Bless the LORD , O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
3 Who pardons all your iniquities;
Who heals all your diseases;
4 Who redeems your life from the pit;
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
5 Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
6 The LORD performs righteous deeds,
And judgments for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the sons of Israel.
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
9 He will not always strive with us;
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
14 For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more;
And its place acknowledges it no longer.
17 But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
18 To those who keep His covenant,
And who remember His precepts to do them.
19 The LORD has established His throne in the heavens;
And His sovereignty rules over all.
20 Bless the LORD, you His angels,
Mighty in strength, who perform His word,
Obeying the voice of His word!
21 Bless the LORD, all you His hosts,
You who serve Him, doing His will.
22 Bless the LORD, all you works of His,
In all places of His dominion;
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
Praying you’ll know and live ever more fully in
the sure hope of God’s rich blessings in
Christ!
As a Christian, do you ever feel overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy in your ability to be what God has called you to be and do what He’s called you to do? I wrestle with this occasionally (like every day!), but I’m growing. And the glorious truth of Romans 8:31,32 is the reason why:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is
against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him
over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
This passage speaks to the fact that my greatest problem in life goes far beyond mere feelings of inadequacy. And in Christ, God has dealt with this problem!
My greatest problem, as Paul reveals earlier in the book of Romans, is that I am an unrighteous, rebellious sinner under the wrath and condemnation of God Almighty. Moreover, I have absolutely no way to free myself from either the presence or penalty of my sin. But God in His abundant mercy has provided the remedy! Jesus Christ fully satisfied the judgment of God through the shedding of His blood, and He has fulfilled the righteous demands of the Law through His perfect obedience. And as God has called me to Himself through faith in Jesus Christ, I am now freed from His condemnation and declared righteous. I am thus reconciled to Him under whose wrath I once lived. If God is for us, who can be against us?
And that brings us to Paul’s point in Romans 8:31,32. If God has done this “BIG” thing - provided the remedy for my sin through the offering of His Son Jesus Christ - He is certainly able and willing to provide the “little” things I need to walk obediently with Him in this life. In other words, if God has chosen to powerfully rescue me from His own judgment and reconcile me to Himself in Christ, will He be any less willing and able to provide all I need on a daily basis in following Him? Will He not daily provide the enabling grace for me to be a godly child of His in this world, a godly husband, a godly father, a godly pastor?
And Oh how He gives! He gives me His living Word to make me adequate (2 Timothy 3:16,17). He has given His Holy Spirit to indwell me (1 Corinthians 3:16). He gives me His strength when I’m weary (Isaiah 40:29). He gives me wisdom in the midst of trials (James 1:5). He gives me mercy and grace in every moment of need (Hebrews 4:16). He gives everything I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3,4). He gives me every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3-14). He gives me daily provision for all my physical needs (Matthew 6:25-34). He gives me ongoing forgiveness and cleansing of my sin (1 John 1:9). He gives me boldness (Psalm 138:3). He gives me peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:6,7). He gives me other believers to encourage me in the faith (Hebrews 10:24,25). The list could go on and on - so abundant are His riches in Christ!
Beloved, when Satan hurls his fiery darts of inadequacy and condemnation your way, lift up the shield of faith with promises like Romans 8:31,32! The God who is able to save you from your sin is also the God who is able to keep you. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ. Know it, believe it, cling to it, and act on it. If God is for you, who can be against you?
I am continually intrigued by how often King David in the Psalms cries out to God in the midst of difficult, distressing, and agonizing circumstances. Consider just a few of these instances:
Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.
Psalm 25:16,17
Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses.
Psalm 34:6
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him And saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalm 86:1
Incline Your ear, O LORD, and answer me; For I am afflicted and needy.
Psalm 118:5
From my distress I called upon the LORD; The LORD answered me and set me in a large place.
Psalm 142:1,2
I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him.
I take great encouragement in the presence and frequency of these cries of distress, because David’s experience resonates so much with my own. The only difference is in the specifics of the circumstances. But there is not a week that goes by, actually not a single day, in which I am not similarly driven to cry out to God because of some situation (or situations!) for which I desperately need His help and provision. This happens with increasing frequency.
Not only in the Psalms, but throughout all of Scripture, it is clear that being in distress and agony is a normal Christian experience. The issue isn’t whether we’ll be subject to these things as believers - we will be. The real issue is: how do we respond? For David in the above Psalms, his faith-filled cries to the Lord became the conduit through which God comforted and stabilized his soul, so that David knew great joy and hope even in the distress of his circumstances. As a result, he persevered in trusting and obeying God, even when it was difficult and painful.
God intends to deepen our dependence on Him by leading us through distresses and difficulties that provoke us to seek Him. So we ought not be surprised when we face any number of agonizing circumstances, but rather follow the example of David and countless others in crying out to God. As we do so in faith, regarding all that God has revealed in His word, we too will know more of the joy, hope, strength, and power God lavishes on his thirsty, distressed children. And He will be praised all the more!
Paul said it this way in Phil. 4:6,7:
Philippians 4:6,7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
From a human perspective, these are times that are marked by great and intensifying confusion. Whether it is the economy, politics, terrorism, the swine flu, persecution and ridicule, or the challenging adventures of interpersonal relationships, all of us are bombarded with various uncertainties that can easily consume our daily existence.
Believers are in no way immune from being impacted by these things, but how critical it is for us grow strong in faith in the midst of such trials! We ought not to be surprised at the myriad of difficulties we face in this fallen world. Jesus couldn’t have been any plainer when He told His disciples in Jn. 16:33 - “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
The only means by which the faith of believers can grow strong in the midst of trials is to hold firm to the promises of God in His Word! All of His promises - which flow from and revolve around the redemptive work of Christ on the cross - serve to focus our eternal hope, which is as an anchor for our storm-battered souls (Heb. 6:19).
So let me simply encourage you to feast on, ravish over, embrace, memorize, trust in, meditate upon, pray through, submit to, sing about, declare, and cling to the mighty promises of God revealed in His word! Let us not abandon our hope, but let us be like Abraham of old who, “…did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” (Rom. 4:20,21)
And let us live our hope well before a lost and saddened world, that many more might come to saving faith in Jesus Christ!
