Bless the Lord - Psalm 103:2 (Part 2)

                

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalm 103:2

I started a short mini series of this great opening chapter of Psalms  and l love it. With the Lord's permission l would like to continue on with this and will allow Him to lead me to say what is needed for HIS glory and not my own in any way.

Again, it is repeated in this second verse to bless the Lord (many times, in fact, in the whole Bible). l believe when it says something twice about a particular thing, we must take notice of it even more than when something was said only once. Twice in 2 verses, we need to acknowledge Bless the Lord even more and give glory to our LORD GOD for who He truly is.  Yes, twice as much we must.

                          

This article may be long or short, l do not know, as l will go as long as the Lord gives me liberty.  Amen.

                          

Again, we are to bless the Lord, O my soul. The first verse says 'and all that is within me'.  l believe this applies to the second time it is mentioned in verse 2 - 'forget not all his benefits'. This verse in continued thru to verse 5 because these following verses relate to the special and blessed benefits we receive from God when we are in strict obedience and surrender to Him.  When we bless and acknowledge Him; and when we give ourselves to Him 100% not 10%, 20%, 50%, or 75 % . He does bless us all in many ways even those who do not submit to Him or His rule. But, to the believer and born again child of God, He gives to them added blessings.  When we bless Him, or show Him divine favour, we give Him divine and heartfelt thanksgivings in EVERYTHING.

                         

We are never to forget His benefits nor ignore all He has allowed us to have.  He gives us gifts of salvation, life, mercy and grace, and most of all the ability to work and have families. Many are not able to have or do such things. We are not to forget His benefits as they benefit us.  We have to have a love relationship with Him before above all.  These all include spouses, families, friends, work, etc. Once we are in love with our Lord Jesus Christ, and after we have accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour in our hearts and lives, He will then give us the benefits each day.  His will allows us to live.

A benefit is simply "an act of kindness, something received, to do good to." God does not have to do anything good or allow us to have anything.  In all His grace and mercy given to us each day, l believe He gives us benefits or things to allow us to live.  This is in order for us to be drawn closer to Him and seek Him in ways that He will be pleased with us. IF we are completely surrendered to Him and His will, IF we live according to His commandments and obey Him, IF we allow Him to have HIS way with each of us, and IF we do not delay to do what He has planned for us every day, then He would ALLOW us to see the day before us in fullness. But, because of our pride and selfishness, He holds back much, l do believe, because we don't fully trust Him in everything. 

How can a holy, righteous, just, fair and loving God, who created us, want to give us so much when we rebell against Him? It is very sad to see that we fail His goodness, and His holiness every day. We are not just or fair to Him in many respects because we come short of His glory every day.  We are ignorant of all He has done for us.  Yes, all He has given us and all He has allowed us to have. Even those who love us, we even take them for granted.  We never take time to keep in touch with them. We ignore them.  When we do get in touch with them, we can't wait until they leave.  We think it is bothersome to us if they stay longer because we are very busy with our own business.  We won't give our time to those who are truly in need of a visit,an encouraging word, etc.

                   

Of all our God has given us, what benefit have you given to Him lately? l don't mean reading your Bible and doing studies, and being faithful to church and other things relating to the church.   What I mean is, what have you done for HIM LATELY this past week? Or are you too busy, too proud and too selfishly involved in your own rotten, self-righteous life to even acknowledge Him?

                   

Don't forget GOD.  Don't forget Jesus. Don't forget the Holy Spirit.  Give them benefits that They would love to have.  Remember the wrath and anger of almighty GOD, when He judgeth the righteous.  He is angry with the wicked every day. He is angry with the majority of you, whether you like it or not.

                  

Some of His benefits, l will share in another part as my time is gone for now.

                        

© Mike Carey,  September 2011

Bless the Lord - Psalm 103:1-5 (Part 1)

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BLESS the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Psalm 103:1

               

I plan to take one verse at a time and try my best to expound on it. Do you know what the word bless means without looking the word up? It means "grant divine favour to." Give favour to with much heartfelt favour, as giving to the LORD with no thought about receiving back from Him, but being surprised when He does give something back to you.  You better see it quick, acknowledge Him, and thank Him no matter what small or large thing He has allowed you to have. Never forget what He did or gave you. 

