Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. The name of the message
is, Bless the Lord. Now God takes rebels, born dead
in trespasses and sins, who use his name in vain, in
that natural state, And by the regenerating power of God the
Holy Spirit, He makes their lips to bless His name. I was listening to Brother Tom
Hardin this morning, and he brought forth, he has
these little 15-minute radio messages, and he brought forth
the fact that salvation is all of the Lord from beginning to
end. It's all in Him. You know, to
hear that just blessed my soul. And he talked about the righteousness
of Christ. And I said to Vicki, I said,
religion's trying to establish their own righteousness. And
I said, do you remember hearing about the righteousness of Christ
when we were in religion? And both of us said, no. We never
really heard about it. We heard a lot about what we
had to do. or what we weren't doing. We didn't hear a whole lot about
the righteousness of Christ. And that righteousness, beloved,
is the only righteousness that will allow us to appear in the
presence of God, the righteousness of Christ. And if you're a believer,
you are right now clothed in that spotless righteousness.
So what comes out of our mouth as a result? Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Praise His mighty name. Praise His mighty name. He's
had mercy upon me. Now we who are redeemed of the
Lord, we praise and bless our great God, don't we? We praise
and bless Him for the wondrous things that He's done for us
and in us. When we consider the great salvation
that the Lord Jesus Christ himself has wrought out for us, when we consider we're saved
by the grace of God alone according to the merits of Christ alone,
we can't help but praise the Lord. We can't help but say,
bless the Lord, O my soul and all that is within me. Let me
praise his mighty name. We can't help but say that. And then when we consider that
we're justified before a holy and righteous God, completely,
even now while we're here on this earth, that we're justified, we who
believe, are justified before God right now, how does that
make you feel? Why? You want to praise His name,
don't you? You want to give Him all the glory. And when we consider
that our great God drew out salvation's plan in eternity, and that we were included in
that plan, how does that make you feel? Oh, I know how it makes me feel.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Let me
praise His name. And then when we consider that
all our sins are put away, every single one of them, past, present,
and future. And remember, all our sins for
us right now in this time that we're in, all our sins were future
when Christ died on Calvary's cross. So if you forgive me for
all my sins, that's my sins I've committed, the sins I commit
now, and the sins that I'll commit in the future. That's all of
them. All means all. So when I consider the wonder
of that, the wondrous love that Christ has had for me, that he
came down from the glories and splendors of heaven to die on
the cross for me and for you, if you're a believer, to save
us, the scripture says, from our sins. And when we consider how the
law had a just claim on us, didn't it? So that sinneth it must die. Well, all we are is sinners. So when we consider that the
law of God and the justice of God had a rightful claim upon
us, and when we consider it's satisfied by the sacrifice of
Christ in the room and place of his people, look at the first
verse, bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me,
bless his holy name, I'm forgiven. I'm forgiven, and so are you
if you're a believer. And then when we consider that
he's ever watchful over us, these snowflakes falling right now,
that not one snowflake falls from the sky and hits the ground
without him purposing it and knowing it, not one, not one,
without him knowing it. And that's all that every, think
of that too. Every time you see a snowflake
or, I like what A.W. Pink did. He, he bought in the,
you know, remember when we were kids and we used to see the sun
rays come in, in the windows and it, you know, we could sit
there for hours watching the dust fly in the air, couldn't
we? Every one of those speckles of
dust was ordained by God to be right there at right that time. Not one of them, not one of them,
beloved. Not one of them was floating
in that air except by the will of God and
the purpose of God. And then to think that we, even
when we were dead in trespasses and sins, even when we were in
full rebellion against God, that he was ever watchful over us
as his lost sheep. And if we think of how much he
watched over us in our lost condition, think of how much he watches
over us, the same watchful eye is now upon us as his sheep. What can we say but bless the
Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy
name. Oh my. So we see David knew. David knew what it meant to praise
the Lord. And here he, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, spoke of praising or blessing our Lord
with our lips. So let's read Psalm 103. Let's read it. 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. We so easily
forget, don't we? We so easily forget. Something happened today, or
not today, this week. And my dear bride reminded me,
God's sovereign, you preach that from the pulpit, amen, that's
right. I got to flesh out what I preach. And then right away
my mind was focused upon Christ and I had such peace. I was trying
to work it out in my own flesh. See, I'm the same. I'm just like
everyone else. We're all the same, aren't we? Oh my. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and
forget not all of his benefits. Don't ever forget. Who forgiveth
all thine iniquities. Oh my. Who healeth all thy diseases. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Look at that. soul that sinneth
it must die." What does Christ do? He dies in our room and place
as a great substitute, saving us from destruction. "...who
crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy
thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. The Lord executes 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 dwelt,
look at this verse, this is amazing. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. We don't get what we deserve.
