggle to give God thanks – why is that? Well, I think, biblically, there are three primary reasons that we struggle; I'll just list them for you. First of all, I think we struggle with gratitude because we don't understand what we do deserve and what we don't deserve.  In other words, we don't really understand our sinfulness and the reality that all we deserve from God is eternal hell, and that produces pride, and pride is the chief enemy of thanksgiving.  Here's how it's put in 2 Chronicles 32:25 – Hezekiah, a believer, gave no return for the benefit he received; he didn't thank God for the extra fifteen years of life that God granted him; why?  Because his heart was proud.  You see, pride convinces us that we deserve what we have, or it convinces us to complain because we deserve more than we have, or different than we have. Augustine put it this way, "God's benefits will not be before our eyes unless our sins be also before our eyes."  In other words, it's only as we understand our sinfulness that we're driven to gratitude, because we understand we deserve nothing from God.

A second reason I think we struggle with gratitude is we don’t understand the goodness of God – we don't truly understand the character of God – and a third reason is we don't recognize, or we don't rehearse, all of God's blessings to us.  Today, and next Sunday, Lord willing, I want to see how the scripture directly addresses reasons two and three in one of the most familiar and beloved psalms in the psalter, Psalm 103.  We just read it a moment ago for our scripture reading, so I won't read it again, but let me just point out to you the theme of this psalm is the only right response to God, for all of the blessings we have received from His hand, is to praise Him and to give Him thanks.  There's not a single request in this psalm – instead, it's a hymn of thanksgiving.  Stevenson writes this, "It is an exquisite song of thanksgiving, it is the outpouring of a heaven-taught gratitude, it is the spiritual hymn of a redeemed sinner singing and making melody in his heart to the Lord.  It is suited for all ages, appropriate to all persons, and applicable to all conditions – every nation under heaven may equally adopt its language."

You'll notice that the heading, the title, says that it's "of David," meaning that David penned this psalm, which means it was written some three thousand years ago. Its structure is fairly simple – in verses 1-2, we see a call to personal praise and thanksgiving; then, in verses 3-5, reasons for personal praise and thanksgiving.  In fact, you'll notice in verses 3-5 that David uses singular personal pronouns "me" and "my" as he talks to himself. But it's not merely a private psalm – he wrote it as a poem to be sung by all of God's people corporately, when they came together for worship.  So, it's like David is the soloist leading us out in worship at the beginning of this psalm, inviting us all to join him later – and that brings us to verses 6-18, the third division of this psalm, in which David gives us reasons for corporate praise and thanksgiving.  In these verses, he uses the plural personal pronouns "we" and "us" and "our," as he voices the reasons for corporate praise, as we unite our hearts together to praise our great God – and then, verses 19-22 is a call to universal praise and thanksgiving.  Lord willing, we will work our way through this psalm this week and next.

So, in verses 1 and 2, then, we have a call to personal praise and thanksgiving.  A call to personal praise and thanksgiving – and this call, fortunately, begins by explaining to us what the practice of praise and thanksgiving looks like, or we could say what the pattern of praise and thanksgiving should look like.  Verse 1, "Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name."  Notice, first of all, its expression, the expression of praise and thanksgiving – it's the word bless; bless is a Hebrew word for praise.  We talk about God blessing us; how do we bless God?  Well, it doesn't mean we give something to God other than praise; it means we speak well of God, we praise Him – but this word bless has mixed with it the idea of warm gratitude, so it's praise and thanksgiving all mixed together.  "Bless Yahweh."  Davidson writes, "To bless the Lord is to acknowledge that all that makes life richly meaningful comes to us as a gift that we should never take for granted." So, think of bless as praise and thanksgiving combined.

Notice its object – Yahweh.  This is the only name of God that's used in this psalm; it is the personal name of the one true and living God.  As I have told you before, Yahweh is what we say – when God speaks, He calls Himself "I am;" when we speak, we say Yahweh, which means "He is."  It's appropriate that this is the name for God; the name here means that He is the only self-existent one, He is the only person who exists who relies completely and solely upon Himself, and on nothing and no one else.  It's appropriate that this name would be given because He's the one who gives us all things, who needs nothing.  By the way, this reminds us, the fact that we are to bless Yahweh, reminds us – listen carefully – it's not thanksgiving unless we're giving it to the one true God, the fountain of every good thing.  James 1:17 says "Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father."  Listen – this Thanksgiving, you will not give thanks by making a list of what you're thankful for; you will give thanks when you bless Yahweh for what He has done.