How to bless the Lord in one way? bless the LORD Himself. How? Easy. Just simply thank Him with an outstretched hand and acknowledge Him.  Show Him you are reaching to touch the Hand and Face of the one who saved your wretched soul from hell, if you are saved. Thank Him.  Show Him divine favour. Show the Lord Jesus Christ the favour that He showed you as He died in your place on the old rugged cross at Calvary. Bless the LORD for His saving grace and His will to allow you to live instead of mooching off of Him.  Stop complaining everytime something wrong goes on in your life.  Take time for Him and pray to Him. Furthermore, thank our blessed Lord God for giving you trials and tribulations.  Most never have because most of us do nothing for Him to show Him the favour and lovingkindness that He showed us.  The Lord constantly shows us and gives grace to every one of us every day we wake up.  He enables us to see the light of day. We moan and groan in us all the day brings.  He cry at all that happen throughout the day.  We mope around like someone on dope, oblivious to all around us and then get angry when someone seems to be given or blessed by the Lord more than we. If we want the Lord's blessings, we better bless Him and give Him favour more than ever.  It is the faithful Christian who is submissive to His will, obedient to His call, who gives his or her all to the Lord, walks with Him and talks with Him every day, has a glow about him when he does His will, and who gives with his all with much love to glorify the Lord in all things thereby He is exalted and lifted up.  The LORD will give and bless that person more than one who gives back to Him with a hard heart and expects the Lord to give, give, and give with great expectation to receive something. This ill-expectant man has much pride, unfaithfulness and a selfish, sinladen heart (Jeremiah17:9)

                       

"BLESS THE LORD, OH MY SOUL".  "O my soul" - too many times we say it because we are weary, tired, too ill, have a little cold, don't like the weather as we can't go out, etc. You sissy if you're a man, and prissy if you're a woman. Many say, "My soul is so tired.  l don't like it so rotten, and my soul is grieved". Yes, your soul should be grieved when you complain about yourselves!  Instead, you should be sold out to the Lord God and not to the devil who is father or lies and deceit. Your soul should have yearning to be sold to Christ our Lord and not to the things of the world. 

When your soul is in a true deep grieving, you are blessing the Lord and longing to be with Him.  You have the urgency in serving Him with all your heart instead of being half hearted in all things pertaining our Lord Jesus. Instead of going 1 mile for Him, double what you do for our Saviour each day.  Do more for Him.  Bless and thank Him.  Show Him divine favour instead of expecting it from Him all the time.  After all, He either saved you from hell, or if you are unsaved, He has allowed you to live ONE more day.  You are only alive by His grace for one more day to enable you to turn to Him with all your heart and accept Him as your Saviour.  That is why Jesus is allowing you to live one more day.  It is a miracle taking place.  He is our omnipotent God.  He gives and shows us grace and mercy each day. He wants to draw us close to HIM so that we can admit our sinfulness. We are sinners.  Let us humble ourselves, believe on and in Him, repent of our rotten sins, be convicted, and ask Him in our hearts. When we do that, we become children of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

                    

'AND ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME...'  It says ALL that is within us, more than what the world can offer us.  We don't thank the world for all we have and what it may have given to us. The world can not save us from hell nor can it give us sweet comfort.   It cannot give us relief from our burdens of sins.   Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ can. With ALL our soul, heart and mind, let us give thanks unto the Lord for His unspeakable gift - Jesus Christ - who died in our place.  Let us think about this:  it could of been every one on earth that could have died on a trillion trees to allow Him to live.  Do you think if it could have been us in His stead, would we do that for the Lord? Definitely NO!  But,  He died for us. His blood cleanses us all from sin.  All there is for us to do is confess Him then walk with Him.  We can only do that if we get saved.  

We can't walk with a holy God if we reject His free gift of eternal salvation.  If we do accept Him and His free gift and become born again (John 3:3), He will prepare a place for us in heaven. So, all that is within us bless God,give Him heartfelt, deep thanks, glorify Him in all His glorious holiness, and have a consuming-fire yearning and desire in us to be close to Him.  "ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME" - ALL to me that is the key word. If we have no desire to serve God, don't. We keep living the way we are and He will deal with us in HIS time and in HIS way.  But, we can have peace with God and a life more abundant IF we "call upon the name of the Lord" and we shall be saved.  Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, friend, and thou shalt be saved.

            

"BLESS HIS HOLY NAME". He is holy and His name is also.  We are not. We can be like him if we are to "so be ye holy in all manner of conversation: because it is written, Be ye holy; for l am holy (1 Peter 1:15b -16)".

            

We are to be like Him.  Holy means sacred; acceptable to God.  Are you acceptable to Him?  Are you holy in His eyes? Or are you in the distance trying to put on a front in front of others trying to be righteous? Stop being a hypocrite. We should be rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory ( 1 Peter 1:8).  We need to be more Christlike in our actions,  talks, dresses, attitudes, countenances, and responses in front of others. We will never be perfect, but some of us will when we go home to be with the Lord in heaven. Are you ready? Are you saved, sanctified and sure? Or are you unsure, at unrest, and unstable? Heaven is only 1 breath, my friend. Hell, too, if you are unsure about your destination.  Make your important decision now.

     

Read: Acts. 16:31, Romans 10:9-13, 1John 5:12-13, John 3:3,16-17  Revelations 20:14-15,   Hebrews 9:27,    Revelation 21:8.

© Mike Carey; August 13, 2011