In Psalm 103, we want to spend
a little time this morning, and we may not complete this, but
we want to say a few things because this truly is a psalm for the
church. It's a psalm of thanksgiving
for the church. And it begins with two verses
of scripture that they almost repeat each other, but they're
not redundant in the sense of don't have your prayers repeat
all the time. This is a psalm where there is
not one petition made in it. It is all filled with thanksgiving
to God for various aspects of our life, our salvation, our
hope in Christ Jesus. It begins this way, a Psalm of
David, and he's the inspired writer. He knew that he was an
inspired writer. He knew that he couldn't write
what he was writing unless the Holy Spirit come upon him. And
he shares that as in the time when he gave his last words there
in 1 Samuel. He understood that the Holy Spirit
had to come upon him and give him the words to say that were
recorded. Bless the Lord. O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. This psalm is just
an overflowing of the deepest gratitude by one who represents
you and I as believers. David and many others were used
in the scriptures to give us a type and a shadow and a picture
of believers. And this is where we are when
we find ourselves brought out of a horrible pit and set on
a solid rock. We have a heart of gratitude,
we have a heart of thanksgiving, and that's what we find in this
great psalm. The words of this psalm are given
to someone who knew about grace, knew something about the gospel
of grace and knew something about free and sovereign grace. He
had been chosen out of his family to be where he was. And the Holy
Spirit caused this person to recognize where all blessings
flow from. And that is Jehovah. Now in this
psalm, it's a fairly short psalm, and 11 times in this psalm is
the word Jehovah used. And it is characterized by those
four letters, and they're all capitals, and it's the word Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now Jehovah is the proper name
of the one true God. It's his proper name. And it
has been shared with us that the Jews would not even say that
name. And since they didn't say that
name, we've lost exactly how it is pronounced. Some of the
newer people call it Yahweh. I'm going to stick with the old
way, call him Jehovah. Eleven times in this chapter
do we find that name, and David was used to acknowledge exactly
who he had received all his benefits from. This name is written out
a few times in the Scripture as Jehovah. I'd like to look
at three places in the Old Testament where this name is written out
as Jehovah, and the first one is found here also in the Psalms,
and it's in Psalm 83 and verse 18, and it certainly does share
with us a great deal about the nature of this one and only true
God, the one that David is saying, bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Here in Psalm
83 and there in verse 18, we read these words, that men may
know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, are the most high
over all the earth. This is how Jehovah reveals himself,
that he is the most high over all the earth, that he is the
most holy over all the earth. He is the most sovereign over
all the earth. And so as David uses this name
by inspiration, the Holy Spirit brings this to his attention,
that it is Jehovah is the one that he is to give blessings
to. Bless the Lord, bless Jehovah, oh my soul. And every part of
my being, may he also bless Jehovah. In the book of Isaiah chapter
12, we also find this name as it's spelled out. It's not just
capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. I just recently
found out that there is a new translation coming out of the
King James, and they're supposedly putting all the Jehovah's back
in it. I don t know how to get a hold of it. I just was told
about it. But that would be an interesting
translation. Alright, here in the book of
Isaiah chapter 12, we read these words about Jehovah. Isaiah chapter
12 and verse 2, the scripture says, Behold, God is my salvation. What a wonderful thing it is
for a person to depend wholly, completely upon the blood and
righteousness of God as their whole salvation. No works are
involved, no feelings are involved, no experiences involved it is
God and God alone and not be afraid behold God is my salvation
I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song he also has become my salvation the person that
wrote this realized that he was not saved from his birth The
person who wrote this was convinced that there was a time in his
life that God revealed himself to him. And so, we're not saved
all of our life. We find out in the covenant of
grace. In God's mind, yes. But in our mind, no. There must
be the gospel preached. There must be the application
of the gospel. There must be a quickening. There
must be a resurrection that takes place. And when that happens,
we will acknowledge Jehovah. We will acknowledge the Lord.
