How can we "forget not His benefits" (Psalm 103:2)?

In connection with opposition and hindrances, let us take notice of a great and substantial aid to prayer, namely, thanksgiving — "In everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Phil. 4:6). "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving" (Col. 4:2). Probably the advantage of thanksgiving as an aid to the soul is not fully seen. How often when the well of prayer seems dried, thanksgiving will cause the stream to flow! The recollection of mercies received, and blessings in possession, refreshes the soul; begets the sense that we are in communion with a giving God; and imparts new courage to approach Him with our requests. How many answers are received to prayers gone by, which are not recognised as answers, because in the interval the very prayers that were made are forgotten! Thus is lost to the soul opportunity for praise and thanksgiving; a loss of happy and profitable exercise: but besides that, it is a failure in what is becoming towards God. Is it a fit thing to receive a gift and not return thanks? Between man and man it is a breach of manners; and that God takes notice of such failure towards Him is certain from the case of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). Only one of the ten who had been cleansed returned to give thanks, and how touching is the comment of the Lord! "Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God save this stranger!" God looks for our gratitude, and that not only in the heart, but the positive expression of it; expression too, not merely in a general way, but definitely as to definite instances. Praise "is pleasant, and it is comely" (Ps. 147:1). A thankful soul is a happy soul. We can never get into circumstances where we have not cause for thanksgiving, and thanksgiving naturally leads to prayer.

It is always a sign of the Spirit's activity when the soul that has received blessing turns immediately with praise to the Blesser. Too often the mercy or blessing received satisfies the soul for a moment. Our exercise over, the end reached, unless on our guard, we are often deluded into forgetfulness of the hand which has been stretched out over us, or which has been ministering to our need. It was not so with Israel; and it is profitable to note how they rise up with thanksgiving to the source of their deliverance. They had trusted in Him, and they had not been confounded, and they magnify His name for it.

Forgetting is one of the dangers on a disciple's path. How soon Israel forgot the hardships of Egypt and their grand deliverance, and so started murmuring and crying, 'we shall die in the wilderness'. But are we not in the same danger? We quickly forget the answered prayers of yesterday, the help found in personal need or common trials, and dishonour our Lord through 'little faith'. May we not join in the prayer of David, 'Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all his benefits' (Ps. 103:2)? 'What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?' (Ps. 116:12).

There follows now the praise of the restored people. The psalmist calls upon his soul with all its powers to praise Jehovah, the eternal, unchangeable and covenant-God. Love manifesting itself in "all His benefits" awakes the soul to praise Him, while it realizes amid all its joy the weakness and inconstancy of the creature, of which in contrast with His faithfulness it has had such abundant proof: "forget not all His benefits."

Unhindered praise will rise from the hearts of those redeemed and blessed in the millennium, as this psalm shows beautifully. The psalmist calls on his own soul to bless the Lord, and all that is within him. Being so greatly blessed then, how could they ever forget His benefits? And how can we today forget the great blessing with which God has blessed the Church of God? Sad to say, we know our own memories are too short as to these things. May the Lord stir us to a greater appreciation of our many spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!

To trust in prosperity, in earthly riches, is a danger for most if not all saints. It was so in the days of old when prosperity in earthly things was a mark of God's favour. How much greater the folly of trusting to them now, when our true riches are revealed to be heavenly and not earthly! To boast of spiritual gifts and attainments as if acquired by our own skill is even more offensive to the Lord, Who alone gives as it pleases Him. It is to put God's blessings and favours in the place of God Himself. If the perishable things of this life are His gift, how much more the spiritual and eternal! Forget not all His benefits, but bless the Lord.

Is it however really the case that there is nothing whatever in your life which calls for thanksgiving to God? Can you not recall one mercy? There must surely be one: are there not even two? perhaps you can if you try count a score, and if you try hard, a hundred and more. And on adequate reflection you will probably say like the Psalmist, "Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to usward; they cannot be reckoned up in order to Thee; if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbered." — Ps. 40:5.

It is, at once, refreshing, edifying and encouraging to look back over the whole course along which the faithful hand of our God has conducted us; to trace His wise and gracious dealings with us; to call to mind His many marvellous interpositions on our behalf, how He delivered us out of this strait and that difficulty; how, oft-times, when we were at our wits' end, He appeared for our help, and opened the way before us, rebuking our fears and filling our hearts with songs of praise and thanksgiving.

Why, we may ask, were Israel charged to "remember all the way" by which the Lord their God had led them? Assuredly, to draw out their hearts in praise for the past, and to strengthen their confidence in God for the future. Thus it must ever be. "We'll praise Him for all that is past, and trust Him for all that's to come." May we do so more and more! May we just move on, day by day, praising and trusting, trusting and praising. These are the two things which redound to the glory of God, and to our peace and joy in Him. When the eye rests on the "Eben-ezers" which lie all along the way, the heart must give forth its sweet "Hallelujahs" to Him who has helped us hitherto, and will help us right on to the end. He has delivered, and He doth deliver, and He will deliver. Blessed chain! Its every link is divine deliverance.

Nor is it merely upon the signal mercies and gracious deliverances of our Father's hand that we are to dwell, with devout thankfulness, but also upon the "humblings" and the "provings" of His wise, faithful and holy love. All these things are full of richest blessing to our souls. They are not, as people sometimes call them, "mercies in disguise," but plain, palpable, unmistakable mercies for which we shall have to praise our God throughout the golden ages of that bright eternity which lies before us.

The second feature, then, is the confession of what their misery had been, of their impotency in time past, and that their redemption has been accomplished by Jehovah alone, to whom they were indebted for all these blessings. Thereupon the worshipper directly addresses Jehovah, presenting Him with the firstfruits of those blessings. It was the recognition of God in the blessings (the infallible effect of a work of God in the heart), and the only means of truly enjoying them; for God's blessings turn the heart away from Him, if their first effect is not to turn it to Him. That is the history of Israel, and a thousand times alas! in the details of life, that of our own hearts. A pious heart acknowledges God Himself in the blessing, before enjoying it. See a beautiful example in the conduct of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, sent to fetch a wife for Isaac.