Praise the Lord: Remember His Forgiveness, Healing, and Love

Devotional

Day 1: Command Your Soul: Praise and Remember His Benefits

When sorrow grows loud, your soul needs a louder word. Scripture gives you permission—and a command—to speak directly to your inner life: praise the Lord and do not forget what He’s done. This is not denial of pain; it is a reframe by eternal truth. You can tell your soul the story of God’s faithfulness until your heart remembers what your head forgets. Begin right where you are—name two benefits and bless His holy name from the inside out. You are not stuck with only the voice of pain; you have a better word to speak today [05:21]

Psalm 103:1-2: My soul, lift up the Lord; from the deepest place within, honor His holy name. My soul, lift Him up and do not lose sight of all the good He has poured into your life.

Reflection: What two specific benefits from God will you speak to your soul by name today, and when will you say them out loud?

Day 2: Forgiven, Healed, Redeemed, Crowned, and Satisfied

God’s love in Jesus makes David’s hope your present reality. In Christ your sins are wiped clean, your diseases will not have the last word, your life is pulled up from the pit, and your head is set under a crown of steadfast love and tender mercies. He meets your desires with His good gifts and renews your strength like a soaring eagle. When your body or emotions protest, answer them with the benefits that are yours in Christ. Advent love has already arrived—and that same love will finish what it began when He comes again. Say it to your soul until grace becomes your reflex [06:04]

Psalm 103:3-5: He erases every wrong, mends every sickness, lifts your life out of the grave, places on you a crown of unwavering love and gentle care, and fills your longings with good so your strength rises like an eagle’s.

Reflection: Which one of these benefits feels hardest to receive right now, and what simple daily practice (a sentence prayer, a note on your mirror, or a morning journal line) will help you speak it to your soul this week?

Day 3: From Accusation to Compassionate Love Toward Others

God’s love has broken through the hard edge of law for you; let it break through your inner courtroom toward others. He does not keep piling up charges or nurse anger forever; He does not repay us in proportion to our failures. When your “internal laws” are broken—noise, lateness, messy words—let mercy interrupt your reflex to label and condemn. The love you receive is the love you are freed to extend, even to opponents or strangers. Today, choose to release an accusation and replace it with a prayer of blessing for someone who let you down [03:58]

Psalm 103:8-10: The Lord is gracious and kind, patient and overflowing with faithful love. He does not keep pressing charges or hold anger without end; He refuses to pay us back as our sins would demand.

Reflection: Identify one “law” you often enforce in your heart against others; what alternative act of compassion will you practice the next time that law is broken?

Day 4: Immeasurable Love: East From West, Heaven Above

God’s love cannot be graphed or weighed; it stretches beyond the highest skies and carries your sins away to a distance where they cannot return. The cross declares a love with arms that reach past your worst days and deepest doubts. You are invited not just to nod at this love, but to be rooted in it until it becomes the ground you stand on. Ask for power to grasp what surpasses knowledge, and rest where shame loses its voice. Let immeasurable love define you more than measurable performance ever could [04:32]

Psalm 103:11-12: As the sky arches far above the earth, so His loyal love towers over those who revere Him; and He has sent our offenses away to a horizon where east and west never meet.

Reflection: Where have you been measuring God’s love by your performance, and what brief prayer will you pray in the moment you fail this week to rest again in His “east-from-west” grace?

Day 5: Advent Hope: Renewed Within While We Wait

Advent trains your eyes to see what is unseen: even as the outer life wears down, the inner life is being renewed day by day. The Holy Spirit is God’s good gift who sustains you with fresh strength, aiming your heart toward the coming fullness of Christ’s kingdom. Your present burdens are real, yet they are not final; they are light and momentary compared to the weight of glory being prepared for you. So do not lose heart—fix your gaze on what lasts, and join heaven’s chorus with a steady, stubborn praise. Waiting becomes worship when you remember where the story ends [05:47]

2 Corinthians 4:16-18: We refuse to give up. Though our outer humanity is fading, our inner life is renewed each day. Present troubles are brief and light, producing for us a glory beyond all comparison. So we aim our eyes at what we cannot see, because the visible is temporary, but the invisible is forever.

Reflection: In one specific place of waiting or weariness, what small, concrete habit will help you fix your eyes on the unseen this week (for example, reading Psalm 103 each morning or ending each day with thanksgiving for three “benefits”)?

Sermon Summary

Advent draws our hearts to the love that sent Jesus the first time and the love that will bring him again. Psalm 103 helps us live inside that love. It opens and closes with a command: “Praise the LORD.” It’s not a suggestion. It is the most fitting action in light of who God is and what God has done. David even commands his own soul—because our souls are forgetful, easily dragged down by pain, sin, and sorrow. When we are tempted to narrate our lives with words of despair, we must tell our souls the truth and refuse to give them other options: “Praise the LORD, and forget not all his benefits.”

So David rehearses those benefits: he forgives all our sins, heals all our diseases, redeems our lives from the pit, crowns us with love and compassion, and satisfies us with good so our youth is renewed. David spoke these promises before Christ; we receive them through Christ. The forgiveness is complete. The healing has begun and will be completed when Jesus returns. Our redemption is secure even while our bodies feel the ache of decay. The Holy Spirit renews us inwardly, day by day, while we wait with hope.

Then the psalm turns us outward. God’s love does not end in us; it moves through us toward the oppressed and toward those we are tempted to accuse. The Law rightly exposes sin, but in Jesus the Judge has chosen mercy that fully satisfies justice. If the Father will not always accuse, how can we? God is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. Let his love break through the “inner laws” we impose on others.