Oh Lord, what will you have me to do is what the Apostle Paul
said on the road to Damascus. And finally here in the book
of Isaiah, another passage of scripture that uses that word
Jehovah. I might say that it says, say this there in chapter
12 and verse 2, it says, Lord Jehovah, Both of them are in
capitals. That word Lord there is the first
part of the name Jehovah, Yah, Jah. So we have Jehovah, Jehovah. All right, Isaiah 26. In Isaiah
chapter 26, we have this verse of scripture with regard to the
name of Jehovah. Trust ye in the Lord. That's the only one that has
the power to keep us. The only one who has the power to save
us is this God, this Jehovah. Verse 4 of Isaiah chapter 26,
trust ye in the Lord forever. For the Lord Jehovah is everlasting
strength. Now this is who David is writing
about. This is who the Holy Spirit will always write about. The
Holy Spirit will never speak of a lesser God. The Holy Spirit
will never speak of a God that is trying to do something. The
Holy Spirit will always reveal Jehovah. Will always reveal the
Lord God. Will always reveal the God of
the Word of God. And as we look at this, we find
from cover to cover, the scriptures share with us about a God that
is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or
think. How great is that, as far as
the heavens are above the earth? Do we find that? On our way back
to the book of the Psalms, stop with me at the book of Ezekiel.
I know that's in the opposite direction, but if you'd stop
with me in the book of Ezekiel, chapter 36, we find again in
this wonderful chapter 36 of the book of Ezekiel, and the
book of Ezekiel is just filled with symbolisms about our new
birth. types and shadows, declarations
about the new birth, and how it is that God does this. And
here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 26, we find a heart
that could write what we read in Psalm 103. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and with all that is in with me, bless his holy
name. What do we read here in Ezekiel
chapter 36 and verse 26? A new heart. Also will I give you. Now that
s Old Testament verse of Scripture that shares with us what God
does as He revealed it to Nicodemus. You must be born again. A new heart will I give you. Now the old heart is worthless,
the old heart is desperately wicked, the old heart is incurably
wicked, and this heart that God gives us is a heart that is created
by God far out of our ability to do anything. A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. Hallelujah!
The Holy Spirit indwells all of God's people. He doesn't make
the flesh any better. That will take place when He
comes again and raises us or translate us if we're alive when
He comes. But that will take place then.
We still have this old wicked flesh that we carry around, the
old tent. that we have, but that which
is within us is of God. That which is in us is what God
looks at and says, you are mine, you are perfect, you have no
flaws. We look at it differently, but
God said, and trust God, He's in charge of this. A new heart,
I'll take out the stony heart out of your flesh and will give
you a heart of flesh. What a statement, and that whole chapter deals
with this very thing. I will do, and I will do, and
I will do, and I will do, and then what we do, then you'll
remember your own wickedness. All right, let us go back over
there to Psalm 103 for just a moment, and we read in this passage of
Scripture what a wonderful statement. It is truly, this Psalm 103,
like so many of the psalms, Psalm 103 is truly soul music. This
is true soul music. This is the soul of David crying
out in Psalm 103. There in verse 1, what statement?
Verse 1 and 2, it says there, Bless the Lord. O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits. Now this, the rest of the psalm,
is much like what we read in the book of Ephesians chapter
1, when he talks about all spiritual blessings, all spiritual gifts,
and then he gives us a long list, not all, not complete, because
we find them everywhere in the scriptures. But he has chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world. This is an exceptional
gift of God that he would choose a people before the foundation
of the world. Before the fall, he would choose
a people and put their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. And
then he goes on down with some more blessings and more blessings.
Well, as we look here in Psalm 103, we find that the Holy Spirit
does the same for us. The benefits of God. Let me talk
about the benefits of God is what the writer goes on to say
here. For it tells us in verse two,
who forgiveth. Now I want to be in that number.
Who forgiveth all mine or all thine iniquities, who healeth
all thy diseases. Now this is what God does for
everyone that he regenerates. We find out the cross. is where
Jesus Christ died and laid down his life, a ransom for many.
And we look back at that and say, hallelujah. But did you
know what? Every saint prior to that time
could look and say, hallelujah, he has forgiven me all my sins
and trespasses too. He has taken my sin, as we re
going to find out in this chapter in Psalm 103, He has taken my
sin as far as the east is from the west. We look back on that
and say, Hallelujah! Guess what Abel was able to do
too? He could look ahead and say,
Hallelujah! Even though he didn t have Psalm 103, he was able
to realize by the grace of God that all his sin, as it tells
us there, forgiveth all thy iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases.
God Almighty's purpose of grace is to put away our sin by the
sacrifice of himself. What a blessing! We read here,
all the works shall praise thy name, O Lord, and thy saint shall
bless thee. Now, it doesn't give us a word
in here about praising him, it just gives us a word about blessing
him. No, heavens declare the glory of God and they praise
his name. But what do saints do? No, we
do praise him. But here in this psalm, we bless
him. What does that word bless mean?
