to the 103rd Psalm. Psalm 103. I'll read this 103rd Psalm. Most agree that this is a Psalm
of David. A psalm, in all probability,
written in the latter part of his life. He says, Bless the Lord, O my
soul. Bless the Lord. And all that
is within me, bless his holy name. If I quit there, and you
who are believers would meditate on that first verse, that would
be of a great help in your life. Bless the Lord. That's worship
the Lord. That's praise 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. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
saves you from hell. who crowneth thee with lovingkindness
and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so
that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses,
and his acts under the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful,
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 towards
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 the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth
our frame, our nature, our makeup, our sinfulness, our weakness,
our wanderings, and our fear. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth
that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass. It means that his days are not very
long. As the flower of the field, so
it flourishes, just for a short time. For the wind passes over
it and it's gone. and the place thereof shall know
it no more." Brevity of life, shortness. The span of this earthly
life is not very long in light of eternity. One day is as a
thousand years before the Lord. but the mercy of the Lord. The brevity and shortness of
life, but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto the children's
children, to such as keep his covenant to those that remember
his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord,
ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his Word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his
hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Well, he ends the psalm the way
he started it. O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
his holy name." It was a time of praise, a time of worship
that David entered into in this 103rd Psalm. He had a lifetime of regrets
as to his personal conduct. But his soul was filled with
joy over the mercy and the goodness of God toward him. In this psalm there is a clear
sense of the frailty of this life that I read to you here
in verse 13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the
Lord pitieth them that fear him. 14 For he knoweth our frame,
and remembereth that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are as
grass, as the flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16 For the
wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof
shall know it no more." There is a clear sense of the frailty
of this life, here today and gone tomorrow. There is a keener
awareness of sin, and there is a higher priority placed on mercy
and forgiveness. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. The shortness of life in contrast
to the mercy and the forgiveness of our God. The name Jehovah in this chapter
is mentioned eleven times in these twenty two verses. Jehovah Nissi. Now, the psalmist
here, just from these verses that I've read to you, without
a real study and in-depth of the verses, appears to me that he kneels before God in
praise and thanksgiving and adoration. And I add to that by saying, informing it in a question. Is it possible? Is it possible
to be taken up with the blessings and the mercies and the gifts
and the benefits of God and fail to praise the Lord Himself? Is that possible? I don't think
that's possible. I don't think that you can go
through this life with the consciousness of the blessings of God on your
life and in your life without some adoration and some praise
and some worship and some thanksgiving for these gifts that he has given
you. Don't think you can do it. He
says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now, this is the highest form
of praise. It's not just praise from the
lips. This morning, as I prayed, it
possibly could be just praise from the lips. Because, as I
suspect, most of the time when I pray, I say this to my condemnation. It's from the lips and not from
the soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. It comes from His soul. It comes from the innermost part
of His being. It comes down in the depths of
his being. It's the cry and the desire and
the want of his soul. He wants to bless the Lord. He
wants to praise the Lord. He wants to honor the Lord. He
wants to give glory unto his name. So it's not just from the
lips, but from his heart. From his innermost being he loves
and he praises the man, Christ Jesus, the God-man, whom
he has learned to converse with. He praises him. These spiritual truths in here. over in Psalm 4. Let me read a verse to you. Psalm chapter 4 and verse 4. David praying again. He said, Hear me when I call.
O God of my righteousness, Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. Bless the Lord, O my soul, for
my heart, my innermost being. Have mercy on me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
ye turn my glory into shame? How long will you love vanity
and seek after leasing? See love. But know that the Lord
hath set apart him that is godly for himself, and the Lord will
hear when I call upon him. Stand in awe. Sin not. Commune with your own heart upon
your bed, and be still. That gives you some idea of this
spiritual worship of David concerning his God. All that is within me,
he says, bless his holy name. In other words, all that is in
him and about him. Let me, or let my judgment, let
my judgment bless Him by me submitting to His Word. Lots of us, and
most of us, I guess, we talk about our judgment and His judgment, But we don't
follow through by submitting to His Word, to the written Word
and to the incarnate Word. Let my imagination bless Him
by holy meditation, thinking upon Him, how and what way. could I honor and glorify His
name. Let my affections bless Him by
loving Him and loving what He loves. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless him by loving what he loves. Bless him by keeping his word. Let my desires bless him by seeking
his will, by being able to say from my soul, the will of God
be done. Be like my Master, thy will be
done. Let my good hope, which he hath
given me, let my good hope bless him by a restful assurance of
my end, and the peace of God that passes all understanding. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. His name
signifies His nature and His attributes, who He is. So I say
in my soul this morning that I bless the holy name of God
Almighty and rejoice in Him as He is revealed in the Scripture. revealed in the written Word
and revealed in the incarnate Word that God become a man and
as a man took upon himself my nature apart from sin and answered
all the claims of justice, satisfied everything that was against me
and in the end bore in his own body the curse that was due me. So I bless and rejoice. in that
holy name. And David said, And all that
is within me, bless his holy name. Well, the holiness of God,
the immaculate purity of God, which we call the holiness of
God, is the chief attribute of His glory. is His holiness. It is not His love. It is His
holiness, His purity. His perfection is His holiness. The holiness of His name is that
which beautifies all that He is and all that He does. The Bible says that He is a just
God. and a Savior. Here in the book
of Isaiah chapter 45, he says this. Chapter 45 of Isaiah
and verse 20. He said, Assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together, that are escaped from the nations,
they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray unto a God that cannot save. Speaking of these in the days
gone by that take a piece of wood and make unto themselves
a graven image. And they pray unto a God that
cannot say. Not only do they pray unto a
God that cannot say, they pray unto a God that cannot hear.