What is the origin of this praise and thanksgiving?  Notice it is "my soul."  "My soul" is nephesh in Hebrew; it's everything that makes me what I am, it's my entire being.  With my entire being I am to praise and thank God; it must enlist every part of us, the entire person.  It's not enough to show up at a Thanksgiving service and your body to be here; the only way that real thanksgiving will happen now, or this week, is if your entire soul, your entire being is engaged.

And notice its passion – "all that is within me."  Now, that expression may simply be synonymous with "my soul" – it could mean exactly the same thing; "my soul" is "all that is within me."  But it's also possible that this expression, "all that is within me," refers to the passion or the fervency with which we are to offer our praise and thanks. It's like the phrase, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your might, with all your strength;"[SR1]  it may have that idea.  David calls every fiber of his entire being to bless Yahweh – "all that is within me."

And notice the practice of praise and thanksgiving requires resolve – "Bless the Lord, O my soul."  Notice you have verse 1, that expression; verse 2, it occurs again.  You see, the way David begins this psalm is a powerful reminder that praise and thanksgiving don't just happen; they don't happen by accident – they're deliberate; they require intentional effort.  Yahweh is inherently worthy of our praise and thanksgiving, but we must stir our own hearts up to worship.  Even David had to speak to his own heart and remind himself of the importance of praise and thanksgiving – and let me say to you, as I say to myself, the only way that real praise and thanksgiving will happen in your heart and in your home this week is if you intentionally call yourself to offer God thanks.  Apart from that, there will be no thanksgiving.

So, that's the practice of praise and thanksgiving, beautifully expressed in those few words – but in this call, we not only discover the practice, we also discover the categories of praise and thanksgiving.  As the psalm unfolds, David is going to give us a whole list of reasons – but in verses 1-2, he gives us two great categories that all those reasons fall into.  The first category is God's holy name – notice verse 1, "Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that is within me," here it is, "Bless His holy name." "Bless His holy name" – we should praise God with warm hearts of gratitude for His holy name; in biblical terms, God's holy name means His unique character.  It's all those qualities, those perfections, that distinguish Him from everything and everyone else.  We're going to see them as the psalm unfolds; look down at verse 8, here is His holy name.  "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love."  We are called to praise and thank God for who He is, for His holy name.

But there's a second category of praise and thanksgiving in verse 2, and it's God's countless benefits.  God's countless benefits – "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits."  Now, for a moment, take off your English hat and put on a Hebrew hat, because when we use the English word forget, we usually mean something has slipped our minds; there's no moral culpability, there's no guilt, we just forgot; I forgot where I put my keys, or I forgot to make that call.  There's no moral culpability to it whatsoever.  But with the Hebrew words forget and its opposite, remember, it's far more deliberate – in Hebrew, to forget means that you, with culpable negligence or deliberate intent, dismiss something from your mind that you ought to actively recall.  Let me show you an example – turn back to Deuteronomy 8:11.  Moses warns the people of Israel before they go into the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 8:11, "Beware that you do not forget Yahweh your God by not keeping His commandments and His ordinances and His statutes which I am commanding you today."  Verse 12, "Otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and gold multiply, and all that you have multiplies," verse 14, "then your heart will become proud" – there it is again; pride is the enemy of thanksgiving.  "Your heart becomes proud, and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." Look at verse 18 – "But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant."  So, you see, in biblical terms, to forget happens, to fail, to forget God's benefits is because of pride – either we think we deserve them, or we are complaining and grumbling about what we think we deserve that we didn't get. But to remember is to intentionally call something to mind – that's really what David is admonishing us to do there in verse 2; he's saying, intentionally call this to mind – what? Verse 2, "forget none of His benefits."  In Hebrew, benefits speaks of God's dealings with us; in fact, the same language is used down in verse 10, "He has not dealt with us," that's the idea, "He has not dealt with us according to our sins."  Instead, He has showered us with benefits – the verb form of this noun benefits is used in Psalm 13:6 like this, I will sing to Yahweh because He has dealt bountifully with me; that's the idea.  Look, and don't forget, the ways, the many ways that God has dealt bountifully with you.

