Pause In His Presence Part 14

Forget Not His Benefits

“Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” —Psalm 103:2, NKJV

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things that He does for me.” — Psalm 103:2 NLT

I was reading Psalm 103 this week – one of my favorite Psalms of all time – and I found myself pausing to reflect more on verse 2.  At other times, I would have found myself camping at some of the juicy verses that come later, but verse 2 really caught my attention this week.  I feel like at times, the rest of the passage is indeed so rich that people tend to unknowingly skip right over this little verse when it is so packed with goodness on its own.

I love the New Living Translation. “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things that He does for me.” Let “all that I am” praise the Lord.  That phrase literally means our whole self; our appetites, minds, desires, emotions, passions, and inner beings.

Everything that seems to make up ME, that’s what’s to praise Him!  I would assume that would also include the negative emotions, the negative feelings and thoughts – it’s ALL to bow to Jesus and bring Him praise.

“May I never forget the good things that He does for me.”  Gosh, what a ploy of the enemy to make us FORGET.  Other translations say “forget not all his benefits…” and that word “benefit” means all of His deeds, all of His rewards and all of His recompense towards us.  Let us not forget his recompense!  Let us not forget His deeds!  Let us not forget how He sent His very own Son as a sacrifice for what WE did wrong, and how that He took upon Himself our own sin, sickness, mistakes, failures, pains, traumas, anxiety, etc.  

Let us not forget that Jesus actually transformed us on the inside, making us new creations and changed our nature to be like His (2 Peter 1:4).  Let us not forget.

In my personal life, I sometimes begin to forget.  I get focused on the things that have nothing to do with God’s kingdom, and I can sometimes forget to look at my true reality, which is Him.  I believe that remembering all the good things that He has done for us actually helps to refocus our eyes upon our true reality, which is His kingdom.  If everything within me can not forget what He has done, then the rest of the worldly troubles stay in my peripheral vision, and my heart stays fixed upon truth.

Perhaps that’s why the rest of Psalm 103 is so incredibly rich; because the writer knows that God has done good deeds, and he is calling them to his remembrance!  When we remember, then our whole selves can praise Him.  And when we praise Him, we enter into new levels in the Spirit where nothing else will do.  THIS is the true Kingdom.

May I encourage you today to REMEMBER.  If you must, grab a journal or a piece of paper and pause in His presence.  Quiet yourself before Him, and then jot down all the deeds, all the good things the Lord has done, all that was done for you at calvary.  Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you where necessary.  Make a list, and then REJOICE!  Celebrate with everything that you are, and watch not only your perspective change but also the atmosphere around you.  He is so worthy of ALL of our praise.  THIS is our true reality.

— Mandy Woodhouse