Did you know that New Year’s resolutions began with the Babylonians some 4,000 years ago? They made promises at the start of each year to return borrowed farm equipment and pay their debts. In keeping with the spirit of the New Year, if I borrowed your tractor, I promised to return it. Most people make resolutions each year. However, according to Forbes magazine, only 8 percent of us keep them. Rather than asking about your resolutions for this year, I’d like to suggest five promises from God instead. You probably will need at least one of them today. I get these promises from Psalm 103. It was probably composed toward the end of David’s life as he looked back over many years of challenges and blessings, trials and rewards.

First Promise: God “forgives all your iniquity” (v. 3). “Iniquity” in the Hebrew refers to guilt, depravity, perversity as the worst kind of sins. And yet God “forgives all” of them. Later in the psalm, David elaborates: “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (vv. 10–12).

The second promise David recorded follows the first: God “heals all your diseases” (v. 3b). “Heals” translates the Hebrew for “repairs, sews together, mends and rebuilds.” David refers to all the ways God heals. Sometimes he heals us physically, as when Jesus healed the lepers and raised the dead. Sometimes he heals us emotionally and spiritually, as when Jesus forgave and restored the Samaritan woman at the well. Sometimes he heals us eternally by taking us from our fallen bodies into his glorious paradise. How might God heal you today?

David’s third promise: God “redeems your life from the pit” (v. 4a). “Redeems” means to reclaim, to deliver and to bring back. The “pit” refers to a trap or grave. So far, David has promised us that God forgives us, heals us, and redeems us. All of this is possible because of his fourth promise: our Lord “crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (v. 4b). No matter what happens to you in the coming year, know that God loves you. Measure your circumstances by His love rather than His love by your circumstances. Claim God’s promises for the New Year: he forgives us, he heals us, he redeems us, and he loves us. But David offers us one more, a fifth promise: our Father “satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (v. 5). You may face tiring and challenging days in the coming year. But if you remember these promises, you position yourself to experience a happy and blessed New Year.

REV. JOHN MOXLEY can be reached at Jmoxley1@juno.com.