David's even saying this. David knows what it means to
be forgiven. He's saying, the Lord hadn't
dealt with me according to my sin, or my sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities. What is the wages of sin is death. When Paul writes that, that talks
about a Roman soldier receiving a wage, that which is justly
due him. Well, the wages for us as sinners
is death. The Lord doesn't reward us according
to his iniquity. He doesn't reward his people
according to his iniquity, because Christ died in our place. So
now death for us is but a doorway to glory, to be in the presence
of our great King. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. And
that can also be his loving kindness, mercy there, his loving kindness.
As far as the east is from the west, So far has he removed our
transgressions from us. Remember, if you're going east,
you'll never be going west. And if you're going west, you'll
never be going east. Now, if he had said the poles, well,
there's a south pole and a north pole, right? But east and west,
you go east, you're always going east. You go west, you're always
going west. They don't ever meet. Isn't that
wonderful? Oh, that's so wonderful. Oh,
my. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth
them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he
remembered that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes
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 look at that loving kindness
of our lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him there's a class the fear of the lord is the beginning
of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction scripture
says and his righteousness on the 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. Look at that. You men who were in the armed
forces, your general was over you and all the other men in
your units, or your regiment, or your battalion. He was the
one over them all. Just like the president is over
all the armed forces, he's the commander-in-chief. The Lord
is over all. He's over all. Those are but
shadows and types. He's greater. He's over everything.
Everything. His kingdom ruleth all. There's
nothing left out of his kingdom, beloved. Oh my. And then look at this. Bless
the Lord, ye of his angels, that excel in strength. One angel
killed 100,000 men when he was let loose. And he wouldn't have
stopped until the Lord said, stop. Think of this, when the Lord
was in the garden, he said, I can call six legions of angels, 30,000
angels, wipe out the whole world. But he didn't, because his mercy
in his loving kindness towards his people. Oh, my. To do his commandments. They're
all at his command. They're all at his command. All
he has to do is say, do this, and they have to do it. They
don't say, oh, well, wait. I've got to make a decision whether
I want to do that or not. No. They do it. They obey his
command. Just like thy people shall be
made well in the day of his power. Oh my. When we're being drawn
to Christ with an irresistible, invincible call of God, there's
no one or nothing that's gonna stop it. Praise be to God, right? Because what's our natural state?
Take right off. Oh my. God's grace is greater
than anything. Harken unto the voice of his
word. Listen to him. Listen to him. Bless ye the Lord,
all his host. That means all his people. That
means the angels. That means prayers his name.
Ministers of his that do his pleasure. And that ministers
there is servants. We're servants of the Lord. We're
bond slaves of Christ. All of his people. All of his
people. Bless the Lord all his works
in all places of his dominion. And there's nowhere that's not
under his dominion. Nowhere. Bless the Lord, O my
soul. So we see this psalm as one continued
hymn of praise, isn't it? It's one continued hymn of praise. And it includes a comprehensive
view of the goodness of Jehovah. In all the great works of creation
and redemption, providence and grace, it manifests his goodness. It manifests his grace. And oh,
how good is our Lord. How good is our God. Let's look
at verses one and two again. David wrote this. He says, bless
the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his
holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and
forget not all his benefits. So take note at the beauty, how
this psalm beautifully opens in calling upon God's people
to bless the name of the Lord to praise the name of the Lord
and we have much we have much to praise the Lord for all my
sing praise praise our great God It's with the heart that
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation, and here we see we are called to praise
our great God. Robert Hawker has brought forth
that it was an ancient custom in the church at the opening
of the service to call upon the people, lift up your hearts,
beloved, and let your lips praise and worship our great God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 2, is the verse I'd
like us to spend most of our time on. Look at this. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. We'll go through
this psalm. One of the best ways for us to
begin and end today is by consciously remembering the great benefits
of our God toward us. In this world, we suffer, don't
we? We suffer in this world. We go through trials and tribulations.
