Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews the 6th chapter. We begin our reading in verse
13. When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise for me and barely swear by the
greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
We're in God willing more abundantly to show into the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Turn now to page number 17, number
17. Come thou found with every blessing. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
To my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thine redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer,
Hither by thy help I'm come, And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger
wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger interposed
His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and see. Seal it, seal it for thy courts
above. Let's turn over now to page 30.
Page 30, you page. Number 30. Psalm's based on Psalm 103. Frank's going to be
bringing the message from. you Bless the Lord and sing his praises. Bless the Lord now, O my soul. Join the song all heaven raises. Let the anthem loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord for love victorious,
love that conquered on the tree. For His grace so great and glorious,
Flowing out from Calvary. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Bless
the Lord, O my soul, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that
is within me, bless His holy name. And He lights the path before. Every need is now supplied me
From His bounteous heavenly store. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
his holy name. for the word of prophecy that
has drawn the veil from heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. All right, let's turn now to
Psalm Psalm 103, the psalm that that
song was based upon. Psalm 103. 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 loving
kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good
things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. 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 has 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 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
hosts, 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. Let's bow together. Our Father, after we've just read this glorious
song, How we desire that you would give us a heart that would
bless the Lord. They would kneel before you and
worship in awe and wonder. Awe at who you are and wonder. Wonder of wonders. That you would
be so gracious and merciful, forgiving and kind to sinners
vile and guilty and wretched sinners such as we are. Father, how we thank you. And
with what we do have in us, we bless the Lord. We praise your
holy name. Father, I pray this evening that
you give us a spirit of worship. That you would enable us to forget
about the goings on of this life and teach us more of Christ our
Savior. enable us to worship Him. And
Father, enable us to take these things that we hear preached
from Your Word, apply them to our hearts. It makes a difference
in our daily lives that we don't go back out into the world and
look at the world and deal with the world and deal with the problems
of this life the same way that we did when we came in. Because
of us, to see everything that's going on in this life, understanding
the Lord's doing it. So it's good and it's right and
whatever it is, we bless the Lord. We bless Him for His matchless
goodness and mercy and grace and wisdom and power to direct
all things according to His purpose for His glory and for the good
of His people. Father, help us to learn that
lesson. And all the other cares and worries
and fears and doubts we have of this life, cause us just to
lay them at your feet. Forget about them there and bless
your matchless name. It's in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks. Amen. Awake, my soul, to joyful days,
And sing thy great Redeemer's praise. He justly claims a song from
me, His lovingkindness, O thou free! His lovingkindness, O how free! Peace only ruined by the fall,
Yet love me not, who is standing o'er. He saved me from my lost
estate. His loving kindness, oh, how
great. kindness loving kindness is loving
kindness oh how brave O numerous foes of my depose,
O earth and hell my way oppose, My soul along is loving-kindness. Oh, how strong, sing it with
me, loving-kindness. His lovingkindness, oh, how strong! When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
Has gathered thick and thundered loud, He near my soul has always stood
His lovingkindness, oh, how good! Lovingkindness, lovingkindness
Alright, let's open our Bibles again now to
Psalm 103. I titled the message, This evening, bless the Lord.
We've come to a very special psalm in our study of all these
psalms. Charles Spurgeon said of this
psalm, the Alps is a great and high mountain range. He said,
but there's some peaks that are just higher than others. He also
said of this Psalm 103, this is the apple tree among the trees
of the wood. It's long been a special blessing
and encouragement to God's people. We believe that David wrote this
psalm when he was an older man and he had some time to grow
in grace and knowledge of some things. He had a clearer view
now of the Lord. He had a clearer view of spiritual
things than he did when he first began. And he had a much clearer
view of how little that this life is worth. It's just not
worth much. David learned that the hard way.
If you and I learn it, we're going to learn it the hard way
too. A lot of pain, sorrow, and heartbreak. But you'll notice
that this psalm is all worship. It's all worship for who the
Lord is and what He has been pleased to do for His people.
