Thanksgiving Psalm 103:1-5
[1] 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 forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; [4] Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; [5] Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Thanksgiving – With Thankful Hearts We Remember
Who of us doesn’t at one time or another talk to ourselves? We all do, and the reason we do is because we have something on our hearts or on our minds. We might be thankful for the coming day or facing a problem in our lives. That is certainly true of the Psalmist. In this Psalm he is so excited and overwhelmed by how good God had been to him that he talks to himself. He says, “O God, you mean so much to me. I can’t thank you enough for the benefits that you shower on my life day after day in spite of the fact that I so easily forget. O soul, bless the Lord; bless His holy name.”
The name of God meant everything to the Psalmist David. Listen to what he says in Psalm 8, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth,” ibid. v. 9, or in Psalm 5, “Let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee,” Ibid. v.11. In Psalm after Psalm, David praises the Lord for His wonderful name.
God has many names. What name does the Psalmist have in mind? Is it “Lord,” or “God” or”Messiah” or “Jehovah”? It is all of these and more! The more he learned about His Lord from the Holy Scriptures, the more that name meant to him. God’s name was everything that he knew about Him from the Bible.
For the world, the name of God is nothing to get excited about or to be thankful for. To the unbeliever and to our sinful flesh, God’s name is a terrible name, a name that describes God as a righteous and just God who hates sin and demands perfection, a God who damned to everlasting hell the originator of sin and all who follow him. The unbeliever doesn’t know God any other way because they don’t know the Savior-God of the Bible. All he can possibly know about Him is that He is an almighty God who made heaven and earth and will some day hold him responsible for his sins. This explains all the idols and totem poles and false gods of a by-gone age as well as the foolish attempts of people today to please God with their good deeds. The name that created such joy and excitement in the heart of the Psalmist was a totally different name that stood for grace instead of justice, which held out the hope of forgiveness instead of the threat of punishment.
Tonight you and I praise and thank God for this very name, and like the Psalmist, we, too, never want to forget all the good things that name means for us. The Psalmist knew from His own experience how easy it is to take the blessed name of God for granted. He knew the pain and misery that he brought on his life in those moments when he forgot God’s name and decided to go it on his own. That is why he cried out in this moment of thanksgiving, “Oh soul, forget not all His benefits.”
Remember, O soul, “Who forgives all your iniquities.” Remember, O soul, “Who heals all your diseases.” Remember, O soul, “Who redeems your life from destruction.” Remember, O soul, “Who crowns your [life] with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” This prayer of the Psalmist is one of the most dramatic prayers in all of Scripture. Where else do we read of a believer who is so thankful for the grace and goodness of God toward an unworthy sinner?
Many things happen in your life and mine that we don’t want to remember, things in our past that we are ashamed of, things that the devil won’t let us forget! These remembrances can spoil any thanksgiving celebration. And so we pray with the Psalmist David, “Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me [not for who I am, but] for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.” Psalm 25:7 How does the Lord reply to us repentant sinners? “As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you.” Psalm 103:12. And again, “I, [even] I, [am] he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Isaiah 42:25. If God doesn’t remember our sins, then you and I mustn’t remember them, either.
How wonderful that God does not remember our sins, nor forgets that we are His dear children. How easy it must have been for Noah of old to become despondent and frustrated after being confined with seven other people in the same ship, month after month. How easy to have asked, “Has God forgotten us?” However, God never did. We read, “And God remembered Noah,” Genesis 8:1, and delivered them safely to land. How Abraham must have been tempted to give up all hope for the life of his nephew, Lot, when he saw Sodom and Gomorrah burning to the ground. How easy to ask, “Did God forget me?” We read, “God remembered Abraham,” Gen 19:29 “and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow” ibid. We know how much it must have discouraged Rachel to watch Leah give birth to her sixth child, while she couldn’t have just one. How easy to wonder, “Has God forgotten me?” What does the Scripture say? “God remembered Rachel,” Genesis 30:22, “and opened her womb and she conceived, and bare a son.” Ibid. We could go on to show example after example of how our Father in heaven never forgets his children here on earth.
The problem is not that the Lord forgets us but that we forget Him. The history of the Jewish nation is a history of a people who time after time forgot God. When God gave them peace and prosperity, their hearts were lifted up with pride and “they forgot the Lord, their God.” Jeremiah 3:21. They forgot the mighty hand that had delivered them out of slavery in Egypt. They forgot the loving Lord who had destroyed their enemies and had given them a land of their own. In moments of prosperity they abandoned the will of the Lord and yielded to the lusts and pleasures of their idolatrous neighbors. They walked after their gods and worshipped at their altars. At moments like this, the Lord in infinite love chastised them with the heavy hand of adversity. Suddenly they lost their battles, their land was ravaged, and their families were often sold into slavery. It was awesome, but it took awesome discipline for them to remember what they had forgotten, “that God was their rock, and the high God their Redeemer.” Psalm 78:35. “When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.” Ibidem
Without question you and I have been living in one of the most prosperous lands in the history of the world, but things are changing. A dwindling economy is beginning to force our nation to look for plans and resolutions to restore prosperity, all the while forgetting that prosperity is the work of God. To a world that ignores the hand of God, he in turn shows His displeasure. “The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God,” Psalm 9:17, writes the Psalmist. Our only hope lies, not with social and economic plans, but with our heavenly Father. He has been good to us and blessed us with every good and perfect gift in ways that we, sinful creatures that we are, cannot begin to appreciate. He knows how weak and frail we are, He “remembers that they [we are] flesh; [like] a wind that passes away, and cometh not again.” Psalm 78:39 Yet, for Jesus’ sake, He never forgets us, but with a compassionate heart, forgives our thoughtlessness and our lack of faith, and repeatedly turns our hearts to the wonderful promises of His Word.
At thanksgiving time we get excited about a lot of things. We may be excited about the privilege of getting together with family and friends one more time; or we may be anticipating a tasty Thanksgiving feast. It is right to thank Him who “satisfies our mouths with good things”; It is right to thank Him for these moments of food and fellowship. Most of all, however, we want to thank Him for His spiritual blessing, who “redeems our life from destruction, and crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” Oh, may we say with the Psalmist this evening, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.”
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