Making the Most of Your Benefits
Psalm 103
How can you make the most of the benefits God has given you?
1.Bless the Lord. (v.1) We can receive more of God’s blessings if we would learn to “Bless the Lord”. Blessing the Lord means we bow the knee and give Him respect, the deepest of reverence and utmost worship. We “bless the Lord”. Often we read bumper stickers, “God Bless America” . God has certainly blessed America, and continues day by day. We pray as we sing that patriotic song, “God Bless America”. The emphasis should be “America Bless God”. The Psalm writer does not say, “Bless the nation, Oh my Lord.” But rather, “Bless the Lord, O my soul;” We can make the most of the benefits from the Lord, when we make much of blessing the Lord.
a. Blessing the Lord begins with you personally. O my soul. (v.1) If you are going to wait on the crowd to get all excited about blessing the Lord, you’ll be waiting a long time. We give God praise because of what He has done for us personally. Of course, we should be thankful for all the benefits God bestows upon others. It has greater meaning when we are personal receipients of God’s benefits.
b. Blessing the Lord demands whole-heart participation. (v.1) All that is within me. The Lord has provided us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. We are not short one blessing. We are not short one benefit. In Jesus God did not hold back His blessings. God gave us His All. Jesus suffered the full extent for the penalty of our sins. Jesus cried on the cross, It is finished! A full salvation, a full pardon was granted, a full atonement for sin. God did not hold back. This demands that we hold not back in giving praise to Christ. All that is within me, bless his holy name.
c. Blessing the Lord is done on holy ground. Bless his holy name. (v.1) There is no other One like our God. No one can equal is character, His person and His ways. The angels mentioned in v.20 are holy beings who cry daily, “holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah 6:3 The angels in Revelation 15:4 “Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. The cherubim in Revelation 4:8 They do not rest day or night saying, Holy,Holy, Holy, Lord God, Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” His name speaks of His character. It speaks of all that He is. He alone is Omnipotent, which means all powerful. He alone is Omiscient, which means, all knowing. He alone is Omnipresent, which means all present. There is no one like the LORD JESUS CHRIST! HE ALONE IS HOLY. We appropriately bless His holy name when we recognize His holiness. We are on holy ground. God told Moses at the fiery bush…the bush on fire, but it did not burn up..God spoke in an audible voice to Moses. God said, “Moses, take off your shoes, the ground you walk is holy ground.” To make the most of our spiritual benefits, we are to Bless the Lord. A second way to make the most of God’s benefits is to remember what those benefits are.
2.Remember All His Benefits.(v.2) We can make the most of God’s benefits when we recount what they are. Jesus passed by a blind man and gave him sight. Jesus passed by a lame man and gave him feet to walk again. Jesus passed by the sick and gave them healing. Jesus passed by the hungry and gave them food. Jesus passes our way each day. Do we take knowledge of the many benefits He provides? We are guilty of forgetting the benefits as well as forgetting the One who sent them our way. The prophet Isaiah speaks of God’s people forgetting Who it was that has blessed them. In Isaiah 1:2-3 Hear, O heavens, and give ear O earth! For the Lord has spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, And they have rebelled against Me; The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” We are guilty of forgetting the wonderful ways God has blessed us. God help us to not forget. What are some of His benefits?
a. Forgiveness (v.3) He forgives all your iniquities. Not just some of them, or many of them, but ALL of THEM! This is at the top of the list. You can’t enjoy other benefits until you have known Christ, Who has forgiven you. In Jesus according to Ephesians 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace….
b. Healing (v.3) With sin comes disease. There are many kinds of sicknesses. There is sickness of the soul. When God forgives you, and saves you…He grants healing of the soul. God takes the sin-sick sinner and forgives, cleans, and heals his inner being. What about the body? Jesus did not save our present body. He saved the person who lives in that body. The body we now have will be changed. Permanent Healing for the body will come when Jesus comes. However, we can pray and ask for temporary healing in this life. In God’s wisdom and sovereignty, He will grant healing according to His purpose. Some folks have tried to take this verse to force God to heal our bodies in every situation. If God did that, we would never die. There is healing for the body. In this life its only temporary, but eternal healing of the body comes when we get our new, glorified body. When we leave this sin-sick world with all its corruption, and all its diseases, you can say in that way, the Lord heals all your diseases.
c. Redemption. (V.4) redeems your life from destruction (pit)
Redeems us. This speaks of a slave market. To set a slave free, you had to go to the slave market and on the auction block stood the slave. You pay the price. You redeem. You buy back his freedom. You redeem them and set them free. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1Peter 1:18-19
d. we are crowned. (v.4) With lovingkindness and tender mercies. Jesus did not just set us free and leave us. He did not forgive us, and forget us. He favored us. He adorned us with His love and with His tender mercies. After the cross Jesus was buried and then exalted and He has crowns to pass out. The crown of lovingkindness.
e. He feeds us. (v.5) Satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. When Jesus suffered on the cross and gave all His blood and died such a cruel death, that was not the end. He came back. On that third day—Easter, He came back to fellowship with His disciples. After Easter, it was later that we read of Peter going fishing along with the other disciples and they spent the whole night casting their nets. They caught nothing. The next day Jesus was on the shore, “Children, have you any food?” They answered him, “NO”. Jesus said, “cast your net on the right side of the boat.” They caught fish after fish…Peter counted 153 fish. Not small ones. They were large ones. Jesus had a fire on the shore…He said…bring the fish…and He said, “Come and Dine” NKJV “come and eat breakfast”….The most important meal of the day. They were about the miss the most important meal of the day….breakfast. Early in the morning…Jesus FEEDS them. He fed them..He satisfies our mouths with good things….One of the great benefits is to get the DAILY BREAD of God’s Word and allow Jesus to feed us. That food is fuel for the soul. We are ready to fly like an eagle. We are ready to soar.
