Bless the Lord, oh 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 Eagles.
– Psalm 103:2–5
Don’t you love this list? Verse two says, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul.” He’s talking to himself. “And forget not all His benefits.”
Psalm 103:2–5 Is a Call to Remember
And then he just starts to list them out. God forgives our iniquity. That’s a benefit. All your sins forgiven by God through faith in Jesus. What a benefit. Who heals all your diseases. As you and I face disease and sickness in this world, to know that because of our God, those diseases, those sicknesses will not have the last word in our lives. He will ultimately heal us of all diseases. That’s a benefit.
Who redeems your life from the pit? He redeems. God makes you new. He takes our shame and he turns it into honor. The Lord takes our brokenness and he makes us beautiful. He redeems our lives from the pit. That’s a benefit. He crowns us with steadfast love and mercy. What a benefit that is. God crowning you and me as His children, crowned with steadfast love and mercy. That’s a benefit. He satisfies us with good so that our youth is renewed like the Eagles. He satisfies us with His good goodness. That’s a benefit. It just keeps going on and on.
I read this and I just start to think of all the benefits in my life because of the goodness of God. And it’s really good for me to pause and remember, not forget all those benefits. In fact, I would just encourage you, I’m going to lead us to pray according to this Psalm. But much like we do sometimes on these podcast episodes, I just would encourage you if you have a few minutes, in particular after this episode, just start listing out some of the benefits of God, of knowing God, of being a child of God, God’s benefits specifically in your life. Just list them out and thank Him for these benefits. And as you do that, let’s resolve in our souls to not forget all His benefits.
Psalm 103:2–5 Is a Call to Worship
Oh God, we do bless your name. We praise your name. Lord, we thank you for all your benefits. We praise you specifically for what Psalm 103 praises you for. We praise you for forgiving us all of our iniquity. Oh God, thank you for wiping away, washing away all of our sin, for declaring us righteous, not guilty, by the blood of Jesus Christ, by your grace. God, we praise you for healing all of our diseases.
We praise you for the temporary healing we find here on earth as we pray for healing and you provide in miraculous ways or through medicine. And we praise you, God, that disease will not have the last word in our lives. We praise you, oh God, for redeeming our lives from the pit, God, for taking the shame of our sin and replacing it with honor from your hand, for crowning us. God, we bless your name for crowning us with steadfast love and mercy, and God for satisfying us with good, for renewing our strength like the Eagles.
Oh God, we praise you for these benefits and multitudes more in our lives, all the specific ways that being your child has brought benefit to us. We bless your name. And God, we pray that your benefits would spread through us. Help us to be a blessing to others, a picture of your benefits in their lives today. God, we pray for the spread of your gospel through our lives today, to people around us.
Praying for the Mandaean People
And God, we pray today specifically for the Mandaean people of Iraq. Oh God, we pray among the 73,000 of them that they would be reached with the gospel. And many of them scattered in other different countries like United Kingdom, United States. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Mandaean people where they are spread out around the world, ways that are even easier to get the gospel to them than going to Iraq.
But God, whether in Iraq or any other country, God, we pray that they would hear of the benefits that are available to them in Jesus. God, it’s not tolerable for us that there billions of people in the world who don’t know your benefits in the gospel. God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to the Mandaean and thousands of other people groups like them, that they might bless your name for all your benefits as we do even now. In Jesus name, we pray, in the name of the one who makes all these benefits possible. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
