Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
"
"What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward
me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of
the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the
presence of all his people" (Psa. 116: 12-14) .
WE PRAY FOR ALL God's dear people everywhere, as the sum
of our new year's wishes, abundant supplies of mercy, grace
and truth. Psa. 116: 12-14 is a passage that will help us to
secure these supplies.
GOD'S GREAT BENEFITS TO US
V. 12 refers in part to God's great benefits toward us. These
are sevenfold: creative, providential, redemptive, instructional,
justifying, sanctifying and delivering blessings.
(1) It was a great benefit to us that we were created as human
beings, in the mental, moral and religious image of God, rather
than as beasts, fowl, fish or creeping things, and have been
given a heredity predisposing us to God and the things of God
(Gen. 1: 26, 27; 2: 7; 5: 1, 2; 9: 6; Deut. 4: 32; Job 4: 17; 10: 3,
8, 9; 31: 15; 33: 4; 34: 19; 35: 10; Psa. 8: 4-8; 100: 3; 119: 73;
138: 8; 139: 14; Eccles. 7: 29; Isa. 17: 7; 42: 5; 43: 7; 45: 12;
64: 8; Jer. 27: 5; Zech. 12: 1; Mal. 2: 10; Mark 10: 6; 1 Cor. 11:
7; Heb. 2: 6-9; Jas. 3: 9).
(2) It is a blessing that God's people have from Him the
providential good things, consisting of the benefits of each of
the seven features of His providential care:
(a) He arranges for the supply of their needs, and then
supplies them (Psa. 65: 9-13;
104: 10-19, 24-30; 136: 25; 145: 15, 16; 147: 8, 9; Isa. 33: 16;
Acts 14:17).
(b) He preserves them by shielding them from the attacks of
too strong evils (Psa. 34: 17, 19, 20; 91: 1-12; Isa. 4: 5, 6; 32:
2; 1 Cor. 10: 13; 2 Pet. 2: 9; Rev. 3: 10) and by strengthening
them to meet such evils as by His grace they are enabled to
meet (Psa. 34: 7; 44: 1-3; 105: 14-21; 127: 1, 2; 146: 7-9; 2 Cor.
12: 7-9).
1
14: 9, 15; 1Cor. 1: 17, 18, 23; 2: 2; 5: 7; 15: 3; 2 Cor. 5: 14, 15,
21; Gal. 1: 4; 3: 13; 4: 4, 5; Eph. 1: 7; 2: 13, 16; 5: 2, 25; Col. 1:
14, 20, 22; 2: 14; 1 Thes. 4: 14; 5: 9; 1 Tim. 2: 6; Titus 2: 14;
Heb. 1: 3; 2: 9, 14; 7: 27; 9: 14, 15, 26, 28; 10: 10, 12, 14; 12:
2; 13: 12; 1 Pet. 1: 18, 19; 3: 18; 1 John 1: 7; 2: 2; 3: 16; 4: 9,
10; Rev. 1: 5; 5: 6, 9, 12; 13: 8).
(4) God instructs His people. It is a wonderful favor that He
through Jesus has taught us the doctrines, precepts, promises,
exhortations, prophecies, histories and types of His Word as
due (Job 36: 22; Psa. 25: 8, 9, 14; 32: 8; 51: 6; 73: 24; 86: 11;
94: 12; 111:10; Prov. 1: 23; 2: 1-7; 3: 13-18; 4: 4-13, 18, 20-22;
9: 8-10; Eccles. 2: 26; Isa. 11: 2, 3; 48: 17; 50: 4; 54: 13; Jer. 9:
23, 24; Dan. 1: 17; 2: 20-23; Matt. 11: 25; 13: 11, 54; 16: 17;
Luke 1: 76-79; 21: 15; 24: 32, 45; John 6: 45; 8: 31, 32; 16: 13,
14; 1 Cor. 1: 30; 2: 9-13, 16; 2 Cor. 4: 6; Eph. 1: 8; 3: 10; Phil.
3: 15; Col. 2: 3; 3: 16; 2 Tim. 3: 15; Jas. 1: 5; 3: 17; 2 Pet. 1: 12;
1 John 2: 27).
(5) It is a marvelous blessing also to have received justifying
grace from God through Christ (Gen. 15: 6; Psa. 32: 1, 2; Isa.