Let’s review….Jesus died on the cross to provide us with forgiveness. In Christ we are forgiven, We experience healing because of Calvary. Sin did its damage, but Jesus, the Great Physician, is our Healer. He redeems us. He does not forgive us and just leave us in the pit. He picks us up. He redeems us. He buys us back to Himself. After Jesus paid all of this on the cross and after He was buried…God raised Him up and exalted Him back to the right hand of the Heavenly Father. Jesus is now Exalted. At His throne, He has a many crowns. He now crowns us with the crown of lovingkindness and the crown of tender mercies. Because Jesus is on the throne, He sends back the Comforter the Holy Spirit. We are not left empty handed. He feeds us with his Spirit. He feeds us with His Word. What Jesus feeds…is good things. So good, it gives us energy to fly like an eagle. These are not all the benefits, but it sure is a good start.
How can you make the most of the benefits God has given you?
1. Bless the Lord because of His benefits. (vv. 1-2a)
2. Remember and recount all His benefits. (vv.2b-5)
3. Meet the qualifications for God’s benefits (vv. 6-18)
What are the qualifications?
A. You need to learn about God and His ways. You do that by reading scriptures. Hearing the truth of God’s Word. (v. 7) he made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel…) God responds to faith, but faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) The bible says, “How shall they believe in Whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” We need to know something about this God who made planet earth and all the universe. We need to know according to v.6 God will execute righteousness….. One day He will make all things right. He will not forget those who are oppressed. The Terry Schiavo’s of our day…God won’t forget. The millions and millions of babies slaughter for convenience---God won’t forget. We need to know according to v.8 God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger….and when you are His forgiven child, He will not deal with you according to your sins. Your sins were nailed to the Cross of Jesus. He took the punishment for your sins. (see v.12) as far as the east is from the west….) Your sins are gone, if you have trusted Jesus Christ. He deals with us as children. (see. V.13) He knows our weakness and our short time here on earth. (see vv. 14-16)
B. You need to come to personally trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Look at v.11 his mercy is for those who fear him. Look at v.13 His pity is for those who fear him. Look at v.17 mercy is for those who fear him. It is everlasting mercy. When you come to Christ, you forsake all…and you submit to the Lord. You give Him your life. He is the One you serve. You reverence Him. You fear him. Not the kind of fear where you are afraid to talk to God, …but it is a holy reverence. This comes into the heart of the child of God by the working of the Holy Spirit. It is the bowing of the knee. Many people will not bow their head and bow their knee to Christ, but one day the Bible says, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord… The evidence that a person is trusting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is obedience. They will want to do what the Lord says to do. See v.17-18 and His righteousness to children’s children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them. We will never be perfect in our obedience until Jesus comes and takes us to glory. But there will be a pattern of obedience that will be obvious. We stumble and sin, but we get on our face because we fear him, we claim His forgiveness, and we get up and walk in obedience. We keep his commandments. Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. We are not saved by keeping commandments. We are saved by His mercy. The evidence that we are saved will be a life of obedience. The people of God receive God’s benefits.
How can you make the most of the benefits God has given you?
Once we have been saved, we’ve met the qualifications for God’s benefits in our lives, we are not satisfied until all of God’s creation is under the umbrella of God’s blessings.
4. Spread the News of God’s benefits. (vv.19-22)
The Lord is on His throne. His kingdom rules over all. All His angels are under His rule. They do His Word. They Heed the voice of His Word. His angelic host are ministering servants. They are called in v.21 “ministers of His”. They do His pleasure.
In v.22 Bless the Lord, all His works. (all His creation) All God’s angels, All of the heavenly host day and night bless the Lord. They cry holy, holy, holy. All of creation gives praise and say “bless the Lord”. Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people were saying, “Hosanna” hallelujah to Jesus. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The religious leaders told Jesus that he should command his followers to be quiet. Jesus said, “If they don’t give praise, the rocks will cry out and give praise.” The mountains move at God’s presence. To make the most of God’s benefits, we desire to see God’s dominion recognized all over the world. We are happy to say “Bless the Lord”. We are more happier when we see other folks say, “Bless the Lord”. When you see an entire family come to know God’s benefit of salvation, you will begin to hear “Bless the Lord”. The Lord is Great! The Lord is Good! Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I love to hear the name of the Lord blessed, don’t you? I’m tired of hearing His name cursed! One day we will see as we pray the Lord’s prayer, “Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come,….” We pray for the coming of His kingdom.
What about you? Are you in His kingdom? Are you ready for His coming?
Why not give your life to Christ? Turn from your sins, and find forgiveness and then you will know all the wonderful benefits of the Lord.
