Turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, I just want to enjoy
this psalm this morning. That's a pretty good morning,
isn't it? There are some scriptures that
are like a warm blanket to me. And I believe you understand
what I mean by that. They're just like a comfortable
bed. Some of us went camping this weekend. And if you want
to appreciate your bed, go camping. It was a great time. But I slept
last night. I told Hannah, I don't think
I rolled. From the time I fell asleep until
the time I woke up, I just laid there. And it was so restful and just
so comfortable. And there are some scriptures
that are so relaxing to me. They are so restful and just
so peaceful. And the thought of reading them,
all somebody has to do is announce the chapter, you know, the book
and the chapter. The thought of reading them,
hearing them, especially preaching them, it comforts my heart. It comforts my soul so much. I get excited about it. There
are times that I feel led to reach from a portion of scripture,
and the Lord seems to give me a message from it, and I just
get excited. It's a special moment. And Psalm 103 is one of those
scriptures for me. I'm sure it is for all of us.
In this Psalm, David blesses the Lord Start to finish. If you get time, read Psalm 104. Look how it starts out. Bless
the Lord, O my soul. Read Psalm 104. All he does,
start to finish, is bless the Lord. Not one time in this Psalm
or in Psalm 104 does he ask for anything. Not one time does he complain
about anything. in this psalm. All he does throughout the whole
psalm is he declares the glory of the Lord in what he has done
for his sinful people. And David's response to the whole
declaration is, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. In pondering
and dwelling on the glory of the declaration of the Almighty
God, David says to himself, and that's what he's doing here.
He's speaking to himself. This is a conversation that David
is having with himself. And in hearing this, it causes
me to say to myself, it causes me to want to have a conversation
with myself. After all of this was declared
and entered into and gotten a hold of, David said in verse one,
bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless
his holy name. I can't wait to do that in glory. Properly. I can't wait to do
that in glory. Properly, David was talking to
his soul and he said so my soul. I'm talking to my soul. Bless
the Lord, bless the Lord. What really blesses me about
this is the meaning of the word bless. When you look up the word
bless, this is what it means. It means. Kneel down. Take a knee. Kneel before. David said, so? Kneel down. Respect the Lord. Reverence the Lord. Bow before the Lord for the greatness
of what he's done for you. Kneel down. Now before we get into this,
I want to acknowledge the fact that every knee is going to bow
before the Lord, one way or the other, either
willingly or unwillingly, either happily or forcefully. The Father,
God the Father, will see to it that every knee and every tongue
honors the Son of God. And I'm glad about that. We quote Philippians 2 all the
time. We quote it all the time, but
turn with me to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 verse 5. says, I am the Lord and there
is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them
bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. I have done all these things.
I, the Lord, am God. That's what he's saying right
here. Look at verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come,
draw near together, ye that are escaped to the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray unto a God that cannot save. That breaks my heart, but
people are doing that right now all over this world. They are
praying to a God that cannot save. Our God saves. Our God has saved. Our God will
save. Verse 21, tell ye and bring them
near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this
from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just
God and a Savior? There is none beside me. Look
unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear Surely
shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men come and
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory.
He said, I'm a just God and a savior. And he said, men and women are
either going to bow to my justice or they will bow to my salvation.
but every knee is going to bow. We are either going to bow right
now in mercy and grace and salvation, or on the day of judgment it
will be in wrath and condemnation, but every knee is going to bow. Bowing in the heart right now,
that's the evidence of mercy, grace, salvation, and that's
why David said to himself, And this is why we say to ourselves,
don't you say this to yourself? So, kneel down. Kneel down. Being made to bow to Him, that's
the evidence of eternal life. Kneel down. Kneel down. Listen to these three scriptures. that illustrate the true heart
of our kneeling, okay? This is the heart of our kneeling.
Don't turn, but Psalm 95, verse six, it says, oh, come, let us
worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our maker. We kneel in reverence, we kneel
in honor, we kneel in submission. Oh, we submit to you, Lord, we
submit. Mark 1 verse 40 says, and there
came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him.
