[4] Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
The next aspect of showing gratitude to God is for the fact He does promise us eternal life. Notice that eternal life is listed after the concept of health that as described in verse 3. I suspect eternal life is listed second only because it is natural to first be grateful for the “here and now” before we think about the eternal aspect of our existence.
No matter what our life is like now, we can be grateful that we are alive and can use whatever time we have in this world to make a difference for God. We can be “healthy” in this life because we can accept the idea that we don’t have to carry any guilt for our sins. That is the main idea being taught in verses 2 and 3: That no matter how bad we mess up our lives, God does want to forgive us and we don’t have to carry the weight of guilt.
This possibly leads me back us to the concept of God healing our diseases. A lot of sickness we acquire in life comes from carrying around guilt for things we have done wrong.
All of this health talk leads us to verse 4. The point here is that concept of trusting God will lead us to everlasting life in His presence. That is the “love and compassion” being discussed in this verse. If God does not want to be with us forever, there would be no love and compassion on His part for us now, let alone for eternity.
Let me expand on that concept: Why would God want to be with us forever and offer us love and compassion? After all, God doesn’t need anything, but He is full of love and He desires something to share that love with. He chose us as beneficiaries of His love. What God asks of us is to trust in Him and trust in His perfect payment for our sins. This way we can be perfectly forgiven and spend eternity with the perfect entity (i.e., God) that loves us and cares for us.
In summary, we should be grateful not only for our eternal salvation, but that God loves us and cares for us as individuals and wants to get involved in our lives to guide it for His glory in all that we do.
The next aspect of showing gratitude to God is for the fact He does promise us eternal life. Notice that eternal life is listed after the concept of health that as described in verse 3. I suspect eternal life is listed second only because it is natural to first be grateful for the “here and now” before we think about the eternal aspect of our existence.
No matter what our life is like now, we can be grateful that we are alive and can use whatever time we have in this world to make a difference for God. We can be “healthy” in this life because we can accept the idea that we don’t have to carry any guilt for our sins. That is the main idea being taught in verses 2 and 3: That no matter how bad we mess up our lives, God does want to forgive us and we don’t have to carry the weight of guilt.
This possibly leads me back us to the concept of God healing our diseases. A lot of sickness we acquire in life comes from carrying around guilt for things we have done wrong.
All of this health talk leads us to verse 4. The point here is that concept of trusting God will lead us to everlasting life in His presence. That is the “love and compassion” being discussed in this verse. If God does not want to be with us forever, there would be no love and compassion on His part for us now, let alone for eternity.
Let me expand on that concept: Why would God want to be with us forever and offer us love and compassion? After all, God doesn’t need anything, but He is full of love and He desires something to share that love with. He chose us as beneficiaries of His love. What God asks of us is to trust in Him and trust in His perfect payment for our sins. This way we can be perfectly forgiven and spend eternity with the perfect entity (i.e., God) that loves us and cares for us.
In summary, we should be grateful not only for our eternal salvation, but that God loves us and cares for us as individuals and wants to get involved in our lives to guide it for His glory in all that we do.