22 Years Of Benefits

The psalmist says, “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, The God of our salvation! Selah” (Psalm 68:19 NKJV)

Another psalm provides us with this word of blessing to the Lord:

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:

Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,

Who redeems your life from destruction,

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psalm 103:2-5 NKJV)

In Psalm 116, the psalmist recalls upon a period of time in his life where he was under much duress. While reminiscing on what has transpired in his life up to that time, he notices the times in his life where the Lord intervened and where the Lord delivered him.

It happened when things were going good in his life; at a time when he was at “rest” (vs. 7). Verse 11 tells us that those whom he trusted had told lies about him and caused him to suffer. In fact, his suffering almost cost him his life (vv. 3-4) but he called upon the LORD and was spared (vv. 1-2)

Wiersbe writes in his commentary that the psalm is very personal, with the words “I,” “my,” and “me” used over thirty times.

Psa 116:1 I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Psa 116:2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

Psa 116:3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.

Psa 116:4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!"

Psa 116:5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.

Psa 116:6 The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.

Psa 116:7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

Psa 116:8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;

Psa 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 116:10 I believed, even when I spoke: "I am greatly afflicted";

Psa 116:11 I said in my alarm, "All mankind are liars."

Many of us have been under a time of duress for the last couple of months. We’ve learned that we need to sell our church property. We learned that God is going to do something new with respect to who we are and what our church has done for Him for the past 22 years.

I remember the time I had the opportunity to walk out to the 50-yard line of the Raven’s football field at M&T Stadium. I was in the middle of that beautiful field but it was difficult for me to see what was going on at the 10-yard line of either side. But if someone was sitting in the “nosebleed” section of the stadium they could see the entire picture.

The Bible says in Psalm 138:6, “Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.”

While we don’t have the ability to exalt ourselves high enough to see our lives from God’s viewpoint, we can press the “rewind buttons” of our lives and remember much of the good and the bad that we’ve experienced. Oftentimes we don’t have an inkling of what the Lord does and is doing behind the scenes, until we press the “rewind button” of our life and look back.

Over the several months I’ve made it a point to press “rewind” lots of times.

I’ve been thinking about how God has been gracious to me—raised in West Baltimore by a wonderful single mom…we had wonderful times growing up but then there was that horrific time in my life when my family was shot at on several occasions by a maniac step-father and the one time when, if it wasn’t for the grace of God, he would have killed us.

A few years after that time in my life when God saved me physically, He saved me spiritually. After the many touches and the witness of many of his servants over the course of my life, He would use a relative to share the Gospel with an eighteen-year-old on his way to college.

As I reviewed my life, I saw the time when I walked into a choir rehearsal and saw this cute, pretty-eyed woman on the choir. I later discovered that she had two kids and one of them was disabled, but for some reason I didn’t run, as many 20-year-olds would have done. The way she cared for them and the glow of her love for the Lord made her more attractive to me. This was God at work in her life; and in mine.