Psalm 103. I would have to say it's my favorite
psalm. It's hard to say, though, because I love the psalms. I
love the psalms. We've, together, since I've been
here, we've looked at close to ten different psalms together.
But I really enjoy the songs. It seems that I always find just
what I need when I go to these verses of scripture, something
I need in these portions. Somewhere within these 150 songs,
you can find the very thoughts of your heart and the very outpourings of your own soul,
your own heart. I wrote these things down here
somewhere in the Psalms. The psalmist will laugh with
you and he'll cry with you. You need somebody to do both,
don't you? Somewhere he'll rejoice with you and he'll mourn with
you. Somewhere he'll shout with you and tell you to be silent. Somewhere he'll pity you and
then he'll convict you. We need both. Somewhere he'll
give you courage and another place he'll prove you have none.
Somewhere he'll strengthen you, and another place he'll weaken
you, bring you to your knees. Some place he'll justify you,
show you you're perfectly justified, and another place he'll condemn
you before God. We need both. We need to be humbled,
don't we? Some places he'll plead with
you, and other places he'll plead against you. And some places
he'll bring you to God, and other places he'll show just how far
you are from him. Is there unfathomable deaths
in this book that we call the Psalms? And more than anything,
the Lord Jesus Christ is shown very clearly by the man after
God's own heart, the son of David himself. Christ was known as
the son of David for a reason. Look at Psalm 103 with me. I
just want to go verse by verse and hope the Lord will bless
These thoughts on these verses. David says, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Let other people curse God. I want to bless him, don't you?
Let other people snicker and laugh. I used to do it when I
was a young teenager. They want any part of this, and
I kind of snicker and laugh at it all. I want to bless him now. I want to bless my God. Let others
murmur against God's providence and God's sovereign rule. I want to bless him. Don't you,
Terry? I want to bless my God. That means to adore him and to
praise him. When God blesses us, it means
mercy and grace. But when we bless God, it means
praise and adoration and thanksgiving. Look, turn back a few pages to
Psalm 95. I want you to look at the heading
of several psalms here. This is. This is so typical of
David, a man after God's own heart and the man and the woman,
all men and women after God's own heart, this is what they
long to do. really worship and bless and praise their God for
all things. Look at Psalm 95, he says in
the first verse, come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make
a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let's come before
his presence with thanksgiving, make a joyful noise unto him
with songs. Look at Psalm 96 verse 1, sing
unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth,
sing. Bless his name, show forth his salvation from day to day.
Psalm 97, the Lord reigneth. Psalm 98, O sing unto the Lord
a new song. Psalm 99, the Lord reigneth.
Psalm 100, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Psalm 101, I'll
sing of the mercy of God. Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O
my soul. Psalm 104, bless the Lord, O
my soul. Psalm 105, O give thanks unto
the Lord. Psalm 106, praise ye the Lord,
and on and on. Psalm 107, O give thanks unto
the Lord. We need to be blessing His name,
praising our God for the great things. Every knee shall bow
someday and praise Him and bless Him, some forcefully, forced
to do so. I want to do it now out of a
willing heart. Bless the Lord, O my soul. That's
my prayer. And verse 1, back to the text.
All that is within me. All that is within me. Everything
that I am. All that I am and all that I
have needs to be used for the praise and the glory and the
thanksgiving of my great God. Doesn't it? Everything I am and
everything I have. Not with feigned lips. Is it
any wonder, Henry, that's an abomination of God? These people
that draw near with their lips and their hearts are far from
it. He's looking right in your breast, isn't He? It's no wonder
it's an abomination. It's an abomination to us when
we see this faked and feigned love that people have, you know,
on TV and so forth, and much more so to God. And I want to
bless Him with all that is within me, with my heart and my soul. I want to sing these songs and
really mean it. Don't you? I do. Bless His holy
name. Look there at verse 1. Bless
His holy name. His holy name. Who is that? That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless Christ. Bless Him. Verse 2. Bless the Lord, O my
soul. And don't forget this. All His
benefits. We read it there in Psalm 104.
