Executive Summary

Psalm 103:1-3 My soul, praise the Lord! Every part of me, praise his holy name! My soul, praise the Lord and never forget how kind he is! He forgives all our sins and heals all our sicknesses. He saves us from the grave, and he gives us love and compassion.

Anybody who’s followed hard after Jesus for any length of time will have run into obstacles, will have discovered that it’s hard going sometimes, will have asked themselves “Is it all worth it?” Well, is it?

The Bible, as it turns out, is rather a long book. In fact, it’s a compilation of 66 books, written by different people over about 1,500 years. 1,189 chapters, 31,173 verses, 807,361 words give or take – a long book indeed.

So is there some executive summary? Just one bit that outlines the benefits of believing it all – I mean here-and-now type benefits?

Well, actually there is. In just a few short verses pretty much right in the middle, there’s a great executive summary of what it’s all about. It goes something like this:

Psalm 103:1-4 My soul, praise the Lord! Every part of me, praise his holy name! My soul, praise the Lord and never forget how kind he is! He forgives all our sins and heals all our sicknesses. He saves us from the grave, and he gives us love and compassion.

That pretty much sums it up. Look, following Jesus isn’t an easy thing to do, let’s be clear about that. He calls us to swim against the tide, often going in the opposite direction to the herd. That’s hard work.

So, in the middle of all that, it’s easy to ask yourself, is it all worth it? I think we all ask that at some point. Answer? Absolutely it is. That’s why King David who wrote that Psalm is so full of praise.

… never forget how kind he is! He forgives all our sins and heals all our sicknesses. He saves us from the grave, and he gives us love and compassion.

As benefits go, that’s not bad. Not bad at all.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.

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