Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 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.
The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.
Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.
Praise the Lord, my soul. (Psalm 22:1-22 NIV)
We human beings have very selective memories. We often say that we can’t remember anything. That’s not true. Each of us can remember things. We just have very selective memories. As a kid, my favorite baseball player was Robin Yount. Ever heard of him? He retired before I turned ten years old. But I remember that he had a .285 career batting average, 252 home runs, and 3,142 career hits. I didn’t even look those numbers up. You check them! I’m sure I remember.
What’s it for you? Probably not baseball stats. Maybe it’s a recipe. You don’t need a little card anymore. It’s all up here! You remember exactly the teaspoons or tablespoons or 1/2 cup or 1/3 cups. Don’t say you don’t have a good memory. You have a selective memory! Maybe for you it’s car parts. No matter what make or model, you can change the oil. Change the brakes. Historical facts? No chance. Radiators? You bet! Don’t say you don’t have a good memory. You have a selective memory. Maybe for you it’s directions. You don’t need this GPS nonsense. Turn right. Then left. Then a quick right. Then a left past the barn. Go past the cow. It’s on the right…
It’s not true that we can’t remember anything. We just have very selective memories. Here’s the problem: For some reason, we remember the bad a whole lot easier than we remember the good. Isn’t that true? We forget the good a whole lot easier than we forget the bad. Would you agree? When you get sick, you forget all the days that you felt good, and you moan, “Woe is me, I’m always sick!” When you’re discouraged, you forget the thousand things that went well today, and you fixate on the one that didn’t. “Why doesn’t anything ever go right?” When that new pain sets in, you forget that for 60 years that body part never ever hurt. Instead, “Why do I feel like this?”
Do you know what our selective memories too often lead to? When we forget the good and remember the bad, what begins to develop in our hearts? Ingratitude. Know what that is? Not being thankful. If we’re honest, isn’t that how we often live? Discontent. What questions come into our minds? “Why is this happening? Why do I have to go through this? Why doesn’t God give me what they have?” Ingratitude sounds like a small thing, but it impacts everything. You see it in children. They complain about everything. And we wonder where children get it from. Well, where do children get it from? You and me. We see all the wrong. We forget all the right.
There’s someone in the Bible who must have had that same ingratitude problem: King David. How do I know? Here’s what he says, “Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” Notice whom he’s talking to. He’s not talking to us. Whom is he talking to? Himself. King David is talking to himself. What does he tell himself to do? “Praise the LORD, my soul.” With his selective memory, David needed to remind himself to praise the LORD.
Here was the key: “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” That’s the key: “Forget not all his benefits.” Somebody once told me that the medicine for discontentment is gratitude. Have you ever heard that? King David says it’s true. The medicine for discontentment is gratitude. You’d think that the medicine for discontentment would be contentment. “I’m discontent, so I should be content.” Does that ever work? No, and King David knew it! If we’re discontent, the medicine we need is gratitude for God’s blessings. “Forget not all his benefits.”