It means to bow. Did you know that every believer
bows? Every believer bows to the king. What will you have me do? Not one person stays up on one
leg. Every knee shall bow. And that means bless. We will
bless His holy name by bowing. And every knee shall bow, and
every tongue shall confess to the glory of God the Father.
Now that's, God's gonna do that for His children in this life,
and He will do that for everyone else in the life to come. You
will bow. This blessed, this word blessed
means to kneel, to bless God is an act of adoration and thanksgiving,
and this word carries with it the implication it is self that
kneels, not someone else. We are kneeled. It isn't because my dad or my
mother bowed. It is because God bowed me. It isn't because some preacher
bowed. It is because God bowed me. It's
an individual thing that God does for His people. We bow before
Him, and we're able to say, as Psalmist David did, Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. And some of
His benefits are summed up in verse 3 of this Psalm, Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. who forgiveth everything until
iniquity is forgiven, healing, redemption, and satisfaction
with Christ's blood and righteousness are unknown. We don't have any
idea what that means. We cannot comprehend it until,
first of all, the Lord forgiveth our iniquities. And when He forgives
our iniquities, then we comprehend what it is to bow. to come before
Him in adoration, to come before Him in thanksgiving. We do not
come before Him with our enmity. We did that all our life before
the Lord come to us, but after the Lord saves us, our enmity
is put away. He carried it away, and we're
able to bow. Notice that the pardon granted
is present pardon. Forgive us. It is an ongoing forgiveness. Forgiveth, it is continually. It is continual. It is a continual,
the Lord forgiveth our iniquities. Aren't you glad they just don't,
he just said, well, at the day of your salvation, I've taken
care of that, but the rest of that, you're gonna have to work
out really hard. Because he knew we could not,
he said, I will forgiveth. today, and when tomorrow comes,
I will forgive us, and when the next day comes, I will forgive
us. His grace, His mercy, and His righteous blood forgiveth
all our iniquities, and healeth all thy diseases. Now, some people
would immediately say, see, He's going to heal all my sicknesses.
He heals our soul sicknesses. He heals our soul sickness. It's
sick unto death. It is dead and trespasses and
sin. But you know what? Sometimes God is pleased to heal
us of our infirmities. If he chooses to do that, that's
his business. I've known of people, well, if
we have faith, if we just have faith enough, we can take care
of this. And then the person gets sick anyway and dies. You
know, that's not how God works. It's not by our faith, it's by
His purpose. His purpose of grace. We may
all go out of here in good health, and we may all go out of here
in poor health. We may have the worst disease
possible, or He may keep us like He has many, and we just pass
over in good health. But that depends on God and not
us. Now, eat right, get plenty of
exercise, and all the things that the doctor tells us to do,
but our time is in His hand. When it comes time, we cannot
last a second longer, and we'll not go a second soon. So, but
this disease, that's really, he's talking about our soul disease. And then in verse four, who redeems
thy life from destruction. No, there's so much in here.
The benefits of the Lord just continually mount up. They continually
overwhelm to be forgiven, and yet we get more to have our diseases
taken, our soul diseases taken care of, and then we have more.
