“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 iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Psalm 103:1-5
And you thought that your employer has good benefits. God gives great benefits. There are outstanding benefits available to those who follow Him.
We serve a very, very good God. He is good, and because He is good, He does good. He is good to us. We get far more from Him than we deserve, because He loves us so. And His love never changes. It is never diminished.
Psalm 103 is one of my favorites. All I really needed to do was type the entire Psalm, and then type, “Amen!” That’s it. There’s your devotional thought for the day.
In our world of highly valued fringe benefits, we cling to things like health insurance, vacation pay, retirement plans, and the like. These are good things, and we ought to value them. I know I do. But there is way more to life than this, friends. I think about people like Amy Carmichael – missionaries who spent the better part of their lives in remote areas of the world sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They may not have had dental insurance or a pension plan, but I’ll tell you what benefits they could count on – those that God promises in His Word – and they are MANY.
In this passage alone, we find that God promises to forgive all our iniquity, heal all our diseases, redeem our lives from the pit, crown us with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfy us with good. Now y’all know those benefits are way better than an annual raise and a 401k plan.
Sometimes in the hustle and bustle of this thing called life, it can be easy to forget just how wonderful it is to be loved by God. He bestows blessing upon blessing upon us. There are innumerable benefits that go with knowing and trusting Him. Instead of focusing on what we don’t have (I’m preaching to myself here), let’s not forget all His benefits.