There's not one petition in this whole psalm. It is an entire
psalm wholly given to worship. David begins with verse 1. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His
holy name." I looked up that word, bless, that he uses there,
and it means to kneel in adoration. Sounds to me like this is bowing.
It's kneeling before God in silent awe. Because David doesn't talk
here about his lips or his tongue blessing the Lord. He said, all
that is within me. Bless His holy name. David here
is talking in terms of heart worship. He's not talking about
making an outward show. This is not just lip service.
This is worship that is freely flowing from the heart. You have
a pretty good idea when somebody is talking to you and they say
something to you from the heart. I mean, you can tell they mean
this. It's coming from the heart. You know they really mean this. And that's what I pray for us
tonight. that the Lord will enable us to worship Him from the heart,
like we really mean it, because He deserves it, doesn't He? And
then David says, bless the name, the holy name of the Lord, Jehovah,
God, my Savior. See, God's name, it's important
when we talk about God's name in scripture. God's name tells
us who He is, tells us what He's like. God's name describes his attributes. And the name David uses here,
Lord, tells us that God is the Savior. He's the justifier of
sinners. So bless the Lord for who he
is. Oh, I wish I could get this across
to my generation. Maybe it's always been this way.
I don't know. I only know about my lifetime.
I wish I could get this through to my generation. God is not
how we make him up to be. God is how he is revealed in
his book. God wrote us a whole book to
tell us who he is and what he's like. We would do well to read
this book and find out who he is and bless him and praise him
for who he says that he is. I promise you it's better than
this little peanut we make up ourselves. I promise you it is. Now the rest of this psalm, David
gives us three reasons to bless the Lord. It leaves us then with
an exhortation. Number one, Davis says, bless
the Lord because of all of his benefits to us. Verse two, bless
the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Now I'm
afraid that when we hear about the Lord's benefits to us, the
first thing that goes through our mind is material and physical
blessing. And I don't reckon that we can
stop that from happening. We're just tied to this flesh. We just can't stop that from
happening. And there's nothing wrong with giving thanks for
those things. You know, if we have them, whatever they are,
there's no doubt whatsoever, the Lord's the one that gave
them to us. And we should be thankful. We should bless Him
for those things. But that's not the blessings David's talking
about here at all. Every blessing David lists in
this psalm are spiritual blessings. He blesses the Lord for these
things, spiritual blessing. He kneels in silent adoration
because we can't live without any of these blessings David
mentions here. I can live without more money. I can't. I can live
without nicer clothes. I can live without a new car.
I can live without two cars. I can live without health. I
can live without happiness. That's true. I can live and not
be happy. I can. But I can't live without forgiveness
of sin. I can't live without mercy. I
can't live without redemption. I can't live without the gospel.
I can't live without knowing the Lord. So the first benefit
David mentions here is forgiveness of sin. Who forgiveth, he says,
verse three, all thine iniquities. Now Psalm 130, David said, if
the Lord would mark iniquities, who is that? I mean, if he would
mark iniquity and charge all of our iniquity to us, he would
stand. Not one of us would. We'd all be in trouble. But David
went on to say, but there is forgiveness with thee. There
is forgiveness of iniquity with the Lord. Now, thankfully, the
Lord does not forgive like we forgive. You think about the
way we forgive one another. There's a limit to it. That's
right, there is a limit to it. There's certain things cannot
be forgiven. You can talk ugly to my wife
and I will try my best to forgive you. But you murder her, it ain't
happening. I mean, it's just not happening.
Aren't you glad that God's not like that? There's no limit to
His forgiveness. He forgives all of the sin of
all of His people. The word David uses here is iniquity. It means perverseness. The Lord
forgives the worst of sin. All sin. And it's not because
the Lord is so nice. I'm just not nice enough to forgive
somebody that murdered my wife. I hear people do that. They say,
you know, murdered their spouse and they end up saying they've
forgiven them. That just ain't happening with old Frank. I can
tell you that. I mean, he's just not. I'm just not nice that way. But the Lord doesn't forgive
sin because He's just nice and He can ignore it. God forgives
sin because the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's why He forgives all sin,
the worst of sin. With us, there's a limit to what
we could forgive. And there's a limit to how long
we're going to keep forgiving somebody. I mean, eventually
they've got to quit doing this and act right, don't they? I
mean, we're going to run out of forgiveness And we say, well,
it's time for tough love. We'll run out of forgiveness.