No wonder the church is called on to be thankful for all the
mercies of God. And then who redeemeth thy life
from destruction by purchase and by power of the Lord redeems
us from the spiritual death which we deserved. We fell in Adam. But eternal
death, which we deserve, He redeems us from. He that redeemed us
has delivered us from going down into the pit. You know, Job had
something to say about this in Job 33. Would you turn back there
one book to the book of Job chapter 33, and there in verse 34, The
only reason that we have been redeemed from going down into
the pit is I have found, notice with me here, in Job chapter
33 and verse 34, what is the only reason that God says that
He has prevented us from going down into the pit? In Job chapter
33 and verse 34. Uh-oh. Maybe that's it. Well, it talks about going down
into a pit and preventing us from going down into the pit. Thirty-three, twenty-four? All
right. Thank you. I'll make that correction. It
says here, Then he is gracious unto him,
and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit. Why? I have found a ransom. I have found a ransom. Now who's
the ransom? We know him as the Lord Jesus
Christ. We know him properly as Jehovah,
for the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament is Jehovah
in the Old Testament, the only true and living God. Here I have
found a ransom. Deliver him from going down into
the pit. Stop, stop, stop on his way. I found a ransom, and
the ransom pays the price of the debt that was owed. And so
we are so thankful. He has dealt with us after his
mercy, and he crowneth us. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Luke. There's a lost son mentioned in one of the parables,
and I just want to read a very short part of that in the book
of Luke. The book of Luke, as we think
about the Lord dealing with us and redeeming thy life from destruction. Here in the book of Luke chapter
15, we have these words recorded. Chapter 15 verse 17, it tells
us here, and when he had come to himself, a lost son, because
the father is going to say, that which was dead is now alive. Now, when the father says that,
we're gonna take his word for it. All right, and when he had
come to himself, he says, how many hired servants of my father
have bread enough to spare and I perish with hunger? I will
arise and go to my father. Now, what caused him to leave
where he was? What caused him to leave eating
pig food? What caused him to leave that
life? Somebody had said something about mercy at home. I have sinned against heaven
and before thee. I will say to my father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee, and am not worthy to be
called thy son. Make me one of the hired servants. Truly a new heart has been given
to the lost son. He?s not asking for an inheritance.
He?s already spent his He's not asking for anything, just make
me a hired servant. And it says in verse 20, and
he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him. It's interesting, probably every
day the father was out at the head of the lane. You know, that's
God Almighty watching over every one of His children. He's always
at the head of the lane, and when it's the appropriate time,
He says there, when He was a great way off, His Father saw Him and
had compassion and ran and fell on His neck and kissed Him. And
the Son said unto Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and in Thy sight, and no more worthy to be called Thy Son.
But the Father said to His servants, What the guy had to say is going
to be set aside. Bring forth the best robe. You know, God Almighty gives
us the best robe and that's the robe of righteousness. Imputed
righteousness. Our great Savior and put it on
him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet shod with
the preparation of the gospel of grace and a ring I You're
my family and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let
us eat and be merry Who was disturbed by this whole thing? I? The next verse, a brother that's
religious. He's disturbed. I've stayed with
you all this time. You've never done that for me. I would that you'd pray for my
twin brother. When I told him I was saved,
his comment was, Are you telling me that by asking Jesus into
my heart, I'm not saved? And I said, I never said a word
except I've been saved. And that's when we went like
that. It would be great to have spiritual
fellowship with it. Bring hither the fatted calf
and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. The best robe, the
ring, the shoes, In verse 24, For this my son was dead, and
is alive again, and he was lost, and is found, and they began
to make merry. What a time. Well, David is just
telling us what it's like to make merry. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Let
me be merry in my Savior, the Lord Jesus, in Jehovah. He has
taken care of my sin issues. He has taken care of that. A
ransom was found. Let's go back to the book of
the Psalms, Psalm 103. And as we look here at a little
bit more of this wonderful Psalm, we find out the more benefits
that the God of heaven has for all of His children. set apart
and sanctioned off because of what they had before they were
saved, were all in one great assembly, assembled at the feet
of the Lord Jesus, all singing praises unto Him and saying,
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits,
bless His holy name. Here in Psalm 103, and there
in verse 5, it says, who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Satisfied. You know,
if you're satisfied, you're not looking for something else. I
had a wonderful breakfast this morning. Guess what? There was
a whole bunch left there, and I just left it alone. I was satisfied. If you're satisfied, you're not
looking for something else. Now people that just can't be
satisfied, just cannot settle down, they probably never met
the Satisfier. But the Satisfier settles us. And we just cannot go back to
where we were. The Apostle Paul spent most of
his ministry sharing with people why he could not go back to religion. Sharing with people why he could
not be a Jew like that again. He shared with them because of
Christ, because of grace, because of salvation, because of what
God did for me. I bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me bless His holy name. Who satisfies
thy mouth with good things. He takes care and satisfies us. If God has satisfied you, you
will no longer keep looking. You will look to Him on a continuous
basis. One satisfied with Christ cannot
go back. Whatever age we be, when Christ
saves us, our strength is also renewed. You know what we find
out without strength? We're without strength. We thought
we had strength. We thought we could pray. You
know, I was just visiting this morning. We think the simplest
thing that we can do would be able to be praying to God, and
then we find out God shared with us, we know not what to pray
for as we ought, but my Holy Spirit will take care of that.