Maybe health. It may be tribulations of the
heart. It may be something that we're dealing with that no one
else knows. And we're prone to complain,
aren't we? We're prone to murmur and complain. It's wired in us. It really is. We're prone to try to fix it
ourselves, like I did this week. We're prone to try to fix the
situation. We men are fixers. Some of us
are. We like to fix the situation
when it occurs. I am anyways. But I realize I
can't fix situations. I can't do it. I end up going
like this. Right on my face. And we're all prone to it, aren't
we? We're all prone to complain about things, or a situation. Let us consciously remember, at the beginning or the end of
the day, all the blessings of the Lord that we have. It'll
silence our tongue. And it's all part of our walk
through this life, the things that we go through. And I know
this, if we were to get together and talk about the different
things that we struggle with, we'd find out we're all the same. Now something that you may be
strong, I may be weak, or vice versa. But we all struggle with
the same things, beloved. Never forget that it's our great
God who has saved us and who keeps us. His name is the Lord
Jesus Christ and the psalmist brings forth that we are not
to forget the benefits of the Lord toward us. As he pens here,
forget not all his benefits. Now we will see in this psalm
that the psalmist goes on to list some of these benefits. He lists them right in this psalm. And when these are brought to
our remembrance, they can be a source of great blessing and
joy to the believer, to the born-again, blood-washed people of God. Look
in verse 3, the psalmist brings before the people of God, here's
an incredible benefit that the Lord's done for us, the mercy
he's had upon us. Brings forth before the people of God that
God has forgiven you and I, if you're a believer, of all our
iniquities. Look what it says. Who forgiveth,
A-L-L, all, all, not some, not a few, but all thine iniquities, all our sins, who healeth all
thy diseases, So imagine all the sin in our lifetimes, the
sin of thoughts, the sins of words, the sins of deeds, the
sins of our heart, the sins of our mind, sins that we don't
even know that we commit, all against us, all condemning us. All of them. Remember in scripture
that I read that the Lord blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us? Imagine all those sins as an
ordinance against us. Imagine that. And just need one to condemn
us, don't we? Just one. But imagine all our lifetime condemning us. Because the law
of God has been broken by every one of those sins. And the justice
of God must be satisfied for every one of those sins. God's law demands satisfaction. And God, as a righteous God,
demands that his law be satisfied. Demands it. There's no wiggle
room. Can you or I pay for even one
of those sins? Just one even? No. Imagine in our minds the enormous
mass of all our sin and all its great wickedness before God,
before the just God of the universe. And he takes his seat to pass
judgment. And he says this, all is forgiven. All is forgiven by the precious
blood of my Son. And I'll never recall even one
of those sins ever again. What can we say but bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. What more could we say? Praise
his name. So marvel, if you are a born-again,
blood-washed believer, at this wonderful benefit of the finished,
complete work of the Lord Jesus Christ in our place. Look what
the scriptures declare in verse three of our great God, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. So if that
was the only benefit, my oh my. Diseases here are not bodily
ones, though the Lord is the physician of our bodies as well
as the souls of man. And sometimes he heals the diseases
of soul and body at once, in the case of the paraplegic man
in the gospel. But this speaks of spiritual
diseases, or so-called wickedness. And we know this is tied in with
our iniquities, which is our sins. And it's hereditary that
we're sinners, aren't we? Adam fell, and therefore, we're
all born fallen creatures, dead in trespasses and sins. And this
is an incurable state, naturally. The state of spoken of here is,
who healeth all thy diseases. And that speaks of our sins.
I see the health, wealth, prosperity guys get a hold of that and they
say, see, see, see. Well, they're just twisting the scriptures
to their own destruction. God heals people if he's pleased
to heal people. I had a friend of mine, charismatic
guy, told him, well, if you prayed more and you did this more, God
would heal you, your back thing, back pain you have in the back.
