Rabbi Schneider - The Compassionate God
When we study Psalm number 103 it really helps us align our soul with HaShem, with Father God through the Lord Jesus so that we can live a complete and a full life. And last episode I covered verses number one and two. Let me just read them as an introduction today. "Bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me. Bless His Holy name". David continues, "Bless the Lord Oh my soul and forget none of His benefits".
I encourage you to go and listen to last week's message where I talk about how it's so important to focus on our benefits, to focus on what we do have. Because when we focus on what we have, we have joy. If we focus on what we don't have, then we walk around with an attitude of frustration. And the truth is that our wants can never be satisfied. People that are satisfied in life are satisfied not because they have everything they want, but because they're thankful for what they do have. And you and I know of very simple people that may not have everything that people would aspire to in the world. They're not rich, they're not beautiful. They lead very simple lives. And yet they're happier than the majority of people. Why? Because they focus on being thankful, beloved ones, for what they have. And the thing that has made you and I, you and I unique is that God has given us consciousness. He's given us self-awareness and He's given us the ability to choose.
The Lord said in the Torah, I put before you life and death choose life that you may live. This is a unique attribute that only mankind has the ability to be self-aware and the ability to choose goodness or to choose life. I want to think about this with you a little further. When I say that human beings are the only people or the only creation of God on the planet with self-awareness, I want you to think about what I'm saying when I state this. Animals do not have self-awareness like humankind has. In other words, animals are not conscious of their thoughts. Animals are not able to be aware of their thoughts and say to themselves, what am I thinking? They don't have that kind of self-awareness. Only human beings, only you and I have the ability to exist outside of our thoughts, if you will, to be conscious of our thoughts, to analyze our thoughts and then to correct our thoughts. We are unique because we're made in God's image and what the Lord is showing us here in Psalm 103 is we need to become conscious of our thoughts, self-aware of our thoughts, and choose to think about that which will show praise and gratitude to the Lord for what we have.
You see, the enemy is always coming against us. He wants us to be frustrated. He wants us to be bitter. He wants us to agree with him so we can laugh at God because of us, but instead what we need to do is to resist focusing on what we don't have. The glass is not half empty. We need to focus on the fact the glass is half full and be thankful for what we do have. This is how David lived. He said, "I'm going to bless the Lord with everything that's in me" and then he said in verse two, "and I'm not going to forget any of His benefits". And I'm not going to go into great detail now because I spoke about that last week. Let's continue on. David begins to review the benefits. "He pardons all my iniquities". I left off on last week's show. Focusing on that, let's move forward. He continues, "He also heals your diseases". David is actually instructing us here. He said, let's bless the Lord with everything that's in us. And then he gives us all the reasons why we should. And right now we're focusing on the fact that He heals our diseases.
Now I know some of you are watching right now and you feel, well, I'm not really in the best of health. I don't really feel that all my health issues have been healed. You know, I'm taking these prescriptions. Some of you are perhaps thinking or I'm in pain or, you know, I can't walk or, you know, you're having difficulty and I understand that and I understand it's a challenge when we're not functioning in full health in our physical bodies. But I want you to hear me. Number one, God does heal diseases. I've seen Him do it. I've seen Him open the eyes of the blind. Literally, I've seen Him open the ears of the deaf. I've seen Him heal the lame. I've seen Him do miracles. Why the Lord sometimes heals people instantly, why sometimes people regain their health slowly and why sometimes we as human beings can struggle with a health problem until we leave this world; why it is that some are healed instantly, some recuperate slowly over time, and some struggle with the same issue for years and years until they pass on, why that is, I don't know, but here's what I do know that God, your God, your Father is by nature, beloved one, a healer.
Our God is a healer. He's built healing into His creation. In other words, if our bone gets broken, it automatically grows back together. If we get an infection, our body will create antibodies. He built His healing capacity into creation. By definition, it's who He is, and when we meet Him face to face, the Bible tells us at the end of the Book of Revelation, there'll be no more sorrow, no more suffering, and no more pain. And so I want you to know, even if you're struggling right now with something in your body, you can still praise God that He heals all your diseases because you are going to face Him and be with Him at the final time of, redemption when we meet Him face to face and you are going to be completely healthy for the rest of eternity. And that term, the rest of eternity, doesn't even make sense, but it's the best language that I can come up with right now. Forever and ever.
