Our Bible study to the book of
Psalms. This is probably my favorite
Psalm Psalm 103. I want to just go through this
verse by verse and just make a few comments as we go and I'll
try to get it done. In the allotted time. We may
not get through the whole thing, but we'll get as far as we can.
Psalm 103. David begins his psalm with these
words. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And
that's what I've titled this message. Bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. David starts his psalm by expressing
his desire to exalt our Lord. Bless is another word for praise
or to glorify. And he wishes to praise him with
his innermost being, his soul. Bless the Lord on my soul, and
all that is within me, he says. He wants to give his all in exalting
the name of our Lord. And he ends it with bless his
holy name. Verse two, bless the Lord on
my soul and forget not all his benefits. Here, David repeats
what he said in the first verse, and adds these words, and forget
not all his benefits. And in verse three, he begins
to list these benefits. It says, who forgiveth all thine
iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Now, without this first
benefit that's mentioned, everything else that follows would not have
much meaning. It would just mean that life
is a little more tolerable, A little more bearable, but it would do
absolutely nothing for us when it comes time to die. But our Lord says that he has
forgiven all our iniquities, all our sins, all our trespasses. Zephaniah says that he has taken
away our judgments. Now, this word forgiveth is only
found two places in the entire scripture here in Psalm 103 and
in Luke 7, where the Lord visits the house of Simon the Pharisee
and the lady comes in and washes his feet with the hairs of her
head and her tears. And the Lord said to that woman,
thy sins are forgiven thee and Simon and the rest of them thought
to themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins? They did not
know the Lord. Verse 4, He continues the benefits. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies,
who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Now, some of those of us that
are here today have led, outwardly anyway, pretty good lives. But there's probably also Many
that are sitting here, including this one speaking to you, who
have been through rough days in the past in the sense of experiencing
firsthand the depths of human depravity. Not proud to say it, but it's
the truth. And some of us, no doubt, have come close to death
as a result of the life we lived before the Lord granted us mercy.
But whichever class you fall into, you can be sure that if
you're one of God's chosen elect, that your life has been snatched
from the jaws of damnation. Now in Romans 3, Paul describes
the entire human race. We won't read that for sake of
time. But whether you call yourself
a so-called good person or you see yourself as the most vile
of sinners, We both fell into the same class,
lost and hopeless. Verse 16 of Romans 3 says, destruction
and misery are in their ways. For many of us, destruction and
misery and self-inflicted misery was a way of life. We had an
emptiness in our hearts and our soul that we tried every sort
of vice to fill, and yet we remained hopeless, miserable. And I know there was a time in
my life that I was as those described in Romans 3, that I had absolutely
no fear of God. I was raised as a child in a
Baptist church. Not a Baptist church that preached
the gospel, but a Baptist church that preached that you have to
keep yourself saved. And there was no such thing as
once saved, always saved. It was up to you to make that
effectual. And there was a time that I'm
ashamed to say that my mouth was filled with cursing and bitterness, as described in verse 14 of that
chapter of Romans 3. But thank God, for those of us
sitting here that know the Lord, our misery was eventually replaced
with mercy. Proverbs 18 says, before destruction,
the heart of man is haughty. And that's a good description
of us before the Lord came to us in saving mercy. I don't know
about you, but I was not worried about the things of eternity.
I had heard about them as a child, but they had no effect. I had
no fear of God and no fear of damnation. But thank God that
he comes to his people and gently woos us, gently brings us to
himself and gives us faith to believe. But if your experience
was like mine, It was a time before the Lord spoke peace to
my heart that he showed me what I was and what I deserved. And I used to pray, Lord, let
me live just one more day. I knew my damnation was sure
and it was just and it was deserved. And I find myself now praying
that same prayer for my children and grandchildren. Lord, be merciful to them just
one more day. Don't let them perish. And I
pray for them that the Lord will indeed do something for them.
Job describes a condition of man when our Lord shows us what
we are. And he said this, for destruction
from God was a terror to me, and by reason of His Highness,
I could not endure. But thank God that he does not
leave his people in despair forever, because the second half of this
first four tells us that the Lord crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercies, not just mercies, but tender
mercies. As a new mother embraces that
newborn child, knowing how fragile that life is, so does our Lord
feed us with the sincere milk of the word. Verse five, who
satisfyeth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. And what are these good things?
I just mentioned that he feeds us with the milk of his word.
