Back to attention to Psalm 103,
the 103rd Psalm. This morning's message is the
third and final part in this three-part series on Blessed
Jehovah. The psalm reads in these words,
Bless the Lord. Notice the word Lord in all uppercase
letters. That's his name, Jehovah. Bless
Jehovah, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy
name. Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. who healeth all thy diseases,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with
good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Jehovah
executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He
made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of
Israel. Jehovah is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always
chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt
with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 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. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his
days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it,
and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of Jehovah is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness
unto children's children. to such as keep his covenant,
and to those that remember his commandments to do them. Jehovah
hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth
over all. Blessed Jehovah, ye his angels
that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word. Blessed Jehovah, all ye his hosts,
ye ministers of his that do his pleasure, blessed Jehovah, all
his works in all places of his dominion, blessed Jehovah, O
my soul. We want to consider that subject
one more time, the subject of our text, blessed Jehovah. Creatures blessing him is the
entire theme of this psalm. We may divide this psalm into
three divisions. We have done so thus far. The
blessings of Jehovah are identified in verses 1 and then 20 through
22. Then Jehovah's blessings are
summarized in verses 2 through 7. And here today we will consider
Jehovah the Blesser characterized in verses 8 through 19. So let's
consider the subject of Jehovah the Blesser characterized in
verses 8 through 19. As you can see, the major part
of this psalm deals with describing him in his characteristics. He has given here a description
of him that is not unlike that which you will find in other
passages of the scriptures. For example, in Exodus chapter
34, Moses said unto the Lord, he says, show me your glory. And Jehovah let him know, you
cannot see my glory and live. It's just too glorious. But Jehovah
did put Moses into the side of a rock, into the cleft of a rock,
covered him with his hand, and then passed by. Moses was blessed
to see, as it were, the afterglow of Jehovah's glory. But there
was this description given in Exodus 34, verses 6 through 7. And Jehovah passed before Moses
and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, El, the mighty one, merciful
and gracious. I want you to observe how often
mercy and grace appear together in the Scriptures. He is merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and
truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. And you can find others, I've
listed them there in the tract before you. Repeatedly we find
such descriptions of this These are very good descriptions of
our God, although He is above description. It's impossible
for mere mortal lips to rightly characterize Him and to adequately
characterize Him, but we have been given here enough for us
to consider today with regard to our blesser being characterized. Before we consider the characterizations
here of Jehovah and what He is, consider that it is only to those
who fear Him. Did you notice that? Only to
those who fear Him. We read in verse 11, great is
His mercy. toward those who fear Him. In
verse 13, Jehovah pities those who fear Him. In verse 17, the
mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear
Him. Those who fear Him. Only those
who fear Him. He is something else to those
who do not fear Him. But what is it to fear Him? Sometime,
oh, it's been Quite a few years ago when I was pastoring in Louisville,
Kentucky, I met a couple at the church building, and they were
not members of the church, but we entered into a conversation. They were very religious, but
they said, some people say they fear the Lord, but we do not
fear Him. We're not afraid of Him. And
I had to let them know that's not what it's talking about.
This word fear does not mean dread Him as being afraid of
Him. It means to reverence Him and
to be in awe of Him. And I believe they understood
that by the time the conversation was over. But that's what it
is to fear Him. We do not dread Him. Moses talked
to him face to face. I mean, he feared Jehovah, but
he reverenced him, was in awe of him. And Jehovah appeared
to his prophets and unto others as well. Now, when he showed
up, there was concern. When he showed up on Mount Sinai,
when the children of Israel there They saw him come down in that
cloud on that mountain in thunder and lightning. And all the people
stood back and said, Moses, you go talk to him. Go talk to him. You go talk to him. He'll talk
to you. They dreaded him. Oh, when God
showed up, most people began to quiver and to shake and tremble. But to fear Him, what is it?
