Looking here in Psalm 103, this is a Psalm of David, as
many of them are. Not all of them have that subtitle,
but that is given to us in this particular one. Psalm 103 says,
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 thy 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 eagle's. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and 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. 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 transgressions from us. 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 his children's children. To such as keep his
covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom
ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels
that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his
host, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord,
all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Now, This is one of those Psalms
that ends with the same words that it begins with. Bless the
Lord, O my soul. Now that must have some meaning
that would be beneficial for us to think of. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. Now, it's impossible that a man
could add anything to the Lord. But it is the privilege of men,
by the grace of God, to be given a desire to bless the Lord. In other words, if you bless
somebody, you're asking or you're giving to them something of worth. If you put blessings upon something,
you're adding something to that. Now, it's impossible for men
to add anything to the Lord. Now a lot of times people think
they can bring something to the Lord. And they think in their
mind that the Lord will be impressed with something they do. But if
you pause and think about the fact that He owns all things,
what could you possibly give Him? That's not already His. And so it is that men are in
a position of having nothing of value to bring to the Lord. But yet He gives them a desire
to do so when He, by His grace, calls man. The man desires to
bless the Lord. He desires to honor the Lord. He desires to give unto the Lord
such things as he can. And, you know, as the more we
grow in grace and the knowledge of the Lord, we realize how pitiful
Those things that we would think we would bring unto the Lord
really are, but nonetheless, they are those blessings from
God to us in order to be able to bless the Lord, to have such
an idea in our mind or such a desire that we would desire to bless
His name. Now, about the only time that
most men speak the name of God is when they're angry. and when
things don't go right, you know, and they use his name as an expression. Such is an awful thing, really. A man, you know, there's very
few things that a man can do that's more horrendous, in my
mind, than to speak the name of the Lord in vain. Now, that
doesn't mean using it as a curse word. Now, surely men do use
the name of the Lord as a curse word, but just speaking the name
of the Lord offhandedly, without reverence. You know, one of the
things that troubles me, probably as much as anything else in the
society in which we live, is the freedom with which I hear
people use this term, oh my God. Don't ever use that term unless
you have a perfect reverence for the one whom you call upon. Because it's an awful thing to
take the name of the Lord in vain. And using such terminology
as that displays a disregard for the honor and glory which
is due unto His name. Same thing with using the name
of Jesus. There's now a day goes by that I don't hear in my place
of business somebody using the name of Jesus Christ as some
expression. And it's like a knife that goes
in my heart every time I hear that because they use it in such
terms without even thinking of who it is they're speaking of.
You know, it's just a term to them. But that's, the children
of God desire that the name of the Lord is magnified. That he's
lifted up, that he's exalted. Not that he's just, you know,
some handily and offhand way of conversation that men use
his name. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now, the word soul, We've all
heard and been taught about the soul, and we all have probably
been taught, ever since we've been knee high, that we have
a soul. And I know what men mean when
they say that, but the reality is, if you look at what the scripture
says, man doesn't have a soul. In other words, we're not a body
which has a soul, but rather the opposite of that is true.
We are a soul. which has a body. Because the
Lord fashioned the body of man from the dust of the earth. But
he was just like the creation was when he said it was without
form and void. It had no use, it was not of
any value, just a blob of the dust of the earth that he put
together. But it says that he breathed into man and he became
A living soul. Now it's interesting as you read
in the scripture that the word body and the word soul are interchangeable
in the Old Testament. When you read of the body of
a man and you read of the soul of a man, it's the same word
that you use, nephesh. It means a living creature. Now, There is a discerning between
the body, the soul, and the spirit, but it's not a discernment that
men are able to make. The Word of God, though, is sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul
and spirit. Now, we can kind of imagine in
a minute, to an extent, the difference between the soul and the body.
But it's impossible for a man to discern between the soul and
the spirit. Because the spirit of a man and
the soul of a man are in essence the same thing except that those
two things can be divided by the sharpness of the word of
God. Now the soul of a man and the
man are the same. A man is a living soul. The scripture
says, fear not them that are able to destroy the body, but
fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell. Now, that should cause a man
to tremble, to consider, that's what he said, fear him. We ought
to fear him. In fact, we read in this psalm
numerous times the Lord's ear open to those that what? Fear
Him, tremble before Him, that they reverence His name, that
they have regard unto who He is, that they're not just lightly
considering that one before whom they stand. Bless the Lord, O
my soul and all that is within me. If a man is a soul, then it is
important that we understand that the Lord would be praised
by the whole man, not just in some fleshly manner. See, there's
a lot men think and they devise and design all sorts of activities
that they call worship. And they say, well, we're going
to worship the Lord, and this is how we're going to do it.