All that our gracious God does for us. for this planet and everything
that's on it. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Don't
forget His benefits. We need to keep blessing Him.
We need to pray and to praise without ceasing and not forget
who gave us everything that we have. Our jobs, our homes, our
families, our automobiles, our clothing, everything that we
have. We need to remember where they
came from, don't we? and constantly give praise and
praise and thanksgiving to him. Never forget that. Never forget
that. I don't want to forget it. Do
you? I don't want to ever forget he's the one to whom I owe my
very life's breath. Verse 3, he's the one who forgiveth
all thine iniquity. David said this is the first
thing we need. This is the most pressing need. This is the one thing we need,
for we need to be justified. and forgiven. We need to be accepted
by our great God because of our inequities. We need to be justified
from our sins. We need to record cleansed, don't
we, before our God's faces. Else we're not going to dwell
with him, are we? We're not going to be in his
presence unless he blots out our transgressions and wipes
the slate clean of the sin that's against us. Our one great first
and foremost need is mercy. And that's what we preach, and
that's what we sing about, and that's what we're going to continue
to proclaim from this place, is the mercy of our great God.
Mercy. Because God has not given unto
us what we deserve. We'll see that in a moment. There's
nothing sweeter. It says He forgives all your
iniquities. If you ever had a spat with your
husband or your wife, probably not. I have. Well, there's nothing sweeter,
though, than to make up, right? To reconcile to one another.
It's a sweet time, especially if you can get her to say she's
sorry. Well, no, it's even sweeter,
though, than when you've wronged the one you love. And to have
them say, that's alright, I forgive you. Nothing sweeter. And there's
nothing sweeter to an old sinner's ears than to hear God say, that's
alright, I forgive you. I forgive you. Well, how can
he do this? How can God, this holy God, this just God, be just
and forgive us of our inequities? How can he do it, Terry? Through
Christ. By making Christ. sin for us,
and making us righteous through him, and putting away our sins
in Christ. Verse 3, "...who healeth all
thy diseases." He said there in Isaiah, I believe it was,
he said, understand this, he said, see now, see now that I,
I am he. Even I am He. There is no God
with me. I kill. I make alive. I wound. I heal. I, the Lord, do all these things. Let's ask Betty Hodges who heals. Let's ask Don Fortner who heals.
Let's ask some of these people who really heals. God heals. God makes sick. Oh, yes, He does. That's what I just read to you.
I wound and I heal. You know, after a successful
surgery, many of you have been through surgery. After a successful
surgery and you're recuperating, you don't tell the nurse to bring
the scalpel and the forceps and all the instruments in and hold
them up and say, boy, I'm thankful for these instruments. Well,
what did you say that John bring that doctor bring in that scalpel.
I want to take a look at that thing. Get that away from me. No, you honor the doctor. Oh,
he did a good job. Those those instruments are just
that instruments in the hands of the skillful surgeon and doctors
and medicines and hospitals and nurses are just instruments in
the hands of a great position. That's all they are. A surgeon
is just God's scalpel. That's all he is. In the hands
of our great physician. He heals. He heals all thy disease. That's what it says, doesn't
it? Know what it says? I believe it. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. All is within me. I'm going to
bless him and I'm going to give him all the credit. Belongs to
him anyway. I ain't giving him anything. I'm just returning
what really rightfully belongs to him. Blessings, praise, honor. He redeems thy life from destruction. How many times has the Lord kept
you from... Rick, what has he brought us
through? How many times has the Lord watched
over us? What has he brought us through
and redeemed our life from bashing our brains out and going headlong
into hell itself? How many times? We don't even
know. If our eyes could be open, we
could see. My, so we'd be blessed. And even now, what he withholds
from us, the temptations, the trials, the troubles that he
could bring our way, that we would rightfully deserve, that
he withholds from us, redeems our life from destruction. Principally,
it is speaking of redeeming our soul from the pit. That's what
it said. Deliver him from going down into
the pit. You ever cried that with David?