But David says, the Lord forgiveth sin. Always in the present days. Always. God will never stop forgiving
the sin of his people because the blood of Christ is always
enough. I want to make this point clear
and I want us to remember it. I've been saying it a lot. in
my messages recently because it just, it utterly amazes me,
thrills my soul. That God in His wisdom made it
right for Him to forgive the sin of His people. He made it
right for Him to do that. Because the Father put His Son
to death to pay for the sin of His elect so that He could forgive
them in justice. There's no reason for God to
damn them. Christ took away all that reason. Now if that doesn't
make us bless the Lord, to kneel before Him in awe, in silent
worship and bless Him from the heart, nothing will. Our second benefit is healing.
Verse 3, He forgiveth all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy
diseases. Now this is not talking about
physical healing. I know that happens from a variety
of means. You young folks, you get hurt
and your body is young. You could stub your toe, and
tomorrow you'd feel better. And I mean, if I do that today,
I'd be three weeks getting over that. You're young, you just
get better faster. You go to the right doctor, they
give the right medicine, you get better. But now wait a minute. The Lord did that, didn't He?
If that happens, the Lord did that, and we're thankful. But
this is not talking about physical healing, because David says the
Lord heals all thy diseases. Unless Lord returns, every one
of us are going to die from something that the Lord didn't heal us
from. So David is not talking about physical healing here.
He's still talking about the Lord forgiving sin. God does
not consider the sin of his children as a crime. to be punished. He
considers it a disease to be healed. Do you get that? God does not consider the sickness
or the sin of his children to be a crime that's to be punished.
He considers it a sickness, an uncleanness that must be healed. Now that puts sin in a whole
new light, doesn't it? And our sin sickness would cause
our soul to suffer eternal death. But God heals all the sin sickness
of His people by pouring into their soul the sweet balm of
Gilead, the blood of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ has removed
all the sin, all the iniquity, all the uncleanness of His people. He's removed it all so it can't
destroy them. He took away all the sin of His
people. Now, I didn't say we don't sin.
I said we have no sin. because the blood of Christ washed
it away. It is the blood of Christ that
has healed our sin-sick soul. And if God's ever given you a
glimpse of how sick you are, you'll bless his holy name for
healing all your diseases. Right, the third benefit is redemption.
Verse 4, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Now our sin
has put a price on our head, a price that must be paid. God's law and God's justice demand
there be death for sin. But Christ has come and he's
redeemed his people from destruction. He's redeemed the souls of his
people from destruction by paying the redemption price in full. And the redemption price was
not money. I mean, it wasn't even a bunch
of money. It wasn't even all the money
that God has. You know, money can be replaced.
The redemption price that Christ paid was much more precious than
gold and silver that perishes. He paid that redemption price
with his own life, with his own blood. Peter said we're redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ because nothing else was precious
enough to pay the price. Christ has redeemed his people
from the law by suffering justice for them as their substitute.
Look at verse six. The Lord executed the righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. Christ's death wrought
righteousness in His people. And it wrought, it brought, it
earned justice for His people. When Christ redeemed His people,
He purchased them. They belonged to Him. He paid
the price that the law demanded, and He bought them. They belonged
to Him, and now the law has no claim on them whatsoever. The
price has been paid. Yet we still act like, boy, God's
going to get me. God's going to get me. The law
is still out to get me. Or we think this, oh, this is
things are not going right in my life. And God just bless me
and straighten up all this mess. If I just do better at keeping
the law. Tied to this flesh, tied to this
flesh, that's thinking God is like us. That's what that is.
Christ has redeemed His people from destruction. He bought them
by giving everything that He is, body and soul, to pay the
redemption price of His people. And the value of Christ's sacrifice,
we talk about it every single service. We talk about the sacrifice
of Christ. And the value of it is higher
than we can possibly imagine. That price was everything that
the Lord Jesus Christ was. And he paid that price for worthless
sinners like you and me. Oh, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. In awe and silent worship. If
that doesn't make you bless the Lord, nothing will. The fourth
benefit is loving kindness and tender mercies. Verse four. who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies."
