Saturday, August 18, 2012

August 18, 2012

"who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion" Psalm 103:4

This great Psalm makes it clear that God desires and deserves the praise of His people. And He also makes it plain that praise should arise from recognizing the great benefits He provides for His people.

 
The first benefit is His pardon that forgives our sins and heals our diseases.

Another benefit is His preservation. Not only has He forgiven you and healed you but He also keeps you through His love, grace and power. This verse mentions two examples of how He preserves you.

“Redemption” – What is redemption and how does it preserve you? To be redeemed means to be bought back from slavery and debt – in this case “from the pit". This is what God did for you through Christ. God in Christ paid a debt that you owed but only He could pay. He bought you out of slavery to sin and pulled you out of the pit of Hell!

“Crowns with love and compassion” - After He pulled from pit of Hell and bought you back from your sin, He placed His crown of righteousness on you. You now occupy a place of honor and privilege with Him!

One of the most treasured possessions in the USA is a Super Bowl ring that is given by the NFL to every member of the team who wins the Super Bowl. This large and ornate piece of jewlery costs about $5,000 per ring to custom design for each player.

Hall of Famer, Gene Upshaw, won a Super Bowl ring when he played with the Oakland Raiders. He discovered that the problem with such a valuable piece of jewelry is preserving it. You cannot wear it all the time so, where is a safe place to keep it when you are not wearing it?

Upshaw thought he had the perfect idea. He purchased a small lockbox that looked like a Pepsi can. That solution worked for a long time until one day he left it setting on his kitchen counter and his house-keeper threw it out with the trash.

He was unable to preserve his prize and since they could never locate it at the local landfill, he was unable to redeem it either.

You should praise God for His benefit of preservation! He can redeem you and he can crown you - AND He can keep you!





(Hall of Famer and Union President Gene Upshaw’s Super Bowl Ring)



Zephaniah 3:17 – “He will rejoice over you with singing.”