We're in awe of Him. We worship Him. We reverence
Him. What was said this morning in
the psalm that was read, Psalm 111? Holy and reverent is His
name. Do we not revere His name? Hold
it in great reverence? Well, that's what it is to fear
Him. exhort you, if you have never
properly feared Him, begin so right now. How is it that we
first begin to fear Jehovah? I would say to you that our fear
of Him begins by believing His Gospel and trusting in His Son
for the salvation of our souls. If you want to begin fearing
Jehovah, that's where you should begin with reverence in Him,
reverence His Son by believing in Him, trusting in Him, believing
the Gospel. And then you'll be able to do
all that is said of those who fear Him throughout the rest
of this psalm. We're going to look at this third
division of this psalm. Jehovah is here described by
those who fear Him. And those were blessed by him.
He is characterized by these five things. He is full of compassion,
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in mercy, and sovereign over
all. Now let's look at that first,
and it's in verse number 8. The point that we would stress
here is Jehovah is full of compassion. Now, our English text reads,
the Lord is merciful. However, the word here that deals
with mercy is not the same one that is found in the rest of
this psalm. It's a different word altogether,
so we're going to distinguish it this morning. When the word appears elsewhere
in this chapter, it means mercy in the sense of undeserved favor. But here, it's a different word. And it means he is full of compassion,
full of compassion. It is possible for one to show
mercy without compassion. Just because you are showing
mercy does not mean you are compassionate. A head of state may, on his last
day of office, grant a pardon to some prisoners and turn them
free. Not because he has compassion on them, but because he would
ingratiate himself to other people, or maybe they're friends of his. He's not really being compassionate,
he's just showing mercy and giving a pardon, but that is not the
sense in which our Lord shows mercy unto his people. He is
full of compassion. What do we read? As a father
pities his children. So Jehovah pities those who fear
him, as a father pities his children. A man may show mercy to children
in his neighborhood. He may even have mercy on children
in another land who are saying on a television commercial he's
needing food or whatever, but all to his own children, he will
do what he would not do for any other child. As a father pities
his children. Oh, how blessed we are to be
pitied by our God who is our Father. He is full of compassion
to us. He knows our frame. He remembers
that we are but dust, and we are so blessed in knowing that
God is full of compassion, full of compassion, not half full,
full of compassion to those who fear Him. Then second, He is
gracious. All right, now we consider here
mercy and grace. I told you beforehand that they
often are so very close together throughout the Scriptures. Mercy
and grace. They both are undeserved favor,
but there's a difference between them. In mercy, God withholds
from us what we deserve. And let me exhort you in disregard,
never pray that God give to you what you deserve. I've heard
people say, you know, when they think they've been wronged, you
know. I want God to give me what I deserve. You better take that
prayer back. Let that prayer never be uttered
by us. Oh, if God gave to us what we
deserve, we would be taken from this earth
in death, in wrath and judgment, before the next breath. That's
what we deserve. But in mercy, God withholds from
us what we deserve. He has not dealt with us according
to our iniquities, the psalmist here says. If God dealt with
us according to our iniquities, we would not take another breath. Adam and Eve deserved to die,
and I mean eternally, the very moment they sinned. They did
die spiritually in the sense of falling into depravity. They died physically, eventually,
because of that sin. But if God had given to them
all that they deserved, the very moment they partook of the forbidden
fruit, it all would have been over for them. And it all would
have been over for us. There would not have been us.
But God in mercy withholds from us what we deserve. God in grace
gives to us what we do not deserve. We are here, as it were, under
God's wrath. It should be falling upon us
to crush us, but God in mercy withholds God's wrath from us,
and God in grace snatches us from that wrath. So, these two
come together. Here we find that Jehovah is
gracious. He in mercy does not deal with
us according to our iniquities in immediately punishing us,
and in grace He gives us these blessings found in verses 3 through
6, forgiving of all iniquities, healing of all diseases, redeeming
from destruction, crowning with mercies, satisfying with goodness,
delivering from oppressors, and revealing His will. Now, we looked
at those last week, so we'll move now to the third point.
Jehovah is slow to anger. Slow to anger. All men are by
nature wicked. We deserve God's immediate and
complete anger, but He's slow to anger, slow to anger. He is slow to anger to all men, even to the wicked. The long-suffering
of God waited in the days of Noah. Those people were doomed
to destruction, but God was long-suffering to them. Paul the Apostle speaks
to them, in fact the Holy Spirit does, in saying, do you despise
the riches of God's goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? What a statement is that? The
goodness of God leads you to repentance. When God is good
to wicked people, He's just not being good to them. His goodness
is showing them their need of repentance. You have sinned against
me, God might say, and yet look, I'm giving you all this goodness.