Lord, I'm going down. I'm going down in the pit. Deliver
me. And the cry comes out, I found
the ransom. I found the ransom. I'm going
to put somebody down in the pit for you. Put my son down in there. But Lord, why? Because I love
you. Our pardon was purchased on Calvary's
tree. When Christ shed his blood, my
soul was set free. He says here, He crowneth thee
with lovingkindness and tender mercies. God's love and his kindness
are summed up in this one word, lovingkindness. It's a beautiful
Old Testament word. It's found only, it's found in
the New Testament. It's the word grace. Loving,
love and kindness. Lovingkindness. God's grace. It's a sweet word. And God in
Christ continually showers us with blessings. We sing that
song, showers of blessings. Showers of blessings we need.
We've got them. They fall on us every day. His
mercies are what? New every morning. Every morning. It's the mercy of God. We wake
up and breathe. And healthy. Mercy, health is
mercy of God, isn't it, Roberta? My soul, a morning without pain
is God's mercy. Ask somebody who knows. God pours
down blessings upon us, blessing after blessing after blessing
upon us. He pours the oil of his Spirit
upon our heads. We're in over our heads in mercy. That's what we are, in over our
heads. He crowns us with the righteousness
of Christ, dubs us with his righteous scepter, crowns us with the helmet
of salvation. Look at this, tender mercies,
he said. I like that. Tender mercies. It says that
over and over in the scriptures. Tender mercies. You know, sometimes
we may show mercy to someone. But it ain't very tender. Sometimes,
well, all right. I forgive you. His mercies are
tender. Tender, pleading. Can I use that
word? Pleading. He says it. And Jeremiah
throughout the book, look at Jeremiah sometimes. He says,
I'll yet plead with my people. Tender mercies. He doesn't reluctantly
or coldly spare or forgive us, like we do, reluctantly, but
he tenderly says, I forgive you. My daughter, she's
all the time telling me she's sorry for what she does. You don't deserve to be forgiven.
Oh, no. I don't do that. She's all right. Daddy loves you. That's what
our God does with us. Tender mercies. Tender, not reluctant,
cold mercies. Tender. Tender, kind mercies. Verse 6. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. There's something
else we need badly in this area. Not only do we need to be forgiven
our inequities, but we need to be equitous. We need to be equal with God.
And that's what he does. He executes righteousness. How? Well, Christ, the Lord,
is the chief executive officer of our salvation. He came down
here and he executed perfectly, to perfection, this manhood for
us. And he turns around and says,
this is yours. I did this all for you. Here,
that's yours. He executes righteousness for
us. And judgment, judgment for all that are oppressed, that
is truth. We need to be, we need truth. We need God's word. He's
the word of his truth. And that's how we're born again,
born by the word of his truth. Verse seven, verse seven. Yes. He made known his ways unto
Moses. He did. Remember when Moses said,
Lord, show me your way. Show me your glory. Show me what
you really like. Show me your ways. And the Lord
said, OK, I'm going to make my good in this passing for you. I'm a good
God. I'm a good God. I'm going to
show you just what I'm made of. I'm a good God. You don't deserve
it, but I'm a good God. I'm going to declare my name
unto you. What's his name? Who's his name?