I looked up that word, loving kindness, and I expected to find
this grand and glorious definition to give you. And it simply means
kindness, kindness. But God's kindness to his people
is great kindness. In Hosea 2, verse 19, the Lord
says to his people, He said, you've gone a whoring for me,
followed after idols. And he said, yet I'm still going
to marry you. I'm going to betroth you to me
forever. I'm going to betroth thee unto me in righteousness
and judgment and in loving kindness and in mercy. Oh, what loving
kindness that God would join himself to the likes of you and
me. And God showed his loving kindness
to his people. He demonstrated it for all of
creation to see by sending his son into this world to be made
a man, to be their substitute. And this is what the Savior had
to say about his coming in Psalm 40 verse 10. He said, I've not
hid thy righteousness within my heart. The only way we know
God's righteousness is by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. We never
would have known God's righteousness if we hadn't known Christ. He
said, I've declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. We would never
know that God's faithful to do everything he promised if he
didn't send his son to do everything that he promised. They put everything
in here. We wouldn't know about salvation. We would think that
we got to keep the law. We think you think you got to
be a natural Jew. We would never know about salvation if God didn't
reveal it in his son. Then he said, I've not concealed
by loving kindness. We never would have known anything
about loving kindness if God didn't send his son to be the
propitiation for our sin. Therein is love. Not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sin. The only way we know about God's
loving kindness is by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. And loving
kindness and tender mercies, they're almost always seen together
Tender mercies come from bowels of compassion. The word has to
do with what comes from the womb. This is compassion a mother feels. A mother feels. From that baby
that's grown inside your womb. That compassion. But tender mercies
are mercies that are applied with a tender, compassionate,
That great hand of our Savior that holds all of God's creation
together. That great hand that holds all
of God's people in one place. That great and powerful hand
is the hand that in tender compassion applies God's mercies to the
heart of His people. Just like a mother tenderly wipes
the brow of a sick child. So tender. And the Lord doesn't
just give loving kindness and tender mercies to his people.
David said he crowns them with it. The word means covered on
every side. God encircles his people with
his love and tender mercies, giving it to his children like
a tender, caring, loving father. Oh, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Well, the fifth benefit is the
gospel of Christ. Verse 5, David says, who satisfy
thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like
the eagles. Now, the Lord fills the mouths of his people with
good things to eat, things that are sweeter than the honeycomb.
By faith, God's people eat Christ. We become one with him. We eat
his flesh and drink his blood. God's people eat his word. God's
people have an appetite for the gospel, an appetite for the gospel
that will make them come out even on a Wednesday night to
hear the gospel because they just come and they just eat it
up. They got an appetite for it.
This is the gospel of our salvation. This is the gospel that declares
how God forgives sin. It's the gospel of our redemption.
It's the gospel that puts all God's tender mercies on display. And it's that feeds our soul,
that comforts our soul, and that strengthens our soul, that renews
our strength. If you haven't been there and
you're God's, you will be right here. Where your situation is so bad,
you think, I cannot endure this one more second. I can't endure
the pain. I can't endure the heartbreak.
I can't endure the uncertainty. I can't endure the darkness. I can't endure it one more second. Then God renews your soul. He
renews your soul with the gospel. So as you've got the strength
of youth again, at least for a little while, you can keep
going. You can keep going. He renews your strength like
the eagle. Nothing tastes better to the believer. There's nothing
better in the mouth of the believer than the gospel of God's tender
mercies. You know, normally something
tastes good, it's not good for you. This is something that tastes
good and gives life to your soul. It's good for you. And the Lord
has seen fit in His goodness to give that to us. In this little
podunk place, Bless the Lord, oh my soul. The
sixth benefit is knowing Christ, verse seven. He made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Now God's
children don't just know how God saves sinners. Knowing how
God saves sinners, I mean, that's a good thing to know, but that's
knowing God's acts. God's people know more than God's
acts. They know God. They know Christ. I thought of
this illustration. There are few things in this
world I enjoy more than eating cake. I mean, I love it. Miss
Clara can bake a cake, buddy. I mean, she can bake a cake.