He said, he's got to get an operation. I looked at him and I said, Jim,
I despise people like that. That's one of the worst things
anyone can say to anybody. And he said, yeah, God heals
whom he wills. And I said, amen. He may put us through something,
which will draw us closer to him, won't it? But you know what? When we breathe our last breath,
we'll be healed, won't we? We'll be in the glory. We'll
be in the presence of our great God and king. Oh, sin, sin is only cured by
the Lord Jesus Christ, by His almighty power. And in the preaching
of the gospel of God's free grace in Christ, peace with God is
preached, how? Through Christ alone. The only
way for you and I, the only way, my friend, for you and I to be
forgiven is through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. and by the precious blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in the preaching of the
gospel of God's free grace, peace with God is declared through
Christ Jesus. Pardon of all our sins and iniquities
is declared through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A righteousness which is accepted by God is declared. And that
righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. It's declared, though,
by His life and His death. He wove a perfect coat of righteousness
for His people. And there's not one stitch of
that coat that we've added to it, not one. It's all by Him.
He did it all. Remember in the readings, and
Paul wrote, you're complete in Him. Oh, my. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. I'm complete in Christ. This
is wonderful news for the sinner. Wonderful, wonderful news. And the Lord Jesus Christ does
it freely, fully, according to his sovereign will. Another benefit
set forth in this psalm is our great God redeems our souls from
destruction. Look at verse four in Psalm 103. Look at this. David writes about
God's people. who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.
You and I know very little of what God's wrath is like. And in fact, I suppose only those
in hell know what it's really like. There's only one other who knows
what that wrath is like. Because He bore our wrath, the
wrath that was due us. He bore it on Calvary's cross,
in our room and place, and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And because Christ was forsaken,
and because God's wrath fell upon Him as our substitute, then
we will never experience it as God's people. Bless the Lord, O my soul, in
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Look at
this verse, it says it right here. We'll never experience
it because Jesus Christ, our Lord, it is He who has redeemed
us, redeemed thy life from destruction. He did it. He did that. And then look at the latter part
of verse four, where we see another benefit of our salvation, which
should cause us to bless the Lord. Who redeemeth thy life
from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and
tender mercies. Oh my. We see another benefit
of our salvation, which should cause us to bless the Lord. Our
God crowns us with his loving kindness. And see the word crowneth
there, it means to encircle. See, most people think it means
to put a crown on your head. No, it means to encircle us. To encircle us with his loving
kindness and mercy. It encircles us and surrounds
us so that we are protected from eternal harm, from all eternal harm. And what
does it also do? This verse also magnifies our
great God's sovereignty. I was listening to somebody this
week, and they were talking about how when they were in Vietnam,
and they said the Lord preserved them in Vietnam. And he said
he was to receive a promotion to become a sergeant, him and
this other guy in his unit. And he said the orders came through,
and the captain had told him, you're going to get the promotion.
And the orders came through, and the other guy got the promotion
to be a squad leader. And he admitted, he said, I was
upset. Because I was upset when that
happened. And his buddy, who turned out to be his friend,
he was wondering what happened. So he said, a couple days later,
there was this friend who's now a sergeant, and he's leading
a platoon to go on out across the wire. And they were all killed. And He said, I saw a substitution
right there. Isn't that amazing? That's incredible. Oh, our great God, He's our substitute,
beloved. He redeems our life from destruction. Oh my, He encircles us with His
sovereignty, see. A man was encircled by the sovereignty
of God, beloved. And all of God's blessings flow
to his people from the loving kindness and mercy of our great
God all through the Lord Jesus Christ to we who are his people. Think of these blessings, all
the blessings of the everlasting covenant, the sure mercies of
David, all the spiritual blessings with which the saints are blessed
in Christ. The grace given to us, the mercy that we've received
in Christ. Mercy that keeps us all looking
to Christ and Him alone. So crowned, we're encircled with
the sovereignty of God, beloved. And we give Him all the glory
and the honor and the praise for protecting us. Oh how we are loaded down daily
with God's benefits. Look at verse 5, we see another
benefit which will cause the believer in Christ to bless the
Lord. Psalm 103 verse 5, who satisfy thy mouth with good things
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. God gives his
people full satisfaction. The world rushes after its glories.
It rushes after different things, trying to find peace and trying
to find comfort in things of the world. And it's never satisfied. It's never satisfied. But every
believer in Christ shall be satisfied. We're satisfied with him, aren't
we? We're satisfied with him. And
then think of this. One day, we'll be fully satisfied.
