Key Verses: Psalm 103:1-5 “Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Has there ever been days in your life where you have had trouble praising God? Perhaps it is a day of grief when a loved one has died. Perhaps it is a day of regret when you made a sinful decision. Perhaps it is a day of fear when you received bad news from the doctor. Or perhaps you don’t even know why, but it is just hard to praise God. We all have days like this. However, it is days like these when we need to remind ourselves of how much God has done for us. That is what the Psalmist does here in Psalm 103. Now I do not know if the Psalmist was having a bad day when he wrote this, but I know that in this Psalm there are many, many reasons to continually praise God even on the difficult days. In V.2 the author says ‘forget not all His benefits.’ What are these benefits? He Forgives our iniquities. (V.3) He heals ours diseases (V.3) He redeems our life from destruction (V.4) He crowns us with Lovingkindness and tender mercies (V.4) He satisfies our mouth with good things (V.5) He renews our youth (V.5) These are just a few of the benefits that we have since we are believers in Christ. If you were to work your way through this entire Psalm there are several, several more. We can always praise God, because he forgives our sins. No matter what you have done, God forgives all your sins, no matter how atrocious as long as one has faith in Christ! Praise Him for this! He heals our diseases. This is does not mean that every disease we ever have will be healed. Many faithful Christians have died from diseases despite much prayer on their behalf. This verse implies that all healing comes from God! Praise Him for being the great healer! He redeems our life from destruction! Because of our faith in Christ, God has bought us back. We were slaves to sin, but now we have been redeemed, bought back. Our destiny was destruction, but now are destiny is to be a child of God whose final destination is heaven. Praise Him for this! He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies! This means that each day God pours out His love and compassion towards us! He comforts us! Praise Him for this! He satisfies our mouth with good things. This means that God provides for us! He is the great provider! Praise Him for this! He renews us as if we were still youth. This means that God gives us energy and the ability to enjoy life and live for Him despite our old age, or our tiredness. Praise Him for this! Dear friend, no matter how difficult your life gets, no matter how exhausted you get, no matter how sick you get, no matter how lonely you get, there are always countless reasons to praise God. Stop what your doing right now, and praise Him for a few moments. Thank Him for what He has done for you! “BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL; AND ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME , BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!”