And I don't much know how she does it. I mean, she could show
me the recipe. She could say how you mix this
stuff together. She could show me what the oven
temperature is. Okay, I mean, yeah. Whatever,
I wouldn't really get my interest all that much. But it's another
thing altogether. Other than know how that happens. You know what is really enjoyable?
Is to eat that cake. That's salvation. Salvation,
not just knowing how God does what he does. It's knowing Christ. It's believing on his great name. It's resting in him. Salvation. is a vital living relationship
with God Almighty. And God makes Himself known to
His people so that they know Him, so that they come to Him,
so that they rest in Him. We didn't figure this out on
our own. I mean, now come on. We did not figure this out on
our own. God saves His people by revealing Himself to us and
in us. You know, it's one thing to talk
about God's work for His people, and God's work in His people.
I mean, you know, any academic can understand God's work for
His people. They may not believe it, but
they can understand the words that mean God's work in His people.
God gives them life, regeneration, and the new birth. It's one thing
to understand all that. It's another thing for God to
do it for you, and for God to do it in you. For Him to reveal
His Son to you and in you. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Forget not all His benefits.
And we do bless the Lord for all of His benefits to us. I want you to listen to me very
carefully. I hope, I hope that is not the only reason we bless
the Lord. We bless the Lord when He blesses
us, gives us our heart's desire. Everything's going well. Do we
bless the Lord when He tries us to? I mean tries us. We bless the Lord. We feel good. We feel strong. Can you bless
the Lord when He takes your health away? Put you in the hospital? Can you? I enjoy life. Don't you? I enjoy life. Can you bless God and He takes
away from you? Doctor comes in and says you've got three months
to live. Can you bless the Lord then? Come on, are we? We're
thankful for all the goods of this life that we have. Can you
bless God and He takes them away? Here's a second reason to bless
the Lord. It's very, very, very important. Just because it's
second, don't think it's chief. Not chief. This is the chief
reason to bless the Lord. Because of the character of God. Because of who He is. The character,
the personality of the Lord is what draws sinners to come to
Him. And it's His character, His personality that makes us
bless His holy name. First, God's character is merciful
and gracious. Verse 8. The Lord is merciful. and gracious, slow to anger and
plenteous in mercy. Now, earlier we looked at the
Lord crowning, covering his people with mercy and grace. You know
why he does that? Because that's his character. The Lord is graciousness. He is merciful. It's not just
that he has mercy and grace. He is mercy, merciful. He is gracious. And he's gracious
and merciful to his people. because of Christ's work for
them. Something still has to be done
with the sin of God's people. And God poured out all of His
wrath for that sin. All of it upon His Son. All of it. That means there's
none left. If He poured it all out on His
Son, it means there's none left for His people, right? Then all
that's left for His people is mercy and grace. That's not to
say that the Lord does not see the sin of his people. Of course
he does. Of course he does. But he's slow
to anger at me. He longs suffering with his people
because that's his character to be gracious. God's people
are sinful people. My sin is more than the hairs
of my head. That's true for you and me both.
But God's people are not destroyed. because God is merciful. The Lord is more plenteous in
mercy than we're plenteous in sin, because that is his character. The character of the infinite
God is merciful. So he is more plenteous in mercy
than we're plenteous in sin. The Lord sees the sin of his
people, but he never ever punishes his people for their sins. Now
he's going to correct his children just like any wise and good and
loving father. He's going to teach his children,
but he'll never punish them for it. It's never going to be in
his wrath because he already punished Christ our substitute.
Verse nine, he'll not always chide, neither will he keep his
anger forever. He has not dealt with us after
our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. See, God doesn't
punish His people. He doesn't deal with His people
after their sin, because He dealt with Christ after their sin.
And I'm going to say it again, that made it right for God to
show His mercy and His grace to His people. That doesn't make
you come and kneel and bless the Lord from the heart. Nothing
will. You must not need mercy and grace.
