Preaching Outline on Psalm 116:12-13 – “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will drink the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.”
That was the conclusion the psalmist came to when he looked at his life and realized that it was full of God’s benefits. Benefit is what does good.
But are these benefits always what we like?
What do we want?
What pleases our eyes?
Many people, at the end or even at the beginning of their lives, tend to think or understand that the BALANCE of things is negative, in other words, that God owes them something. How does this happen?
“God didn’t give me that”
“God didn’t give me that”
“God allowed that bad thing”
The psalmist’s expression was certainly not that of a perfect person, without problems, struggles or frustrations. But he saw THE BENEFITS.
When he says: WHAT WILL I GIVE TO THE LORD, it’s not that he felt obliged to give something. When we decide to give something to the Lord, it can’t be out of obligation. We don’t thank God for our struggles out of obligation. But it was GENERATED in us. When he says “THAT I WILL GIVE…” it’s because this, this desire to worship, has been generated in him.
The operation on me. It hasn’t done it to others. It’s been done on me. It’s a personal testimony. This benefit has reached me, affected me. I have been transformed by this benefit. This benefit has changed my life.
When my struggle or pain generates praise in me (and it can generate something else: murmuring, complaining, sadness) … then I have received this benefit. I have been reached by this benefit. My pain brought me a BENEFIT. It wasn’t necessarily something that he had received materially, but he saw and saw a benefit. You can see this benefit or not.
Often the illness you have, the persecution you are suffering, the frustration you have experienced, can bring you a benefit. For everything that God allows into the lives of his servants always brings benefits.
(We won’t go into the details of the custom that existed in the East regarding the meaning of taking the cup…)
Why should I take it? Because he hadn’t taken it yet. He was saying that he NEEDED to live an experience that he had NOT ALREADY LIVED. It was a new understanding of Salvation. I will accept. I will live.
He needed to live a Salvation of ACCEPTING ALL THE PROOFS THE LORD WAS GIVING HIM.
We can’t think that a benefit is only what is material, what we like, what is good in our eyes. The benefits that God has given man are so that he can drink the cup of salvation.
Have you seen these benefits?
Preaching Outline on Psalm 116:12-13 – “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will drink the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.”