Psalm 103. Title of the message. Bless the Lord, O my soul. To be able to truly bless God,
to be thankful. I like being around thankful
people. I like being around thankful
people. I want to be thankful. I want the Lord to enable me
to be that way. And there is nothing more fitting
than giving of thanks and blessing the Lord for all His benefits. All of them. Paul tells us in
the New Testament, all things are yours in Christ. We are truly the richest people
on earth. The believer, he may live in
a shack, he or she may live in a shack, barely get him by, but
the richest in the world. The richest. Poor Lazarus, laying
at the rich man's gate, dogs licking his sore, was one of
the richest men in the world at that time. A child of God. All things are yours, they belong
to you in Christ. All things are for your sakes.
All things. And did you notice, as Billy
read this psalm, that David did not make one request. Not one. The whole psalm is dedicated
to blessing God and remembering His mercies. The whole psalm. It would be good for us, from
time to time, just to give God thanks. Just to thank Him. Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. It would be good if some of our
prayers would be nothing but prayers of thanksgiving. and
not ask for a thing. Not ask for a thing. Our Lord
said, your Heavenly Father knows what you have need of. We never
pray to inform God. He knows our every need. How
terrible is it for a man or a woman to go through this life, having
never worshipped God, having never thanked God for all the
blessings. Because everything that every
person has in this life, whether they are a believer or not, God's
given it to them. He's let them have it. Our day ought to start with this
attitude, and it ought to end with this attitude. Bless the
Lord. Oh my soul. Bless the Lord. The very fact that we get to
sit here this morning under the gospel to read His Word is a
priceless blessing. To have the truth given to us,
to be able to read it, to be able to hear it, is a priceless
blessing. Now David says, Bless the Lord,
O my soul. And I'm only going to do about
the first 10 verses. There's no way you can go through
all this. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within
me, bless His holy name. David gives us here the spirit
of true worship. Right here. It starts with all
that's within me. It's not just a part of me. It's
all of me, or I haven't worshipped at all. Really. It starts within me. If our worship
of God is not all-consuming, can we call it worship? You know
what worship really is, part of it? It's to be obsessed with
something or someone. Whatever you are obsessed with,
that's what you worship. That's what you worship. True
worship begins with IN first. It begins with IN the soul. Bless
the Lord, O my soul! It starts with IN, and then it
comes out. True worship begins with God, and it ends with God. It doesn't begin with God and
end with me. It begins with God and ends with God. He's the sole
object of worship. The soul object of it. And true
worship is in spirit and truth, sincerity. And truth as it is. Because you're not going to worship
God in a lie. If a lie is being preached, God is not going to
be worshipped. Not at all. It's got to be the truth that's
preached. Which is Christ. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. And God is worthy of all worship. Think upon who He is. God. God. Creator. Not one among many gods, but
God. The only God there is. The Sovereign.
The Savior of sinners. The Sustainer of all. And He
says here, bless His holy name. This is the attribute that makes
all other attributes turn in our favor. The Scripture says
that His name is wonderful. But if God were not holy, His
name wouldn't be wonderful, I can tell you that. Bless His holy, holy. The seraphims cry day and night,
holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Holy. Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits. Oh, we are forgetful people,
aren't we? We are forgetful. Someone will ask me what I preached
on this week, and I'll say, where did I preach from? I've done
it more times than I'd like to admit. We are forgetful, forgetful
people. That's why we must be stirred
up to remember and forget not all His benefits. Our daily bread,
where did it come from? Our Lord said to give thanks
for our daily bread. Thank you, Lord, for our daily
bread. Our health, what health we do have. If He takes it from us, it's
a need be. It's a need be. The air we breathe, everything
belongs to our Lord. But listen, especially, let's
forget not all the spiritual benefits and blessings that were
given to us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
Let's not forget that. Don't let that grow cold and
stale. To be chosen of God, to be blessed
of God in Christ before, with all spiritual blessings and sins,
everything a believer needs, To stand before God was given
to him or her before God ever created the earth. Before God
ever created the world. Before He created anything, He
took care of this matter. All the spiritual blessings that
I need, I was given in Christ before God created anything.
He took care of me first. He took care of all His people
first. Which is nothing more than a multitude of sinners that
no man can number. John says, even now are ye the
sons of God. Now, right now. Now David begins to name the
benefits. And notice, I want you to notice something here,
when David names these benefits, he does not mention one material
blessing. Not one. Not one. David mentions forgiveness. Go read Psalm 51. That man knew
something about the need of forgiveness. He speaks of healing. He speaks
of redemption. These are the benefits that we
are to thank God for. Now we thank God for home and
family and the daily temporal blessings. We do thank God for
them. But the spiritual blessings, the forgiveness of sins, everything
compels in comparison to that. Everything. Listen, verse 3,
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. I tell you this, my iniquities,
I've learned this over the years, my iniquities are far more than
I can count. There's far more than I know
about. Far more than I know about. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy diseases. These are the important blessings.
