Would you turn back to the 103rd
Psalm? This message that I'm going to
try to preach tonight is for believers. I usually hesitate
to say that, because it's for unbelievers too. But it's especially
for believers, because only a believer could enter in to what David
is saying. An unbeliever can profit greatly
from hearing what's said, if God the Holy Spirit's pleased
to bless it to him. But this message is the children's
bread. This is for believers. I've entitled
this the 103rd Psalm. Original title, huh? In other Psalms, David is asking
for things. Be merciful to me, on and on. And in this Psalm, he does not
ask for one thing. He doesn't make any kind of petition
at all. And to be honest with you, that's
always intimidated me about this psalm because I, in my memory,
don't remember ever doing that. Every time I'm praying to the
Lord, I'm asking for something. I'm asking for forgiveness. I'm
asking for mercy. I'm asking him to give me what
I think would be good for me and knowing that it's good if
he will hold it from me if that's what I need. But I'm always asking
for something. And in this psalm, David doesn't ask for a thing. Something occurred to me that
was a great blessing to me. If we have what David speaks
of in this psalm, there's nothing to ask for. There's absolutely
nothing to ask for. We have nothing to ask for because
we already have everything. That's what's contained in this
psalm. No need to covet something if
you already have everything. And if Christ is all, now you
hear that, Christ is all? If he is, he is. And you have
him, you have all. There's nothing for you to ask
for. You are complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. That means
lacking nothing. I love when David said, the Lord
is my shepherd. I shall not want. I have all. Paul said to the
Romans, he that spared not his own son but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us? How many things? All things. A Psalm of David is the title
of this psalm, A Man After God's Own Heart. And something that
is very interesting about this psalm is David is speaking of
the Lord. He's not speaking to the Lord,
but he's speaking of the Lord and his audience is himself.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul. David's preaching a sermon to
himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And that's how he ends
this. He calls upon all creation to
join in with him. At the end, look in verse 20. Bless the Lord, ye his angels
that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of his word. I love to think of the swift
obedience of angels, don't you? They're called, by Paul in 1
Timothy 5, the elect angels. And oh, how swift they are to
do his will. And I love what John Newton said.
He said, if two angels were commanded by God, one to rule an empire
and one to sweep a street, they'd both do what they were called
on to do with equal zeal, not caring which job it was. Verse 21, bless ye the Lord,
all ye his hosts, ye ministers, ye servants of his. You see,
everybody and everything's his servant. Hearkening or doing
that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now let's go to verse one. Bless
the Lord, O my soul. Now, obviously, David cannot
bless the Lord the way he blesses us. I love that passage of scripture
in Hebrews chapter two. It says, without contradiction,
the blessed, the less is blessed of the better. It's always that
way. We can't bless him in the way he blesses us. We can't give
anything to him. We can't add anything to him.
He's independent. He already has everything. You
can't do anything to increase his state of blessedness. But
what he's saying is, ascribe blessedness to the Lord. Like
Paul said in Ephesians 1-3, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in all spiritual places, the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Notice how he says Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me, bless His holy name.
I want to bless Him with my whole heart, don't you? I don't want
to be half-hearted about this. I want to bless Him with my whole
man, with my understanding, with my will, with my affections.
But Aaron pointed this out to me, and it was such a blessing.
Think of the Lord saying this, all that's within me, all of
the elect, all of His people. praise of the whole church of
God. When Christ Jesus blesses the Lord, all those in him do
too. All that is within me bless his
holy name. Now his name is his attributes. You know that when we're talking
about his name, we're not just talking about being able to articulate
his name. We're talking about all his attributes,
his sovereignty, his justice, his grace, his power, his immutability,
his independence, whatever he is is holy, isn't it? We bless
his holy name. Everything about him is good.
Everything about him is holy. Verse two, bless the Lord, oh
my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Now, faith has something
to do with not forgetting. Now, when you're forgetting,
you're not believing. I know there's a sense in which you
never believe. There's a sense when you always believe. The
new nature always believes. The old nature never believes.
But here's what happens is we remember that Christ is all that
faith. When we forget it, we're in trouble. And faith is essentially remembering,
and Him giving you the grace to remember, but it's remembering.
