Turn with me again, please, to
Psalm 103. The title of the message this morning
is, Bless 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,
who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with
good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles, the
Lord executeth righteousness and judgments for all that are
oppressed." We're going to look at these six verses and hopefully
You'll be saying with me as I did as I read these verses a few
weeks ago, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Look what the Lord has done.
Look at all His activity for His people. And He's not left out anything
that's good for any of His elect. And there's so much in this one
passage of Scripture. But as I was thinking about it,
He says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And I got to looking at
it, and I thought, well, that's the right term. O my soul. O my soul. Man became a living soul when
God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, but man became
a dead soul when Adam fell in the garden. And it's that soul
that I have inherited from Adam that I'm blessing the Lord with. Oh, my soul. Think about it. That soul that is dead in trespasses
and sins, that soul that Ezekiel said twice, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Paul said it this way, the wages
of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, James
said, bringeth forth death. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Life is so short. As a matter
of fact, you look down at verse 14 in this chapter. 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 flourishes.
The wind passeth over it, and it is gone. The place thereof
shall know it no more. Life is so short. Life is so
short. And with this soul that I have,
how can I bless the Lord? All men are lost. All men are
lost. How can David say, bless the
Lord, O my soul? I think I know how. I believe you do too, you who
know the Lord. David is worshipping the Lord
who did great things for him. Great, wonderful, mighty things
for David. David is probably thinking, out
of all humanity, now he's thinking this personally, and I've thought
it too, and you probably have too, but he's thinking out of
all humanity, God chose me. Oh my. Oh, bless the Lord, oh
my soul. He chose me to be one of his
people, to be one of his own, to save me. That's why later David says,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach
unto thee. His response to what Jesus Christ
had done for him was to bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Hold your place there. We're
going to be going to several scriptures, but I want you to
turn to Matthew chapter 11. We'll keep coming back here.
Matthew chapter 11. We're speaking of the soul. David knew this far in advance. We know it from what is written. But look in chapter 11, verse
28. Verse 28. Our Lord says, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. That's a song that was just sung.
Beautifully. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, And notice, and ye
shall find rest for your souls. David found rest in the Lord
God, in Jesus Christ his Lord. David found rest the same way
we find rest. And it comes from the command,
not the invitation, but the command. Come. Come. That's not an invitation. That's
a command. That's not an offer. That's a
command. Come. Come. you come to the Lord Jesus
you will find rest for your soul and you'll be exclaiming with
David bless the Lord oh my soul bless the Lord and all that is
within me bless his holy name now what does it mean to bless
the Lord I think it means just worship him worship him worship
him isn't that what we're going to be doing for all eternity we're going to be praising him
and worshiping him for all eternity with the four and twenty elders
with the ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands
a number that no man can number we're going to be blessing the
Lord for all eternity how do you worship a king? you bow down
to him simple isn't it? That's how you
worship a king. You go in before a king. The
thing you do is you bow before him. You bow before him. And you look down at verse 19.
The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom
ruleth over all. He's the king. We bow down to
him. Hold your place there again and
go with me to Psalm 95, just a few pages back. Psalm 95, verse
6. The writer says, O come, let
us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord,
our Maker. He's the one who made us. He's
the one who created everything. To Him, we must bow down. Now, we can bow down now. Bowing to His sovereignty, to
His will, to His Word, giving allegiance, to our God, the King. We can do that now. But it's for sure, whether you
do it or not, you will do it. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess Him as Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now you can do it now and enjoy
the blessing of the Lord and be able to say, Oh my soul, bless
the Lord. Or you can, as the world wants
to put it, you choose your own way, go your own way, do your
own thing. But if you go without Jesus Christ,
you will bow down. But then there will be no hope. None whatsoever. How do you worship a Savior?
Look at verse 17 of Psalm 103. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His
righteousness unto children's children. How do you worship
a Savior? Thanksgiving. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. Are you thankful? That's what
David is saying. I'm thankful that I had a Savior
that took care of all my problems. We'll see as we go here. Took
care of everything. He died for me. He lived a righteous
life and merited a righteous life for me. He paid for all
my sin. He gave me His life and Himself. And I'm thankful that He did
all that for me so I can bless the Lord. I can bless the Lord
on my soul because that soul is resting in Jesus Christ. How do you worship a Savior?
With thanksgiving. Why, He's done all things well,
hasn't He? He's done all things well. He's provided a perfect
salvation. And He hadn't offered it to anybody. He provided it for His people. And one day, if you're one of
His people one of these days, the Holy Spirit's going to take
the Word of God that's preached and drive it into your heart.
