How many times I have quoted David’s words, “The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me” are without number. Today I was brought to a new understanding of how bountiful the Lord is toward His people. It seems that His dealing bountifully with us is experienced more in the difficult times. It is as if by all the heavenly blessings He gives, He is compensating for the troubles that we go through; as our first parents robbed us of our original legacy, leaving us in a state of sin and misery. He gives mercy when we deserve His wrath; grace and more grace beyond what we are worth; love, joy and peace that we can never know apart from the power of His Spirit within us.

“Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” Psalm 13:3-6

The compensation is much greater than anything we have lost. The heavenly blessings are ours in Christ, His Son, who is our life, and as He promised, it is life, abundantly. We can give up everything here, even through persecution, and He blesses beyond all that we can ask or imagine.

In Psalm 142:5-6 David seems to be speaking from the experience of the Lord’s care. He was trusting Him to again deal bountifully with him when he was in the cave; Saul in pursuit.

“I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.”

Psalm 116:7  is another reference to the Psalmist’s experience of the Lord dealing bountifully with him.

Psalm 119:17 is David’s prayer that the Lord would again deal bountifully with him.

The apostle Paul speaks of this in how we live and use what we have been given.  If we sow bountifully, giving sacrificially, the compensation will be bountiful in what we reap.

“But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
2 Corinthians 9:6

As we trust and receive all the heavenly blessings that compensate for the lack in this life, we live joyfully in the care of our heavenly Father, who loves us and gave His Son for us, a bountiful compensation for our need of a Savior and Lord, now and for eternity.

Dear Father, we cannot thank you enough for first knowing our need for salvation, a salvation that is more than sufficient for all who believe. You do not leave us to fend for ourselves, but know that you supply abundantly all that we need ~ from your riches in glory. We praise you for dealing bountifully with us; that we can experience the abundant life that Jesus came to give. We praise you, that though this life takes us through what sometimes seems impossible, you never fail to be with us, prevailing through us and blessing us beyond comprehension with eternal things. These are worth the loss of all temporal things. Thank you for loving us and caring for us as your beloved children. Enable us to share the bountiful life that is ours in Christ, your Son. In Jesus’ name we thank you and praise you. Amen.

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