Does that not lead you to repentance? It should. The goodness of God
leads you to repentance. But Paul continues, in accordance
with your hardness, and your impenitent heart you are treasuring
up for yourself wrath and the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God who will render to each one according
to his deeds. But nevertheless, God is long-suffering. You were born, you departed your
mother's womb, estranged from God and speaking lies. you began
to lie from the very moment you could speak. God should have
snuffed us out when we told the first lie. God should have snuffed
us out the first time we refused our mother's request to stop
our cry when we were disobedient not only to her but also to him. And yet, and yet, God is slow
to anger. I suppose God is probably...
I don't suppose, I know. He is the best example that an
earthly father could have. Slow to anger. Oh, how children
try their parents' patience, especially when they're young,
and maybe when they're older, but... If God, our Father, is patient
with us, Should we not be patient with our children? He is slow
to anger as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities
those who fear him. But God is especially long-suffering,
slow to anger to his people, those who fear him. King James Version here says
that he will not always chide us, That word chide means to
rebuke or to scold. He will not always do so, but
the word means further than that. He will not always strive with
us. Oh, he does strive with us at
first. He strives with us in correcting us and disciplining
us, but then he seizes striving from us and grants to us forgiveness. You can read of this in Psalms
51 and 32, David's Psalms on the occasion of his sin with
Bathsheba. When you read them, I would advise
that you read Psalm 51 first. I know that it is out of numerical
order, but read Psalm 51 and then read Psalm 32. David speaks of how the Lord
was so long-suffering to him his own experience in that regard,
that the Lord disciplined him and chastened him, and David
said, I repented. I repented. Furthermore, Jehovah
will not keep his anger forever. He will not keep his anger forever.
As soon as we repent of our sins, he forgives them, he forgets
them, he never remembers them. Now we come to the fourth point,
and that is Jehovah is abounding in mercy. Abounding in mercy. Now, as we observed earlier,
mercy and grace are both undeserved favor. They're two sides of the
same coin, as it were. Mercy, God withholds from us
what we deserve. Grace, God gives to us the salvation
we do not deserve. But of God's grace, we read this,
where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. It is as though the
scales of balance are put up. Our sins are put on them. Oh,
and it comes all the way down to the floor. Then God's grace
is put on the other end of the scale. And look, grace is abounding. Where sin abounded, grace abounded
much more. Not only is grace abounding,
but it is super-abounding. And so it is with God's mercy
as well. His mercy is super-abounding
to us in three ways. The psalmist here describes it.
It is infinite in height. The psalmist says, for as the
heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
those who fear him. as high as the heavens. Paul the Apostle speaks of one
who was called up to the third heaven. The third heaven. That means that in the doctrine
of Paul in that text, there are three heavens. What are they? Well, we assume that the first
heaven is that of the clouds and the atmosphere around us.
The highest of the clouds, I believe I read, may go up as high as
about 15 miles or so. That would be the first heaven.
The second heaven is beyond that. That would be the heaven of the
stars. How high is it? No one knows. Men have thought they had perhaps
determined how how the outer space is, but when they send
their satellites that probe way out in the distances, the satellites
find that the further they go, the further the boundary of outer
space goes from them. Oh, there is a limit to it. The
Scripture says Jehovah walks around the boundary of space,
but we do not know where it is. But it is high. It is in miles
that are immeasurable to us. All right, first heaven, the
clouds around us. Second heaven, the stars above
us. The third heaven. Now the third
heaven is God's throne. What do we know about it? All
right, it is spiritual, not physical. By that I mean it is not necessarily
beyond outer space. It may be much closer than we
think it is or that we assume it is. We do know that it is
up because Paul said, I know a man who was caught up to the
third heaven. Twice in the revelation of Jesus
Christ, God opens heaven and says to faithful people, come
up here. He says, come up. So the third
heaven, God's throne, His abode, it is up. We do not know how
far. It may be just a short distance
above us, wherever it is. God's mercy is that high. It goes further than outer space. And
that is a distance we cannot measure, way beyond our comprehension. It goes to God's throne. It comes from God's throne. That is how high God's mercy
is. If God's mercy reaches all the
way to his throne, then you can rest assured of this, His mercy is more than high enough
to cover your sins. Take all your sins and pile them
up as high as they will go. God's mercy is higher than they
are. Now the second aspect we find
in addition to infinite and high is that it is infinite in width. As far as the east is from the
west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. I've
used this illustration before, but it's the best that I know
to illustrate this truth, so consider it one more time. We want to measure the distance
between north and south on this earth. That can be done. There
is a north pole and a south pole on the extreme points on this earth. So, take
your compass, put it in your hand, it points north, follow
it north, all the way till you reach the North Pole. How do
you know you have reached the North Pole? Because at the North
Pole, your compass will no longer point north, it points south. When you are at the North Pole,
whatever way you turn, you're still looking South. For at the
North Pole, there is no East or West. Everything is South.