Tell ye, and bring them near. Ye, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There and there is no God else
besides me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides me. David
said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
His holy name. Look unto me, and be saved from
all the ends of the earth. For I am, I am God, and there
is none else. I have sworn by myself the Word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear." Then there is another verse here
that I'll call your attention to, or a series of verses in
the book of Psalms, Psalm 85. It has a certain connection. Psalm 80. Psalm 85. Verse 9 says, Surely His salvation, God's
salvation. And that's the reason why David
says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, on the account of who God is
and His great and most glorious salvation. Surely his salvation
is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the
Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall yield
her increase. Righteousness shall go before
him, and shall set us in the way of his steps. Bless the Lord, O my soul, in
regard to the righteousness and the mercifulness of our God. Oh, David, I would be like thee. Now, the psalmist's praise and
gratitude has four attributes. It's personal. He says, My soul. He's not, in this psalm, he's
not writing in regard to the twelve tribes. In a sense they are included
in his prayer. But it's a personal prayer. It's
what David himself as a man has experienced. All men by nature are blind to
the truth of God, to the truth of who He is and what He has
done in His Son for helpless, hopeless sinners like you and
I. The natural mind does not conceive that, does not even
hear that, much less see it and understand that. But David, a
man like you and I, human beings, David experienced the dissipating
of the darkness and the light shining into his soul, what God
had done for him. And he was so grateful and so
thankful unto God that in his meditations and prayers he was
able to say, Bless God Almighty. Bless Him. Gratitude and praise. It is personal, David. It is sincere because he said,
All that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all That is a benefit. It's constant. He says, forget
not thy benefits. It's specific because he says, thank you, Father,
for all the benefits you've given me. kingly glory, exalted David,
David just one of the Israelites when Samuel
was spoken to by the Lord. He spoke to David's dad, and
he said, I come to anoint one of you, one of your sons. as
the king of Israel. And they brought his sons out
to be viewed by the prophet. And the prophet rejected every
one of them. And he said, Do you have any
more sons? Well, he said, Yeah, I have one,
a youngster. He's a shepherd, and he's out
tending the sheep. Well, they said, go and fetch
him here. So, he went to where David was, a
messenger, I suppose, and brought him to where this little congregation
was, and when Samuel took a look, he was not
as big as the insignificant, nothing about
him that seemingly would entitle him to be the king of the twelve
tribes of Israel. But Samuel said, He is the man.
And they anointed him and made him king. So David begins to
list his benefits, how God has chosen, how God has blessed him
and kept him down through all these years. Let me turn back
to that psalm again here and read for you some more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord. Well, that's
what worship and prayer is. We meet here from time to time
on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and a Wednesday night, and other
occasions. And it's not limited to other
occasions or Sunday or Wednesday, but those who have been recipients
of life, the life of God in their soul by regeneration, most of them, I hope all of them
do. I hope they would do it. set aside a few minutes in the
day, whether it be in the morning or evening or all day long. It might be a constant thing. Out of thanksgiving and appreciation
for what God has done, not only done for them spiritually,
but what God has done for us naturally. You ought to bow like
David did and say, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless his holy name. That ought to be our practice. It ought to be something that
we just don't do rarely, but it ought to be something that
we do constantly. and perpetually bless the Lord
and worship the Lord. Not get in a private place where
no one hears you but God. We don't care about other people
hearing us. But in the solemnity of silence, come before
God and thank Him and bless Him. blessing for your great salvation,
knowing that there was a time you walked in darkness. But God
took the initiative and found you and brought you unto Himself. And you experience these great
and merciful blessings. And David, in this psalm, begins
to list all of his benefits. He says, Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities. Forgiveness is of God. And God has already said that
he delights to show mercy. And David said for all of his
benefits, the forgiveness of sins. If there is anything that
we ought to bless God for, it is that Our sins have been forgiven
for Christ's sake. And when we come to see and to
understand a little bit that the forgiveness of sins was not
on the account of any goodness or anything in us or about us,
by way of merit that we deserve the forgiveness of sins. We didn't
deserve the forgiveness of sins. It wasn't because of who we are
or who our families are. It was simply an act of pure,
sovereign mercy and sovereign kindness on God's part. that he sent the Lord Jesus Christ
as our covenant head and our surety and by and through himself