Forget, bless the Lord, O my soul. So He's preaching this
message to Himself. And forget not all His benefits,
and He goes on to enumerate them, who forgiveth all. Oh, there's nine all's in this
Psalm. Who forgiveth all. thine iniquities. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
son, cleanses us from all sin. And understand this thing about
forgiveness. He didn't forgive you when you
asked for forgiveness. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ begins with the complete forgiveness and eradication of
sin. That's where it begins. It's
not something we do to get it. It begins with this act of God. He forgives all thine iniquities. Ever believe we're in here? Your
iniquities are forgiven. And when he forgives, it's not
like me and you forgive. I wish we didn't. We forgive,
but we don't forget. Somebody says, I do. Well, I
wish I could join with you, because I haven't found out I'm able
to do that yet. But you know, when he forgives, he doesn't
remember sin anymore. And this is so glorious. When
he sees me in glory, he's not going to remember any sin. You know why? Because he put
it away. Because it's gone. Because it's blotted out. He
forgives all thine iniquities. Their sins and iniquities I will
remember no more. And then it says, who healeth
all thy diseases. Now, I am sure that that's not
talking about physical healing, because you're going to die of
something. It's not talking about physical healing. But I'm saying
this to every believer, what's the greatest disease you have?
Sin. It's a disease to a believer.
David said in Psalm 38, and it's the Lord speaking this way too,
when he was made sin on the cross, my loins are filled with a loathsome
disease, and there's no rest in my bones because of my sin.
Sin is a disease to a believer, and you feel it. If you have
a disease, what do you want? Healing. I am the Lord that healeth
thee. By his stripes, we were. That's what it says in the New
Testament. In the Old Testament, it says we are. In the New Testament,
it says we were healed. Now, when we have these glorified
bodies, we'll be healed of all physical diseases. That's not
what he's talking about. He's talking about the disease.
of sin. He heals all thy diseases. Verse four, who redeemeth thy
life from destruction. Now I'm talking about not going
to hell. That's what that's referring to. I don't want to go to hell. Now I want to go to heaven. I
want to be in his presence, but I also don't want to go to hell.
And he redeemed Me from that got nothing to fear. There is
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. He redeemed my life from destruction,
who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Now this is what some have called
the Old Testament words for grace, loving kindness Tender mercies. You remember when David said
in Psalm 51, one, have mercy upon me, O God, not according
to how sorry I am or how I'm asking you to forgive this or
I promise to get things straightened up. No, have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude
of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. wash me throughly
from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. That's God's
grace. And notice he says, you crown me with loving kindness
and tender mercies. Now, I can't help but think that's
the father speaking of the son. He's the one who's crowned. But
you know what? When he's crowned, we are too.
When the crown is put on his head, it's put upon ours because
we're in him. I love the hymn, Crown Him With
Many Crowns, but I cringe just a little bit because I think,
I can't crown him. The Father crowns him with many
crowns. You know, the one who puts the
crown on is really the one who's running the show. And he's the
one who puts the crown on his head, but we're crowned also
when our head is crowned, the Lord Jesus Christ. who crowns
thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies,
verse five, who satisfies thy mouth with good things, so that
thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Now, the father, just
talk about this word, satisfied. Satisfied. The father is satisfied. with the Son. He's not looking
for anything else. He's completely, absolutely satisfied
with His Son, with what His Son has done, not looking for anything
else, completely satisfied, and He's satisfied with everybody
in the Son. That means when the Father looks
upon me, He's completely satisfied. He isn't looking for anything
else. Christ is satisfied with what He did. He shall see the
travail of His soul. He's satisfied. He's not looking for anything
else. And He's satisfied with me. He sees me as perfect. He's satisfied
with what he did. He's satisfied with his blood.
He's satisfied with the Father. You know what's amazing? Is that unless you're a believer
and God gives you this, you're not satisfied with what God's
satisfied with. But if you're a believer, you're actually satisfied
with what God is satisfied with. And you know, in this thing of
satisfaction, I'm not satisfied with myself, but I am so satisfied
to be saved by him where he does it all. I find such satisfaction
that I'm not looking for anything else. I don't know how many times
I've heard this and I've heard this dozens of times. There's
got to be something else. You're just not satisfied with
this. We're satisfied. He satisfies thy mouth with good
things, the good things of the gospel so that thy youth is renewed
like the eagles. The Lord has to do with his youth.