So, in the call to personal praise, we learned the practice, or the pattern, what it looks like – and we also see the two overarching categories, God's character and His many benefits and blessings.  But then, in verses 3-5, David gets specific, and David lists, in verses 3-5, five great reasons for personal praise and thanksgiving.  Five great reasons – I wish I had time to really unpack these in detail, but I want to get through the psalm today and next week, so let me just give you some hooks on which to hang your thanksgiving.  In a series of five Hebrew participles, David reminds us of what God had done for Him and what God has done personally for every one of us who are true believers in the true God – you have experienced these benefits, and you are called, as I am called, to praise God and to give God thanks for these benefits.  These benefits fall within the categories we just saw – God's character and the benefits, generally – but let's look at these reasons.

The first great reason we should praise and thank God – here, he's very specific – is that He pardons our sin and guilt.  He pardons our sin and guilt – verse 3, "who pardons all your iniquities."  All three Hebrew words for sin occur in this chapter – here in verse 3, you have the word iniquities; in verse 10, you have the word sins; and in verse 12, you have the word transgressions.  They're essentially synonyms, but each of these words for sin has its own sort of nuance – and the word iniquities here in verse 3 describes our sins as a deliberate turning off of the straight path.  We make our way crooked; God has set a straight path before us in His law, and we deliberately veer off of that path.  This word also includes the idea of legal guilt because we have made that choice.  So, not only is it that we have left the path that God has laid out for us, but we've done so deliberately, and with that deliberate choice comes real, legal guilt before the God of the universe, the judge of all mankind.

So, how does God respond to the sins and the legal guilt of His people?  Notice verse 3, "He pardons all your iniquities." That's astounding.  The word pardons is not the common Hebrew word for forgiveness, the kind of forgiveness between peers, like I forgive you, you forgive me – this Hebrew word is the forgiveness of someone in authority, someone like a king; that's why it's translated pardon.  This is the character of our God – you remember when He declared His name in Exodus 34, after the list that we see repeated in verse 8 here, in Psalm 103 – in that same revelation, in Exodus 34, He says, "forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin."[SR2]   God says, that's what I'm like; I'm a forgiver by nature.  David experienced this very personally, as you know – Psalm 32; he wrote, probably along with Psalm 51, after his sin against the Lord with Bathsheba and killing her husband Uriah – in Psalm 32, this is what he writes, verse 5, "I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide."  By the way, this is what's required for forgiveness; you have to come honestly to the Lord, and you have to unpack your sin before Him; you have to admit that you and you alone are entirely responsible and guilty.  And what does God do?  He said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the guilt of my sin."  Psalm 86:5 – "You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and abundant in steadfast love to all who call upon You."  Psalm 130 – I love Psalm 130 – verse 3, it says, "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities," if You kept track of all the times I curved off the path of righteousness, and You held me legally responsible for all of those – if You were to mark iniquities, the psalmist says, "O Lord, who could stand?"  Let me just say, there isn't a person in this room, there isn't a person anywhere on this planet, who can stand before God if God truly kept track of our iniquities and treated us as those iniquities deserve.

But the psalmist goes on to say, "But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared."[SR3]   How can God do this – how can God pardon all our iniquities?  Well, the answer comes in the Old Testament, even before we get to the New – two hundred years after David wrote this psalm, Isaiah wrote these words in Isaiah 53, speaking of the Messiah.  "He was pierced through for our transgressions" – and listen to this – "He was crushed for our iniquities.  The chastening for our shalom," for our peace with God, "fell on Him, and by His scourging we are [spiritually] healed."[SR4]   If you're here this morning, and you still bear the guilt of your own iniquities, understand there's only one hope for you, and that's in the Messiah, in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and who bore the iniquities in His own self of all who would ever believe in Him.  He received the penalty that the iniquities of all of us who would believe in Him deserve – what our sins deserve, He received, and therefore, for us, "He pardons all our iniquities."  There's enough for thanksgiving.

