Don’t Forget His Benefits!
By Pastor Michael Chauncey
Bless the
LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, (Psalms 103:2 ESV)
Once again David commands his mind, will and
emotions to bless, that is, to bow before the Lord in Humility and
adoration. He adds this admonition, “Do not forget all His benefits.”
There are two important words here. First is the
word “Forget”. The Hebrew word means to mislay like someone might mislay
their car keys. Even though you own the car, unless you can remember
where you put the keys you aren’t going anywhere.
In the same way; even though God has blessed us
with every blessing in Christ Jesus;
Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in
Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, (Ephesians
1:3 ESV)
We can forget just how blessed we are and miss out
on His benefits. The word also means to ignore or to cease to care. In
Hebrews it is called neglecting such a great salvation;
how shall we
escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by
the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard (Hebrews 2:3 ESV)
The Salvation Jesus Bought for us at Calvary is a
great Salvation indeed! He took our sins, sickness and poverty. He gave
us His righteousness, health, prosperity and peace. Let’s not forget,
ignore, neglect or cease to care about what Jesus purchased for us with
His Blood.
The second word is benefit. It means His treatment
of and His dealings with s. He has not treated us as our sins deserve;
He does not
deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our
iniquities. (Psalms 103:10
ESV)
His benefits are written in His Word. They are
exceedingly great and precious promises;
by which he
has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through
them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from
the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
(2 Peter 1:4 ESV)
Imagine a man who works for a company that has
wonderful benefits like healthcare, paid vacation and retirement. All of
the terms and conditions of his benefit package are explained in a
little pamphlet in a manila folder given to him by the human resources
director. He promptly tosses it in a drawer and never reads it. What a
shame. He will miss out on all those goodies because he neglected to
read the book. Christian, don’s neglect the Book! Don’t forget His
benefits!