When you see Jesus, when you meet Him face to face, when you leave this world or at His return, you are going to be transferred into a state of complete and total health and that's going to be your existence forever and ever and ever and evermore. The Bible says we're going to be given new bodies. The mortal, these mortal bodies that pass away will put on immortality. We're going to be given a body that can never get sick, can never cause us pain, will never die. This is a fact. You can take it to the bank. I want to encourage you right now by faith, praise God that he heals all your diseases and His portion for you is health and healing forever and ever. You see, Jesus took our sin and our sickness in His own body on the tree and He gave us His health. His health and everlasting, everlasting health and life forevermore. Baruch Hashem, amen and amen. Let's bless the Lord right now.
David continues on and he says in verse four, "Who redeems your life from the pit". So let's just step back for a moment here. Psalm 103 David begins by saying "Bless the Lord, Oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless His Holy name". And then David begins to talk about all the reasons he's going to bless the Lord. He said, Father, I'm going to bless you. I'm not going to forget about any of your benefits. I'm going to begin Father by thanking you for forgiving me for all my sins. Father, thank you that you've taken my sickness away and your destiny for me is everlasting health. And now David continues to name the next of the benefits. And David says here that He redeems your life from the pit. He redeems your life from the pit. I don't know about you, but I've had a couple of supernatural experiences in my life where I saw the destruction that would have come upon my life had I not supernaturally been redeemed by father God through the life that's in Messiah Jesus.
I remember beloved ones when I was in Bible school back in the 1980s I was going to Bible school in Toccoa Falls, Georgia, Toccoa Falls Bible College and we were living in a trailer in a mobile home. It was, it was a kind of a comical situation. Now that I look back at it, this mobile home that Cynthia and I were living in, we paid $3,500 for it. I had to wear my coat in the home all winter long because when, when the wind blew, you could feel it blowing right through the windows and in the summer time in that blazing Georgia sun, we had no air conditioning. It was like over a hundred degrees every single day in the mobile home. And I think back about, I thought, wow, I didn't even complain at the time, but to have to go back to that would probably be a little bit difficult for us you know, now at 60 something years old, but I think about that time going to Bible school in Georgia and going back to the mobile home.
And I remember coming home after Bible school one day and I went into the bedroom in the mobile home and I just laid down on the bed and I fell into kind of like a trance, kind of like a half sleep and in that state, now you have to think about this for a second. So this is going back now to like 1984 so you think about how many years ago this was and how I still remember it. So in order for me to remember this experience that was over 30 years ago, it must have been pretty impactful, right? In other words, I'm not just pulling this out of a hat somewhere. This was so impactful for me, beloved ones. I still remember it and it's still a terrifying thought to think about. I'm laying in this bed, in my bed, in, this, uh, trailer and as I fall into this trance, this half sleep state, I felt this power, this black power try to suck me into itself. It was so powerful.
Have you ever heard of like the black hole in space where there's a scientific theory that there are these black holes in space that just suck everything into it? They just suck all life into it. That was the power that came against me as I was laying in that mobile home that day. I felt the power, beloved. It was real. It was more powerful than anything in this world and this power of death, this power of blackness, this black hole tried to suck me into itself. The only thing that kept me from the pit, from being snuffed out that prevented all my life being taken from me was the fact that HaShem, that Father God's loving hand was upon me. David knew that. He said, Father, I'm gonna thank you for all Your benefits. I'm gonna praise You my whole life and with my whole life. Father, thank You for redeeming my life from the pit.
I remember years and years ago when I first came to know the Lord. This is going back now almost 40 years ago. I had a similar experience, forgive me for sharing so many of my own experiences with you, but I just want to bring this down to real life and flesh it out for you. But in this dream that I had close to 40 years ago, I saw myself on a hospital gurney right outside. This is a dream state, but I still remember it. It was so impactful. God communicates His truth to us through dreams. You study dreams in scripture. It's one of the most common ways the Lord will communicate.