The simplest thing, and yet we can't do it on our own. Well,
he has raised his people from the dead. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in the courts. We shall be satisfied with goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Psalm 65 and verse four. For he satisfies the longing
soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. What God does
is satisfies. Oh, to be satisfied with His
Word, to wake up in the morning and be satisfied with His Word,
to go to bed at night satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ and
all that He has done, not looking for a second blessing. You know
what? I'm still enjoying my 9,750,000th
blessing. It's an everyday blessing of
the Lord. It's this idea that I'm going
to get a second blessing and get a better view of God. You
know what? They haven't got the first blessing yet. The first
blessing takes care of everything. All right, verse 6, going back
to the verse 6, the Lord executes righteousness and judgment for
all that are oppressed. Oh, the benefits of grace, the
benefits of the Lord. We find ourselves blessing the
Lord for all his benefits to others. Red and yellow, black and white. I love hearing our brother Lance
talk about the work in New Guinea. Because those folks, even though
we can't understand a word they say and they can't understand
me, we're brothers and sisters in Christ because we look to
the same Lord. And you know what they say? Bless
the Lord, oh my soul. All that is within me, bless
His holy name. Why? Because whoever God saves,
we have the same enjoyment, we have the same blessings. Verse
7, He made known His ways unto Moses. You know, this morning
we had that read over there in the book of Exodus. How did God
make His ways known unto Moses? I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. He made his way known unto Moses.
Now yes, he visited with him face to face. He was called a
friend of God. But what was that that really
was the heart and core of it all? I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. Whom I bless, I will bless. and
the apostle Paul was used to capture this verse of scripture
and take it over to the book of Romans and share the same
thing, and then share with us, for this very reason have I raised
thee up, Pharaoh, that I might show my power in you. All these
that we read about Moses, and then it goes on in that same
verse of Scripture, His acts unto the children of Israel.
What in the world would He bring up the acts to the children of
Israel for? Because in the Old Testament, they were a picture
of His elect. He didn't have the elect of the
Hittites or the Hivites or the Jebusites. He had an elect people
called Israel. He had chosen Abraham. He chose
his son. He chose his grandson. He chose
12 of the tribe of Israel. And then he had all these folks
that symbolized and pictured the elect from the foundation
of the world. And then we find that out of that whole group,
there were a group of them that were Israel, and the Gentiles
that God intended to save are adopted into that same group. What does it mean there then?
He showed his axe unto the children of Israel. What did he do for
the children of Israel? He gave up the glory that He
had with the Father before the world was for the children of
Israel, the true children of Israel. He came down to this
earth and was born of a virgin, laid in a manger. What was it
to have the confinements of flesh imposed upon Him that He might
suffer death for all His people? slain on the cross, buried in
a burrowed tomb, and then gloriously resurrected. This is the acts
that he did for the children of Israel. And then returned
to the father, sitting at the right hand of the father, making
intercession for the children of Israel. And so on one hand,
he says, Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. And
to the children of Israel, you are mine. True Israel, my children,
the elect, that were written in the Lamb's book of life before
the foundation of the world. You know, as we read through
the book of Genesis, Abraham down through time, the book of
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, we have a message that God had
to the children of Israel, which is the message of the gospel.
Every sacrifice pictured Christ. All the tabernacle and the temple
pictured Christ. All of those things, the wanderings
and God's overseeing them, the pillar of cloud and the pillar
of fire, everything, as he said, his acts unto the children of
Israel. Most people just look, I wonder
what happened over there. You know, we find in the scripture,
some people say, oh, they heard what they thought was thunder.
Well, it was impressive, but it wasn't impressive enough.
The words spoken to the heart, the resurrected heart, is important. And then it tells us there in
the next verse. In verse 8 and 9, the Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever.
Aren't you thankful? He poured out His anger on His
Son, the Lord Jesus, and paid every debt that was owed. And then the measurement, the
measurement of His mercy. David said, bless the Lord, oh
my soul. And then God gave him a list
of things to be thankful for. And here in verse 11 and 12,
the measurement of his mercy and the measurement of his forgiveness. In verse 11, for as the heaven
is high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. Measure that. Come to an agreement
about the measurement of the mercy of God. It is immeasurable. You can't get there from here.