And you know, in him, we're forever young. Verse six, the Lord executeth
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Now he's
talking about the oppression of sin. There's a lot of people
who are oppressed that never hear the gospel, never love God,
never saved by his grace. They're oppressed. Men are always
oppressing other men. There's all kinds of problems
like that. But this is talking about the oppression of sin. Is sin an oppression to you? Well, here's what he does for
all who are oppressed. He executes righteousness and
judgment. It's what the Bible calls justification.
He executes righteousness. That sin that's oppressed you,
he's judged it, it's gone. You're given perfect righteousness. Every single believer. He executes judgment, righteousness
for all that are oppressed. Verse seven, he made known his
ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. better
by knowing his ways than just his acts, wouldn't you say? I
want to be like Moses. I want to know his ways. I want
to know his acts. I'm not saying anything, I'm thankful for that,
but I want to know his ways. And he made known his ways to
Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. Verse eight, this
is who he is. The Lord is merciful and gracious. slow to anger and plenteous in
mercy. I wish I knew how to present
him. I can't present him. He's got
to present himself. I realize that, but I wish I knew. He's
slow to anger. How many times have you thought
the Lord's mad at me? He's slow to anger. Moses says, show me
your glory. What does he say? I'll make all
my goodness to pass before you. When he proclaimed his name,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. I love what David said, the Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. You can't run his mercy dry. He'll not always chide, neither
will he keep his anger forever. Now, the only way I can understand
this, he will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger
forever. As long as we're in this body of sin, our sin is
never a thing of indifference. And you'll be chided for your
sin. And you will feel even maybe
like David did when he said the thing that David did displeased
the Lord. And as long as we're in the flesh, we're going to
be dealing with this. That's just the way it is. There's
not gonna be forever. It's not gonna be forever. And
that sin that grieves you so much, one of these days you won't
even remember you ever committed it. As a matter of fact, you
will have never committed it. That's what justification is. You'll
stand before God without guilt. He will not jive forever. Verse
10, I love this. He's not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Aren't you
thankful for this great blessing? Christ took those iniquities
away. And that's why he's not dealt
with us after our sins. Now, if that's its mark iniquity,
oh Lord, who would stand? Nobody in here or out of here,
but he has not dealt with us. after our sins nor rewarded us
according to our iniquities. Four, as the heaven is high above
the earth. Now, when he's talking about
heaven here, he's not talking about that place where birds
fly around. And he's not talking about that
place where there are galaxies and stars and so on. He's talking
about the third heavens, where God dwells. How far away that
is? It's something infinite. We couldn't
put a measure of miles on it. It's infinite. But as high as
the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. Now I want to remind you what
the fear of God is. The fear of God is being afraid
to look anywhere but Christ. You don't want to be seen in
any other way than in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that is his
great mercy toward you. How many people you know out
in the world feel that way? Very few. Well, nobody out in
the world. As far as that goes, you shouldn't
even say very few. Only those that are in the church, only
those that are in the body of Christ feel that way. But how
great is his mercy toward you? Verse 12, as far as the East
is from the West. Now that's an infinite distance.
That is an infinite distance. As far as the East is from the
West, so far hath he, what's the next word? Removed. You know what that means? They're not there anymore. He's
removed them from you. You do not have them. Verse 13, like as a father pitieth
his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear. Now you know
how much you pity your children. You know how much you love your
children. You know how much you're moved. Anything that's important
to your children is important to you. And the Lord's a whole
lot more like that than we are. I love it when the Lord said
that if anybody asks, if your son asks for a bread, do you
give him a stone, a big rock, put it there on a plate, there,
eat that? No. Or if he asks for a fish, Give him a swiggling
serpent on the plate? Or if he asks for an egg, do
you give him a scorpion? Well, of course not, you love
your children. You want the best for them. I love what he said
next. If you then, anybody know the
rest of the one? Being evil. Was he talking to
his children? Yeah. If you then being evil
know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more
should your heavenly father give good things to them that ask
him? For, verse 14, he knoweth our frame. What you are right now hadn't
taken him by surprise. He knoweth our frame. I think of what the Lord said
when he came and saw his disciples sleeping in the garden. He said,
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, powerless. He knoweth our frame. You know, the Lord looks at me,
and he sees how weak and stupid and sinful I am. And he pities
me. He loves me. He exercises compassion
toward me. He careth for you. He knows what you are. You don't
know what you are. None of us do. We have such high
thoughts of ourself. He knows we're nothing but dust.