I don't know how. It's a miracle in itself. I don't
understand it. But He's going to drive it into
your heart. And you're going to see the truth as you've never
seen it. You're going to see the Lord
as you've never seen Him. And you're going to see yourself
as you've never seen yourself. That's how we worship. Bless
the Lord. The Lord said to the woman at
the well, the Lord seeks those to worship Him in spirit and
in truth. How are you going to do that?
Only if the Spirit of God, only if the Spirit of God brings that
to you, reveals that to you. We worship Him in holiness. You
see, He's our sanctification. We worship Him in holiness. He's
holy. I'm evil. But only as He has done something
for me. That I'm sanctified in Christ.
Who is my sanctification. How do you worship the Lord?
How do you bless the Lord? Well, look at the end of Psalm
104. The end of Psalm 104, verse 33. He says, I will sing unto the
Lord as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God
while I have me. Singing to yourselves in songs
and hymns and spiritual song, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord. A lot of folks like that, in your
heart part, because you don't have to be out loud. But we sing,
don't we? We sing. We sing from our hearts. We praise His holy name. That's
what we do here in our services. Look at verse 34 there. My meditation
of him shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord. I'm going to meditate on him.
I'm going to think about him. Bless the Lord. I'm going to
think about all his verse 2 of Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits. That's his grace. That's His grace. Bless the Lord
for all the grace that He has shed upon us. And not one deserves
these kind of benefits. Not one. And there's no cause
in us that would bring these benefits to us. It's only in
Him. You see, the Lord is the benefactor. We're the beneficiaries. The Lord has done everything
and has given grace. His chosen are the beneficiaries
who receive the grace of God. You know the greatest gift that
God has ever given? Great is the mystery of godliness.
God became a man. Jesus Christ. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The
greatest gift, the greatest gift is Jesus Christ himself. James and I were talking about
this the other day, and you know, the Lord loves, the Lord gives,
the Lord is gracious only in one person. Only in one person. We know the
love of God through one person. We know the grace of God through
one person. We know all these benefits that
he lists here in verses 3 to 6 in one person. I would think that it would behoove
us to meditate on that one person. To think about our Lord Jesus
Christ. To keep Him in our minds. To
meditate upon Him. You know, He has riches. The
Bible speaks of the riches of His grace. How rich He is in
grace toward His people. And if He chooses you to show
you grace, that's, as Paul learned, sufficient. Sufficient. Not just sufficient, but it's
the benefits. With His grace comes Him. Or should I say, coming
Him brings grace. He gives more grace. Grace for
grace. His grace teaches us. Are you saved by His grace? Or by grace are you saved through
faith? That not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, lest anybody
should know. It's a sovereign grace. He gives
it to whomever He will. And He says to them, I will be
their God, and they shall be My people. It's a sovereign grace. He gives
it to whomever He will. It's an eternal grace. That mercy
we saw in verse 17 is from everlasting to everlasting. That grace started
the foundation of the world. I was speaking to my son this
last week and we were talking about a couple of verses in scripture
and I said, do you realize that there was a Savior before there
ever was a sinner? Do you realize there was a Lamb
of God before there ever was a sacrifice? He chose us before the foundation
of the world. Before Adam and Eve were ever
created and put on this earth, there was a Savior. There was
the Lamb of God. It's eternal grace. It's unchanging
grace. I, the Lord, change not. Yes,
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And you can put
whatever attribute you want there. And it's all according to His
purpose. We read it so many times, but
hold your place there. Let's read it again in 2 Timothy
chapter 1. I don't believe we'll ever get
over this, and that's why we with David say, Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9,
speaking of Jesus Christ, who has saved us and called us with
an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. On purpose. On purpose. He purchased us It's by the purchase
of God. By His righteous life, He merited
the blessings of God for us. Righteousness for us. By His
atoning death, He cancelled the debt of sin, the songwriter says. He substituted Himself for us
and he satisfied the justice of God that Paul can say to young
Titus not by works of righteousness which we have done but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost Christ did it alone didn't need
any help Help wasn't necessary. As a matter of fact, if we look
at it carefully through the scripture, help was not wanted, help was
not needed, help was not required, and help was not allowed. Our Lord did it all. Everything. Man's help was not
needed when he substituted himself for us. Man's help was not needed when
he brought in everlasting righteousness and salvation. He did it all. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. Verse 3 of Psalm 103. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Aren't you glad? My greatest
need, my greatest problem is me, my sin. And I can't do anything about
it. I can, new year, turn over a
new leaf, try a new system, but it don't work. I can't do anything about my
sin there's not a sacrifice I can make that would take care of
my sin even my death without God and in sin would last eternally
because I can't do anything about it and the Lord has forgiven
his people Look at verse 10, Psalm 103. 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
toward them that fear him, as far as the east is from the west. So far hath he removed our transgression. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He's forgiven us. He's paid for
all our sins. He purged our sin. He scrubbed
them out with his own blood. He put away our sin. As far as
the east is from the west, he's put them away. According to Isaiah,
he's put them behind his back. Never remember them again. Again,
according to Isaiah, as a thick cloud He has covered our sins. And Paul in Hebrews said, and
He will never remember them against us again. No wonder we can say, bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. Our sins are forgiven! And they were forgiven to us. Jesus Christ completed this at
the cross when he said, it's finished. He was the sacrifice
for our sin. Not one of them will be held
against us. Like Abel's sacrifice, God had
respect. to his son that sacrifice was
made and it was done for all eternity what a blessing my sins are forgiven number two who forgiveth all
thine iniquities in verse three who healeth all thy diseases I need to be made whole. Not
just that my sins were given, but I need to be made whole.