And as we mature, he gives us that strong meat that is spoken
of in Hebrews 5.14. We love to feed on Christ, the
bread of life. We love to hear him exalted and
magnified. And our Lord satisfies that hunger
that David says in Psalm 119, how sweet are thy words unto
my taste, yea, sweeter than honey in my mouth. And as the Lord
satisfies our mouth with good things, we use our mouth to glorify
his name. David said three places in the
Psalm. My mouth shall show forth thy
praise, he said in one place. Psalm 71, he said, my mouth shall
show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day. And in Psalm 34, I will bless
the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. Verse six, the Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Now, here's another blessed promise. And when David tells us that
the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment. It doesn't just
mean he deals with our enemies in this life. It means that he
has carried out fully and provided all that we need to stand before
him in righteousness. This word executeth, where it
says he executeth righteousness, it means this, to perform something
in a precise and planned way. Now that is such a good description
of what our God does for us. Every microscopic detail of our
lives from the time we're born the time we draw our last breath,
our God oversees everything that occurs in our life. And when
we talk about God's pervenient grace in our lives, and we love
to, many times we can see in hindsight that that pervenient
grace, but we need to understand that God's pervenient grace in
our life goes all the way back to Adam. Because if you think
about it, If one person in your genealogy was removed from that
family tree, there would be no you sitting here today. So you
consider the hundreds of trillions of circumstances that God had
to prevent from happening or cause to happen for this group
of people to be sitting in this place today. And it's absolutely
astounding. My mind can't begin to absorb
a God that mighty. Verse seven, he made known his ways unto Moses
and his acts unto the children of Israel. Our God gave Moses
and the children of Israel some insight into his holy character,
both by speaking to them and by his acts on their behalf. He told Moses in Exodus 33, I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show
mercy to whom I will show mercy. This is as clear a declaration
of God's sovereign providence as you can find anywhere in the
scriptures. It is not up to the sinner. It is not you giving
Jesus your heart or deciding to turn over a new leaf. It is
of God that show with mercy. Verse eight. The Lord is merciful
and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. I love this verse. Here, David
speaks of the greatest of all benefits that he mentioned in
verse two of our text. The Lord is merciful, full of
mercy. Showing mercy to unworthy sinners,
the scriptures tell us, is one of three things that our God
delights in. Showing mercy, the second one
is His Son, and the third thing He delights in is His people. That's astounding to me. And
this verse also tells us that our God is slow to anger. There's a saying, an old saying,
I don't know if you've ever heard it, but it says, beware the anger
of a patient man. Which simply means this, a patient
man will not fly off the handle at every slight and every insult. But when his patience is exhausted,
he ceases to be a patient man and becomes a very dangerous
man. And so it is with our God. He's described in 2 Peter as
long-suffering. But who is it he's long-suffering
to? Certainly not the entire world. He's described as being
long-suffering to usward, those that Peter was writing to, those
saints that he was writing to. And why is it that he's long-suffering?
We're told in the second part of that verse, because he is
not willing that any should perish. Now, people say, see, the Lord
wants to save everybody. That is not the case. Those any
are his elect people, not willing that any of his chosen people
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And the last
few words of this verse tells us why the Lord is merciful and
gracious because he is plenteous in mercy. This word plenteous
means abundant, copious, sufficient for every purpose. Now throughout
the Psalms and the New Testament as well, our God's mercy is described
as abundant, exceeding, great, all-sufficient, and more than
enough to satisfy the need. Verse 9, he says, he will not
always chide, Neither will he keep his anger forever. Now this
word chai, I looked this up. I used to read over it and really
didn't know what it meant. It means to scold mildly as to
correct or improve. Now the scripture tells us that
God is angry with the wicked every day. And that that anger
will one day be manifest in eternal damnation. But his anger toward his people
is like the anger of a loving father who disciplines his child
and corrects him, but cannot stay angry long at those that
he loves so much. And so it is with our God. Psalms
30 tells us, his anger endureth, but for a moment. And we know
this verse can only refer to God's people because it says
his anger endureth for only a moment. but we know his anger toward
the dam endures for eternity. In Isaiah 54, we have a good
description of our God. He says, for a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. Verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Our God has
not dealt with us after our sins, because he has dealt with another,
his blessed Son. This is how He can be just and
justify the ungodly. This is how He can be just God
and a Savior. It says He's not rewarded us.