Okay. That makes it easy to judge the
distance from North to South. So, go South from the North Pole. Follow your compass. Do South
until you reach that point Well, your compass points only north,
because at the South Pole, compass points north. Measure the distance. Well, that can be done. It is
12,450.5 miles. I did not measure it. I checked
it up. The distance between the two
poles, that's how far it is, 12,000 miles. Now, if God removed
your sins from you, 12,000 miles, that's a far distance, but he
did more than that. He did it not so much as far
as the north is from the south, but as the east is from the west. How far is east from west? Go
to the equator. We have a country in Central
America called Ecuador. It's on the equator. So go to
Ecuador, go to the equator as it passes through Ecuador and go in the direction of east. We want to find out how far east
is from the west. So follow your compass east.
You're going to go all the way around the earth and come back
to Ecuador, same place you started. And yet you have not reached
the west. Just keep going. You will go around the earth
countless times because on earth you cannot measure the distance
between east and west like you can between north and south. That's how far God has removed
our sins from us. As far as the east is from the
west, God has taken our sins to a distance that you cannot
measure. He cast them into the sea. You
can never find them, and God will never look for them. That's
how merciful God is to his people. Then his mercy is infinite in
length. As for a man, his days are like
grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind
passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no
more. But the mercy of Jehovah is from
everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him." Now, our
days on earth, when do they begin on your birthday? When do they end? on your death
day. No one knew anything about you
before you were born, and shortly after you die, at
least for most of us, no one's going to know we were here. Most
people will forget about us. That's our existence. As for man, His days are like
grass. He's like a flower of the field.
He flourishes and then it's gone. But Jehovah's mercy is not confined
to and by time. His mercy is eternal. It stretches
all the way back to eternity past. It passes all the way through
time. It extends off into eternity
yet to come. In eternity past, God in mercy
chose the recipients of His mercy. He entered into a covenant with
them, we read in this psalm. He ordained His righteousness
for them before the foundation of the world. In eternity past,
He did that in His mercy. When we have reached heaven's
glory, in the eternity yet to come. The recipients of God's mercy
are still the recipients of His mercy. He's still merciful to
them. His covenant with them that He established before the
foundation of the world is still in effect. The righteousness
that He ordained is still our righteousness in heaven's glory.
Jehovah's mercy is from everlasting to everlasting, because it is
infinite in length. So consider, Jehovah's mercy
is infinite and high. It will cover all your sins.
It is infinite in width. When God takes your sins from
you, they cannot be found. It is infinite in length. extending through all eternity. Now we come to the fifth point,
and that is this, the fifth and final point. Jehovah is sovereign
over all. Verse 19, Jehovah has established
his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Four
points I want you to see under this point. Jehovah occupies
a throne. He is a king. He is not a subject. He rules and reigns on a throne. He is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has a throne. Second, his throne is in heaven.
