If you will turn with me to Psalm
103. Psalm 103. Look with me at verse 1. This is a Psalm of David. He said,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
his holy name. I love that verse. Is that not
our desire right now? Every time we come into God's
house, don't we just desire to bless His holy name for all that
He is and all that He's done for sinners like us. And not
just when we come here, but every day I pray, Lord, put that desire,
put that prayer in our heart. Now, here's what gave me the
inspiration for the message. What this word blessed right
here means is to adore with bended knees. Some of you may think
I'm crazy, but I've been listening to Christmas music already for
about a month now. You say, it's not even Halloween
yet. I know. But I love the songs that give
our Lord all the glory. That's what we sing every time
we come here. And when I saw that, that that meant adore with
bended knees, I thought of one of my favorite Christmas songs,
Oh Come Let Us Adore Him. Christ the Lord. It's exactly
what I pray God might let us do right now. We have come into
this house and gathered in His name, not to worship ourselves
and lift each other up, but to worship Him. Gathered in His
house, in His name, to worship Him and Him alone. And I was
talking with the brother on the way here, you know, sometimes
it feels like we're here out of routine, out of habit. I don't
just want to be here in body. I want to be here in heart. You
know, you can do a lot of things and your heart just ain't in
it, kind of like our jobs more often than not, right? You're
there, but you're not really there. I want to be here. I want
to be here in heart. I want to be here in mind and
spirit, praying that the Lord might just meet with us, might
just speak to us. David said, Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and all that is within me, everything that is in me,
with every fiber of my being, can I please bless the Lord.
Lord, would you please let us truly worship you? Oh, how blessed
we might be if he would truly meet with us, condescend. Now,
why was this David's desire? And why would this be our desire?
I'll tell you why. Because the Lord God Almighty
had done something for this man. I love reading about David. There's a lot of scriptures dealing
with him. The Lord had done something for
him. And if God's done something for you and me, then what David
cried in this psalm, we can also cry. Now look right here in verse
2, he went on to say, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all his benefits. Now the word benefits here means
dealings. God had dealt with David. He had dealt very favorably with
David. In Psalm 13 6, David said, I
will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully Is
it so with you? Oh, can we not just take those
words and make them our own? Oh, how bountiful He has been
in His dealings with us. God's dealings with us, when
I try to enter into them, they're just unfathomable, honestly.
You know, we do this, and we try to give God the glory the
best we can. We try to enter into the things
He's done for us the best we can. Honestly, it's just incomprehensible. And I'm so glad I can't truly
grasp it. It's so great. One day we will. One day when we leave this place,
we'll know. Not till then will we know how much we owe. One day we'll know. Now, what
I want to do for this Bible study and for the next message is simply
to adore the Lord our God. our great and glorious God for
His kind, loving dealings, His benefits, His goodness to us. Now here's the first one, verse
3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. I'm so thankful it doesn't say
who forgiveth most of thine iniquities. Oh, that wouldn't give me hope.
Wouldn't be good enough for me. I'm glad it doesn't even say
who forgave all thine iniquities. Though there are scriptures that
speak like that, it's certainly true. He forgiveth. And you'll notice that's a common
theme in this passage, the ETH continual. I don't know about
you, but I need continual forgiveness because I'm a continual sinner.
I loathe myself. I loathe the things that I find
myself doing and desiring to do. But I praise God that we
have a God who forgiveth all our iniquities, all of them.
Doesn't make me want to sin. Makes me want to repent in dust
and ashes. To be forgiven of all my sin, all my iniquity by
God. God's not who people think He
is. By God, who will by no means clear the guilty. To be forgiven
of all my sin and shame by Him. What a benefit, honestly. What
a blessing. To know that if any man sinned,
put myself right there, we have an advocate. With Jesus Christ
the righteous. Verse 3 goes on to say, who healeth
all thy diseases. As I thought about this, I just
had a minor surgery about two weeks ago, very minor. They had
to put me under, which I enjoy because I don't feel anything.
A little wimp. I'm very thankful for doctors.
Maybe there's a doctor here, I'm not sure. I'm very grateful
for medicine. Medicine made me feel very good. There's just one doctor, capital
D. There's just one physician, and
we know who that is. None other than our Lord Jesus
Christ. He alone. And let me tell you this about
him. You already know this. He has all wisdom. You know, we
think doctors, they've got some wisdom. He has all wisdom. He is wisdom. He has all ability. Well, I hope this goes as planned. You know, when you sign these
consent forms, you sign these waivers, like, this could result
in death. Not with our Lord, it can't.