There's a second benefit here, though, in verse 3 – He restores and sustains our health.  He restores and sustains our health – verse 3 says, "Who heals all your diseases."  Now, don't misunderstand; this isn't teaching the common charismatic theology that God wants everybody healed.  That's simply not true in the scripture, and if I had time, I could take you in countless places; you can pick up the book on cessationism and read the chapter on healing.  But David's point here is not that God always heals all the diseases of all of His people – I mean, think about that logically; if that were true, no believer would ever die.  Instead, David is reminding us that every time anyone is healed, there is only one source, and that's God Himself.  That's what God says in Exodus 15:26, "I, Yahweh, am your healer." Deuteronomy 32:39; God says, "There is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life; I have wounded and it is I who heal."  Psalm 41:3, "The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; in his illness, You, God, restore him to health."  Think about it like this – every single time you have recovered, from the smallest scratch to the most serious physical injury, from the mildest cold you've ever had to a disease that may have very well threatened your life – every time you have recovered, every time in your life, God is the one who healed you.  He may have used means – He may have used the inner workings of your body that He created to have the capacity to heal certain things, He may have used medicine, He may have used surgeries, He may have used doctors – or He may have operated without means; He may have done it Himself. But, regardless, God is the only one who heals – whatever skills a doctor has, God alone has the power to heal – and to direct your confidence, your praise, your thanksgiving for physical healing, anywhere but God is a gross ingratitude, and it's an affront to God. I'm often reminded of the passage in 2 Chronicles 16:12, where we read, "In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet.  His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek Yahweh, but the physicians."  It doesn't mean you shouldn't go see the doctor; it means your confidence shouldn't be in them, and your thanks should be to the only one who heals – He is the one who heals.

There's a third great reason for our praise and thanks, and that is He preserves our lives. He preserves our lives – verse 4, "Who redeems your life from the pit."  In Psalms, the pit is often a synonym for death and the grave – for example, Psalm 30:9, "What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You?" He's clearly talking about his death. So, when David says that God redeems our lives from the pit, he means that God delivers us from various circumstances that may threaten our lives.  Psalm 41:2, "The Lord will protect him and keep him alive." Psalm 56:13, "You have delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living."  Acts 17:25, "God Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things."  Most of us remember a time, perhaps for some of us several times, in life when we came very close to death, but our lives were spared – when I think of my own life, I could have easily died on two occasions in my late teenage years.  I almost drowned as a senior in high school; in fact, I went down a third time in a rushing river and when I came up the third time, my head didn't break the surface, and it was just God's providence that there was someone there to drag me out of that river.  A couple of years later, I was working as an electrician in the middle of a thunderstorm, I got soaking wet going out to the truck for some tools that I needed, and I came back in, and unbeknownst to me, my boss had found the problem in the next room, and the receptacle that was dead when I left was very much alive when I reached out to grab it to steady myself, and it threw me across the room instead of holding me and electrocuting me.  Undoubtedly, there have been many times when I wasn't even aware of potential danger and God protected me.  The reason that I'm still alive, the reason that you're still alive today, is that God has restored our lives from the very brink of death.  This expression may also include the idea that God will redeem us from death in resurrection, ultimately, as David talks about so beautifully in Psalm 16.

A fourth benefit or reason that should drive our praise and thanksgiving is that He initiates and sustains a relationship with us.  He initiates and sustains a relationship with us – verse 4, "Who crowns you with steadfast love and compassion."  It's a beautiful picture – it's as if God graciously places a crown on His people, and that crown is His steadfast love and His compassion. What David is really describing here is the reality that God has initiated a relationship with us – He set His steadfast love on us in eternity past, as we'll see as this psalm unfolds next week – and that love continues.  He initiated a relationship with us; He made us His children, and He continues to faithfully sustain that relationship; we are His children, He is our Father.  These attributes are called out because it's only through God's steadfast love and compassion that a relationship with Him can ever be initiated.  Think about this – you want something to give thanks for? The greatest blessing in life is to know God your Creator, to have a real relationship with Him as your Father – and by God's goodness and grace, if you're a believer, that is yours.