You remember what the Lord said to the woman at the well in Samaria? She said, because that's the
idea she had. She said, well, Lord, you know,
our fathers, that is, our teachers, this is our tradition, that we
would worship in this mountain. But you Jews, you all say we
ought to worship down there in Jerusalem. Now, which is it? He said, woman, you don't even
know what you're talking about. He said, the Father seeketh such
to worship him as worship him in spirit and truth. That's the
only way the Lord will be worshiped. Now he's not worshiped because
men decide and devise ways in which they worship him. But he
is worshiped as the Spirit of God constrains men to magnify
his name. Let all the earth keep silence
before Him. See, that's a form of worship.
Because in fact, it's probably the truest form of worship. Because
it is when a man is silent before Almighty God. I'm not talking
about just being unconscious. I'm talking about being silent
before God. There's a difference between
not making any noise and being silent before God. Being silent
before God is when you know you have nothing to say. There's
nothing you can say. That's what, be silent. Keep
silence, all created things. And wait your maker's nod. My
soul stands trembling as she sings the honors of her God. Life, death, and hell, and worlds
unknown, hang on his firm decree. Keep silence, all created things.
And that's captured in what the psalmist is saying here. Bless
the Lord. Oh, my soul. This is not an offhanded
thing. This is not some little glib
saying that men say, and it's not enhanced by the more that
somebody says it. You know, some folks have the
idea that if you just say something just over and over and over and
over and over, that it makes it more true or something. I've heard people just say the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, just over and over and over and
over and over, as if, if they just said it enough, it'd be
like rubbing Aladdin's magic lamp, and it would, you know,
something would happen, and it'd be like a magic potion or something. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is not a magic potion, but it's the name of the savior of sinners,
the one who stooped and died. that we might have eternal life.
And we ought to be on our faces before Him in thanksgiving and
praise. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that's within me. Not just some offhanded thought
that we have, but all that's within me. You see, the true
worship of God involves the whole man, body, soul, spirit, because
he desires to worship the Lord, not just to. you know, go to
church or just to gather up somewhere and go through some motion, but
he desires to magnify the Lord's name with his whole self. And all that is within me, everything,
all of my powers, everything that I possess, bless his holy
name. That is, and he has a name which
is holy. It's set apart. It's a name which
is above every name, the scripture says. There's one name that is
that name which is above every name that is named. There's not
another name that's named among men that is higher than this
name. You cannot speak a name higher
than the name of Jesus. It's a name. And the Lord has seen fit. to
come and dwell among men and make himself known unto men. See, men could not have known
God if he didn't show himself to them. Now, man can survey
nature and know that there is a God. I'm not talking about
knowing that there is a God. See, a man is a fool, the scripture
says, who says there is no God. I mean, that's idiotic, is it
not? I mean, you can just look around
yourself. You can think about one thing, just take a flower.
Forget about all the rest of creation, but just take a flower
and hold it in your hand and look at it, the intricacies of
it. And the witness of that flower
tells a man that there is a God. And that's important that men
know and understand that, but that's not believing God. That's not worshiping God. That's
not knowing God. I mean, you can know that He
made the world, but you might not know Him. You can't approach
unto Him because He dwells in a light to which no man can approach. His holy name. Remember when
the Lord appeared to Isaiah in his vision in the year that King
Uzziah died? He said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And he said there were six angels,
seraphim, that gathered around his throne. And they had six
hands, and they covered their feet, and they covered their
eyes, and they covered their mouth. And even with a covered mouth,
they sang, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was
and is and is to come. And Isaiah, what did he do? Did
he dance? You know, some folks tell you,
well, you know, when you worship the Lord, you're gonna dance
before him. Well, you might. I don't know. But I never found
anybody in the scriptures that came face to face with the Lord
that ever danced. You know what they did? Every
one of them that saw him face to face, they fell on their face
as dead men before the Lord. Daniel said, my comeliness, all
that was beauty within me was turned in me into corruption
and I had no strength. John, when he saw him on the
Isle of Patmos, and he said, I fell at his feet as a dead
man. And he reached his hand and he
touched him. And that's the only way, you
see, that a man can come into the presence of Almighty God,
is that if he is pleased to show himself unto men. Because men,
by nature, cannot see God. They will not see God. Now, it
is a common thing. You know, we sang a song there
a moment ago about the crowd. Now, there's a crowd of people
in the earth that I mean, religion is a common thing. And the religion
of men is, in every society has its own religion. And so it's
not an unusual thing to find religious people. There'll always
be a crowd. There were crowds that thronged
around the Lord Jesus Christ when he walked among men. Everywhere
he went, the crowds followed him. And that's the way that
religion is. Men crowd around, but there was
only a few whom the Lord was pleased to show himself to. He
hid himself. He said, Father, I thank thee
that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and
revealed them unto Baal. And so it is that the Lord is
holy. He's set apart. His name is holy. It's a name that should not be
spoken. apart from worship. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Don't forget
what it is that the Lord is pleased to give us, because everything
that we have comes from his hand. Forget not all his benefits.
