In Psalm 102, the author is in lament over his spiritual condition. He pleads with his Creator to not hide His face from him. In His distress the author remembers the greatness of the LORD. He declares in verse 12, “But you, oh LORD sit enthroned forever; your remembrance endures through all generations.” The author is reminding himself of the faithfulness of the LORD. He builds his remembrance of who the LORD has been, who He is, and will forever be. This leads us to look into Psalm 103.
From the beginning of the Psalm, there is a burst of praise toward the LORD from the author. David reaches into the depths of His faculties, all that is within Him to Bless the LORD! The author commands Himelf to Bless the LORD in all His glory. As He blesses the LORD, he says, “and forget not all His benefits.”
Because we humans are prone to relying on our emotions to determine our relationship with God, we live day to day hoping things will go “well.” If there is sufficient funds in the bank and health is good, we bless the LORD. I would even say that we seldom bless the LORD and rather ask to be blessed by Him. Is it possible that we can stop, shift the focus of our prayer from our wants and enthrone the LORD by blessing Him for the Great Father He has been to us?
It is beautiful to note that David says, “forget not His benefits.” If we weren’t consumed by the cares of the world and our own selfishness, we might stop and meditate on the fact that we are still breathing as a result of the glorious benefits of the LORD. Consider them well:
1. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.”
We are to stop and consider the impact this benefit has upon our lives. This fact should launch us into instant awe. Because we are in union with Messiah today, we have this benefit. This benefit is wrath removing. If we truly understood our fallen condition, we would recognize that we rightly deserve to be cast into hell because we know what we ought to do, but we do not carry it out. Were it not for the wrath removing sacrifice of Messiah applied to us, we’d be storing up wrath upon ourselves because we love our sin so much. But, as David declared, we too, are to bless our faithful King, the Lord Jesus Christ, for His tremendous, unfathomable riches toward us, His children. He forgives not only our sins, but our iniquities. Ponder not on your iniquities but the fact that He forgives us in our most wicked state. This fact should motivate us to holiness and cause us to cry out, “Bless You LORD, Oh my soul.” Truly we love Him because He first loved us.
I will stop here for now. I will leave with this thought until the next time. How is it that our LORD can do this? I will argue that it is because of the fact stated in verse 19. “The LORD hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all.” He is God and King over all creatures created both on earth and in heaven. For this reason, meditate on this first benefit in Psalm 103. May we examine ourselves as we walk on in this great faith. And if today, you do not know Messiah as Lord, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish (from) the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed [are] all they that put their trust in him.”