There's not a yardstick long enough. Oh, we've got those new
things. I can put it up here on this
podium and shoot it against the wall and come back and say, Well,
that's 47 feet, three and a half inches. but you can't measure
the mercy of God. And then in the next verse of
scripture, it says, as far as the east is from the west, bless
the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. How far
did He put away our sin? As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. We
can't look around and grab a hold of them, they're taken away,
they're paid for. It's much better to realize they
were paid for and there's no debt owed. Blood paid for the
sin debt. You got a bill, you pay it, you
don't owe it anymore. We had a debt we couldn't pay.
Jesus Christ did not owe a debt, but He paid it. He paid all our
sin debt by His own blood, and that allows us to read here,
and rejoice in His benefits as far as the east is from the west. So far hath He removed our transgressions
from us. And then in verse 13, like as
a father pitieth his children. A lot of people I've met in my
life that call God Father, but they've never had any birth from
Him. Having a father means there was
someone that bore us. But to call God Father and not
have a birth, that's not appropriate. I don't walk up to someone else
and call Him by the name of Father. with the reverence that I would
have for my own. I may call him that out of kindness
or call him that because he's been great to me. But there's
only one that brought me into this world. And so it is with
God the Father. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. That Father gendered us. That Father brought us, that
Father birthed us. We have been begotten by Him. And so it's no wonder that this
Father pitieth His children. So the Lord pitieth them that
fear Him. To have God as Father is to know Him as giving us the
new birth. Knowing Him to raising us to
new life. Knowing Him that raised us from
death into life. Knowing Him in that capacity. It was because of Him and nothing
that I had to do. It was because of Him. I don't
know how many people I've asked this question. How much did you
have to do with your physical birth? And you know what? Everybody's
answered the same. But when it comes to spiritual birth, people
have been involved in it from the very beginning. Not God's
spiritual birth. God's spiritual birth is not
that way. It is Him and Him alone that
genders us, begotten of the Father. And so we have a Father. Bless
the Lord, oh my soul. Look what He's done. Look the
reason we have to give thanks. There in verse 14 and 15, He
knoweth our frame. That's one of the kindest things
we could read about. He knows us. He told a man, he says, I knew
you before over there by that fig tree. You know what? He's known his
folks from the foundation of the world. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass,
as the flower of the field that flourishes. Oh, my goodness.
Did you read that? We're just like a flower. When
we were out elk hunting, I saw a lot of the last flowers. They're trying hard to get some
seeds out before winter comes. Last flower. But you know what?
They're going to give up. The life will be over. As a flower, we grow up, approach
old age, gone. But did you know what? It says
in verse 16, for the wind passeth over it and it's gone, the place
thereof shall know it no more. You ever go through a graveyard
and say it will never forget? You can't find anybody to remember.
We'll never forget. Oh, yes, we do. We do forget.
But look at the next one. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting. He goes from a group of people
that are so finite, so finite, so They're going to be born,
they're going to live, and they're going to die. So finite. And
then he jumps right across and says, Oh, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. And forget not all
his benefits because he is everlasting. He never dies. But the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him and his righteousness unto children's children. to
such as keep his covenant and those that remember his commandments
and do them. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. What a contrast from a fading
flower to the everlasting God. You're like a flower fading.
You are everlasting. What a contrast. And you know
what? He is mindful of his people,
mindful of them. He's mindful to give them the
birth. He's mindful to watch over them.
He's mindful to care for them. He's mindful to give them everlasting
life. He's mindful to lead them through
their life. He's mindful to be with them
in their last breath. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting and to such that keep, them that
fear Him. You know, naturally we're at
enmity with God. By grace, we reverence Him. By grace, we do what exactly
the psalmist David said, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And all that is within me, bless
His holy name. Oh, what reason we have to be
thankful. He's mindful of His people. He
forgiveth, He redeemeth. He satisfieth. He executeth righteousness
and judgment. He makes His ways unto Moses. What did He tell Moses? I will
have mercy. on whom all have mercy. And his
acts are to the children of Israel. Read the book of 1 Corinthians.
You know what? We're reading about the acts
to the children of Israel. Read the book of Ephesians. We're
reading the acts to the children of Israel. Read Exodus and Leviticus. He will not hold, he said he
will keep his, neither will he keep his anger forever. He poured
it out upon his son. And then the measurement, for
as high as heaven above the earth, so great is his mercy, and as
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions. And then he said, I am my people's
father, and I pity you, I hold you. Flowers pass away, but the
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Be ye thankful. Brother Mike.