He doesn't have one failure on His record. Not one. And when
He walked this earth, He went about doing good everywhere He
went, and He went about healing all manner of sickness, all manner
of disease, all manner. You know, Often, we get sick
and die. But for God's people, the sickness
is sin. And you remember what he said
about Lazarus? This sickness is not unto death,
but to the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. He's able. One day, I may get
sick and die. And that's just his way of graciously
ushering me into his presence. You know, we talk about, well,
she's sick, but she's about to be well. Oh, that's so true.
Our Lord heals all manner of sickness. He eternally healed
all his patients, if you will, by trading places with them.
You know, you hear the story of the man that saw the dying
leper and said, if I could just press his leprosy into me, trade
places. That's what our Lord did. What
we could never do. And certainly what we would never
do for someone else, our Lord did for us, traded places with
us, made us well. We sing the song, He gave us
His health, He took our sickness. He gave us His wealth, He took
our poverty. Gave us the fullness of God and
He became, made sin for us, He emptied Himself for us. And because
of Him, not because of us, because of Him and Him alone, we can
sing, it is well, it is well with my soul. Praise the Lord.
Verse 4 says, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, he redeemeth
our life. We have a redeemer. It means
deliverer. Oh, how wonderful that we have a redeemer. I love, you know, the book of
Job, it can be a little bit confusing. And yet he said, I know my redeemer
liveth. I know it. We know it, don't
we? We know he liveth. He died, he liveth. He ever liveth. Love the song, redeemed how I
love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed
through His infinite mercy, His child, and forever I am. We were by nature children of
wrath, even as others, now we're His child. He laid down His life
to redeem us from death and give us life. Redeemeth thy life from
destruction, ruin. That's what happened in the garden.
We ruined ourselves. Man ruined himself. Eternal condemnation
awaited us, but God. Verse four again, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness
and tender mercies. And I got to tell you, when I
read this, I just got hung up on it. Seems, we know there's
no typos in God's Word, but to me it seemed like a mistake at
first. He crowned thee? I thought we crowned Him with
many crowns. The Lamb upon His throne. Well,
we sure do, don't we? He's our head. Say, all glory
goes to you. We're nothing. And yet He crowneth
thee. What does that mean? The word
means encircles, surrounds. He encircles us. He surrounds
us. What does He surround us with?
What's it say? With loving kindness and tender
mercies. Just the fact that our Lord said,
I will have mercy. Doesn't that give you hope? I
will be gracious. I will. His mercies, His compassions,
they fail not. They're new every morning. Today,
they renew again today. We woke up today. We're here
worshiping God today. Oh, what loving kindness and
tender mercies of God that He's bestowed upon us. What a benefit.
What a benefit. Verse 5. who satisfieth thy mouth
with good things, and must point out the things there in italics,
who satisfieth thy mouth with good. Has God satisfied your
mouth with good? I had steak last night for dinner.
I enjoyed it. To me, that tasted good. That's
not what we're talking about here. Have we tasted and seen that
the Lord is good? Gabe, just preach on that Wednesday.
What's my heart? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. You
know, I turned 30 in just under a month. It's creeping up on
me. If this world has taught me anything,
it's this, that it can't satisfy. I just got a promotion a month
and a half ago, and I'm happy about it. There's no true satisfaction
in that. I know, I'm learning by experience,
this world has no satisfaction. There's even a song about it.
I can't get no satisfaction. Even the world may acknowledge
it. Oh, but in Christ we know it, don't we? We know where our
satisfaction is, don't we? What the world lacks, and will
always lack, Christ is to me, He was and He is to David, and
He is to all His people, and so much more. I love the way
the Scriptures speak of Christ and what we truly have in Him. Unsearchable riches. Wealth that
can never be told. We can't even enter into these
things spiritually. You know, sometimes, some of
you may enter into that physically, and that's great, I'm happy for
you. But, oh, to have Christ. to have the satisfaction, the
joy of being in Him, the joy of knowing Him, the joy of being
able to come worship Him and call upon Him and praise Him.
That's so satisfying to me, honestly, so satisfying. When you hear
His name, not blaspheming, but when you hear His name, when
you come here, you call up a brother or you're just talking to someone
in your family, there's just the sound of His name. Doesn't
it bless your heart? Doesn't your soul just get flooded
with joy hearing about Him? Hearing Him lifted up and exalted
and glorified? Getting to talk about Him. What
a privilege. Truly, words would fail me to
ever adequately describe just what Christ is to me. He's my
life. He's my exceeding great reward.
