A Word in Season: Do Not Forget (Psalm 103:2)

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Different people find different things harder to forget or easier to remember.

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The challenges sometimes are to do with our own character, or perhaps they arise from our own experience.

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For some, a survey of the last few days or weeks or months might produce a list of grievances, things that have gone wrong, things that didn't work out for us, things that we're not happy about or content with.

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For others, it might be that there are higher and brighter spots. We find it easier to remember the particular blessings or joys that we have received.

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In Psalm 103, the psalmist begins with a testimony of praise to the

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Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

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Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now why is he doing this? Why does he want to ascribe praise and honour to the

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God of salvation? Why is he lifting up his heart? Why is he exhorting himself? Bless the

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Lord, O my soul, he says in verse 2, and forget not all His benefits.

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That, too often, is an easy thing to forget and a hard thing to remember.

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We can lose sight of the blessings that God has lavished upon us in the blizzard, the welter of life in this world.

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We can easily, perhaps, remember some of the things that haven't worked well for us.

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We can look, if you will, horizontally and record some of the events that are going on around us.

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Perhaps there are deep wounds and scars in our souls, going back even years or decades to times when we were treated in a way that's just left its mark upon us.

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Sufferings we've gone through, experiences we've had where we'd say, I was never the same again afterwards.

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Times when we felt that we've been diminished and that we'll never recover the lost territory.

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How do we keep blessing God? How do our souls bless the Lord? Why should we listen to ourselves when we're telling ourselves to lift up heart and voice to the

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King of Kings? It is because we should forget not all His benefits.

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We should keep them in mind. We should not allow them to drift away from our consciousness.

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We need to keep them before our eyes. One of the things that believers are told to do in the

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New Testament is to admonish one another. That's to keep putting one another in mind of certain things.

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It would be good if we kept one another in mind of the blessings that God has bestowed upon us.

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The benefits that He has distributed among us. The good things that we find in Christ and Him crucified.

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In Psalm 103, David talks about some of those. God forgives all your iniquities.

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God heals all your diseases. God redeems your life from destruction. God crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

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God satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

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In fact, it would be good for us to read through Psalm 103 in its entirety and say, in effect, these are the things that I cannot afford to forget.

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These are the things that I need to strive to remember. All God's benefits.

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Not selectively, although such is the range and the depth of them that we can never exhaust them.

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But we ought to cultivate a sense of the breadth and the depth of God's favour towards us.

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We ought to think of how high it carries us. How low His mercies have gone to reach us.

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How extensive they are. How repeated they are. How persistent God is in His love toward us.

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The completeness and the excellence of the redemption with which He has redeemed us.

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The richness and the fullness of the promises that He has extended towards us. We need to dwell upon the benefits that God has lavished upon us as His people.

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Perhaps you would say, well, what have I got to thank God for? Oh, I would say to you, if you would come to Christ, then you would see that not only are there the ordinary benefits that God bestows upon all of His creatures, but there are blessings and joys to be found in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, which cannot be compared to anything that is in this world. Truly, once we've received such mercies and favours from God in Christ, we ought never to forget the favour that He has bestowed upon the children of men, that He has bestowed upon sinners like us.

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And then we should bless the Lord with all our soul, not forgetting any of His benefits.