And isn't that what the Lord did so many times while He was
here on this earth? And He healed somebody and He
made them whole. He took away the problem and
then made them whole. He heals our diseases. By His
stripes, He says, Isaiah said, by His stripes we are healed. He healeth all your diseases. He's the cure. Turn with me to
Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 30. He healeth all our diseases. Jeremiah chapter 30 Look down
at verse 12 For thus saith the Lord Thy bruise
is incurable and thy wound is grievous There is none to plead
thy cause that thou mayest be bound up thou has no healing
medicines all thy lovers have forgotten thee and They seek
thee not, for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy,
with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine
iniquity, because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for
thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the
multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased.
I have done these things unto thee. Therefore, all they that
devour thee shall be devoured, All thine enemies, every one
of them, shall go into captivity, and that spoil thee shall be
a spoil, and all that pray upon thee will I give for a prey. Now notice. For I will restore
health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith
the Lord, because they called thee an outcast, saying, This
is Zion, whom no man seeketh after. There was one man there. That was the God-man who sought
after Zion. And instead of being forsaken
and outcasts, now they're his bride. Now they're
his body. He heals all our diseases. That leprosy of sin that we experience, From the sole of our foot to
the top of our heads, putrefying, ugly, festering sores. He healed. That sin, that problem,
he healed. No wonder Malachi said he's the
son of righteousness with healing in his wings. Back to Psalm 103, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth
thy life from destruction. I like that, don't you? I'm redeemed. I'm forgiven, I'm healed, I'm
redeemed. No wonder David said, I can bless
the Lord all my soul and bless Him for all His benefits. There's
His forgiveness to me, His healing of me, and His redemption. He bought me. He bought me with
a price that can never be duplicated. Because it was the price of the
God-man. A lot of blood has been shed.
Some people, scarce some may even give their lives for somebody
else. But God commended His love toward
us. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. He redeemed us. We've obtained
eternal redemption through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has given
us plenteous Redemption. Not just redemption, but plenty
of Psalm 130. Hosea was told to marry a woman
who was a whore. And she went whoring after her
other lovers. And he found her at the slave
auction block. And he bought her. And brought
her home with him. There's Naomi and Ruth that came
up out of Moab. And perhaps, by God's providence,
it wasn't perhaps, by God's providence, she went to a field of Boaz and
gleaned there. And Boaz bought her. and Naomi's land back for Naomi. He was the kinsman redeemer. He had the ability. He had the
power. He had the desire. And he bought her. And we're bought with a price.
The precious blood of Jesus Christ. He shed that blood. for his people. He is our redemption. He's that
pearl of great price. The guy said, I'll have to buy
that whole field to get it, but I'll do it. As a matter of fact, come to
think of it, that new Jerusalem had 12 gates,
all a pearl, one pearl. Not a cluster of them, but one
pearl. Christ. Precious Jesus Christ
who is our redemption. The latter part of verse 4, he
says, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Loving kindness. We're drawn
with love. Loving kindness. Jeremiah said
it. We're drawn with that loving kindness and that's an everlasting
love. It's not an emotional love like
we have. Somebody loves us, we love them
back. Somebody gets on our wrong side, we stop loving. Or we show
some hatefulness. But it's an everlasting love.