Because we'll see him face to face. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, that'll be a wondrous
day. Oh, when the worldling dies,
when those who die in their sins, they lose all anything they've
had that's gone, just like that. But for the believer in Christ,
to die is gain. To die is gain. We will see,
he or she who trusts in Christ will see the very one who we
rest in right now, who we trust in right now, and we'll see him
face to face then. Our hope will become sight. See, hope is not hope if you
can see. That what you hope for. We hope
to see Christ, don't we? Why? Because we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, and He's declared, God has declared in His Word
that those He saves, He keeps. And He will one day present us
faultless before His throne with exceeding joy. My, oh my. We will see the one
who we long to see when we die and pass away from this world. Now let's look at verse 10. We
see another benefit of our salvation, which will cause us to rejoice
and will cause us to bless the Lord. Verse 10 says this, He
hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according
to our iniquities. Now this verse, you've heard
me and many other grace preachers say, we do not get what we deserve. This is a great verse to look
at, to see that so clearly. We do not get what we deserve. If we got what we deserve, we'd
all be in hell. But God, by his mercy and his
grace, he saved us. And look at this, he hath not
dealt with us after our sins. The soul that sinneth it shall
die. When one who is lost dies, they go right to hell. But when
we die, we go right to glory as God's people. Isn't that amazing?
That's absolutely amazing. Incredible. He doesn't deal with
us after our sins. He doesn't reward us according
to our iniquities. Why? Because Christ Jesus the
Lord, the sinner's only substitute, died as our substitute, and God
will not punish our sins twice, will he? Christ has satisfied
the justice and law of God that was against us. He's fully satisfied. That's good news for sinners. Think of this. If God were to
deal with you, In his strict justice, where would you be?
Where would I be? My. If every transgression we committed
had received its just reward, then we must have been sent to
hell, the lake burning with fire and brimstone. And that would
have been our portion, because the wages of sin, the payment
for sin, is eternally death. So what joy this can bring to
the redeemed, born-again, blood-washed sinner. Our great God has not
rewarded us according to our iniquities. Now, let's bring
it home. Our Lord has not dealt with me
according to my iniquities. And you can bring it home, too,
to you. The Lord has not dealt with you according to your iniquities. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Praise His mighty name. Wow. Is there anything else we can
say? There really isn't, is there? Bless the Lord. Oh, my. And the reason why God does not
reward His people according to our iniquities, according to
our sins, is because Christ bore all our sins. They were all imputed
to Him. Every single one of them. And
He bore the chastisement of our sin, didn't He? Because that
wrath that was due us fell upon Him. And remember the shelter?
Remember the rock in Isaiah? And the weary traveler goes under
the shelter of that rock. I always picture Christ as that
big rock like that. And the wrath of God just falls
upon him, and I'm safe behind the other side of the rock. And the whole, think of it, the
sun beating down on that rock. And the traveler's safe under
the shadow of that rock, aren't they? That's us in Christ, beloved. That's us through this world.
As we journey through this world, that's us. It's wonderful. So God does not reward his people
according to our iniquities, according to our sins, because
Christ has bore all our sins. The chastisement of our peace
fell upon him. And God is satisfied with the
sacrifice of Christ. Praise be to God. To which the believer cries out,
bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise his mighty name. Now let's look at verses 11 and
12 in this psalm. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. Verse
12, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed
our transgressions from us. So we have a wonderful illustration
here put before us. Again, the greatest distance
known or can be conceived of, the space between heaven and
earth. Think of the space between heaven and earth. He's so far
above us, beloved. His ways are so far above us.
His thoughts are so far above us. We have an illustration of
a space between heaven and earth here, which is seemingly infinite. And nothing can more illustrate
the mercy of God which reaches to the heavens and is in heaven.
This picture here is a representation of the largeness of God's mercy.
You can't measure it. You can't plumb. You can't plummet
the depths of it. You can't even come close. If
you were the most merciful person in this earth, It wouldn't even
come close to the mercy that God has shown his people in Christ. It's boundless, beloved. It's
infinite. The deep, deep love of Jesus. It's a vast ocean, beloved. So
is his mercy. His mercy is a vast ocean of
mercy. You can't plumb the length of
it. You can't plumb the breadth of it, and you can't plumb the
depth of it. It's boundless. It's infinite. And we see it as far as the east
is from the west, so far as it removed our transgression from
us. They're gone, beloved. They're gone. Oh, that I could
live in the reality of that. Do you ever say, me, Lord? Did
you ever say, how can I be a believer and act like that? Did you ever
say that? We all put our hands up, right?