We have an ocean of iniquities, innumerable. And all of them
are against God and all of them, all of our iniquities, forgiven. They're gone. They're forgiven
and put away. They don't exist anymore. God
put them away in Christ, through Christ, by the blood of Christ.
He put all my iniquities away. If God does not forgive and put
away all my iniquities, He can't have anything to do with me.
Isn't that right? Right. And he did this through
the blood and the righteousness of his sons. Through his blood
and righteousness, God can forgive me of all my sins. God can forgive David of his
adulterous affair with Bathsheba. Of David having her husband murdered. That's the only way God can forgive,
but he can do it. He can forgive the vilest of
people who committed the vilest of sins. He can put away all
our iniquities. But I don't only need all my
iniquities forgiven, I need healing. I need to be healed. I need help
overcoming indwelling sin. Who healeth, He said, all thy
diseases." Spiritual healing. A bad spirit. A bad attitude. God can heal that. God can heal
that. My talk. My conversation. My walk. My heart. My heart. What is a heart right
with God worth? He can heal all my diseases. You know, the medical profession,
they'll come up with a cure for one disease and another one pops
up. Disease after disease. And all
they do is basically throw pills at it. Take care of the symptoms. But God, through Christ, can
heal me of all my spiritual diseases. He can make me spiritually whole.
He can make me so whole and so complete that He and I can have
communion even now. Even now. Sin, like a disease,
goes through the whole man. There's not a part of me that's not permeated by sin.
Not a part of me. I was born in sin and shaped
in iniquities. And only the great physician,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the balm of Gilead, is the only one who
can heal all, all my diseases. I went to a
doctor here, it's been months ago. He did a test and then he
sent me to a specialist. You go one doctor, then you end
up with three or four specialists. My mother, you know, she'd been
sick over the past few years. And I kept telling her, I said,
Mom, you've just got to get to the right doctor. And finally,
I think she got to the right one here a couple of weeks ago.
And they said, well, this is your problem. And they said,
why are you on all this other medication? Took her off all
of it. I stopped her there at night. She was just as bright
and just as normal and just as convenient. It was a lot of the
medication she was on. Christ is the only physician
who can heal all thy diseases. And I tell you this, He can heal
all your physical diseases as well, if He's so pleased. If
He's so pleased. He's the one that can do it. And who redeemeth thy life from
destruction. Oh boy, we were headed for hell. Really. Just like Paul on the
road to Damascus. And the Lord stopped him. Stopped
me. Just like He stopped some of
you. And I know some who have perished, He didn't stop them.
They didn't believe the gospel, wanted nothing to do with it,
and died. But He stopped me. And He stopped many of you. Who redeemeth Christ by Himself
hath redeemed my life from destruction. Destruction. By His blood, we
are redeemed from destruction. There are many that will perish,
but there are some that won't. There are some that won't. They're
not going, the Lord has redeemed them. They're mine. They are mine. They are vessels
of mercy. Vessels of mercy. Many died in
the flood in Noah's day, but Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And Noah was redeemed by Christ
just as you and I are redeemed by Christ. And just as every
saint that will stand in glory, that multitude that no man can
number, every one of them was redeemed by Christ. By purchase and by power, the
Lord redeemed us from spiritual death to spiritual life. If He had not done this for us,
we'd all perish. We'd all perish. Redeemed how
I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. It'll be our song of gratitude
and glory. They're going to sing a new song,
Worthy is the Lamb, if we do this. We'll get to join in that
song. and sing it for the first time
with a heart full of worship and praise and no sin? No sin. Can't imagine that. It is through the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified that all blessings flow to us now. All of them. No, God only deals with me through
Christ. I'm only blessed through Christ. I'm not blessed because
I quit doing stuff and started doing what I ought to do. That's
not why God blesses me. He blesses us for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake. If you and I have real peace,
that comes through Christ. If we have real hope, it comes
through Christ. If we have real joy, it comes
through Christ. If we have real communion with
God, it comes through Christ. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Oh my. If we enter glory, it'll
be because He hath redeemed our lives from destruction. We were
on that broad road headed toward destruction. Blind as a bat,
didn't know anything about it. And He redeemed us. Bought us,
purchased us, and in time called us. Regenerated us, and in time
He's going to take us home. Take us home. Knowing this, should call forth
all that is within me to bless His holy name. Brethren, that
should make us That should, knowing this, knowing this, should make
us wake up in the morning and go
throughout the day blessing His holy name. Thankful, a thankful
people. There's nothing worse than ingratitude,
is there? I don't think there's anything
worse than ingratitude. And I don't know there's anything
better than thankfulness. a thankful spirit. In verse 4, Who crowneth thee
with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Would you rather wear
the crown of a king or the crown of lovingkindness and tender
mercies? I'd rather God's lovingkindness and tender mercies be upon thee.