My eternal joy. Christ is all and in all. I forget
who wrote it, but one of our brothers said, the Lord is our
portion forever. Can't imagine anything better. There's a song,
I don't know if you know it, but it says, Jesus satisfied
my longing through his blood. I now am saved. Eternal satisfaction. I'm not talking temporary satisfaction.
We look for that while we're here. We do. We have eternal
happiness. And we're not going to find it
anywhere else. Only in here. Verse six, or verse five again,
sorry. Who satisfied thy mouth with
good, thy youth is renewed like the eagles. I mentioned I'm getting
a little older. Almost halfway to 60. And you
who are 60 or older know that it was just yesterday you were
my age and younger. Life's flashing by. But though
our bodies are aching and breaking, and aging, and dying. I love
this. Our youth is renewed like the
eagles. I don't know what all that means,
but I love it. And there's some verses that go with this. One
says, we shall return to the days of our youth. And again,
I'm not going to be a five-year-old kid again. But I love thinking
about glory. And there's so little we can
enter into when we think about it. But are we going to be old?
Based on the scriptures, I believe we're going to be young. Our
youth is going to be renewed like the eagles. If the Lord will, I'll grow old
and weary. And then one day I'll be young.
I'm looking at some gray hairs. The scriptures mention the whore
hairs, right? Maybe for a time, but not for
long. Oh, I can't wait to return to
my youth, can you? Verse 6. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. We know that God must execute
righteousness. He must do right. He only does
right. and judgment. He will judge us.
God is the judge. He's the creator. We're the creature.
We must stand before Him. Now, outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is absolutely terrifying. Anytime I think about when I've
heard someone say in self-defense, only God can judge me, I think,
oh, you poor soul. Why would you want such a thing?
Maybe we put our hand over our mouth. When I think of the Lord executing
righteousness and judgment, I can't help but think of the Passover.
He said, this night I'm going to execute judgment. He said,
I'm the Lord. He must. He must. Now, when our
Lord said that, what hope did the children of Israel have?
There was only one hope. The lamb. The blood of that lamb. They needed that blood to be
applied to their door, their house. I only hope there is. We who are oppressed. We who
are poor and needy. Here's what we have in Christ.
Here's our benefit. We have a satisfied judgment
before holy God. You think about that. The appointed
unto man wants to die and after this the judgment, Christ died
our debt. He was judged for us. We've been
judged in Him and God said satisfied. Satisfied. It's finished, we're
completing Him. Rest, come unto me and rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. When God sees the blood, child of God, He will pass over
you. Lord, cover us in your blood. Verse 7, He made known His ways
unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. I just mentioned
one. We know the account where the
Lord Told Moses, he said, I'll make all my goodness pass before
you. And he told him, I'll be gracious, I'll be merciful, have
compassion. He said, I'm going to put you in the cleft of a
rock. I'm going to cover you. I'm going to be your hiding place,
Moses. Oh. And then there was a rock that
Moses smote that followed them that the Lord used to give them
water. They were thirsty. And we're
told that that rock represented Christ. That rock was Christ.
The Lord fed Moses and the children of Israel for years in the wilderness.
They had nothing to eat but this. Bread come down from heaven.
Oh, we love this light bread. Oh, that bread's Christ. Oh, let's not love him. That's
the meal that, you know, some things I say sometimes. Oh, I
could eat that every day. eat his flesh, drink his blood,
he's our meat and our drink and we can eat him every day. We
must. We must. If we're hungry and
thirsty, we'll eat of him, we'll drink of him. Never thirst again,
never hunger again if we have him. God gave Moses that brazen serpent
on a pole. The children of Israel were being
bitten, they were dying from their sin. That's what that represents.
Look and live. That's Christ. Look. You have
been bitten by sin's fatal sting. Look. Look to the Lamb of God. That serpent on the pole, he
was made to be what was killing us. See? He hung there in our
place. Of course, I love the account
when they were about to come to an end at the Red Sea. That was it. It's over. It's
over now. Oh, that sea represents a fountain
open, doesn't it? This is it. Remember what the Lord told Moses
to say? Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show to you today. For the Egyptians
whom you've seen today, you shall see them again no more forever.