Christ. The Lord. That's his name. The Word. Our
Savior. Jesus Christ the Lord. That name
which is above every name. God said, I'm going to declare
it to you. I'm going to send him down there. It's a declaration
of my person. A declaration of my will. Here's
my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm going to declare my name
to you. And he said, I'm going to be
merciful to you. I'm not going to give you what
you deserve. And on top of that, I'm going to be gracious. to
whom I will, that I'm going to be gracious, and you're going
to know just what I really am, what I'm really like. Moses said
he made known his ways unto Moses and his acts unto the children
of Israel. We saw that this morning, that
in spite of their evil rebellion and sin. Do you ever read it? Do you ever go back and read
about the children in the wilderness and the history of Israel all
the way up until Well, Christ, they killed our Lord, killed
all the disciples and the prophets. My, so in spite of their evil
rebellion and sin, He continued to show mercy to them. I mean,
no matter, Moses could be gone for a few days and they'd turn
around and be in out-and-out wickedness and idolatry, wouldn't
they? And God would turn right around
and be merciful to them again, wouldn't He? That's us, we're
steeped in idolatry. Our children, our families, our
homes, money, our possessions, everything's idolatry. Covetousness
is what? Idolatry. Scripture says, and
we're steeped in it. God remove himself for a minute
and we'll run, we'll dance around a calf. Yet he shows mercy to
us. He forgives us time and time
again for Christ's sake, for Jonathan's sake. for Christ's
sake. In spite of us, God saves us
in Christ and keeps us by His Spirit. Look at verse 8. I'm
getting into some good stuff here. The Lord is merciful. Oh, boy. The Lord is merciful. I feel so inadequate to even
deal with these passages. Just read it. The Lord is merciful. He's merciful. Oh, how merciful
we sing. If only we knew. The half hadn't
been told, Henry, has it? Just how merciful our God is.
Someday we're going to see, someday, when we see God put this whole
thing out of business, when we see God in His righteous indignation
and wrath burn this place up, oh, how merciful. We're going
to be praising Him. We're going to be singing that.
And we'll really mean it then, John. Oh, how merciful! That could have been me. It should
have been me! The Lord is merciful. And gracious
I sow it hath not entered into the heart of man the things that
God has prepared for them that love him. Look here, I like this. It says he is slow to anger. Look at it with me. Verse 8. It says he is slow to anger and
plenteous in mercy. You know, we're the other way
around, aren't we, Barbara? We're quick to anger and slow
to mercy, aren't we? That's us. God's the opposite. Aren't you glad his ways aren't
our ways? Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad his thoughts
aren't our thoughts? Oh, we get indignant and just put out with
people just at the snap of a finger. Quick to anger, slow to mercy. We hold grudges. We spelt, we
pout for a long time. Not God. His mercy endures forever,
forever. My soul, God's way is not our
way. Verse 9 says, He won't always
chide. Sometimes He does chide with
us, and rightfully so. If you be without chastening,
this is another word for chastening. If you be without chastening,
Charles, you're as a bastard, you're not a child. Whom the
Lord loves, He chastens. Can we pray for chastening? It's
not a pleasant thing, but if it deems me a child, Lord, chasten me. Lord, chasten me. I may have
told you this before, but I'll tell it again. It's hard to remember
what all you've said. Some of it I'd like to forget.
But Walter Gruber had some children, and one of them was adopted,
and Walter and Betty with chasing their other children, their natural
children. And they said that the other girl, the little Mexican
girl they adopted, didn't really need it. She was a fine role
model as a child. And so one day she pitched a
pit for no reason. And so Walter took her in there
and wore her out, whipped her, spanked her. After he got through,
he said that she had a big old smile on her face. Tears run
down her eyes, but she was hurt. But a big smile came over her
face, and he asked her what it was all about. And she said,
Now I know you love me. I feel like I want to get you
off me. I do. Whom the Lord loves, he
chastens. And if you're under his chastening
rod right now, thank him for it. Thank him for it, because
he's not going to let you get by with what will destroy you. He won't do it. Not a faithful
father. He won't do it. He'll not always
chide or keep his anger. I tell you, you parents, you
get angry at times with your children, don't you? You just
get angry with them. But boy, it doesn't last long.