Look over in Psalm 51. This is one of those Psalms I
didn't write down, but there's a verse in here I want to see
if it's... I believe it's in this one. Yeah, verse 1. David says, have mercy, in Psalm
51, have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. wash
me throughly inside and out for mine iniquity, cleanse me from
my sin. But He says here, have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness and multitudes
of Thy tender mercies. That's what I want to be crowned
with. Crown me with Thy lovingkindness and tender mercies. Many are going to be crowned
with wrath, many already have, but the redeemed, those redeemed
by the blood of Christ, will be crowned with loving kindness
and tender mercies all the days of their lives. Now because of His loving kindness
and tender mercies, He says here in verse 5, "...who satisfies
thy mouth with good things." Now listen, only He, only God
who made the soul can satisfy the soul. Man has been inventing
many things over the years, trying to satisfy himself, and he can't
do it. The only thing that can satisfy
the soul is the one who made it. The only way you and I could
ever really be satisfied, be content, is to be one with God. in Christ. That's the only way.
Only God can satisfy the soul. He's the one who made it. The soul can only be satisfied
when it is made one again with God. When it's made one with
God. When you are able to have real
communion with God. That hit me this morning as I
was going back over my notes. And I thought, communion with
God. Communication with God. Fellowship
with God. And I asked myself, do you really
have that? Do you really have that real
communion and fellowship? with God in Christ. I want that. I want that. I don't want this.
I don't want to just hear doctrines is what I'm saying. I don't want
to just hear a message and hear some doctrine and then say amen
and leave and go throughout the day. I want to have a real soul
communion with God Almighty. And we can have that in Christ.
It's very real. It says here he satisfies with
good things. What are good things? Good things
are those things which have the nature of God in them. Even the blood of Christ is called
the blood of God. It's called that in Acts chapter
20. And not only does He satisfy
us with good things, He says He renews our strength. Our strength
fails every day. Our strength to worship, our
strength to meditate on God, our strength to walk, to walk
and follow after Him. It fails all the time, doesn't
it? Fails all the time. Sin gets us down, the world gets
us down. But when God satisfies us with
good things, gospel things, heavenly things, set your mind on things
above. Christ says, seek those things
which are above. When we are able to do that,
then it is that our strength is renewed. Our strength is renewed. Have you ever sat under a message,
a gospel message? And I'm telling you, you've just
been so strengthened, so lifted up, you just felt renewed. You come in, you go sing, get
you down, work gets you down, the world gets you down, and
then he finally sends a message along, and boy, your spirit is
just lifted up. And you get focused again. focused
again. Now the Lord, He said in verse
6, executes righteousness and judgment for all that oppress.
God's going to avenge His elect. He said He would. He's going
to right every wrong. Justice may appear to be absent
in the courts of men, but never in the court of God. Never. Look here in verse 7, I'll wind
this up. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the
children of Israel. Israel saw the Red Sea parting. They saw the manna, they ate
it. They drank water out of the rock. They saw the acts of God. Moses understood the way of God. When a storm passes through,
a hurricane, they speak of Mother Nature.
But you don't. You don't. You know God hath
His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. You know that. I don't want to just see the
acts of God that go on every day. I want to see the way of
God. Christ said, I am the way. Moses understood that. Moses understood that. I want
to see the way of God. The Lord is merciful and gracious.
Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Our lives prove that,
doesn't it? Our lives prove, they prove that
God's merciful. How many times have you asked
God to forgive you? To have mercy on you? And He
did. And then you turn around and
do something stupid again. How many times have you said,
why did I do that? You feel like you're going to
wear out. If God's mercy could be wore out, we would wear it
out in a day. I promise you we would. He's
merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger. Load of anger. Boy, I'm so thankful
to that. And plenteous in mercy. We will
not wear it out. You cannot drain the mercy of
God dry. Can't do it. He will not always
chide. He'll not always chasten. He'll
not always do that. Neither will he keep his anger
forever. He'll chase at us until we've
learned the lesson. And one thing about God, when
it's over, it's over. He doesn't keep bringing it up.
I told you. Remember this? He does not keep
bringing it up. When He disciplines His child,
when He chases His child, and the lesson's been learned, it's
been dealt with, it's over. I wish the parents could learn
that. Boy, if we could learn that as parents. When it's over,
it's over. Let it go. Move on. Verse 10, boy, it ought to humble us. He
had not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. If he had, we would be in hell. We would. We'd perish. But I
tell you this, if God does not deal with me after my sins, it's
because He dealt with His Son after my sins. That's the only
reason God will not deal with me after my sins and reward me
according to my iniquities, because He did it to Christ in my place. 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. David said, My sin is ever before
me. But it is not. It is not ever
before God. It's gone. It's gone. He put it away. It's over. Gone. Like as a father pities his children,
so the Lord pities them that fear Him. He remembers our friend
in his death. He knows what we're made of. He knows who we are. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. I pray God that
He would burn that into our hearts. And that we would, this would
become us. This would just become us. that
we will bless the Lord at all times. As David says in Psalm
34, I will bless the Lord at all times, no matter what's going
on. I'll bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits.