Psalm 103 and verse nine. And this is the Psalmist David speaking about the Lord God. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this short reading from his word. There is no doubt that men and women in this world have always had an awareness of God. God revealed himself to our first parents and knowledge of God has persisted down through the generations of mankind.

In addition to that special revelation, which is where God speaks personally, either face to face, as he did with Moses, or in his word, as he did with David, there is also, as well as the special revelation, a general revelation. And a knowledge of God has also been given to men and women, where the hand of God is seen, or we might call it the handiwork of God, is made manifest. Creation teaches us about a creator. Nature has a design which again speaks of one who is the designer. Life and death bring men and women to think about who God is and how they got here. Human consciousness and personal conscience, what the Bible calls the image of God, all bear witness to a power greater than ourselves.

Paul spoke about that general revelation testifying against men and making them without excuse. He said in Romans chapter 1 verse 20, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. So that the unseen things, the invisible things, are alluded to, they are revealed, they're signified in the creation that God has made, his handiwork. Being understood, he continues, by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.

Men and women are without excuse. Much as some, I don't know, ignorant, Intellectuals, it can be both extremes, are ready to deny the interest of God, take an atheistic view, but as we said to the children, how do they know? How do they know? The word of God, the scriptures, the creation all around us testifies so that men are without excuse.

Now this is not to say that the true God and knowledge of the true God has remained constant throughout all this time. On the contrary, knowledge of the true God was lost at the fall. And ever since, men have been living in darkness towards God, incapable of knowing him and rebellious against him.

Being thus estranged from God, separated from God, men have resorted to creating their own gods in their own image. God created man in his image at first, but because of sin, we now create God in our image. And every culture Every nation, every culture has had its human inventions of the divine persons. And they've had their man-made idols. They've conceived of who and what God is and what he does.

And often these gods that men create are fearsome and terrifying and malevolent. Sometimes they're careless, selfish, and indifferent. But mostly they look too much like us to be in any way attractive. And often they're portrayed as merely playing with mankind and gaining pleasure from man's distress. Here's where I'm going with all this.

The God of the Bible is not like that, not nearly like that. And in the eyes of the Old Testament believers, Jehovah was a personal God who revealed himself as loving and gracious and merciful to his people. Let us never think that grace and gospel began with the New Testament or began with the coming of the Lord Jesus. Yes, it is true that God was holy to Moses and David.

And there was a degree, there was an extent to which he was fearsome as far as the children of Israel was concerned. When he gave the law at Sinai, the children of Israel were terrified at the experience and they asked that Moses would represent them. In that sense, he was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And God is still holy and the scriptures still tell us it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He hates and he judges sin. But as we saw last week in David's quotes from Moses, the saints of old understood mercy and they knew that there was forgiveness with God. and they cherished the advances of the love and pity of God that he gave to them. One of the clearest accounts of this is in Psalm 130, not Psalm 103, where we are at the moment, but Psalm 130, which says, If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, in his word do I hope. That word in there, feared, it means revered or admired. even loved and honored. It is recognizing the glory of God. Psalm 130 is what is called a song of degrees. We don't actually know, but let's credit it to David. There is an old tradition which says unnamed Psalms were David's Psalms. Be that as it may, we'll credit it to David on this occasion.

What is he telling us? Well, he says, in his word, in God's word, do I hope. Now, yes, he's speaking about the words that Moses wrote down. He's speaking about the special revelation that God had given. But he is saying that this ministry which came by the prophets, this ministry that came from the Lord, David is saying, I am placing my trust, my confidence, my faith In the God who speaks of mercy and grace, I am placing my hope in the one who forgives sin and who promises salvation.

That was the God of David and Moses. That was the God that David and Moses knew and trusted. and may we come to know him and trust him too. May he open our hearts as the Lord opened Lydia's heart. May he save our souls. May he give us faith in his word as he gave David and Moses faith in the word of the Lord.

You see, David had learned something about conviction of sin and chastisement, or as he calls it here, chiding, the chiding of God, chiding from God. David had learned something about being under God's rod. He had sinned, and he had sinned shamefully and grievously. and he had known as a true son of God must that rod of correction.

But David also discovered God's forgiveness. God sent him good news. David's good news came by the prophet Nathan. He received good news from the Lord's prophet concerning God's mercy. just as we receive gospel tidings from God's preachers. David learned that though his sin was great, the Lord had put it away. And we likewise learn that though our sins are great, Jesus Christ has carried them away.

This theme of mercy runs through this Psalm 103. David, you remember, had begun by blessing the Lord, calling upon his soul to bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Why? Because he had learned about the mercy of God. And in our verses from today, David is continuing to revel in God's great mercy and his love.

If these Psalms were designed, as it appears they were, to be sung in temple worship by God's people, then it's clear from what David writes What attributes of God that the psalmist wishes to extol, which he wishes the people to understand, which qualities he would have the people contemplate and celebrate. David told us in verse eight, the Lord is merciful and gracious. And by these words, The Holy Spirit teaches the church of all ages that God is patient and slow to anger and quick to forgive. That God pardons iniquity and passes by or puts away the transgressions of his people.

And even when, for the sake of his moral rectitude, his absolute holiness and his fatherly care, he chastises his beloved children, whom the Lord loves, he chasteneth. Even when he chastises his beloved children, his chiding is for our good. It is applied gently. It is quickly over. Our loving Father does not bear grudges. He does not long remember our sins.

His anger at our actions found another mark. As far back in eternity, as the covenant of grace and peace was settled, God found another mark for our sins. When our Saviour stood up to represent us, when He intervened on our behalf, when He assumed our guilt and stood in our place of condemnation, God credited Him as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world with our sins. The Old Testament believers understood this.

And here, we might mention the word propitiation. Paul uses that word in the New Testament, so does John. Romans chapter 3 and in 1 John, a couple of times, that word is used. And it is used to describe what we're talking about here. the just method by which God can be both holy and merciful. We read in 1 John 4, verse 10, herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now, you know what that word there means? It means mercy seed. Propitiation means mercy seed. And the Old Testament saints, Moses and David and all the others, these Old Testament saints saw Christ typified in the mercy seat in the temple and in the tabernacle. First in the tabernacle, then in the temple.

The mercy seat covered and hid the tables or the tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written. They covered those stones in the ark or the box of the covenant. The mercy seat was the lid that was placed over the Ten Commandments that were placed in that ark of the covenant. The altar in the tabernacle and in the temple and the blood sacrifices and the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat over it.

These all spoke to our Old Testament brethren about the work and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They understood the concept of redemption for sin. And though they were looking forward, They saw what we now see in the reality of the emblems. Christ offering himself on the cross as the acceptable sacrifice for sin, honouring God's holiness while enabling him to be propitious and merciful to the sinner. These are the great gospel doctrines of our New Testament age, but they were known and understood by men and women in past times.

David knows God's mercy is founded on redeeming blood. He told us in verse 4 how the Lord redeemeth thy life from destruction. Every blessing of divine goodness, every gift of sovereign grace granted by God to sinners is bestowed upon the grounds of a just and suitable payment. The precious blood of Jesus Christ. And Christ is the only way. That is the only payment that is acceptable.

Some people don't like that. Some folk don't like the idea of Christ's exclusivity. They say, why should it just be one way? Why is there just one way to God? Why don't all religions, why doesn't every example of faith Get a man to God. You hear them talking about God at the top of the mountain and there are many paths to the top of the mountain, many ways to reach God. They don't like the teaching that Christ alone is the only way of salvation. But their fight is not with us. Their fight is not with Christians. It's with God. It is God who is offended by our sin. So it is God alone who gets to fix the terms of our reconciliation.

And God's love and grace does not overlook sin. Holiness found a way to deal righteously with our iniquities by interposing a fit substitute who carried away God's anger, who carried away God's wrath against our iniquities. God found our substitute in the person of his own dear son. Hence, John the Baptist could say, behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world. Only in this world is Jesus Christ the Lamb of God to make substitutionary atonement for those who come to God by him.

David continues to speak of the extensiveness of God's mercy. And he uses several very suitable pictures from nature to imply the infinite dimensions of grace. These verses from 9 to 13 are David's way of conveying the sufficiency of grace for every need, for every eventuality? Is it a question? Is there enough grace for me? Even for me? That is the question every convicted sinner asks.

And David's use of the observable, natural world the sky and space to describe God's character is, I think, very striking. I mentioned yesterday in the little note that I sent out that perhaps only Job had drawn such elevated poetic parallels before this time of David's writing the Psalms. But it's beautiful, beautiful language, beautiful pictures that David here sets, certainly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But there's a glory even in the pictures that we have of God's grace from the pen of the psalmist here. In order to convey the scale and scope of the divine attributes, David employs the vastness of the airy heavens for an object lesson to the church. How much mercy has the Lord? Has he got enough for me? Well, David says, go and stand on a mountaintop on a clear day.

And when you're standing there looking out and looking upward, measure the capacity of the sky for its depth and for its distance. And this is the gauge of God's mercy. This is the ruler that David employs to express his own sense of relief and freedom from guilt. He knew how great his own sin was and he knew how great the mercy of God was. As the heaven is high above the earth and as the east is from the west. So far has God removed our sins from us. So great is his supply of pardoning grace.

Brothers and sisters, sinful friend, David is straining to convey the limitless mercy of God in Christ and the inexhaustible power of His blood to cleanse. It doesn't matter what we've done. It doesn't matter what we've committed. It doesn't matter how far we have traveled away from the standards of God's holiness. There is grace sufficient in the death of Christ for you and for me.

This is the gospel in the Old Testament. David is ministering to fellow sinners about the power and sufficiency of God's grace to save them to the uttermost. that come unto God by Christ, by this way. And the psalmist preacher isn't done yet. He goes on to encourage us all to see and understand the nature of God's approach to us. He's talked about the mercy of God, the grace of God, the extent and sufficiency of that mercy and grace. But now he's going to talk about the way God brings us to experience these things, the tender affection of the Father of mercies towards us. God is infinitely merciful. His grace is beyond measure.

And says David, it is freely bestowed in fatherly love. It is full of pity. It is gentle. It is kind. David is linking the Lord's boundless mercy, the Lord's boundless mercy with a father's tender embrace. the embrace of a helpless child. And it's a beautiful contrast that David is building for us here. The free will preacher with his offers and his duties, he sets out the message of God's mercy as a general provision to be considered and preferred by men and women. But David shows it to be a gracious gift personally applied.

God is in this. It is God's pity. Remission from sin is intensely personal to a redeemed soul. And David has discovered this. He likens it to a father's pity for his child. And pity here, it means compassion and love. It's active affection that goes out from God for the deliverance and welfare, the well-being of His children in their need. It's covenant love and it's covenant grace.

But there's even more to it than that in David's thinking, I believe. Pity also suggests sympathy. It suggests love and compassion, but it also suggests sympathy. This isn't just a message that's put out there for men and women to do with as they will. God comes to us in our helplessness. It's pity. He stoops to help us in our poverty. He comes to assist those who are too weak to help themselves.

Isaiah, in his prophecy, very suitably identifies the Lord Jesus Christ as the everlasting Father. He does that in chapter 9, verse 6. And then again later in chapter 63, verse 16, he says this, Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. Now, he's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who is the everlasting Father. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Father, our Redeemer, whose name is from everlasting. Now, Christ is not the Father in the Trinity. There is God the Father, there is God the Son, there is God the Holy Spirit. Christ is not the Father in that triune relationship.

But he is father to his children by adoption in the covenant of grace. And he's also Emmanuel, another word from Isaiah. He's also Emmanuel. He is God with us. And that's what David is alluding to here. In covenant love, Christ came down to us in our need. He pitied us in our destitute state. He redeemed us from bondage and cleansed us from our sin with his own blood. Christ's pity brought him near to where we are, to meet us in our helplessness, that he might recover the children that he loves.

So great is the mercy of God. So great is the mercy of God that no distance was too vast for Him to cover, no pit too deep, no need so severe as to inhibit the demonstration of God's love and mercy towards His chosen covenant people. There is no sense in David's thinking, there's no sense in his language about what man must do for God, what man must do to obtain these blessings. In David's view it's all of grace, all God's mercy, all about what God has done for us in Christ. It is entirely founded upon the love he has for his own dear children.

The only quality David identifies in the children pitied of God is fear, which is filial or family fear. Now, this is not terror or dread. I mentioned this earlier. The father who is a terror to his children is no fit father at all. But family fear or filial fear is reverence and respect that is born of dependency. The child depends upon the father.

And that fear, that respect, that reverence is what is in view here. In this context, it is the divinely implanted awareness, excuse me, it is the divinely implanted awareness of the holiness and mercy of the divine majesty. We understand who God is and the immensity of God, the glory of God, the vastness of the works of God. They humble us and motivate our worship. And that is what David has in mind here.

Such fear acknowledges the rights of God as King and Judge. but it believes his word and hopes in his promises. His promise of salvation under a sense of complete dependence, reliance, and trust. Those who fear the Lord under the gospel know his power to save and his strength to keep. And they are content to be still and to wait upon the Lord for their deliverance. Now, I'm coming to the end of what I have to say today, but let me just make this little point in conclusion.

The psalms that we have in our scriptures, they're spiritual songs. They are hymns of worship. They're songs of praise. David wrote them as such, and others, there are other psalmists as well. But they are songs of spiritual worship. And this psalm, Psalm 103, as well as a psalm of worship and a call to bless the Lord, it's a song of hope. David writes as a man filled with wonder that the Holy Lord God can and does show mercy and forgives sin. And David's heart Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. David's soul and David's heart has been infused with a sense of astonishment that such a God as the Lord will be gracious and loving to such a sinner as him. He had written In Psalm 8 verse 4, no doubt he was writing autobiographically.

What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? Do you ever feel like that? Do I ever feel like that? That was David's understanding and that was the motivation for his writing this psalm. These sentiments, I am sure, are not unique to David. The fear or reverence, let's call it, of which the psalmist speaks implies that grounds for hope in God's free salvation are justified wherever need is felt, wherever guilt is felt, wherever grace is desired. Let me put that another way. Do you feel a weariness? Do you have a desire for righteousness? Have you a sense of need and guilt? Do you long for that grace of which David speaks? Then there is a justification for you to hope in God's free salvation, just as David did.

Those who feel a need of mercy are well suited to seek the blessings of gospel grace found only in Jesus Christ. And if that's the first seeking, then that is wonderful. Praise the Lord, the angels in heaven will sing praises to him this very night. If it's a frequent seeking, for that gospel grace, then let us all, brothers and sisters, continue to seek it. Peter once told the Saviour, Lord, to whom shall we go?

Thou hast the words of eternal life. And that's a good sentiment for us all. Who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? It's Micah chapter 7 verse 18. May the Lord grant us mercy. May he grant us grace. May he give us his love, his pity. as David speaks of in these verses, as only he can. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.