At a particularly low point in my life, the Spirit led me to Psalm 103. At the time, the phrase that rescued me from a pit of despair was Psalm 103:14. “He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.”
Since Psalm 103 proved so helpful to me in a dark season, I have since made it a practice to occasionally meditate my way through this Psalm. As I’ve done that, I’ve found Psalm 103:2 to be a particularly precious reminder.
“Forget not all his benefits” is a great reminder that we have innumerable benefits. But what does it mean to not forget these? How can we practice what Psalm 103:2 calls us to do?
What Is the Context of Psalm 103:2?
Psalm 103 is toward the end of Book Four of the Psalms. Book Three of the Psalms holds the darker psalms. It is filled with lament and ends on a note of despair (Psalm 88; 89).
From Psalm 90-106, we see the answer to despair. Praise and resting in God’s sovereignty is the answer to the brokenness of the Third Book.
Psalm 103 celebrates the goodness of God. From the beginning of the Psalm, David stirs up his heart to praise and remember all that God has done.
It’s almost as if he has just heard the hymn, “Count your blessings, name them one by one,” and David picks up his pen and accepts the challenge.
This Psalm also is the first of four such psalms, which close out the Fourth Book, recounting the goodness of God to His people from creation to exile.
This will launch the Book of Psalms into its final book — likely meant for the exilic community — to continue in faithful worship to this great God. The praise of Psalm 103 is meant to motivate and inspire faithfulness for the day.
What Does it Mean to 'Not Forget All His Benefits'?
It’s kind of surprising how quickly we can forget the Lord’s goodness to us. In 1986, Janet Jackson came out with a song titled What Have You Done for Me Lately, it’s a song about a relationship, but it’d also be a fitting statement about our propensity to forget God. Hosea 13:6 is an apt description of our human condition:
When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me (Hosea 13:6).
This is why at the beginning of the Psalm, David commands his heart to bless the Lord. He is telling his soul to not forget all of God’s benefits but instead to recount them.
This is also a community project. David is not only telling his own soul to remember all that the Lord has done, but this Psalm is meant to draw other worshippers into this act of remembrance.
It should also be noted that the idea of not forgetting His benefits is more than just a failure to remember. We have a few examples in Scripture of those who did not remember the Lord’s goodness.
In 2 Chronicles 32:25, we read that Hezekiah “did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore, wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.”
This attitude (and that of Hosea 13) was warned against in Deuteronomy 8:12-14. It seems that if we are not actively remembering the Lord’s benefits, then we will quickly forget them. Such is human nature.
What Are Some of These Benefits?
While we have our own personal stories and specifics of how the Lord has been good to us, we are not left without help in recounting these benefits.
Psalm 103 is David’s recounting of how the Lord has been good. And these are not only true of David they are true of every soul who takes refuge in God.
1. He forgives all your iniquity; He redeems your life from the pit.
2. He heals all your diseases (keep in mind that this will have an ultimate expression in glory).
3. He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy; He satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed; He works justice and righteousness for the oppressed; He made known his ways to us.
4. He is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He will not always chide or remain angry forever (he loves to forgive); He does not repay us according to our iniquities; His steadfast love is higher than the heavens.
5. He has removed our transgressions as far as east from the west; He shows fatherly compassion; He knows our frame and remembers we are dust; His steadfast love is from everlasting to everlasting; He has established his throne, and His kingdom rules over all (God is in control).
We do not have to stop where the psalmist does. We can also go through the New Testament and find the benefits that we have in Christ.
In fact, we can say with Paul in Ephesians that he has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” We have all of the benefits of being united to the Son of God, who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.
If there is something good, something praiseworthy, something that is needful and joy-producing, then we know that it belongs to us in Christ Jesus. We will lack no good thing.
How Can We Practice This Verse?
We should make it a regular practice to do what David did in this Psalm. It is helpful for us to consider all of the specific ways in which the Lord has blessed us.
Sit down with a pen and paper and challenge yourself to list 100 ways in which God has benefited you. Before long, you’ll find that there truly are 10,000 reasons for your heart to sing.
If you’re anything like me, you skimmed through that list of benefits that I wrote out earlier. Consider going back up to those and slowing down. Think through each one. How have you seen healing in your life?
How have you seen his steadfast love and mercy? In what ways has he made known to you? Where have you witnessed his fatherly compassion?
In what way have you seen him work justice and righteousness on behalf of the oppressed? How has God forgiven all your iniquity?
I am reminded here of a story told about Martin Luther. In one of his battles with the devil, Martin was weighed down with a load of guilt. The enemy was parading Luther’s sin before his own eyes.
But then Luther remembered the gospel, and he had a vision of the enemy pulling out of a closet a pile of scrolls, which were filled with every sin that Luther had ever committed.
Lengthy scrolls filled with a detestable thing — even one of these sins enough to cast Luther into hell for all of eternity.
The enemy gleefully recounted all of Luther’s transgression. But at the end — when the devil had read through everything — Luther told the enemy to now go back through every single one of these transgressions and write “the blood of Jesus Christ.”
This is what the psalmist means when he says that he has forgiven all our iniquity. As you recount your pain, you recount your sin, and you recount all of the ways in which you have been disappointed don’t forget that there is another story — a better story — to be told. He is good and has always done you good.
Psalm 103 is a great reminder of the Lord’s goodness. Follow along with the psalmist and make it a daily practice to recite and remember God’s benefits to you.
For further reading:
What Does it Mean ‘May the Lord Bless You and Keep You'?
How Should Christians Respond to Unexpected Blessings?
Will the Lord Fight for Us if We Are Still?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/Khosrork
Mike Leake is husband to Nikki and father to Isaiah and Hannah. He is also the lead pastor at Calvary of Neosho, MO. Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and Jesus Is All You Need. His writing home is http://mikeleake.net and you can connect with him on Twitter @mikeleake. Mike has a new writing project at Proverbs4Today.
