📖 The Book of Psalms — Unit 9: Psalm 103, Count Your Blessings

1. Count Your Blessings

In a revival campaign many years ago, the song leader Charles M. Alexander asked a paralyzed man, who had been wheeled down the aisle in his chair, to name his favorite hymn. The man called out for "Count Your Blessings." There was no whining and no complaining from that poor man — only a vivid, settled sense of the goodness of God. He had every earthly reason to grumble, and instead he counted his blessings. That is exactly what David does in Psalm 103.

The old hymn says, "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done." David sat down to do just that — to count up all the benefits of God. The only trouble was that there were so many of them he had to tie them into bundles to remember them all, and then he shaped the bundles into a song. If more of us as Christians would praise God for His blessings and stop complaining and feeling sorry for ourselves, we would be far happier, and we could turn the world upside down. It is a tragic thing to see ungrateful, complaining Christians advertising the good news of Jesus Christ — like starving men hired to carry signs for the finest restaurant in town. It is time we counted our blessings instead of our anxieties.

2. The First Blessing: He Forgives Our Sins

The first benefit David names is forgiveness: "who forgives all your iniquities." All through the Bible, sin is pictured as a disease — a terrible disease that is always fatal, and every one of us carries it. As Romans 3:23 says, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The disease is fatal, but there is one cure: Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins. No matter what they are, they can be forgiven; we are given a second chance.

Think of the woman caught in her sin and dragged before Jesus, whom the crowd was ready to stone. He did not excuse what she had done, but neither did He condemn her; He said, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." That is the wonder of this first blessing. The guilt that would have crushed us, the record that stood against us, God has dealt with at the cross. When we count our blessings, this is where the counting must begin — not with health or wealth, but with a forgiven soul.

3. The Second Blessing: He Heals Our Diseases

The second benefit is healing: "who heals all your diseases." Only a person who has suffered a severe illness and recovered can fully appreciate the gift of health. Apparently the psalmist had passed through some terrible sickness that had wrecked his body and crushed his spirit, and now that he was well again he could not stop praising God for it.

I thank God for every instrument of healing He has given us — the doctors, the nurses, the medicines, the hospitals, all the miracles of modern medicine. But I am convinced that all healing is finally divine healing and a gift from God. The doctors do all they can do, and then we depend on God to bring the healing. Remember the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had gone from doctor to doctor and spent everything she had, with no cure. Then one day she met the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, reached out and touched the hem of His garment, and was healed at once. Power flowed from Jesus, and He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well." Whether He heals through a physician's hands or by His own direct mercy, the healing is His gift, and it is cause to bless His name.

4. The Third Blessing: He Redeems Us from the Pit

The third benefit is rescue: "who redeems your life from destruction" — literally, from the pit. The word "pit" may point to the grave and to death itself; there may have been a dark moment when the psalmist's life hung in the balance, and God reached down and pulled him back. But there is also a deeper pit in view — the eternal pit that Jesus called hell. People sometimes say lightly to one another, "Go to hell," but hell is no light matter, and we would not wish it on anyone. The great blessing of the gospel is that those who have trusted in Jesus will never be cast into that everlasting pit.

5. The Fourth Blessing: He Crowns Us with Love and Mercy

The fourth benefit is honor: "who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies." This is no crown of gold, but a crown of steadfast love and mercy. Perhaps David means how close it is — nothing is nearer a person's head than a crown. Perhaps he means how completely it surrounds us, for a crown encircles the head. Whatever the exact picture, the truth is that God's love and mercy are always there, all the way around us, resting on us.

Nothing can ever cause us to lose that love. Sometimes it feels as though our sin must surely have cost us God's affection, but Jesus promised He would be with us always. As a parent, I know I will never stop loving my children. I may be disappointed with them, I may be angry, I may even have to discipline them — but nothing could make me stop loving them, for my love does not depend on their performance. And it is wonderful beyond words to know that even when I sin, God still crowns me with His love and His mercy. Sometimes it feels as though we have lost that love because He has not answered as we hoped or healed as we asked. But remember that some of God's choicest servants were never healed in this life — the apostle Paul kept his thorn in the flesh, and God told him, "My grace is sufficient for you." The crown of love rests on us still.

6. The Fifth Blessing: He Satisfies Us with Good

The fifth benefit is provision: "who satisfies your mouth with good things." No human need is finally left unsatisfied by God. He puts food on the table; He clothes the fields; in His providence He cares for the tiniest animal and the most ordinary flower. Surely, then, we can trust Him to care for us. David wrote in another place, "I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread" — and neither, in all my years, have I.

Because God gives us our food day by day, we must never take it for granted. A college student once sat down at a cafeteria table with five other girls and quietly bowed her head to say grace. Some of the others laughed. When she finished, she asked why they had laughed. "Aren't you thankful?" she said. "For what?" one replied. "We paid for it." "Where did you get the money?" "From our families." "Where did they get it?" "They worked for it." "And where did they get the strength to work — where did all of it finally come from?" That evening, two more of the girls bowed to say grace before supper; the next day, all six of them did. We bless God because He satisfies our desires with good things.

7. The Sixth Blessing: He Renews Our Strength

The sixth benefit is renewal: our youth renewed like the eagle's. One of the deepest longings of the human heart is to stay young; billions are spent every year on cosmetics and surgery and exercise to turn back the clock. Ponce de León was neither the first nor the last to search for the fountain of youth. But sooner or later time wears down every earthly body. The renewal David sings of is something else entirely. As Isaiah promised, "those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." That kind of renewal has nothing to do with age. I have known young people with no reason to live and no purpose, and I have known saints in their seventies and eighties and nineties who were soaring with the eagles — a zest for life, a zest for witnessing, a zest for God. Where do they get such strength? They are renewed continually by God Himself.

8. Telling It with Our Last Breath

So David gathers up all the benefits of God — forgiveness, healing, rescue from the pit, the crown of love, satisfaction with good, and renewed strength — and ties them into one great song of praise. Thank God that He renews our strength through Jesus Christ, and gives us a youth that the world and the years can never touch. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Count them, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

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