God's going to drown them in the Red Sea. That's what He did
in the blood of Christ, drowned our sins, and they're gone. So what can we do? We can fear
not. Fear not. God has made known
His ways unto us, hasn't He? by making known His way. Christ
is the way, the way everlasting, the way, the truth, the life.
He's been made known to us, our Lord and our God. Verse 8. The
Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in
mercy. Great of mercy. Gives me such
hope. I just want to read you words
of a song Gabe loves to sing. When I was lost in sin and shame,
how thou let me take the blame in Christ. Blessed Lord, how
merciful thou wast to me. When I could look down deep within
and see the sinfulness of sin. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
wast to me. Oh, how merciful. And here's
how Gabe sings it. How merciful. That's the right way of singing
it. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. Oh, praise his
name. I'm thankful for mercy, aren't
you? And I'll just tell you, someone wrongs me, my inclination
is not, well, let's be merciful to them. It's vengeance is mine,
I will repay. That's how I feel. And the Lord
said that. His mercy, you know, we're only
not going to be judging our sin if Christ was judged in our place. He must execute righteousness
and judgment. It must be dealt with. But He dealt with it, and
now there's mercy to be had in Him. I'm so thankful for that. Verse 9 says, he will not always
chide. And that's talking about rebuking,
chastening. None of us enjoy that, do we?
I'm a parent now, and I have to do it. If I love my children,
I will do it. And I'm not the best about it.
I'm working on it. It's hard. And yet our Lord,
you think about it, our Lord chastens us. He painfully corrects
us, painful to us. And He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. I don't want to punish my kids out of anger.
I want to punish them in love. I want to deal with them in love.
I want them to learn. God would have us to learn. He
will correct us in love. And it's painful. We deal with
these things all our life. As we get older, I feel like
we feel it more, don't we? It says, He will not always chide. It goes on to say, neither will
He keep His anger forever. I like what you read. Though
thou wast angry with us, not anymore, his anger is turned
away. Psalm 711 tells us God's angry
with the wicked every day. You know, sometimes it feels
like when we're judging everything by feeble sense, we feel like
God's angry with us, don't we? Sometimes. Not in Christ he's not. You couldn't have read a better
passage. Not in Christ he's not. Like our brother David, things
that we do displease the Lord. But God is perfectly well-pleased
with us in Christ because he's perfectly well-pleased with Christ. If you read the account, he's
well-pleased in Christ. My beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased
and all who are in him. God is well-pleased with us.
We're accepted in him just as accepted as Christ himself who
is one with God. So are we, right now in this
world. Now here's my favorite verse in our text, verse 10.
He, God, hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. What good news, honestly. If you could ask David, How has
God dealt with you? Not after my sins. I mean, have
you ever heard anything so wonderful? When God reveals to us our sins,
we feel the sinfulness of sin. I've not dealt with you after
your sins. I want to show you 2 Samuel 12, if you'll turn with
me. 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12, look at verse 1. The Lord had a prophet named Nathan.
It says, And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto
him and said unto him, There were two men in one city, the
one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many
flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little
ewe lamb which he had bought. and nourished up. And it grew
up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his
own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and
was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of
his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming
to him. But he took the poor man's land and dressed it for
the man that was come to him." Look at David's response, verse
5. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And
he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done
this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb
fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, thou
art the man. Thou art the man. Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel. David,
here's what I did for you. I anointed you king. I delivered
you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's
house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee
the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little,
I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore,
hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his
sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and
hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with
the sword of the children of Ammon? Now therefore the sword
shall never depart from thine house. This is the chiding, the
chastisement. Because thou hast despised me,
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife, verse
11, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against
thee out of thine own house, and he did, didn't he? And I
will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy
neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this
sun. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before
all Israel, and before the sun. Look at verse 13. And David said
unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The
Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. A lot going on right there, huh?
No surprise David wrote this psalm, is it? And if you go on
reading there, we won't. You can go ahead and turn back
to our text and I'll close. But the Lord, David, was about to
have a son. And the Lord killed that son. Now, when I think about a baby
dying, I think of our Lord's mercy and grace. We'll just leave
it there. But shortly after that, David
had another son. You know what his name was? Solomon. Oh, how blessed of the Lord. Even in the Lord's chastening
of that man David, how gracious he was to him. How gracious. Back in our text, verse 11. For
as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy
toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful for our Lord's goodness to us? David was. Aren't you
thankful for our Lord's benefits? Oh, may we not forget all His
benefits, all His gracious, loving, kind dealings with us sinners. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Amen.