A fifth and final personal reason for our praise and thanksgiving is that He fills our lives with good.  He fills our lives with good – verse 5, "Who satisfies your years with good things."  The Hebrew word satisfies means to cause to overflow, to run over – David says we bless God, we thank God, that He has not only given us all things necessary for this life, but far beyond what is necessary, He has filled our lives with good things for our enjoyment.  He's caused our years to overflow, to run over, with good.  Look at Psalm 104:14, "God causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the labor of man, so that man may bring forth food from the earth, and wine, which makes man's heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food, which sustains man's heart."  Verse 28, speaking of all things, "You give to them, they gather it up, You open Your hand, God, and they, Your creation, are satisfied with good."  This is what God does.  Turn over to Acts 14 – I love this interchange with Paul and Barnabas, with the crowds in Lystra who thought they were gods.  Paul says this in Acts 14:15 – he says, listen, "we preach the gospel to you, that you should turn from these vain idols to the living God who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them.  In the generations gone by, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways."  Now, watch verse 17 – "and yet He did not leave Himself without witness."  You know, God witnesses through the creation, He witnesses in the conscience, but here He witnesses through His providence, His goodness – notice, "in that He did good, and He gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons."  And think about this as you celebrate Thanksgiving this week – "satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." Who does that?  It's God – He fills our lives with good things.  1 Timothy 6:17, "God richly supplies us with all things to enjoy."  Now, look at Psalm 103 again, verse 5 – he says, He "satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle."  Likely, David is referring here not to the molting of an eagle's feathers on an annual basis, but rather to the simple fact that the eagle is like a symbol of untiring strength, the untiring strength of youth – you watch an eagle soar, and it looks absolutely effortless.  His point is that, because of God's continuing, overwhelming goodness to us, we have renewed strength as the years pass, to continue to enjoy life, and to continue to enjoy all of God's good gifts – this is the good God we love and serve.

So, what are the primary lessons for us from these first five verses of Psalm 103?  Let me give them to you to think about – first of all, follow the biblical practice that David outlined here of praise and thanksgiving.  What's the expression of it?  Bless, that is, praise God and actually give God thanks – and make sure the object of your thanksgiving is God Himself.  Thank God! The source of it should be your soul, should be everything within you, and the passion of it is all within us. So, it should be your entire being, that's the source, and the passion should be all that is within us – and it only happens if you make a resolve to do so, as David did.  "Bless the Lord, O my soul."  Let me urge you to intentionally take time this week to thank God for these blessings, these benefits, and many more.

Number two, make these five benefits, or five reasons that we've looked at, the framework for your praise and thanksgiving this week.  It's a great place to start – He pardons our sin and guilt, He restores and sustains our health, He preserves our lives, He initiates and sustains a relationship with us as Father, and He fills our lives with good.  There is plenty fodder for thanksgiving.

Number three, seek forgiveness and a relationship with God by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  If you're here this morning and you don't know God your Creator, you don't have a relationship with Him, there's only one way that that happens, and that is if you humble yourself like David did – if you acknowledge your sin to the Lord, if you confess it to Him, and you seek the forgiveness that's found in His Son. Remember, the only way you don't bear your iniquities is if Jesus does; "He was crushed for the iniquities" of all who believe in Him.  Repent of your sins and believe in Jesus Christ.

And number four, as we come to the Lord's Table, celebrate your pardon for your sins through Christ and celebrate in the Lord's Table the new relationship that you now have with your Creator, that He has put His steadfast love upon you, and He now has compassion on you, as a Father to His own children.

Take a moment and prepare your heart, as the men come to serve us.

Our Father, we are overwhelmed by Your goodness – fill our hearts with real praise and thanksgiving for who You are, for Your holy character, and for Your many benefits, including the ones we've examined together this morning.  But, Lord, thank You most of all, as we come to the Lord's Table, for the reminder that You have, in Christ, pardoned all our iniquities. Lord, as we come to celebrate the forgiveness we enjoy in Christ, we come confessing our sins, not to You as judge – You have forgiven us as judge once for all at salvation – but, Lord, we come to You as children to a Father, knowing that our sins have offended You. And seeking that kind of forgiveness, we pray that You would help each of us in our own hearts to enumerate the sins You bring to mind – sins of thought and word and action – and give us a renewed resolve to turn from those sins and to walk on the straight path and not to deviate from the path.  Father, we love You, and we love Your Son, who made it possible for us to have a relationship with You – receive the worship that we bring through this ordinance.

We pray in Jesus' name.  Amen.

 [SR1]From Luke 10:27.

 [SR2]From Exodus 34:7.

 [SR3]Psalm 130:4.

 [SR4]Isaiah 53:5.