Who Satisfies You?

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

We chanted these words from the mouth of David this morning, and we rejoice to confess the wondrous works of the Lord with the Blessed Psalmist, and to give thanks to the Lord for all His gracious benefits to us. It is psalms like this that make the soul joyful and exultant in the Lord. And this is good, right, and salutary.

Indeed, the Lord is the giver of all benefits, the healer of all diseases, the redeemer of all captives who cry out to Him, the satisfaction of all who yearn. You will confess this shortly in the words of the Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.” The Father almighty, the King of the Universe, Creator of all things, is the Giver of all good gifts. He has given gifts to all men – your body and soul, eyes, ears and all your members, your reason and all your senses, your house and home, food and drink, clothing and shoes, and everything else that you need to support your body and life.

And with all these blessings you ought to be satisfied. David says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul … who satisfies you with good.” All that you have comes from the Lord, purely out of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you. “He is merciful and gracious.” He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust. He gives daily bread to all, even to all evil people. And how much more does He love you and provide for you, His beloved saints, to whom He has entrusted the greatest gift of all, His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!”

But there is the problem: you ought to be satisfied, but you are not. The Lord gives His good gifts without any merit or worthiness in you, but you think you deserve more. The Lord gives His Son to you, and you think you deserve the Son's throne. The Lord sends His Word to you, and you think you should be the judge and interpreter of the Word of the Lord.

You would be better satisfied if you could acquire your own necessaries, your mind thinks. You could fend for yourself, provide for yourself, take care of yourself, if only God would get out of the way and let you be. You are strong, independent, self-sufficient. Or at least that is the lie that the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh would have you believe. If there is one particularly American plague upon Christianity, it is the idol of self-reliance and self-determination.

Of course, when a preacher talks about being satisfied and appreciating the gifts that the Lord gives, he has to talk about the physical stuff. Which is good stuff. God indeed gives good gifts to His children, and He continues to give them throughout your lives. He has given you everything you have, and He does so every day of your life. The fact that you are awake, upright, and present here today is a gift of God. He makes the sun shine and the crops grow and the rain fall, and your heart beat. None of which is enough for your sinful heart.

But the preacher of the Word would be remiss not to call your attention to the first benefit that David lists: that the Lord forgives all your iniquity. The Lord has forgiven your sins, and He continues to forgive your sins day after day, sin after sin, failure after failure. He has washed away your sin in the water of Holy Baptism, and He continues to preserve you in His holy Church, where the forgiveness of sins is delivered to you week after week.

The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.

The Lord is indeed merciful and gracious. He does not repay you according to your sins, because the payment has been meted out upon Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The payment for sin, the offering of blood on the Lord's altar, has been made, and sins are washed away, as far as the east is from the west. Your sins are no more.

Neither are the sins of your neighbor. For, just like you, your neighbor is a child of God for whom Christ died and whose worth, salvation, and life are found in Christ, just like yours.

But, again, you are unsatisfied with the benefits of God. Sure, you like to remember the bits about your heavenly Father being gracious and merciful to you, healing your diseases and redeeming your life from the pit. You are less thrilled about facing the fact that our Lord has also forgiven your neighbor his sins, healed his diseases, and redeemed his life from the pit. “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” But that is unsatisfactory to you, because your sense of justice is offended by the sins you see your neighbor doing, the offenses you experience against you. And so you would hold his sins against him. You would withhold forgiveness from your brother, your neighbor, your pastor.

When your sense of propriety is upset, you desire to see the balance of things righted again. He who hurt you must be hurt in turn. The scales of justice must be balanced by him getting his. Forgiveness does not dominate in the mind of this world, but vengeance. Hurt the other guy more than he has hurt you. The Lord does not deal with you according to your sins, but you sure wish He would deal with the other guy according to his.

Forgiveness is an alien concept to the world, and even to your sinful heart and mind. When your brother sins against you, you are good at showing him his sin and calling him on his faults. But then what? Is your mind on restoring your brother and regaining his fellowship? Or is your mind on hurting him as you have felt slighted? What do you want to see happen – the restoration of communion among the Body of Christ, or the humiliation of the guy who sinned against you? This world seems to thrive on the shame of other people.

So what of your brother who asks for your forgiveness? Will you forgive him? Will you extend to him once more the right hand of fellowship and receive him as a member of your own body? Will you repent of your hard-heartedness and go to the altar of the Lord together?

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” He delights to forgive sins. He abounds in steadfast love, so much so that He demonstrated His love by sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to suffer all, even death, in order that your sins be blotted out, that your iniquities be put away and remembered no more. Christ has died your death so that you may life His life. He has risen from the dead so that you too may rise from the dead, every day in your Baptism and finally on the Last Day in perfection.

Having been forgiven of all your sins by the gracious, all-availing, all-sufficient offering of Jesus Christ upon the cross, what is there to be held against you? Your sin is put away. And what is there to be held against your brother, your neighbor, your pastor? His sin is put away.

Repent of your hard-hearted desire for vengeance and humiliation of the other guy. Repent of your desiring to tip the scales of justice in your favor. Repent of holding grudges.

Instead, bless the Lord, O you precious souls redeemed by Christ, and forget not all His benefits to you. Remember not the sins of your past, or of your neighbor's past, but remember with thanksgiving the love and mercy which our Lord has poured out abundantly for you and on you and through you. He has redeemed your life from the pit by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

The Lord desires not that you avenge yourself upon those who have wronged you, but that you live as those crowned with His steadfast love and mercy. That is, He desires that you be merciful, even as He is merciful to you. Forgive, as you have been forgiven. Rejoice to forgive iniquities, to put away sins, to forget trespasses. Be satisfied with the gifts that the Lord gives – both in body and in soul – and rejoice that He gives those gifts to your neighbor also. Thank the Lord that He even sees fit to make His forgiveness and salvation known through you as you speak His Word of forgiveness to your neighbor, your brother, your spouse, your pastor, your enemy. For we are all members one of another, being knit together into the one Body of Christ, clothed in His righteousness and washed clean in His blood. Come, let us rejoice together to receive the Lord's gifts together in peace!

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.