Like what? What benefits? That’s what our sinful nature always says, isn’t it? “What has God done for me lately?” How about this: “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.” What does God do? Five things: God forgives. God heals. God redeems. God crowns. God satisfies. All those verbs are in the present. It’s not just that God did some cool stuff long ago. It’s, “Remember what God is doing for you right now. Today!” Forgiving. Healing. Redeeming. Crowning. Satisfying…
Just like he told Moses. What did the LORD tell Moses? You know how John 3:16 is the most well-known Bible verse for Christians today? “For God so loved the world…” God told Moses something that was like the John 3:16 of the Old Testament: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” Every believer in God would have had those words memorized. Remembering God’s blessings starts with remembering what God is like. What is our God like? “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”
To explain that, King David tells his soul five of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. What do God’s compassion and grace look like? “He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever.” God could accuse us of a lot, couldn’t he? But he doesn’t. The book of Romans asks, “Who then is the one who condemns?” (Romans 8:34). Know the answer? “No one.” Why? “Christ Jesus is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” When someone accuses you, Jesus steps in as your Lawyer. Know what he says? “It’s already paid in full. I took it away at the cross.” You are forgiven. So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
That’s why David continues: “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” With our selective memories, we like to complain that life isn’t fair, don’t we? We think we don’t get what we deserve, right? That’s absolutely true. We don’t get what we deserve. But it’s the opposite of what we think. What do we really deserve? Bad stuff! Death and hell. Instead, God gives us so much better than we deserve. I know someone that whenever I ask him how he’s doing, he always says, “Better than I deserve.” Isn’t that the truth? “He does not treat us as our sins deserve.” So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
In fact, “as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.” So how high are the heavens above the earth? I told you last summer. You remember, right? How far away is the closest star? 25,300,000,000,000 miles. That’s how great God’s love for you is! It’s billions of miles worth. That’s a lot of love! You could fly as high as possible and still not get to the end of God’s love. With our selective memories, we think, “Nobody cares about me. I’m all alone. I don’t matter.” Come on! “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.” So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
Isn’t this beautiful? King David just keeps going. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” Even if you were to travel all the way around the world, could you bring the east and west together? No. They are completely separated. No matter where you go, there is east over there and west over there. So what’s the Bible saying? That’s you and your sins. Because Jesus took your sins away at the cross, they are over there, and you are over here. That’s a good thing! So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.” Are you convinced yet? God is good. God is loving. Life seems to say the opposite. The devil works really hard to make us doubt. This is the truth: As much as the best dad loves his children, God loves you more. So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
All this is extra amazing considering what we’re like. The LORD “knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone.” What are we like? Strong, independent, self-sufficient… No. Dust and grass. What do you do with dust? Sweep it up and throw it away. That’s what we do with dust at our house! What do you do with grass and flowers in the fall? Cut them down and throw them away. Maybe burn them for good measure. That’s what we are. Dust. Grass. That’s what we deserve. God should sweep us away. God should throw us in the fire.
But God doesn’t. Remember how he doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve? “From everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.” We last as long as grass. How long does God’s love last? From everlasting to everlasting. We have a children’s Bible at home that says it like this: “God’s Never-Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” I love that: “God’s Never-Stopping, Never Giving up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.” Know what that means? Even if today you have nothing else… Even if it feels like so many blessings are missing in your life… Even if everything else—your hopes and dreams—have been swept away like the dust… Do you know what you still have? Jesus loves you. “From everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him.” So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
Here are two examples that have hit home for me: A couple weeks ago, we heard about Daniel in the lions’ den. Daniel was in a bad spot. The king had just passed an awful law that anyone who prayed to anyone other than the king would die. It wouldn’t seem like Daniel had anything to thank God for. But do you know what Daniel did? “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (Daniel 6:10). Here’s what stuck out to me. Daniel didn’t just keep praying. When he prayed, what did he do? “Giving thanks to his God…” Thankful, in the face of lions? How? By not forgetting all God’s benefits.
This past week my computer at home ran out of space. Has that happened to you? Know why? Family pictures. So many pictures. I don’t know about you, but I take lots of pictures with my phone, put them on my computer, and never look at them. But since my computer is out of space, I need to get rid of some pictures. So I started to look at our pictures. Some from earlier this year. Some from ten years ago. Know what I realized? I’m blessed. To see the places we’ve lived. To see our kids grow up. To see God’s grace to us. Know what looking at pictures does? It reminds you of all God’s benefits. Your life has been different than mine, but you’re blessed. I’m blessed.
Preach that to your soul. King David was greatest king God’s people ever had. He had power and prestige… But it still wasn’t easy to be grateful. So he wrote these words down in the Bible. First for him. Then for us. Every time discontent or ingratitude starts to spread in your mind, remind yourself that the answer to discontentment is gratitude. God has been good to us. God is good to us. Jesus is our perfect Savior. So? “Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
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