Forget Not All His Benefits

In our Prayer Gathering this week, we prayed through Psalm 103.  It’s such a hope-giving song!  I thank the Lord for inspiring his servant King David to pen this exquisite praise poem.  Psalm 103 puts a major emphasis on the mercy and goodness of God:

“Forget not all his [i.e., God’s] benefits”—how he forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, and satisfies his people (vv 2-5).  He’s “merciful and gracious, slow to anger & abounding in steadfast love” (v 8).

To be sure, God has a righteous anger against our sin, and yet “He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever” (v 9).  In fact, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (v 10).  Maybe that sounds too good to be true:  how can it be?  How can God remain perfectly holy and yet fail to repay us according to what our sins deserve?

The answer to this all-important question begins to be disclosed in the Old Testament—take Isaiah 53:5, “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” A suffering Substitute would bear the penalty for our guilt—amazing!

But the answer is revealed in full only in the New Testament.  Consider Romans 3:25-26, how God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  And 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him [i.e., Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

To think that the love of God made a way to satisfy the wrath of God without ever compromising the justice of God… so that we could be saved forever!  It’s the best good news in the world!

And it’s oozing out of Psalm 103:  “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.  As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him” (vv 12-13)!  Are you weighed down by sin and shame?  If so, give it to God—cast it into the strong, merciful arms of the Lord.  And forget not all his benefits!