And someone will say, okay, Anybody who thinks sins can read
the Bible and understand something about God's mercy and His grace.
But how merciful is He exactly? Will His mercy run out? Is God
merciful enough to save a sinner like me? And when it comes right
down to the brass tacks, that's what we all want to know, isn't
it? Is God merciful enough to save a sinner like me? Yes, He
is. Almighty God has an inexhaustible
amount of mercy for His people because He is merciful. That's
His character. Verse 11, for as the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that
fear Him. God's mercy is so great it can't
be measured. You just can't measure all the
way up into the heavens. God's mercy can't be measured.
God's mercy is so great. He makes it so that the sin of
His people will never touch them again. Verse 12. As far as the
East is from the West, so far hath He removed our transgression
from us. I've told you this many times.
You've heard it from other men too. David didn't say the Lord
separated our sin from us as far as the North is from the
South. I was watching a documentary about the Civil War the other
day. In the heat of that war, boy, people thought North and
South were a long way away, didn't they? North and south touch in
two places, don't they? Both poles. You go north long
enough, you're gonna meet south. But if you go east, and you keep
going east, and you keep going east, and you keep going east,
you'll never go west. You'll never run into the west
again. And that's what David's saying here. God's mercy has
removed his sin, the sin of his people, so far from them, it'll
never touch them again. So there's no reason God should
not be merciful The sin that made him angry is gone. He's
the one that took it away. All right, second, God's character,
His personality to His people is a loving Father, not an austere
judge. Verse 13, like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. I was having
dinner with Brother Don Fortner last week, and he made this statement. I thought this was interesting.
He said, I can understand somebody not being comfortable, just wanting
to come right up and talk to me and say anything that's on
their mind. He said, I have an austere personality. He said,
I have a loud, booming voice, and I just carry myself this
way. Some people just would not be
comfortable just coming up and saying anything in this world
to me. And Janet, she laughed, you know. And I agree with her.
I don't see my brother that way at all. Golden, tender heart. But I do understand what he's
saying. Some people might be a little, you know, afraid to
go up and talk to big old Don. You want me to tell you somebody
who does not feel that way? Don Fortner has the apple of
his eye. One child. One daughter. She's not afraid to come talk
to her daddy anytime she wants. And you ought to see him start
talking about her. He just glows. The God that we worship, the
God that we preach, is God Almighty. He is the judge of all the earth. And He is austere. He's just
and strict. But God's children come boldly
to our Father. Now we come reverently. Absolutely
we come reverently. and kneel in silent adoration. But we come boldly with all the
confidence knowing He's going to accept me. He's going to hear
me. That mighty hand is going to
reach out and touch me in tender mercies because He has made Himself
to be my Father. Oh my. I had a job one time that required
me to be court for the company business from time to time. And
I was there one time waiting for our case to come before the
judge. And I'd been in the courtroom.
I kind of knew you there long enough. You kind of feel like
you get to know the personality of the judge. And this young
fellow was in there. He'd done some boneyard thing.
I don't remember what it was. And I'm telling you, that judge
blistered him. I mean, just blistered him. I
thought, oh, this kid. I mean, he's going to get it.
And after he blistered him, he said, I'm going to let you go.
No jail time, no fine, but you're not austere. Don't you ever come
back here again. That's not how God our Father
deals with his people. Not as an austere judge, but
as a loving father who tenderly pities his children. He pities
the children. pain, the situation, the sin,
the need. And with that great loving hand
provides it for his children. If that doesn't come, make you
want to come and kneel and bless the Lord from the heart. Maybe
it's because you're not a child, but that thrills the hearts of
God's children, doesn't it? Right, here's the third thing.
We bless the Lord because of our sinful character. We bless
the Lord for his benefits, We bless God for His character and
because of our character. All we are is sin, yet God saves
sinners. Everything we do is rebellion
against God, yet God is still merciful to His people. God loves
His people, even though they're nothing but sinful flesh. Verse
14, 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's gone.