Finally, David reaches for measurements that can’t be taken to describe what can’t be measured: as high as the heavens, as far as east from west. This is the scale of God’s love and the distance he has put between us and our sins. Advent teaches us to live by that horizon—praising in the present, remembering the benefits, extending mercy, and waiting in confidence for the fullness that is coming.

Key Takeaways

1. Command your soul to praise Your inner life needs leadership, not permission slips. When grief or anger dominate, speak God’s truth to your own heart and give it no other option. Praise is not denial of pain; it is declaring what is eternally true over what is temporarily loud. This trains the soul to stand on bedrock, not shifting sand.
2. Rehearse the benefits of God Naming God’s benefits is an act of spiritual resistance. Forgiveness, healing, redemption, love, and renewal are secured in Christ, even as we wait for their fullness. Saying them aloud anchors hope in God’s character, not in our circumstances. It keeps your present tethered to God’s promised future.
3. Let love break your inner law We all carry private rules that justify our accusations. God satisfied the righteous Law in Jesus and chose mercy toward us; we must mirror that posture toward others. Refusing to accuse dismantles the small courtroom inside your heart. It makes room for compassion to do work judgment never can.
4. Live from eternity toward today Outwardly we waste away; inwardly we are renewed. Fixing our eyes on the unseen frees us from making today the final word. Advent stretches our horizon to Christ’s return and the completion of all healing. That hope reshapes our choices, our words, and our willingness to love the undeserving.

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading
Read together: Psalm 103

Observation questions (3–4)

Who speaks in the opening verses (vv.1–2) and what is the exact command given to that speaker? How does the psalmist enforce that command?
List the specific “benefits” named in verses 3–5. Which verbs describe what God does for people in these lines?
Where does the psalm move outward (which verse) and what new themes or actors appear once the focus shifts from the individual to others?
What images or phrases does the psalm use in verses 11–12 to describe the size of God’s love and the removal of sin?

Interpretation questions (3–4) — third person objective

What does David’s act of commanding his own soul to praise indicate about the condition of the inner life and the need for intentional leadership of one’s thoughts and feelings?
How do the benefits in verses 3–5 function as both present realities and as promises that point forward to Christ? In what sense are they already true and yet awaiting fullness?
How does verses 9–10 reframe the relationship between law, judgment, and mercy? What problem about God’s justice and God’s compassion is the psalm addressing?
What is the intended effect on a believer when God’s love is described with immeasurable language (“as high as the heavens,” “as far as the east is from the west”)? How should that reshape a person’s memory of sin and hope for the future?

Application questions (5–7)

Command your soul: think of a recurring negative sentence you tell yourself (for example, “I’m hopeless,” “I’m worthless,” “This will never change”). Name it aloud. This week, when that thought comes, replace it with a short truth from the psalm (for example, “He forgives all my sins” or “He crowns me with love and compassion”). Which thought will you replace and when will you practice this replacement?
Choose one of the benefits in vv.3–5 (forgiveness, healing, redemption, love/compassion, renewal). Write a one- or two-line declaration from those verses and read it to your soul each morning for seven days. Which benefit will you choose and where will you post or keep the line so you remember?
Identify one “inner law” you enforce that tends to make you judge others (a rule you expect others to keep that makes you angry when they don’t). Name a specific person who has broken that rule and plan one concrete act of mercy toward them this week (a phone call, a forgiveness note, bringing a meal, listening without defending). What will you do and when?
When grief or physical weakness presses in, what is a short practice you can adopt to “rehearse the benefits” rather than ruminate on pain? (Examples: read vv.3–5 aloud, pray Eph.3:16–19, list three promises on your phone.) Choose one practice and commit to doing it next time you feel overwhelmed.
The psalm moves from inward praise to outward justice and compassion (v.6). Who in your life is currently oppressed, overlooked, or criticized by others? Name one practical step you can take this week to bring God’s compassion to that person (advocate, give time, offer resources, speak kindly). Be specific about what you will do and when.
Advent asks believers to live from eternity toward today. Choose one simple weekly habit for this season that will help you keep that horizon (a short scripture reading plan, a 5-minute daily “soul-command” prayer, memorizing a promise). Which habit will you try for the next four weeks and how will you stay accountable?

Closing suggestion for the group leader (optional)
Begin or end the discussion by reading Psalm 103 aloud together and then invite each person to share one small, specific step they will take this week from the application questions. Close in prayer asking the Spirit to help the group speak truth to their souls and show mercy to others.

Sermon Quotes

It’s the love of God that paved the way for Jesus’ first coming, brought each of you to life-saving faith, opens the doors of eternity to us, and calls Jesus to return to usher in a new era of peace and joy.

David commanded his own soul to praise the Lord and to forget not his benefits; he gave himself no other option but to praise.

He was not ignoring his present hardship, but he was reframing his life with an eternal perspective based on the benefits of the Lord that would come to him in time.

When you feel the heavy weight of your sin, tell your soul, “it is he who forgives all your sins.” When overwhelmed with disease, tell your soul, “it is he who heals all your diseases.”

Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice is your healing; the Lord heals all your diseases, not a single disease can make it past his nail-pierced hands.

When the darkness of your worst night terrorizes you, say to your soul, “it is he who redeems your life from the pit of darkness.” Jesus is your redeemer.

Forget not that it is he who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

We cannot know the full extent of God’s love until we take our eyes off ourselves and let his love work through us to others.

If the Father God has ceased to accuse us, how much more must we cease to accuse those who break our own internal laws and rules that we force others to live by?

The Lord’s love for us is immeasurable. You cannot measure how high the heavens are from the earth, and you cannot measure how far the east is from the west.

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