Your love overcomes that anger, doesn't it? I mean, just like
that. It overcomes that anger. It's the closest thing we can
understand to the love of God for His people is the love of
a parent for a child. And I believe that's the reason
it's dealt with, and we'll see it here in a minute. Thank God he doesn't
give us what's coming to us. Look at it, verse 10, that's
what he says there. He hadn't dealt with us after our sins. God hadn't dealt with us after
our sins. He dealt with Christ after our sins. He put our sins
on Christ. He didn't deal with us. We were
headed to the gallows, a rope around our neck, and somebody
said, let him go. Let Barabbas go. and crucify
Christ in our place. And that's what he did. He hadn't
dealt with us after our sin, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. People say, I want what's coming
to me. Oh, my soul. My soul. People complain about when they
hear of the sovereignty of God, His election and predestination
and so forth. They complain about that. It's not right. It's not right
that God should choose one and just love some people and not
love others. It's not right. Oh, buddy, you're right. It's not right. God doesn't do
things that are according to fairness. In other words, He
doesn't give us what's coming to us. If we got what was fair
and what was right, what we deserved would be cast into hell with
everybody else. Oh, no, he deals according to his mercy and his
grace. Yes, he does. But in a sense, he does give
us what's rightfully ours. In Christ, we have the righteousness
of Christ in him. And when we get before God, we
can come boldly into his presence and say, I'm righteous. What's
your name? I'm Esau. I'm righteous. I'm your son. I'm your oldest
son. You approve of me. And the righteousness of Christ,
now, God gives us what is His. He hadn't dealt with us after
our sins, nor awarded us according to our iniquities. Verse 11,
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy
toward them that fear Him. Now, does anybody know how to
measure The sky, can anybody measure the sky from the earth
to the, what's he talking about here? As the heavens are high
above the earth, so great is his mercy toward, well he's saying
something that's infinite. That's what he says about his
mercy, it's enduring forever, it's infinite. You can't measure
this, no way, you can't measure the heavens above the earth,
men try to, foolishly. Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? But you can't do it. You can't
measure it. Neither can we measure the mercy of God to us. You can't
do it. And he says here in verse 12,
as far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our
transgressions from us. How far is the East from the
West? Hmm? How far is it? When you find
the answer, you'll find my sins. If somebody finds the answer,
then they'll know where my sins are. But you'll be looking a
long time, because they're gone. They're gone. When those people,
when those children of Israel went out there in the desert,
and the high priest got that goat, But those people knew what
this was all about, that ceremony, the scapegoat. When a high priest
made the sacrifice and then he laid his hands on that goat,
and then they got a man that was able, fit, that could take
him out there and deposit that goat. Go out there in the wilderness,
in the rugged terrain. Got a fit man who was able to
get that goat. And the high priest laid his
hands on that goat and prayed that God would forgive the sins
of the people. that God would place the sins
of the people upon that goat. And that man got that goat and
walked out in the wilderness with it. And those people, they
didn't feel sorry for that goat. Take him out of here. Get gone
with that thing. Take him as far as you can. Now
make sure you get him where he can't come back. That's what
they said to that man. Now man, take him. Be gone with
him. And when Christ went down into
the grave, he was gone three days. We saw that before. Three days it took him to take
our sins somewhere. I don't know where that is. As
far as the East is from the West. So far has he removed our sins
from us. Can't be found. Not even by the
omniscient eye of God Almighty. He can't find our sins. Not going
to be able to. He's going to look. He can't find them. They're
gone. Gone. Boy, that'll give you peace.