And the place thereof shall know it no more." It doesn't look
like there's a flower ever growing there at all, much less a pretty
one. Now, you know, it seems like we often forget that we're
just flesh, that we're just dust. We act like we can do a lot of
things that we can't do. We act like We're going to be
here longer than we probably will. Jan and I went to visit
our new baby, Boone, the other day. And I was holding him. I
was looking. He probably died. He was just
looking back at me. And I was thinking to myself,
I'm anxious to watch this boy grow and become a man. I may not be here when that happens.
I just may not. And we act like we're going to
be here forever. But the Lord doesn't forget. The Lord does
not forget that we're just dust. And I believe this will comfort
you. He doesn't forget we're just a pile of dust. That's all
we are. So he doesn't expect from us more than we're capable
of doing. Does that comfort your heart?
He doesn't expect us to not sin and he doesn't expect us to be
perfect. So he continues to be merciful and gracious. He tells
us to be perfect. He tells us don't sin. But when
any man sin, we have an advocate with the father. Our father knows
how quickly we fade like a flower after this time of year. So he
strengthens us. Very soon, we don't know it,
but he does. We won't be here anymore. And
our wise and good father has prepared for us a place to be
with him forever in a body made just like his body. We won't
be here for long, but God in His mercy will be. 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. You know, I worry about the kind of world we're leaving
for our children and our grandchildren. I kind of think we all ought
to just walk through elementary schools apologizing to these
kids the world we're leaving them to mess they're going to
have to deal with. And I don't know what their world is going
to look like. I don't know what little Boone's
world is going to look like in 30 years. I've got no idea. I'm full of
fears about it, but I've got no idea what it's going to look
like. But I do know this. God will still be merciful to
His children. Somebody is still going to be
keeping God's covenant. Look at verse 18. To such as
keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments,
to do them. Somebody's going to remember
God's covenant. Somebody's going to keep it.
They're going to be faithful to do it. They're going to be
faithful to believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
God's commandment to you and me, believe on Christ. Somebody's
going to do it. And they're going to keep believing.
God's going to give them faith, and He's going to keep them faithful. That doesn't make you want to
come. and kneel and bless the Lord, nothing will. Right here is a closing exhortation. It's based upon God's character.
It's based upon our character and it's based upon all God's
benefits to His people. This is the exhortation. Everybody
bless the Lord. How can you not? Verse 19. The Lord hath prepared His throne
in the heavens and His kingdom ruleth over all. So bless the
Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments,
hearkening under the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord,
all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure.
Bless the Lord, all his works and all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let the angels in heaven, whether,
I don't know who he's talking, he's talking about everything
in creation here. The angels in heaven could be
creative beings. Could be talking about God's
preachers, God's people, whoever they are, let them all bless
the Lord. Let all of God's works, His works of grace and His works
of wrath, let all of them bless the Lord. Let every person, believer
and unbeliever alike, let all of creation, the trees, the hills,
the mountains, the lakes, the streams, the ocean, the stars,
the sun, the moon, let all of creation join together and bless
the holy name of the Lord Jehovah. He is worthy. He is worthy. And it is my prayer that that
will start with us tonight in our hearts right now. God be
pleased. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we say with David
of old, bless the Lord, O my soul. Father, how can we begin
to thank you? Praise you and bless your matchless
name as we ought to. But Father, from all that is
within us, from the new heart that you've given us, the heart
of faith, the heart of love, the heart of a child, Father,
we bless your holy name. Oh, thank you for your mercy
and your grace that someone as great as you are would reach
so low for lowly, unworthy, worthless sinners such as we are, and bestow
all of your grace and mercy and goodness upon us through your
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let us go home this evening with
that heart of praise and adoration for God our Savior. It's in His
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. We'll stand and sing number 32. Number 32. All praise to Him who reigns
above, in majesty supreme, who gave His Son for man to die,
that He might man redeem. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name above all names shall
stand, exalted more and more, and God the Father's own right
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name
of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Redeemer, Savior, friend of man,
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name
of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. His name shall be the Counselor,
the mighty Prince of Peace. of all earth's kingdom conqueror,
whose reign shall never cease. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed
be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Thank you.