In case you don’t know this, the Bible was not originally written in the King James Version.  The English translation of the Bible began in 1604 and was first published in 1611 under the auspices of James I of England.

Forty-seven scholars labored to translate both the New Testament from Greek and the Old Testament from Hebrew.  Translators sometimes added words, sentences and several verses, attempting to make the original text easier for the English speaking population to understand.  Sometimes it lead to misunderstandings, incorrect translations and words too weak to explain how wonderful God is.

The word “salvation” is one of those words, as you will see in this Musing.

*****************

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Psalm 103:2)

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah. (Psalm 68:19)

 *****************

I love digging into the Bible and finding out all the wonderful things God does for us just because He loves us.

The one scripture in Psalm 103:2 tells us not to forget His benefits to us.  For the word “benefits” the original manuscript uses the word, “reward,” like a present or a gift.  Here are just a few of the benefits we are given from our loving Father:

1. He forgives all our faults and mistakes;
2. He heals ALL (get that? ALL) our diseases;
3. He purchased our life from destruction;
4. He encircles us about with kindness and favor, and cherishes us;
5. He helps us be content with good things (prosperity, wealth, welfare);
6. He helps us stay young (youthful);
7. He performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are disheartened, discouraged;
8. He will make His ways known to us (no secrets or mysteries);
9. He loves us unconditionally and bends down in kindness to us; bestowing favor on us;
10. He is slow to anger and overflows in mercy;
11. He has not dealt with us according to our mistakes and faults (i.e., we don’t get what we deserve);
12. He has taken ALL our mistakes and as far as the east is from the west, removed them from us;
13. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting;
14. He even gives us angels who heed His Word and do His pleasure for us.

And remember, this is just ONE chapter in the Bible.  There are a whole lot more on His benefits in our life, which brings me to the second scripture – more good news!

In Psalms 68:19 the original transcript says it this way, “day by day, He carries our burdens for us.”  That is good enough yet being the God of our salvation is even more important.  This is another one of those words that is often misunderstood.

People usually think salvation just means going to heaven and nothing could be farther from the truth!  In the original transcript the word means:  freedom, deliverance, prosperity, to be safe; to free or succor: – avenging, defend, deliver and deliverer, to help, to preserve, to rescue, save, savior, get victory.

I put all the words down because I don’t want you to miss one wonderful meaning of that simple little word, “salvation.”

Next week, we will deal with two things – the word pleasure from Psalm 103:21 – as in, His angels do His pleasure for us.  Don’t you want to know what that means?  What God’s pleasure is for us?  You will love it!   Also we will deal with an often ignored sentence in the Bible – “if they obey.”  Here is a little hint about how joyous that little sentence can be:

If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures (Job 36:1). They meaning YOU and ME!

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?  God is very good and is wants to do so much for us – and we don’t even know how much that is, much less believe it  Stick around – together we are going to continue to learn about the goodness of God!

Sharing the goodness of God,