53: 11; 61: 10; Jer. 23: 6; Zech. 3: 4; John 5: 24; Acts 13: 39;
Rom. 1: 16, 17; 3: 21-30; 4: 5-25; 5: 1, 9-11, 16-21; 8: 1, 30-34;
9: 30; 1 Cor. 1: 30; 6: 11; 2 Cor. 5: 19, 21; Gal. 2: 16; 3: 6-8, 22,
24; Phil. 3: 9; Titus 3: 7; Jas. 2: 21-23; 1 John 1: 9).
(6) It is a great benefit to have received sanctification by God's
grace through Christ (John 17: 17, 19; Rom. 15: 16; 1 Cor. 1: 2,
30; 6: 11, 20; Eph. 5: 25-27; 1 Thes. 4: 3; 5: 23; 2 Thes. 2: 13; 2
Tim. 2: 21; Heb. 2: 11; 10: 10, 14; 13: 12; 1 Pet. 1: 2).
This sanctifying grace (a) enables us to make and keep our
wills dead to self and the world (Matt. 16: 24; 10: 37, 38; Mark
8: 34; Luke 9: 23; 14: 27) while laying down our human all in
consecration in God's service and (b) gives us His holy Spirit
(Luke 11: 1113; Joel 2: 29; Rom. 5: 5; Gal. 4: 6; 2 Tim. 1: 7),
empowering us to sacrifice our humanity (Rom. 12: 1; 1 John 3:
16; Rev. 2: 10), to watch and pray (Matt. 26: 41; Mark13: 33;
14: 38), to understand (Matt. 13: 16; 16: 11, 12; Luke 24: 45),
spread (Matt. 28: 19; John 18: 37; Acts 1: 8; 2 Tim. 4: 2) and
practice His Word (Jas. 1: 22-25; 2 Pet. 1: 511; 3: 18), and to
suffer for truth, righteousness and holiness in Christlikeness
3
(Matt. 5: 10-12; Acts 5: 41; Rom. 5: 3-5; 12: 12; 1 Pet. 2: 20; 3:
14, 17; 4: 16).
(7) It is a surpassing blessing, or benefit, to experience God's
deliverance, His delivering power amid our conflicts with the
world, the flesh and the devil, and to have the blissful hope of
final victory over death and hades, in the glorious resurrection
to eternal life, with all its accompanying riches of favor (Job 5:
19; Psa. 50: 15; 91: 3, 15, 16; Prov. 28: 26; Isa. 59: 20; Dan. 3:
17; Hos. 13: 14; Joel 2: 32; Rom. 11: 26; 1 Cor. 1: 30; 6: 14; 15:
54-57; 2 Cor. 1: 10; 4: 14; Gal. 1: 4; Col. 1: 13; 1 Thes. 1: 10; 2
Tim. 4: 17, 18; Titus 2: 14; Heb. 2: 14, 15; 2 Pet. 2: 9).
How markedly each succeeding one of these seven forms of
blessing surpasses the preceding one until the climax is
reached in the seventh! Surely from hearts so favored should
well up as a joyful, thankful and appreciative exclamation the
question: "What shall I render unto the LORD for all his
benefits toward me?"
OUR RESPONSES
The rest of Psa. 116: 12-14 suggests what our responses to
Jehovah's benefits to us should be. There are three responses
presented to us as being in order for us to make.
(1) The first of these is expressed in the words, "I will take the
cup of salvation." In Scriptural symbols a cup, in the blessed
sense of the word, is generally used to denote the blissful and
woeful experiences that God prepares for His faithful ones to
receive (Psa. 23: 5; Matt. 20: 22, 23; 26: 39, 42; Luke 22: 20;
John 18: 11; 1 Cor. 10: 16). Such is evidently the sense of the
word in our text. The expression, "the cup of salvation," would
therefore mean the experiences of bliss and woe that God
prepares for His loyal ones, and that they are to receive as
incidental to obtaining the salvation graciously provided for
them.
The promise, "I will take the cup of salvation," implies that we
will accept these blissful and woeful experiences, coming as
they do from our Heavenly Father, as our portion incidental to
the obtaining of our eternal salvation. It implies a readiness to
accept them regardless of whether they are blissful or woeful.
4