Don't you love that story? Don't you love that moment? Can't
you see that leper? He came beseeching him and kneeling
down to him, saying unto him, if thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean. We kneel before our Lord, begging
from him. We kneel as beggars. knowing that all things come
from His hand, all healing is in His hand, all salvation is
in His hand. Ephesians 3.14 says, For this
cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. Join together
with Him. accepted in Him. We bow our knees
in thankfulness. We bow our knees in praise. This is what it is to bless the
Lord. Bless the Lord in the soul. It's
a heart of reverence. It's a heart of need. It's a
heart of praise. And this is what David was feeling
when he wrote Psalm 103. And it's the same thing that
every child of God feels toward the Lord Jesus Christ. all of
God's people. Go back to Psalm 103 with me.
Let's just read through this. Verse 1 says, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. David said, Soul, kneel before
His holiness. Does that Calls you right now
to want to kneel before His holiness. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
early in the morning, my song shall rise to Thee. God is holy. God is holy. God Almighty is holy. Aren't you so thankful for that?
God is holy. That means He will only do what's
right. When you say God is holy, this
is what you're saying, God will only do what's right. You can't
say that about me. I can't say that about you. We
can't say that about anybody. We can say that about God Almighty. He will only do what's right.
He can only do what is just and good and right. Everything that
He does, we will say amen to it. We don't understand everything
that He does, but we will. And once we do, right now in
faith, we say amen to it. But in wisdom and knowledge and
understanding, one day we're going to say, Amen. He's going
to show us. We're going to know as we were
known. And he's going to say, this is why I did this. This
is why I allowed that to happen. And once we see it, we're going
to say, Amen. Amen. I kneel before you. Bless the Lord. Amen. Verse 1, bless the Lord, O my
soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name, Lord
Jesus Christ. God, man, mediator. God manifest
in the flesh. David said, soul, bow before
that. God came down. I can't get my
mind around the fact that God Almighty walked on this earth. God came down and gave himself
and gave his life to save his unworthy people. What is man
that you would be mindful of man? I could see him being mindful
of the fallen angels, but he wasn't. He was mindful to man. We bow before that. We kneel
before that. Verse two says, bless the Lord,
oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. That word benefits
means everything he has rewarded you with. Everything. Verse three,
who forgiveth all thine inequities. Do you ever get tired of hearing
that? I'm just sick and tired of hearing that. He has forgiven
all of your sins. I've heard that already. I don't
want to hear that anymore. Not me. Not me. So, if you only knew how full
of sin you were. There's one thing, there's a
lot of things that we may have a little knowledge of. Let me
tell you one thing we don't have any knowledge of. How sinful we are. How full of sin we really are.
Soul, if you only understood how full of iniquity you are. Innumerable evils have come from
this soul. But David said, Soul, your Lord,
your Lord Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, has forgiven
every single one of them. All thine iniquities, everything
you've done wrong, all your bad decisions, All mine iniquities on him were
laid. He nailed them all to the tree. The Lord Jesus, the debt of my
sin, fully paid. He paid the ransom for me. Kneel
down. Verse three, who forgiveth all
thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. I'm looking
at people who are full of diseases. I'm one of them. And so are you. We have had diseases. We will have more diseases. We
may have a disease right now and just don't even know it.
But in the same way that our Lord has forgiven and he's already
put away all of our sin, he has already healed us from all of
our diseases. We have diseases that we have
yet to live out. I am quite positive. I have diseases
that I have yet to live out. And He's already healed us from
them. In the same way that in glory with Him, we're going to
then know the experience of no more sin. In Christ, there's
no sin. But in glory, we're gonna know
the experience of no more sin. That's the moment we're gonna
know the experience of no more disease. None whatsoever. Perfect health forevermore. Kneel down. Soul, kneel down. Verse four. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Redeemeth means made the payment
for. He made the payment that it took
to deliver you from death, hell, eternal destruction. Can you, let me just go ahead
and answer for you. No, I can't. That's what you're
supposed to say. Can you enter into the thought
of what it would be like to be condemned to hell? Eternal death, eternal condemnation,
eternal separation from God. He made the payment to deliver
you from death, not only death, but hell, hell, eternal destruction. Verse four says, He crowned you
with loving kindness and tender mercies. Loving kindness means
grace. It means love and kindness, grace,
mercy and grace, tender mercy, tender compassion, the loving
free gift of His grace. So, kneel down. Verse five, who satisfies thy
mouth with good things. Good, he satisfies us with good. Everything he's done is for the
purpose of bringing good to his chosen people. So that our youth
is renewed like the eagles. Everything that he's done has
caused his people to mount up. He has lifted us up. In loving kindness, the Lord
Jesus came, my soul in mercy to reclaim, and from the depths
of sin and shame, through grace, he lifted me. He reached way
down for me. From sinking sand, he lifted
me with tender hand. He lifted me from shades of night
to planes of light. Praise his name. He lifted me. Verse six, the Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He has
executed righteousness and judgment for his people. Those who are
oppressed by their sin, those who feel such great guilt and
sorrow before Him because of their sin. All of the righteousness
and all of the judgment that they need to satisfy God, the
Lord has executed. He has accomplished all of it
for them. Verse seven says, He made known
His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of men. He
told them, He showed them, this is who I am. This is my character. He made
known His ways and His acts. What is He like? What is it going
to be like to live with Him forever? Everybody wants to go be with
Him in glory forever. Well, what will that be like?
