“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
We have special days for just about everything. We have special days for Veterans. We have special days for those who died for our country. We have special days for our mothers, our fathers, even our grandparents. We have administrative assistants’ day and laborer’s day. We even have a national chocolate day, national coffee day, national donut day, national pizza day. We just celebrated a day set aside for thanksgiving. We have special days for just about everything.
Why? Because we tend to overlook the people and the gifts that God has given us. These days have tremendous value because it forces us to be still and to acknowledge the gifts like our Veterans, like our mothers, like our grandparents, yes, even like chocolate and coffee. It’s good for us to be still and to acknowledge and even give thanks to God for these gifts big and small.
We need days like these because we so quickly forget. And that’s what God doesn’t want us to do. He doesn’t want us to forget his benefits and what he’s done. He doesn’t want us to forget him and follow other gods. See, we easily and quickly forget God and forget his benefits and then live and act as if he doesn’t exist. Sometimes that means we are living outside of his commands and are seeking another god, even challenging him. Sometimes it means that we are living in fear and worry as if he didn’t exist and weren’t taking care of us.
The psalmist knew this tendency and so he preaches a sermon to his own heart and also to ours because he needed to remember. Bless the Lord, my soul, and forget not his benefits. He forgives sin! He heals diseases! He redeems our lives from the pit! He crowns our life with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles’.
Take a moment this Advent as we prepare to celebrate Christmas and look for Jesus’ second coming to remember all the benefits and the blessings of your God. Take a moment this Advent and ponder the love of your God who tore apart the heavens and came down to rescue your life from the pit. Take a moment this Advent and ponder the love of your Savior who put aside his deity and took on your humanity all so that you could be his. Take a moment and reminder your soul about all that God has done.
Remind your heart and soul what he has done, is doing and will do for you. Reminder your soul what he has done and forget not all the benefits he brings.
Because we quickly forget the benefits from our God, God has given us special days like Thanksgiving and regular days like our Sundays to help us remember his benefits so that we do not forget.