In just a few short days we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving…it’s a shame that we have only one day a year set aside to give thanks to God as a nation.
Just looking at the stores this past week it’s easy to notice that even that one day may be in jeopardy…seems Thanksgiving has all but been overlooked by Christmas…but it is refreshing to know that America did stop long enough on its way to Christmas to celebrate Halloween.
Did you know that it was estimated that U.S. consumers were projected to spend over 10 billion dollars on Halloween this year…then rush right into the commercialization of Christmas?
Problem is Thanksgiving has become nothing more than an American tradition …know what a tradition is? …something we’ve been doing for so long we can’t remember why we’re doing it.
That’s the danger…we’ve been doing Thanksgiving for so long we have forgotten what Thanksgiving is all about.
…If any nation ought to be thankful to God and grateful for His goodness, it ought to be America.
…if any people in America ought to be thankful to God and grateful for His goodness, it ought to be Christians.
…if any group of Christians ought to be thankful to God and grateful for His goodness, it ought to be the Christians in this fellowship. We ought to have an attitude of gratitude…take time to thank God for what He’s done in our lives.
It seems that there is one particular book in the Bible that focuses more on God’s blessing than any other…it’s the book of Psalms…do you know that the word translated ”Psalms” comes from the Hebrew word ”Hallelujah” which means ”praise the Lord.”
So… when somebody says ”Hallelujah”… what they’re saying is ”Praise the Lord!” …and by the way… this word ”hallelujah” cuts across the language barrier. It translates the same in every language!
A psalm is a song intended to be sung with musical instruments…they are essentially a divinely inspired songbook that was used by the Israelites in corporate worship.
For example, Psalms 113 – 118 are known as the “praise” psalms…psalms sung by the Jewish people in their annual festivals and especially as part of the Passover meal observances.
Then there are the psalms that are prayers of praise to God…there are no requests …no petitions or pleas…no asking God to do something or for something…it is pure praise to God.
There are many instances throughout God’s Word where we are given the command to ‘rejoice in Him!’, ‘praise Him!’, and to be ‘thankful in all things!’
Some have referred to these psalms as The Soul Music of Thanksgiving … psalms of praise to God that begins deep within the soul. That’s why they have been referred to as Soul Music.
This kind of Soul Music has nothing to do with the color of your skin…it has everything to do with the condition of your soul.
This kind of Soul Music comes from the saved soul …the saved soul that’s been saved by the blood of the Lamb.
Once you have a saved soul… you can sing the Soul Music of Thanksgiving every day even during those times of difficulty.
Some of you may be familiar with the bestseller by Ken Blanchard…The One Minute Manager, where he recommends that leaders develop the practice of the ‘one-minute praise.’
The idea is when you find an employee doing something right you give them a one-minute praising right on the spot…because waiting takes away the impact… tell them right then.
Just expanding that a little…the idea of praising people right on the spot could revolutionize your relationship with a lot of people…maybe your marriage…in general it might make you a much nicer person to be around. Just saying.
I wonder how many of us give God a ‘one-minute praising’ for all His blessings …for all He has done for us…we have no problem telling the Lord what we want Him to do for us…how often do we give a praise for what He has already done?
Sometimes we just need to give ourselves a good talking-to…that’s what Psalm 103 is all about… it’s a prayer by David in which he talks to his own soul and reminds himself to “bless the Lord” and “forget not all his benefits” …essentially a one-minute praising.
This morning I want to look at the opening five verses of Psalm 103
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 not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.
5 who satisfies you with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Contained in these five verses are six blessings from the Lord:
[3] He Pardons…who forgives all your iniquity
He Heals…heals all your diseases,
[4] He Delivers…redeems your life from destruction,
He Crowns…you with loving kindness and tender mercies
[5] He Satisfies…with good things
He Restores…who renews your youth like the eagle’s
He Pardons
who forgives all your iniquity
David begins by reminding us that God forgives all our sins…not surprising that he starts off with what is the foundation for everything else…forgiveness of sins.
Our greatest problem is sin…it separates us from fellowship with God in addition to the associated guilt that accompanies sin…that is why it’s essential to know that we have the forgiveness of sins.
Note that David says that God forgives ‘all’ our iniquity…looking back over our lives, if we’re really truthful with ourselves we can honestly say some of us have really blown it big time…not to mention the times we have messed up over and over and over…you get the idea…again…and again…and again.