His kind of love. We're drawn with the cords of
a man. The man, Hosea said, with bands
of love. Our Lord said, I've loved them
to the end. I don't care what end you think
about. Doesn't matter. He loved them
to the end. He loved them to the completion.
He loved them to the finishing of the thing. And this was His
purpose in completing salvation. God wanted many sons to bring
the glory. So Jesus Christ came, died for
their sin, made them whole, redeemed them, justified them, and then
presents them to His Father. A glorious church, without spot
or wrinkle, holy and without blemish, faultless. bless the Lord oh my soul if
he could do something like that and he did bless the Lord oh
my soul the proof of God's love is his own son who gave himself
for us behold what manner of love the
father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God again Hosea God speaks through
Hosea and says, I will love them freely. Freely. Didn't cost a thing. Not on our
part, but it cost him everything. He left heaven's glory, humiliated
himself, became a man, and died for you and me. Then look at
the letter. The latter two words of verse
four, tender mercies. Tender mercy. I need mercy. Oh, how I need mercy. I'm guilty.
And what can a guilty person do but beg for mercy? Whether
God gives mercy or not, that's up to Him. It's His purpose. It's His decree. It's His choice. But I beg for mercy. Oh Lord,
have mercy on me as the public has said at the temple. But then
I find according to Micah chapter 7, the Lord delights in mercy. Do you know He wants to give
mercy? He wants to give mercy. He wants
to give mercy to His people. And He'll do it. He'll show mercy
to you. It is the Lord's glory. It's
all the goodness of God. And He talks about plenteous
of mercy. Plenteous of mercy. Look at verse 8. The Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He's got enough mercy for everybody. for all His people. He's got
enough mercy for them. Quickly, we'll move on here.
The next one is verse 5, Who satisfieth thy mouth with good
things. He satisfies. Bless the Lord. He's the only one who can satisfy. This world can't do it. I can't
do it myself. My friends can't do it. But Jesus
Christ can. He satisfies. He satisfied, He
said with my mouth, when confession is made unto the Lord, we'd rather
talk about Him than anything else, wouldn't we? He satisfies. The father is satisfied
with the son. David is satisfied with the son.
And by the way, if you're satisfied and you delight in the son, you're
delighting in the father too. And he delights in that. He loves it when it's all about
his son. The next one is found in the
end of verse five, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Renewal, a new man. Bless the
Lord, he's made us a new man in Christ. A new creature in
Christ. We have new life in Christ. We
who were the ones who were but dust are now renewed in Jesus Christ. No wonder David cried after he
had sinned against the Lord. Renew a right spirit within me. Renew. I need that renewal. He is my renewal. And I bless
the Lord because He is. I need a daily renewal. Don't
you? He's faithful every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. His
mercies are there every morning. I need that every morning, don't
you? And he gives it. He gives it to his
people. And then in verse 6, the Lord
executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Truth
and mercy have met together in Jesus Christ. That righteousness
and judgment has all been taken care of. I am complete in Him
who is the complete one. He is the total package. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, He is all I need to know. And by His grace and His mercy,
He is all I want. You see, He was judged in our
place. And now there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And who do you do this for? All
the oppressed. All the oppressed. Do you know
that you're oppressed? Do you know you have a problem
with yourself? You know you have to live in
this body of flesh. All the oppressed, those who
are oppressed by sin, do you realize that you are a sinner
before a holy God? He died for the ungodly and He
died for sinners. If there's any good in you, He
didn't die for you. You realize you're oppressed
by Satan, even though his head has been crushed, he still walk
about at a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Maybe we're depressed by this
present evil world. Let me tell you something, the
world passes away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the
will of the Father abideth forever. You see, it's all done for the
oppressed. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And He has the ability
to do all this. He's able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. Wherefore He's able to save to
the uttermost that come unto God by Him. He's able. And He's able to keep you until
the day of Jesus Christ. Now, if you want to learn more
about His ability, just read Psalm 104. He tells us the benefits
here in 103. In 104, He tells us He's able. He's able. Are you blessing the Lord with
all your soul this morning? Our Father, thank you for your
word this day. Thank you for salvation complete
in Jesus Christ. And may the Spirit of God speak and work in hearts this
morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen,
let's stand and be dismissed with it with a song Number 200 I'll find it here. 209 in your
hymnal. Number 209. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all his benefits, all his grace. Grace that exceeds our sin and
our guilt, yonder on Calvary's head. God's grace, grace that will
pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace. God's grace, grace that is greater
than all our sin.