What is His character? What are His ways and His acts? This is what it will be like,
okay? This is who He is. This is what we'll find out firsthand,
verse eight. The Lord is merciful. As soon
as we get there, all those dear brethren that have gone before
us, and they say, come here, you see him? He's so merciful. The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, 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. All of that's
in Christ. Outside of Christ, He's a God
of wrath, and He's a God of judgment against sin. But in Christ, in
the sacrifice of Christ, He has dealt with us after His mercy. He has dealt with us after the
sacrifice of His own cross. He has dealt with us in the covering
of His own blood. Verse 10. He hath not dealt with
us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. He has rewarded us according
to His righteousness. He rewarded Christ according
to our iniquities, and rewarded us according to His righteousness.
That is amazing. Kneel down. Verse 11, as the heaven is high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear
him. The only souls that truly fear
him. That's a question I would like
to go around asking people. Do you fear God? Do you fear
Jesus Christ? I don't believe many people do.
And it's because the only souls that will truly fear him are
the souls that he has revealed himself to. It's the souls who
see Him as He is. And He reveals the truth of who
He is to every single one of His elect people. That's who
His mercy is to. And there's plenty of it. Plenty
of us in mercy. Verse 12. As far as the East is from the
West, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. That
means never to return again. Just listen to one of my absolute
favorite scriptures. This is Jeremiah 50 verse 20. Jeremiah 50 verse 20 says, In
those days and in that time, saith the Lord, The iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And
the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found. For I will pardon
them whom I reserve." They're gone. They're gone. Kneel down. I have sins that
I would love to remove from my conscience and my record, but
I can't do it. He did, he did, thank God. Verse 13 says, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord 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
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him. and his righteousness unto children's
children. The Lord God chose a people and
he loves those people and his mercy and his protection and
his safekeeping will be on those people generation after generation
until time is no more. Everlasting to everlasting, children's
children. For this cause I bow my knees
to Him. Thank God. Verse 18. To such as keep His
covenant and to those that remember His commandments to do them.
Who keeps His covenant? Everybody in Christ. The covenant
keeper. Who does His commandments? Every
soul that's in Christ. The one who fulfilled all the
law of God for His people. Every soul who has been given
the righteousness and the sanctification of Christ. Every soul who has
been given faith to look for Christ for all of his or her
righteousness or sanctification. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Verse 19 says, the Lord hath
prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all. The Lord our God. He's prepared
His throne, and He rules over everything. Our God is sovereign,
and He will forever be the all-controlling, all-ruling, almighty, sovereign
God. And I love that. I don't want another one. I don't want another God. I don't
want another sovereign over me. For this cause, I bow my knees
to him. Verse 20, bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength,
that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Kneel
down. Everything in heaven, kneel down. Verse 21, bless ye the Lord,
all ye his hosts, you ministers of his that do his pleasure.
Everything that's in earth, kneel down. I cannot wait to see when
all of his people are in glory. And all the angels and everything
that exists, everything that's there, an ocean of people kneeling
down. Everything that has breath. Verse
22, bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion,
everything, everywhere, kneel before him, reverence him, plead
to him, thank him, praise him. But David said, and we say the
same thing, so even if nothing else that exists does, you make
sure that you bow down. You make sure that you kneel
before him. The end of verse two, David said,
bless the Lord. Oh my soul. He's worthy. He is
owed it. He has earned it. And nothing
gives us more delight than to bless him, than to bless the
Lord. It's the hope of earth right
now. And it will be the joy of heaven
for all of eternity. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Kneel down.