Scott Richardson said, that's the only thing that'll quiet
a guilty conscience. It sins forgiven, sins put away. The
only thing it will do, sins removed, see that you have no sin, no
sin. Verse 13, and this is what comes as a result of that. Like
as a father, like a father pities its children, so the Lord pities
them that fear him. Do you notice that back up in
verse 11? Fear, fear him. Then it says here again in verse
13, fear him. beginning of wisdom. It's the
very beginning of understanding. It's the first work. It's the
first work in a child of God. I always look for that in a person. Someone who claims to be, I try
not to be, you know, you can't help it. You know, someone opens
their mouth and says, I'm a Christian. I walked up to a fellow one time,
he was reading the Bible. And I began discussing what he
was reading with him, and I could see he was getting aggravated
with me. And he said, I'll have you know
that I'm a blood-washed, born-again, tongue-talking Christian. I'll
have you know. Well, you know, a man goes and
starts spouting his mouth off like that. I'm real skeptical of that person. Real skeptical. Something with
knowing God. Knowing God has something to
do with it. Fearing Him. I mean fearing Him. Not so quick, not so rash. Be
not rash with thy mouth, the scripture says. Let not your
heart be hasty to utter anything before the Lord, before men.
Oh boy, the fear of the Lord. Parents, and respect for their
parents, and it's showing. And we're reaping exactly what
we've sown. A generation of rebellious, of
wild asses cults. That's what we're raising. We
were one, and now we're raising them. No fear. No fear. That's what Paul said
to Timothy there. He said, in the last days, Children
will be disobedient to their parents and so forth. No fear. But God's people try to teach
their children to fear them, to respect authority. And it
goes on down the line. It goes right on down the line
to this thing of even worship. It will manifest itself in the
way that they respect what you do in here. The way your children
respect you and fear you and respect your authority and abide
by your commandments, it will manifest itself throughout their
lives, and it goes right up to the final authority is what it
does. God is the final authority. All
authority is of God, and that works right on down the line.
We need to instill that in our children. I didn't mean to get
off on that, The father pities his children, and the Lord pities
them that fear him. That's the first mark of a child
of God, they fear him. And the Lord pities him. He pities
him. Why does he pity him? Verse fourteen,
but he knows our frame. He knows what we're made of.
How does he know? He became us. We have not a high
priest which is not touched with the feeling of our infirmity,
but was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
Christ, He knows how we feel. Why? He felt the same thing.
He became dust. He did. He became us. He knows our frame because He
entered into it. He remembers we're dust. Aren't
you glad? Aren't you glad He remembers
what you're made of and doesn't expect too much out of you? Oh,
I am. Verse 15, As for man, his days
are as grass, as a flower of the field. So he flourishes. Our supposed wisdom and beauty
and strength are going fast, aren't they, Joe? Some of us
have been long gone, haven't we? Long gone. Fading rapidly. This old flower, you know, Delta
Dawn. Fading fast. Some of you beauty
queens are fading fast, I tell you. Ah, boy. Strong men, fading fast. Some
of us young men. We won't be able to lift a sack
of taters someday. We're pretty strong and robust
now, some of you. It's going fast, going fast. It says, verse 16, the wind passes
over it and it's gone. It's gone. The place thereof
shall know it no more. It's like this poinsettia here. Is that what it is, poinsettia?
This poinsettia here. It's beautiful, isn't it? It
looks beautiful. But I tell you what, in a few weeks, that thing
will be gone and somebody will take it outside and throw it
in the trash can. And that beautiful flower that we were admiring
and talking about, it's so pretty. We're thankful that Nancy brought
this to us. In a few weeks, it won't anybody
even remember. You remember that poem, Senator?
Yeah, I think I do. Yeah. It was all right, wasn't
it? That's us. You remember old Henry
Sord? Yeah, he was a nice fella. What
time is it? That's us. Oh, I remember old
Joe. He was a fine fella. But he's
gone. Life goes on, fading fast. The place thereof shall know
it no more. But, verse 17, I love the buts
in the scriptures. But the mercy of the Lord, it
never fades. It never fades, it just grows
stronger. Keeps establishing itself in
our hearts and our life. Keeps proving itself. God keeps
proving himself, his mercy to us, from everlasting to everlasting. Here it is again, upon them that
fear him. Mercy is only for them that fear him. Right? Yeah, only
the guilty receive mercy, and it's upon them that fear him.
