Bless The Lord - God's Benefit Package Part 4 Series

Psalms 103:1-5

Part 4 of a 4 Part Series

TEXT: Psalms 103:1-5 NKJV 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 iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

We are on part 4 of a series out of Psalms 103 where it says to not forget all the benefits of serving the Lord. The way it is worded, the chapter goes on to list some of those benefits and we are looking at some of them in this series.

Today we are taking a look at verse three where is says God heals all our diseases.

In light of all this, I want to take you to the book of Matthew.

Matt 10:5-8 NLT “Jesus sent out the twelve apostles with these instructions: "Don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, 6 but only to the people of Israel—God's lost sheep. 7 Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!”

I want you to notice that in verse 8, Jesus commands his disciples -- that's us -- to heal the sick.

Divine Healing is our right, part of our inheritance in Christ, and is even called "the Children's Bread" in Mt. 15:26.

Many large corporations and most governmental jobs offer "Fringe Benefits" that are worth almost as much as the salary.

Examples of these Benefits are:

Health Insurance e. Company Car

Workers Comp. f. Retirement

Paid Vacation g. Profit Sharing

Sick Pay

Listen as the Psalmist begins to recount some of the Lord's fringe benefits: “Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits— who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” Ps. 103:1-3.

For Christians, our main benefit or reward is eternal life; but there are many fringe benefits such as physical healing, guidance, material provision, doors being opened for us, etc.

God wants us to have confidence and think it normal, to pray for the sick and expect them to be healed.

Why should we think that it is possible for the Lord to heal our diseases and injuries? God is by nature a healing God. Satan, on the other hand, has come to kill, steal, and destroy; but Jesus says, “I have come that you might have life, abundantly.”

In Ex. 15:26, God says, “I am the Lord that heals you.”

Just days before, the Israelites ate the Passover Lamb which was equivalent to SALVATION. They then crossed the Red Sea, in which Paul declared they were BAPTIZED (1 Cor. 10:2).

1 Cor 10:1-5 NLT “I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.”

Their very first experience after salvation and baptism was to know God as their HEALER (Exodus 15:26).

God called himself by a Compound Name – Jehovah Rapha. It is translated in the King James version as "healed." Compound names represent God's character, the kind of God that He is.

Rapha is the only word for "heal" in the O.T. (except Ezekiel 30:21). Rapha is used 58X in the O.T.

Rapha in the Hebrew language also is the technical word for "Physician."

THE COVENANT OF HEALING

It was part of God’s Covenant with the people of Israel, that if they obeyed Him, He would take away sickness from them. “Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you” Ex. 23:25

“He will bless the babies from your womb and the harvest of grain, new wine, and oil from your fields; he’ll bless the calves from your herds and lambs from your flocks in the country he promised your ancestors that he’d give you. You’ll be blessed beyond all other peoples: no sterility or barrenness in you or your animals. God will get rid of all sickness. And all the evil afflictions you experienced in Egypt he’ll put not on you but on those who hate you” Deut. 7:13-