And just to really make you feel bad…we’ve repeatedly done the same dumb things even after promising never to do them again…I’m glad the word ‘all’ is included…because it also means God will forgive my future sins as well…but it’s conditional …you have to ask Him to forgive them.
He Heals
who heals all your diseases
Right up front there needs to be some clarification made…could even go as far as to say…lies that need to be revealed.
1. God heals all diseases…not true…I think we would be a little less than truthful if we said that was the case…we all know people who have died from diseases … people who prayed and were prayed over who still died.
2. faithful people don’t get sick…not true…again we all know people who were dedicated Christians who got sick and died.
3. Divine healing is accomplished because of Jesus’ death on the cross…not true…I want to look at two misleading verses:
He Himself took our infirmities [upon Himself] and carried away
our diseases [Matt. 8:17]
for by His wounds you have been healed. [1 Peter 2:24]
Let me share something regarding this misplaced and the totally incorrect application of Scripture that promotes the lie that as Christians, we should be living free from sickness.
For Kenneth Copeland and others who claim that the healing referred to in these verses applies to physical healing…that Jesus’ death on the Cross offered full healing to everyone because by His stripes we have been healed …and that we should declare theses scriptures over our lives and believe them for healing… are grossly in error.
This demonstrates a complete lack of understanding and is a terrible exegesis of Scripture.
Last week I read a senior honors thesis from a student at Liberty University in which he states; ‘People are falling short of divine health in their lives because of unbelief, sin, deception and conformity to the world’s way of thinking.’
What an outrageous explanation of the ‘why’ of health issues in the life of a Christian…again bad theology.
So what does Peter mean… in [1 Peter 2:24] …where he writes…for by His wounds you have been healed…Peter plainly says by Christ’s wounds we have been healed…but this invites the question, healed from what? …from medical illness? …from financial debt? …from sinful attitudes?
We can’t just assume that Peter was talking about physical illnesses and then apply his statement to our current ailments…there is a logical approach.
Without going into a detailed study of this verse let me say…one of the best lessons we can learn about interpreting the Bible is that the paragraph…not the individual verse…is the primary unit of thought.
This means that interpreting any verse involves first establishing the overall meaning of the paragraph that contains that verse.
In the preceding verses Peter is sharing what it means to be a follower of Jesus… discussing why Christians are to submit to human authorities…using Jesus as the example who suffered under both the Roman and Jewish authorities.
Likewise…all Christians are called on as well to endure suffering for doing what is good for the Lord’s sake…nothing about healing…it’s referring to a Christian’s conduct.
Again…refuting another lie that many believe that becoming a Christian will guarantee a life of simplicity and ease, affluence and comfort.
Verse 24 is actually a quote from Isaiah 53:5…which is a play on words…as Christians we have been healed from the penalty and power of sin by Christ’s suffering… for by His stripes we are healed…not a healing of the body but an everlasting healing of the spirit.
Jesus’ substitutionary suffering and death paid for our sins with the result that we could now be healed of our rebellious attitudes…has nothing to do with physical healing.
With regards to Matthew 8:17 He Himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.” is again tied to Isaiah 53 and Jesus’ healing activity during His earthly ministry.
The key is in the wording… Matthew [17] begins ‘so that’…’in order that’ …indicating the healing just mentioned—which was Peter’s mother-in-law—the healing was clearly done before the atoning work of Christ on the cross…not as a reference to any healing done today…which was done in order to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy.
People ask… ‘do you believe in divine healing’ …EVERYBODY…that’s the only kind there is…it just comes in different ways…that’s why we pray…for two reasons…ONE…Scripture tells us to…
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the
church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in
the name of the Lord. (James 5:14–15).
As a church we do this…nothing mysterious or magical about this…it’s Scriptural…at times God does administer immediate healing…why he heals the people He does is a mystery to me.
Secondly…we don’t know the means God is going to use to heal… at times He heals immediately…at other times He uses all the latest technology…newest drugs… and latest advances in medicine and surgery to heal.
It is God who provides the ability for man to design…invent…and implement these drugs…so in essence they are God administered…after doctors and nurses have done all they can do…after we have used all the latest technology…have taken the newest drugs…healing must come from the Lord.
If you took an aspirin and the headache you had is now gone…that too is from the Lord…that is why we pray for the sick…good medicine and good prayer go together.