Those that know they're guilty and know that they deserve condemnation
and wrath. And those young ones are going
to get mercy. And His righteousness, and the children's children,
His righteousness. We approach Him by faith in Christ,
and God counts us righteous and deems us His child. Children,
behold what manner of love the Father bestowed upon us, that
we should be called His sons as a living God. Verse 18 says,
Such as keep His covenant. How do we keep God's covenant?
in Christ. He kept it for us. We can't keep
it, can we? Oh, we believe on him, yeah,
but that's not even, we didn't even come up with that. God gave
us that. He gave us faith in Christ. God
set Christ on the throne and made him rule and God sent him
down here to establish this covenant, to fulfill this covenant, to
work out our salvation. And we keep His covenant by looking
to Christ and trusting in Him and relying upon Him for our
soul's salvation. To those that remember His commandments.
What's that? That's keeping His Word. That's
what it is. Remember faith in His Word. Verse
19, And the Lord hath prepared His throne. Whose throne? Christ's
throne in the heavens. God made Christ to be Lord over
all and set Him on a throne. And His kingdom rules over all.
God made Christ. Lord over heaven and earth. So,
he's right back where he started. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Give praise and honor and glory
and adoration to our God. He deserves it, doesn't he? He
deserves it. Bless the Lord, all ye his angels. The angels bless him. We saw
that one night. They desired looking at these
things. When they hear a message, even from feeble lips like this,
they're saying, Amen. Yeah, he does. Aren't these people
excited about it? Bless the Lord, ye his angels,
they do, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word, a delight to do his commandment. And bless
you, the Lord, all ye hosts. I like where the scriptures Constantly
saying, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts. That is, he's the Lord of all
people. He's the Lord over all beings,
whether they be celestial or earthly. He's the Lord of hosts. In armies of heaven, inhabitants
of earth, he's the Lord of hosts. So bless you, the Lord, all ye
his hosts, they're his hosts. The ministers of his that do
his pleasure, whether they be preachers and people or cherubims
and seraphims, his servants, we're exhorted to bless the Lord. We shouldn't need to be exhorted,
but we are. And he says in verse 22, finally, bless the Lord,
bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. You know, the ox knows his owner.
The mass, the ash nose is master created. Do we consider? Do we bless the Lord for all
the things, or do we complain all the time? What we got to
complain about? We got a little pain every now
and then, don't we, a little bit? My, so how much, how much happiness
have we had? Children, we read about there
in Psalm 104, but our lives for the most part, Nancy Charles,
God just opened up the windows of heaven and poured them out
on you. And if he snuffed it all out right now, that's all
right. He's been good to you thus far,
isn't he? Awful, awful good to you. This little girl, your little
girl. My, what a gift. What a gift. He just up and freely gave you
that jewel, that little flower. Bless him. Bless him. Thank him. Praise him. All the
time. No matter what comes to pass,
all ye his works in all his places. And David comes back to where
he started. He said, if you ain't going to do it, I'll do it. Bless the Lord, O my soul, my
soul, all that is within me. Bless his holy name. And then
you could start right back again. Don't forget his benefits. He
forgives all your iniquities. He heals your diseases, he redeems
your life, just on and on, full circle. His mercies are new every
morning, aren't they? God help us to bless him as he
should be blessed. He's blessed us, let's bless
him. Stand with me and I'll dismiss
this in prayer. Our glorious God, our kind, merciful
Father. Our Father who is so pitiful,
full of pity, to a pitiable people such as
we, how we thank you. How we thank you for mercy, for
grace, for salvation in Christ. Lord, make Christ real to us. and make this praise to issue
forth from our hearts, not from our lips, not just from our lips
and not just from our heads, but from our hearts. God help
us. We're stone dead, stone cold,
unless you strike a fire in us. God help us. God help us, in Christ's name,
Amen.