Look at that. As far as the East is from the
West. So far hath He removed our transgression from us. They're
gone. There's a great gulf between us and our sins, beloved. And it'll never be bridged. You look at that Mackinac Bridge,
right? That's a long way that they bridged from the mainland
all the way out to the island, right? But you know what? There'll never be a bridge from
where we are to our sins. Ever. They're gone! They're gone! Why? Because the great scapegoat,
the Lord Jesus Christ, has carried them away into the wilderness,
where they'll be remembered no more." No more. Oh, does this not fill your heart
with joy, beloved of God? Does this not stir you up to
bless the Lord, to bless His holy name? And then let's read
verses 13 to 17. 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 flourishes.
For the wind passes over it and is gone, and the place thereof
shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and
his righteousness unto children's children. Look at that though. Moreover, at verse 13, our great
God pities us. You ever had pity upon a person?
Well, this is God having pity on we human beings, we who are
his people. His eye is toward us. It's not
full of wrath as a judge, because that wrath's been satisfied. No. It's a pity of understanding
and the compassion of a father, or of a mother, to their children. Beloved of God, He will never
lay too heavy a burden upon His people. Now, we go through things,
don't we? We go through things. But He will not demand too much
of us. He will not give a trial to overtake us. He'll not give us over to his
enemies and our enemies, because he deals tenderly with us. We're so weak, but he's so strong. And sometimes we do not remember
that we are but dust. We think that we're strong. We
think that this strength will last forever. The older I get,
the more I realize it don't last long. My mind, I can still want to
do things, but my body tells me three or four days later that
you shouldn't have done that way. Still some things I can do, which
is a blessing, but boy, I'll tell you, some things you just
can't do anymore. The natural man, they do not
contemplate that we're but dust. They don't even think about it.
But the scripture here declares that God remembers we are dust. Look at verse 15 and 16. As for man, his days are as a
grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind
passes over it, and it's gone, and the place thereof shall know
it no more. Before even the mowers Blade
comes, the hot eastern wind has dried up the grass, and it's
gone. How a little thing can carry
we who are frail away. We're here today and gone tomorrow.
Our lives are like a vapor. We're coming into the season
where we get to see that all the time on display for us. Come
out in a cold day, and you breathe, and out comes that vapor, and
then it's gone. That's a constant reminder for
us that our life is like a vapor. It's incredible. It's right before
us all the time, isn't it? Natural man doesn't think that
way, though. But we as believers do. Only because God's taught
us that truth. Then look at verse 17, but the
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that
fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children. God's
mercy to his people is everlasting, just like him. He's everlasting,
therefore his mercy towards us is everlasting. He's everlasting,
therefore the salvation he gives is everlasting. It's not based
upon us, it's based upon him. He's everlasting, therefore His
mercy's everlasting. His kindness towards us is everlasting.
His compassion towards His people is everlasting. That's good news! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Oh, so we
here see the endless chain of God's grace to His people in
Christ. Our sins are forgiven, the power
of sin is subdued, its penalty is paid, and we who are redeemed
of the Lord are supplied with all the benefits that we need.
All spiritual blessings are in Christ. We're born again, blood-washed
children of God. We've been adopted into the household
of God. And oh, oh Lord, we must bless
thee then. We must bless him. We must bless
his holy name. Oh Lord, we bless thy holy name
with our heart, soul, and strength. Bless your name. Praise thy holy
name. And let we who are the redeemed
look upon this world as a place not for a long stay, but as only
as a medal that we're passing through. You ever walked in the
medal? You ever walked through a medal to get to one place?
This life is just like a medal. We're just walking through it.
We're just walking through it. And we have much in common with
the feeble flowers of the medal, don't we? They come up, and then
they're gone. Oh, but now with such blessings
as we've looked at today, how can we complain? How can we complain? How can we murmur? If we do,
let us be quick to remember God's sovereignty. Let us be quick
to remember this psalm and what we've looked at today. And then
may our hearts be filled with praise and say, bless the Lord,
O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. We have
much to be thankful for, much to be thankful for. Glory be to God.