A reward is something that you earn by your actions. And we know that that reward
that was due our sins was carried out on His Son, His blessed Son.
Scriptures tell us the wages of sin is death. And we know
that Christ endured that death that was due our sins. Verse 11, for as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. David here makes a comparison
that anyone can relate to by looking up into the sky on a
clear night. We cannot comprehend this universe,
our scientists with all their satellites, have yet to find
the edges of this universe. Last time I read, they estimate
it's over 90 million light years across, and they've not found
the edges yet. 90 million light years. And that was spoken into being
by our God. Verse 12, as far as the east
is from the west, So far has he removed our sins or our transgressions
from us. Our pastor, Don Fortner, many
of you knew Don. He used to make this comparison.
He said, you can go west forever. and never find the east, you
can go east forever and never find the west, which is a perfect
description of how far our God has removed our transgressions
from us, never to be found again. Verse 13, like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. This word pitieth means sympathy
or sorrow, aroused by the misfortune or suffering of another. Like a loving father or mother
would have compassion on a child that's been diagnosed perhaps
with a deadly cancer, our God looked on our lost condition,
our enslavement and sin, and he pitied us. Our Savior was
so aroused by our condition that he willingly came to this earth
and was made a bloody sacrifice on our behalf. And again, we
find that he did this for them that fear him. Verse 14. I'm not going to get through
all this. Verse 14. For he knoweth our
frame, he remembereth that we are dust. He remembers that we're
dust. What a perfect description of
us, dust. Blown about with every wind,
completely useless, just simply an annoyance to be dealt with.
Men like to think that they're something special. People say,
do you know who I am? But they're going to one day
find out that they're nothing but dust. Nothing but dust. That's a good, good description.
Verse 15, as for man, his days are as grass. As a flower of
the field, so he flourisheth. This is a reminder of the shortness
of this life when compared to eternity. We had a pretty good
drought in Kentucky this summer, and all the grass turned brown.
It looked like it was dead, but
when the rain came, it greened back up. And then this verse
compares man to a flower. We have tulips in our yard. Debbie plants a lot of flowers,
and those tulips are so beautiful for about two weeks. And then
they start to shrivel, and the buds fall off, and then they
die. And that's a good description
of us. As we live long enough, we begin to shrivel up. We get
all wrinkled and bent over. before death eventually claims
us. Verse 16, for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and
the place thereof shall know it no more. Debbie and I were
driving down the road not too long ago. We went past a house. of people that we used to know
pretty well. And for the life of us, we couldn't even remember
what their name was. And that pretty much is what's
going to happen. We're going to one day be spoken of in the
past tense. And other than a few friends
or family, nobody's going to remember that we even existed.
But that'll be OK. It will be in the presence of
one who never forgot us and never will. Verse 17. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. There's
that term again. And His righteousness unto children's
children. It tells us here that the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Now you ask most
anyone you know, what does it mean to have eternal life? And
they'll tell you this, it means life that never ends. But for
something to be deemed eternal, It has to have had no beginning
and no end. And you say, well, how can that
even be possible? I've got a birth certificate that says when I
was born. And there's only one way that
that can be possible, that we have eternal life. Because we
were in Christ before the foundation of the world. As long as he has
been, we have been in him. Therefore, it can only be said
of the elect that they have eternal life. And the last part of this
verse refers to his righteousness unto children's children. Now, there's many places in scripture
that speak of children of being a blessing from the Lord. Debbie
and I had four children of our own. We now have seven grandchildren
and three great-grandchildren. But there are also warnings in
God's word that tells us that the consequences of the evil
acts of the fathers many times carry over to the
children, the grandchildren, even the great-great-grandchildren,
it says, until the fourth and fifth generation. Now you think
about that. Generation after generation left
in darkness because of the acts of one who died perhaps a hundred
years ago. And you say that's not fair.
All I can say is you need to take that up with God Almighty.
So if you don't think that your sin and wrongdoing affects anybody
but you, you better think again. You can be damning children that
are not even born yet to an eternity of misery. That's according to
God's word. Verse 18, to such as keep His
commandments, and to those who remember His commandments, to
do them. To such as keep His commandments, to do them. How
can that possibly include us? Only one way, because we're found
in Christ, and in Him we're seen as keeping those commandments. It's almost 10.30. I think I'll
wrap it up there. I didn't think we'd quite get
through this, As I said, at your leisure, read this song again
and rejoice. And all that our God does for
us.