It is way beyond his earthly enemies. None of them can touch
him. In the words of Albert Leonard
Murray, and this is said to have been written during World War
I, I put it in your bulletin and we sang it just a little
while ago. They cannot shell his temple, nor dynamite his
throne. They cannot bomb his city, nor
rob him of his own. They cannot take him captive,
nor strike him deaf and blind. nor starve him to surrender,
nor make him change his mind. They cannot cause him panic,
nor cut off his supplies. They cannot take his kingdom,
nor hurt him with their lies. The wall of the world be shattered,
his truth remains the same, his righteous law still potent, and
father still his name. Though we face war and struggle
and feel their golden rod, we know above confusion there always
will be God. That's a comforting thought,
is it not? That's such a comforting thought. In a world full of confusion,
it's going away eventually, but God will always be here. Third point under this point
is this, Jehovah has established his throne. Now, the Hebrew verb
is translated prepared in our King James Version, but the word
means established. His throne is not merely prepared,
it is established. His kingdom and his kingship
is self-derived. Jehovah enthroned himself without
aid from any other. No one helped him. How does our president obtain
his position? We put him there. We the voters,
we put him there. How does he lose his position?
We put somebody else there. Jehovah's throne is established. His kingship is self-derived. And He enthroned Himself. No
one made Him king. He enthroned Himself. He rules
by His own authority, without permission from any other. Without
permission. We have a constitution in this
country. It was established to set forth
the governance of this country. We have a president. He's the
chief executive officer in our land. But his authority is not
absolute. We have a Constitution that sets
forth what he can and cannot do And aren't you not glad it puts
limits? God has no limits. We do not
have a Constitution with God and we do not want it and He
will not have it. He has a decree. He rules by
fiat and we would have it no other way because He's abounding
in mercy. He's full of compassion. If you
have a ruler like that, you're not going to put any limits on
him, are you? You're not going to give him permission to do
this or that, will you? No. He rules by his own authority
without permission from any other. And yet, and yet, in thousands of pulpits across
the world at this moment. There are preachers claiming
to be representing God and speaking for Him, telling sinners God's doing everything he can
to save you, but he cannot do it unless you let him or give
him permission. Will you please let God save you? No one ever was saved under the ministry of a preacher
preaching a lie about God and denying whom and what God is.
God does not need our permission. God does not need our liberty
to do something. God does as he pleases in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. He
never abdicates his throne. There was a king of England once. A king in England who fell in
love with a woman whom he could not have his wife. and remain
as king. And he loved her so much that
he abdicated his throne in order to have her. I am so glad God will never fall
in love with some other woman so much that he would abdicate
his throne. He never will. He never abdicates
his throne and he is never dethroned by anyone else. He's on his throne
forever. It is established. And his kingdom
rules over all. Nebuchadnezzar, mightiest monarch
of his day, built a great city called Babylon. Had walls around it so wide that
chariots could pass each other. beautiful gardens that he had
built, one of the wonders of the ancient world. And Nebuchadnezzar
decides to go for a walk one day on his wall. And he walks
around the city, and beholding its grand, rich statues, the
gods that had been carved, the gardens that were hanging, And
he said, is this not great Babylon that I have built? God said, no, you didn't build
it. And one minute Nebuchadnezzar
is boasting of his greatness and the next minute, by the judgment
of God, he's crawling on all fours. in
the field eating grass like an ox until one day after probably
seven years of eating grass in that field until that day he
looked up and he saw who had built the entire universe And
he said, my senses came back to me because God gave them to
him. I was restored to my senses.
And I will say this about the one who is greater than Nebuchadnezzar. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. Mine is not. I'm going to rule
for just a short time, but His dominion is from everlasting
to everlasting. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. He does according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
Think about that, folks. He does according to His will
in the arms of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. God can send locusts and grasshoppers
to devour our crops, or He can send sunshine and rain to make
them flourish He does as he will in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand
or say to him, what are you doing? You need my permission. No, he
does not. He does not. His kingdom rules
over all. Now, therefore, he is sovereign
over all. He has established his own throne. He seated Himself on His own
throne. His coronation was from Himself,
and we would have it no other way, because this One who is
on the throne of the universe, who rules and reigns, having
established His throne, consider what He is to us. In Himself,
He is sovereign over all, but to us, He's full of compassion. He is gracious. He is slow to
anger. He is abounding in mercy. And
for that reason, we say, blessed Jehovah, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless His holy name. O God, our Father, You have blessed us and we would
bless you. Give us the wherewithal to do
so. To your glory in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.