Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits…Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion. Psalm 103:1-2; 4b
When you train yourself to bless the Lord, you align yourself with His purposes. You may not be clear as to what those specific purposes for you are, but when you step out of your feelings, logic, and the fast pace of life to give God the honor He deserves, He has a way of depositing understanding into your being, thereby empowering you to make wise decisions.
His benefits are not subject to the erratic conditions of our age or the particulars of your situation. His benefits are rock-solid because He is rock-solid.
David the psalmist commanded himself to bless the Lord. He commanded all that was within him—mind, will, and emotions—to bless the Lord’s holy name. He required himself to forget none of the benefits of the Lord. Yes, David was tremendously successful, but he was also tremendously tempted and attacked. It was due to his strict dedication to bless God and to forget none of His benefits that, when all was said and done in his life, it could be honestly recorded of him in Acts 13:22, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” Even after the enormous failures of his life, David left a testimony that he was a man after God’s own heart who would do all His will. Why? Because he commanded himself to bless the Lord and to forget none of His benefits!
The Lord pardons all your iniquities, heals all your diseases, and redeems your life from the pit. These benefits parallel beautifully with what Jesus accomplished for you on the cross, yet there is more. Remember, every benefit David enumerated was merely a shadow of what we have been privileged to possess in Christ. We have the better covenant, based on better promises (see Hebrews 8:6).
Included among the benefits of the Lord is this one: He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion (Psalm 103:4b). Your sins are forgiven, you have access to His healing bounty, and you are absolutely redeemed from the pit of hell. And to top it off, He places a crown on your head of lovingkindness and compassion!
I see three streams flowing from this one benefit.
First of all is the crown of lovingkindness and compassion. Your God views you, from the top of your head on down, with great favor and tender love. The crown of lovingkindness and compassion that He has placed upon you marks you as His and sets you apart. I have observed younger children on field trips wearing the same brightly colored T-shirts. This makes them visible so their teachers can spot them without difficulty. The crown God has placed on your head makes you easily visible to Him; it separates you from the rest of the crowd and viagra uk next day delivery grants Him smooth access for dispensing His love and compassion upon you. If you are His, you are a recipient of His lovingkindness and compassion. Don’t let yourself forget it.
Secondly, we have been crowned with lovingkindness and compassion. One definition of the Hebrew word for crown, `atar, is “to surround”. (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5849&t=KJV ) In other words, He surrounds us with lovingkindness and compassion. Wherever you go, you can be confident that the Lord is going to see to it that you are surrounded with favor. That hasn’t been your experience? Then bless the Lord and forget none of His benefits! My sister, who has not yet received Jesus as Lord, recently told me that she challenged herself to think positive thoughts for a set number of days. She was shocked when strangers began going out of their way to be kind to her. If this principle works for a person who has yet to be convinced about the claims of Christ, then how much more will those of us who are in Christ—recipients of the benefits and promises—find lovingkindness and compassion surrounding us as we refuse to forget His benefits? Trust Him in this and refuse to forget this portion of His benefits. You will soon find that you are surrounded by a wide assortment of loving, compassionate, and favorable “coincidences”.
Thirdly, when you are crowned, it signifies that you are a member of a royal family. You have a crown to wear because your father or mother is of royal lineage. In your case, your Father is the King of the Universe, and His Son, your elder Brother, is King of kings and Lord of lords.
As you go about life, you are crowned with His favor and compassion. But this crown is not just about you. It is your identification with the Father, and it gives you an ambassadorship wherever you go. Yes, as an ambassador, you are a very privileged person, but you are also accountable to act as a clear representative of the One who sends you. You are crowned and surrounded by His lovingkindness and compassion, and you are a representative of His lovingkindness and compassion. “Much will be required of everyone who has been given much. And even more will be expected of the one who has been entrusted with more” (Luke 12:48, Holman Christian Standard Bible). That expectation is not to be viewed as tedious or difficult—“the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5b). It is because of that crown of lovingkindness and compassion that you are empowered to bring compassion and grace to the people in your life. If it feels impossible to you right now, then now’s the time you need to bless the Lord and to refuse to forget that He’s crowned you!
You wear a crown that targets you for God’s lovingkindness and compassion; you are surrounded by lovingkindness and compassion; and you are an ambassador of God’s lovingkindness and compassion. This is who you are!
Don’t forget it!
Dorothy