He Delivers
who redeems your life from destruction
Part of the free gift of grace was to redeem us from the pit of destruction…he’s not referring to the eternal destruction of the body and soul in hell or to the eternal separation from God that’s reserved for the devil and his angels.
This is referring to the temporal destruction of the body after death to which the natural life is subject to…the temporal destruction of our earthly bodies due to disease….accidents …wars… or dangerous occurrences…
He Crowns
who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies
Realizing how easily people forget God, David reminds himself of the many blessings both physical and spiritual that God has given him…TWO WAYS.
FIRST…notice he doesn’t say…with loving kindness and tender justice… there’s nothing tender about justice…if we were to receive the justice we deserve from God we would all perish…but instead he adds His mercy by which sinners may be forgiven.
Goes back to what I said last week…the purpose of a church service is to praise God for who He is and what He has done…two primary things God has done and is still doing that He needs to be praised for.
MERCY…God not treating me as I deserve to be treated.
GRACE…God treating me as I don’t deserve to be treated.
SECONDLY…the word ‘crown’ here is not referring to a crown you wear on your head…the root for the Hebrew word “crown” means to encircle for the purpose of protection or attack.
David says God crowns us with ‘lovingkindness’ …that is the unending… unchanging love God surrounds us with.
He Satisfies
Who satisfies you with good (things)
The text says He satisfies you with good (things) …that means there is nothing on earth that can satisfy us as deeply as God Himself.
To be satisfied means to be so full that you need nothing else…kinda what happens at Thanksgiving dinner when you simply cannot eat anything else.
David is speaking of a satisfaction deeper than anything the world can offer… James amplifies this idea…Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father [James 1:17] …in the original language the word ‘gift’ is used twice…this would better be translated:
Every good act of giving (1394) and every perfect gift (1434) is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.
Three quick things about this verse:
…The first word “gift” denotes the act of giving…the emphasis is on the Giver.
…the second word for “gift” is different from the previous word for “gift” …it refers to the thing given, rather than the act of giving.
…The word we translate as ‘coming down’ (2597) (katabaino) means to descend from a higher to a lower place….the present tense indicates that these good things are continually coming down.
The idea is that the gifts from God are meant for exactly what a person needs… this means by nature they are sufficient and complete (indicated by the word perfect).
Nobody should need more or less than what God has provided, because as a sovereign God He knows the perfect gift that each individual person needs…that means that each gift may look different for each person as God deems appropriate and necessary for each individual believer and their growth.
Here’s where the difficulty comes in…Psalm 103:4 says: (God) satisfies you with good things…God is the originator of only what is good…one helpful thought to remember in the midst of trials…troubles…testing…and suffering is that they are included as the good gifts that come down from the Father.
Again…there is a common misunderstanding regarding this verse…this verse leaves the impression that God promises certain material benefits…money… status…promotions…or earthly prosperity if we will only serve Him…but we fail to include those difficult times in our lives which God sees as good gifts.
We need to remember that good is something defined according to God’s perfect wisdom…not ours… everything God has created has a good purpose even if we cannot fully understand all things.
He Restores
The usage of an eagle in the psalm is very instructive…the eagle is the strongest …most fearless…and most majestic of all birds.
At about five years of age an eagle will begin going through a process known as molting…a process which takes place annually…where they lose some of their old feathers and grow a new plumage thereby gaining a new lease of life… giving the appearance of renewed youth in the eagle.
There is a great deal to be admired in the youth of a young believer…but for the seasoned believer too often the ordinary wear and tear of combating temptations results in a sinful decline that causes backsliding…the gravitational pull towards sinfulness even in the best of people…whereby we fall into spiritual depression and despair.
Therefore, we need to have that strength renewed…every Christian has need for his soul to be renewed…refreshed…reinvigorated…to restore us to our first love…thank God He can renew our youth to us spiritually when we grow old bodily… But God can renew in us all the vigor we ever had…He can bring back to us again…with all the strength we once had for service He can bring back to us again.
There is no reason why we should not continue to be young and have God renew our youth like the eagles.
In these five verses are six blessings from the Lord…helping us to realize that being a part of the family of God is the greatest blessing bestowed upon believers.
Each of us have our own list of the things for which we are thankful for…but the one thing that should drive us to our knees in humble adoration is…something that we can never do to deserve it…God’s gift of love…mercy…and grace.
Best of all, real Thanksgiving takes place when we yield our hearts to God.