Bless the <\/i>Lord<\/i>, O my soul,<\/i> and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases. <\/i>Psalm 103:1-3<\/p>\n
David the psalmist commanded<\/i> himself to bless the Lord. You sometimes feel like blessing the Lord, but if you\u2019re like me, that desire comes and goes. I admit it\u2014I have nothing to hide\u2014there are plenty<\/i> of times when the last <\/i>thing I want to do is to bless the Lord. Fortunately, I have the example of David, and I see him<\/i>, the great psalmist of Israel, commanding himself to bless the Lord. That tells me very clearly that even powerful worshippers don\u2019t always feel<\/i> like blessing God! But David did it anyway; he insisted<\/i> that everything<\/i> within him bless the holy name of the Lord\u2014mind and emotions as well, whether they wanted to or not.<\/p>\n
He also instructed his soul to forget none of God’s benefits. Hebrews 2:1 states, \u201cFor this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it<\/i>.\u201d Two witnesses\u2014one from Psalm 103 in the Old Testament and one in Hebrews 2 from the New\u2014warn that it is far easier to forget the Lord\u2019s benefits and to drift away from His Word than we care to think. That\u2019s why David commanded himself to forget none of the Lord\u2019s benefits. He was intimately aware of the drift factor.<\/p>\n
You and I are also more than capable\u2014despite our \u201cpedigree\u201d\u2014to drift away from the Word of God. That\u2019s why I have challenged you this week to challenge yourself<\/i> to forget none of His benefits. Command<\/i> yourself to think upon what He\u2019s done for you. Insist<\/i> that you spend time recounting the benefits Jesus has provided for you. And bless<\/i> Him as you meditate on His provisions.<\/p>\n
The Lord has not only provided pardon for your sins, but He has also included healing in His package of benefits for you. This aspect of God\u2019s benefit package is still somewhat controversial for some reason; however, controversy does not negate the fact that it is written, \u201cWho heals all your diseases<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
David understood that healing was one of the benefits that God provided in the earlier benefit package. Now, in Christ, healing is still <\/i>included in our covenant with God\u2014a covenant that is described in Hebrews as \u201ca better covenant, which was established upon better promises<\/i>\u201d (Hebrews 8:6b).<\/p>\n
In Matthew 8, after Jesus touched the hand of Peter\u2019s sick mother-in-law, she got out of bed, healed of her illness, and busied herself with serving Him. Matthew followed that anecdote with the following commentary, \u201cThis was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: ‘<\/em>He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases'” <\/em>(see Matthew 8:14-17).<\/p>\n After Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He commissioned them to \u201cgo into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation<\/i>\u201d (Mark 16:15). He further instructed them to \u201clay hands on the sick, and they will recover<\/i>\u201d (Mark 16:18b).<\/p>\n Peter, an eyewitness of the life of Jesus, declared to everyone present at Cornelius the Gentile\u2019s home, \u201cYou know of<\/i> Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him<\/i>\u201d (Acts 10:38), revealing to Jews and Gentiles alike the universality of the healing mercies of God, available to everyone, despite their background.<\/p>\n Peter later wrote in his first letter, \u201cand He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed<\/i>\u201d (I Peter 2:24), further instructing believers\u2014both in his time and<\/i> for the ages to come\u2014that the substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross was for the purpose of forgiving sin and <\/i>healing disease. Matthew had quoted Isaiah 53 in his commentary after Jesus healed Peter\u2019s mother-in-law; here Peter quoted the same chapter in Isaiah when he declared, \u201cfor by His wounds you were healed<\/i>\u201d (see Isaiah 53:5).<\/p>\n Bless the <\/i>Lord<\/i>, O my soul,<\/i> and forget none of His benefits\u2026Who heals all your diseases.<\/i><\/p>\n Do not allow yourself the luxury\u00a0of forgetting the benefit of healing that\u00a0Jesus purchased for you at such a steep price. Don\u2019t give yourself wiggle-room to drift away from or neglect so great a salvation (see Hebrews 2:3). Since healing is one of your benefits, like David you must make a conscious effort not to let it drop off the radar of your thoughts.<\/p>\n Are you concerned about how the\u00a0sweeping overhaul of\u00a0our nation’s\u00a0healthcare industry will ultimately impact your life? David, the psalmist of old, has left you a very timely and clear set of instructions.<\/p>\n Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits…Who heals all your diseases.<\/em><\/p>\n Refuse to forget the healing benefit that is yours through Jesus.<\/p>\n Dorothy<\/p>\n \u201cThis book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.<\/i> Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go<\/i>.\u201d Joshua 1:8-9<\/p>\n \u201cMy son, give attention to my words;<\/i> incline your ear to my sayings.\u00a0<\/sup>Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their body.<\/i>\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Proverbs 4:20-22<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have the prophetic word strongly confirmed. You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 Peter 1:19\u00a0 Holman Christian Standard Bible <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases. Psalm 103:1-3 David the psalmist commanded himself to bless the Lord. You sometimes feel like blessing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalm-103"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1901"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1912,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1901\/revisions\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}