Pay attention to your dreams, beloved one. I see myself again almost 40 years ago on this hospital gurney, I'm right outside a hospital room and I see myself on that, you know that that mobile hospital bed, I see myself and I was as dead as you could be without being dead. And I mean spiritually dead. I mean, yes, physically dead. But I saw through the physical exterior, I saw the state of who I was as a human being. I saw the state of my soul and it was, I was dead, but yet there was just the smallest thread that somehow kept me from being completely gone and snuffed out, having gone to the pit forever. I was spiritually sick through and through my soul, beloved one was dead.
The apostle Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians that we were saved from spiritual death, that we were by nature, children of wrath being dead, Paul said, in our trespasses and sins. I saw myself beloved ones in that state, 40 years ago in my dream laying on that hospital bed, spiritually dead. But you know what? God in His loving kindness, He saved me. And that's what David says. Not only did you save me from the pit, but David continues on in verse number four. "But you crown me with loving kindness and compassion". And that's what God has done for you and I. If you really know the Lord, if you belong to Him, if His Spirit is in you, He has saved you from death. He saved you from the pit. He saved you from hell, and He gave you life instead. And He crowned you with loving kindness. He's got a destiny for you to stand with Him forever and ever.
The scripture says you've been raised up and are now seated with Him in the heavenly places, and that eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it's not even entered into your heart, the things that God has prepared for you. So let me ask you a question. You have a choice today. You have a choice right now. Will you remain miserable? Will you remain in a state of being bitter, focusing on your problems, or will you rebuke that off of your life and say, Father, I praise you. Satan, get off me. You're a liar. Father, I thank You. I owe You my life. Father, thank You for loving me. Thank You for saving me. Father, I bless Your Holy name with all that is within me and Father, I endeavor to walk in an attitude of gratitude in thanksgiving to You all the days of my life. Father, I desire to be a blessing in Yeshua's name. Amen.
Beloved, this is, this is reality that we're speaking of here. This is reality because you and I don't deserve to be here. We don't deserve a thing. We don't deserve the breath that we're having. We didn't deserve to wake up this morning. Our life is a gift for us and we need to walk in a spirit of gratitude. So David said, "You crown me with loving kindness," and I liked the next word that David says, "and compassion". I want you to think about this. Father God has compassion for you. Think about it. David said of the Father, His gentleness, speaking of Father God, he said His gentleness, David declared, has made me great. God has compassion for you because of Jesus. He's able to sympathize with your weaknesses. He's able to help you with your insecurities and strengthen you. He has compassion. Yeshua looked at the people. They were like sheep without a shepherd.
And the scripture says that Jesus was moved with compassion. God doesn't have to be compassionate. He could have wiped us all out like He did in the days of Noah when He wiped out the entire world except for Noah and his family. He could have treated you and I like He did the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, but instead, Father has chosen through Yeshua to be compassionate to you. You could be honest with God. You can talk with God. You can tell him what you're struggling with. You can open up your whole life to Him. You know what His response to you is going to be? Love and compassion. He's going to help you. He knows you better than you know yourself. He loves you more than you love yourself. He's closer to you than your own breath.
And let me tell you a secret. Sometimes we think that God is so far away and that's why we have a hard time feeling connected to Him. We think Father is so far removed, He's in heaven somewhere. I wish I could feel closer to Him, but you know what the real problem is? The real problem that we don't feel closer to God is not because He's so far away. The real challenge, beloved, is recognizing that He's so close to us that it's scary to let Him in. He is closer to you than your next breath. He knows your thought before you think it. God is not in heaven somewhere. I mean, yes, He's in heaven, but God is beyond a place. He is the place. He's beyond space. When you think that God's in heaven somewhere, listen, God is not in a place. God created space. God created time. You know where God is. He's right here. He's right now. He's with you. He loves you. He's closer to you than your next breath. He loves you and He's waiting for you to believe in Him, to love Him, to bless Him and to let Him in. Beloved, let's walk in a spirit of praise, thanksgiving and gratitude. This is Rabbi Schneider. I love you.