August 20, 2023
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; 3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; 5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.
Psalm 103:1–14 (NASB1995)
THE IDEA:
There is a single way to handle every hard thing that happens to you, every difficult circumstance, every suffering thing that comes into your life.
And it has to do with how you forget and what you remember.
Blessing, Forgetting and Remembering
I. Blessing: What We Tell Ourselves To Do
1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; "
Psalm 103:1-2 (NASB1995)
2 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
3 Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;
4 Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
5 Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle."
Psalm 103:2–5 (NASB1995)
II. Remembering: How To Do It
1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; "
Psalm 103:1–2 (NASB1995)
8 "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."
Philippians 4:8–9 (NASB1995)
"... be renewed in the spirit of your mind,"
Ephesians 4:23 (NASB1995)
III. Not Forgetting: Why Keep It Up?
To stop the forgetting process from happening.
To keep the remembering process alive and controlling your consciousness.
That the first things on your mind are:
This is who God is to me when I am going through the hardest things.
This is what He has done in my life:
He has continually pardoned by sin
He has continually healed my diseases
He has continually rescued me from the pit
He continually crowns me with compassion
He continually renews my strength like an eagle.
Why bless the Lord over and over and over?
So we won’t forget; and we will lose the power of hope that is in grace;
We will take grace for granted, and lose its power in our lives
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