Don't forget some of them, but forget not all of them. You know,
some people, they thank the Lord for some things, but they don't
thank Him for all things. Now, when was the last time,
when something didn't go like you wanted it to, that you thanked
the Lord? It's not natural, is it? I mean, when things go well,
boy, everybody, praise the Lord. You know, if you get, let's say
somebody give you a $100,000 check tomorrow. Oh, praise God,
you know, you'd just be hopping and carrying on and all that
stuff. But what if somebody comes along and takes $100,000 from
you? You wouldn't be saying the same
thing, would you? But you see, all of the things
that God works in his people, he works for their benefit. And
that's what he said here. Oh my soul, and forget not all
his benefits. His benefits are not just the
good things. His benefits are all the things
that he does for his children. Well, we know that God works
all things together for good to them that love him and are
the called according to his purpose. What a privilege it is to be
a child of God, to walk in his blessing, forgetting not all
his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth
all thy diseases. Now, those two things go hand
in hand. Now there's plenty of folks that
run around claiming that they can heal folks of their diseases. And I certainly wouldn't be against
anybody that can heal somebody's physical malady. I mean, if there
was somebody who could touch somebody's head and cause them
to no longer see, no longer continue to be blind or deaf or whatever,
I certainly wouldn't be opposed to it. I wouldn't think that
was a bad thing. But I'll tell you this, a man
can be healed of his earthly diseases and still perish. But the people
of God, you see, He said He heals all of our diseases, and He forgiveth
all of our iniquities, because the forgiving of our iniquities
is the healing of our diseases. He healeth all our diseases.
You see, all of our diseases are the result of our sin, and
sin is the greatest disease that we have. Now, most people, they
would trade, if they could If they could have a life free from
trouble and heartache, they would trade that for their eternal
well-being. You know, in other words, the
thing that they see now is the thing that they would desire
more than that which the Lord giveth. But the children of God, see,
by the grace of God, we understand that if our sin is taken away,
then what happens to these bodies is of little consequence. I mean, every man by nature,
he wants to live as long as he can, but it's better to live
a short life unto the glory of God than it is to live for 100
years and have no knowledge of him. What a glorious thing it
is. to know the Lord. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that's within me, bless His holy name. Now
we come today to remember the Lord's death till He comes again.
And in this we know, as He said, that He forgiveth all of our
iniquities. All of them. Not part of them,
not the ones we did last week, but not the ones that are gonna
happen in the future. But all of them, past, present,
and future, he forgiveth all of our diseases. And we see it
right here before us, because when he shed his blood and gave
his body in our behalf, he took them away, as far as the east
is from the west, and he remembers them no more. And by the grace
of God, He causes us to remember them no more. Now, it's impossible
for us to forget things. I mean, you can forget the things
you don't want to forget, but the things you want to forget,
you can't. But the Lord nonetheless, he
gives us a conscience, board of offense. It's not that we
don't believe we have sinned, but we know that those sins,
as awful as they are, are covered in the blood of Christ. He gives
us a conscience, board of offense. Our conscience is clear as we
look to Christ. You can't have a clear conscience
if you look into yourself. I mean, if you're gonna try to
be satisfied with your life and what you are before God, then
you'll never have peace. But in Christ, there is peace. Because he healeth all our diseases,
take away all our iniquities. The Lord gave this to his disciples
and he told them to eat of it. We read some, and Paul, Paul
writes to the Corinthians concerning this thing which the Lord gave
to his disciples. And he said, you know, let a
man examine himself. This is not just a religious
ritual, but we're to examine ourselves. Not in order to see
if we're worthy to come before it and that we've done something
that's useful, But rather, worthily taking of this is with a proper
regard to it, what it is. So your man that takes it lightly,
or ritualistically, or without proper regard unto who it is
that shed his blood, then that's to take it unworthily. May the
Lord give us a mind and heart this day that we might examine
ourselves, and then with that examination, not of what we are,
but of who He is. See, there's the examination. What do we have regard to when
we take this? Is it unto us or is it unto Christ?
It's Christ. He said, remember my death till
I come again. May the Lord give us a mind and
heart to do so today.