has forgiven us of all the sins that we ever committed and ever
thought of. He laid them on his blessed Son
and has forgiven us for Jesus' sake. All the benefits. Forgiveness is of God who delighteth
to show mercy. It is from God who only can forgive. No one else can completely forgive. Now, there's a race of people
that is alive and well on this earth at this particular time
who believe that the church can forgive them of their sins, can
roll them back, can hide them from God. And then there is a
race of men upon this earth that believes that there is another
man like they are who is the head of the church, and he can
forgive sins. But I'm here to tell you, according
to the Bible, only God can forgive sins. You cannot forgive sins
in fullness and completeness. The Bible says that if a brother
sinned against and the brother comes to you and asks for forgiveness,
then you are to forgive him. And Peter said how many times,
Lord? He said not just seven times,
but seventy times said. Well, if you as a man or me,
as a human, saved by the grace of God, If we forgive this offender
for what is done or said that hath injured our character and
our reputation, the best we know how we have forgiven him, still
it is not a complete and full forgiveness because there is
something there in our nature that lingers with us. And we never forget it. But God,
who forgives all sins, casts them as far from Himself as the
East is from the West. The North and the South can be
measured, but you can't measure the limitless span of the east
from the west. Only God can forgive sins. David, who says, bless the Lord, praise the Lord, worship the
Lord, thank your Father for the forgiveness of my sins. had committed an awful crime. Probably none of us will ever
be charged with the crime that David was charged with. He not
only took another man's wife and committed adultery with her,
had a child by her, but he also had her husband killed. had her
husband murdered, and God to help us to see that only God
can forgive sins and we can have the satisfaction in our souls
that our sins are completely forgiven. God has said to David, I have
cast them behind my back, and I will not remember them against
you anymore. Now, if we could really, really
get a hold of that, I believe then we could bow down on our
knees. We could kneel. We could be prostrate
before a holy God. And we could say, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me, bless your holy name. Bless you, because you hath forgiven
me of all of my sins. For Jesus' sake. Isn't that a
wonderful thing? That's a wonderful thing. That's
the most wonderful thing that was ever recorded. And an act, the most wonderful
act there was ever before, that God sent His Son and His Son
become a man. And as a man, He stood in our
place and bore the curse that belonged to us and took our sins
and paid for them ever with. It is from God and God Himself
who only can forgive. And that forgiveness, lest I
forget to mention it, and that forgiveness is in Christ. Who is our ransom? Who is our
redemption? Who is our righteousness? And
David goes on and says, Who healeth all our diseases. Now, the diseases
of this body are the result of sin. Whatever sickness or whatever form that
it takes in this body, that is labeled a disease. That is the result. That is not the result of Adam's
sin, that is the result of my sin. I am not going to go to
hell for Adam's sin. If I go to hell, it will be for
my sins, my sins personally that I have committed. He healeth
all our diseases. Now, the diseases of this body
are the result of sin. God will heal them when it is
according to His will and when it serves His purpose. He will
forgive us of our sins and heal our diseases. But the diseases
referred to in this 103rd Psalm are spiritual diseases which,
like our sins, are all healed in the Lord Jesus Christ. By
his stripes, Isaiah said, we are healed. He bore, the Lord
Jesus Christ, bore our spiritual sickness and disease in his own
body on the tree, and by, the Bible says, his sufferings, or
his stripes, Are we healed? He said, Who redeemeth thy life
from destruction? We must die. All men die. We may die violently or in great
pain. Who knows what it will be like? of whether we die in great pain,
suffer the insufferable, but we shall never perish. For Christ
is our righteousness, and he hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law. This is a good psalm. You just
get home and read it yourself over and over. As far as verse 12, verse 11,
For as the heaven is high above the earth, how high is it? Well, no one knows. It's so high
that no one ever figured that out. No one can possibly figure
out the distance between the earth and the heaven where God
reigns and where the Lord Jesus Christ sits on His right hand
and is the realization of the hope of every believer that when
He dies, He will go to heaven. For as the heaven is high above the
earth, so great is His mercy. so great is his mercy. It is
like the distance between the heaven and the earth, them that
fear him. And as far as the east is from
the west, so far hath he removed our transgression from us. Know the pity of God, for he
is like as a father that pities his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. All of us pity our children. He knoweth our frame. He knoweth
that we come from the dust. He remembers where we come from. He knows of our weakness. He
knows of our wonderings. He knows in our lapses into things
that are not right. He says in verse 21, Bless ye
the Lord, all ye hosts, ye ministers of him that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord. You read that
again when you get home.