He knows our frame. He remembers that we're dust.
As for man, verse 15, as for man, his days are as grass. has a flower of the field, so
he flourisheth. For the wind passes over it,
it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. The voice said, cry, what shall
I cry? All flesh is grass. That's where you begin. All flesh
is grass. Do you know if the Lord tarries
his return, and 100 years from now, He hadn't returned. Do you think anybody's going
to know who your name is? Do you know any of the names of
people? And unless you're some of those, what do you call it? Genealogy. Yeah, genealogy. I
don't know what's happening to me. I'm having a hard time remembering
words that I know. So I guess it's just starting
to happen since I'm 60. And Lynn's been doing it for
a couple of years. It's happening to me now. But at any rate, in
100 years, nobody's going to know my name, unless there's
some genealogy person looking up who they're at. Nobody's going
to know. I don't know one relative's name that's over 100 years old.
I like what Joe McSherry said. He said, we have about as much
influence as when you stick your thumb in the water and pull it
out. You got that little indention just for a millisecond, it's
gone. No, no more. For the wind passes over it,
it's 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. Now,
when he's talking about from everlasting to everlasting, he's
talking about from eternity past to eternity future. And I know
that those words don't even make sense. And we're struggling any
time we talk about eternity. But God's love to me didn't begin
sometime here on Earth. His saving work for me didn't
begin somewhere here on Earth. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And I love what a woman said to Spurgeon.
She said, I know that God's love had to begin in eternity, because
if it was sometime here, it could have never been. And I know that. I know that. Every aspect of
our salvation is eternal. Every aspect. Eternal salvation,
eternal judgment, or eternal inheritance, eternal redemption,
the eternal gospel. You know, I have had, when I've
been preaching of the eternal aspect of justification, I've
heard people say, well, I don't believe that. Why? It doesn't even, why would somebody
not wanna believe that? It's glorious, it's who God is,
it's glorious, and to everything we have was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began, that's what 2 Timothy 1.9 says.
I love it that way, I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
That's what makes it so secure. David put it this way, he said,
although my house be not so with God, yet hath he made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, and this
is all my salvation. And all my desire, I don't want
anything else. I want this salvation that's
from everlasting to everlasting, the eternal God, every aspect
we have. Hebrews 4.3 says, all the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. And somebody says,
do you mean you don't have to cut it? That's kind of like somebody
saying, if you're lucky, that means you don't have to believe. Well,
that's foolish. Why witness if God chose a people
and they were chose before the foundation? That's foolishness. That's all that is. When somebody
makes that objection, it's foolishness. Everything God ordained in eternity
comes to pass in time. and it's finished in eternity.
And the mercy, the saving mercy of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting upon that fear him and his righteousness, his
righteousness. That's the security of our salvation,
his righteousness. I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only, his righteousness unto the children's children.
Verse 18, to such as keep his covenant, into those that remember
his commandments to do that. Now, what's it mean to keep his
covenant? Well, I just read that passage
of scripture. David talked about that everlasting
covenant, order and all things in sure. You know what he said
about it? He said, it's all my salvation. Is that all your salvation? Is it all your desire? You really
don't want it to be any way else. And you can't find any satisfaction
in anything else. saying to such as keep his covenant
to those that remember his commandments to do them. See, there's, you
gotta keep his commandments. Yeah, you do. This is his commandment
that we believe on the name of his son and love one another
as he gave his commandment. That's believing the gospel is
what that is. The gospel is a command. We believe. Let me show you that
in scripture so you won't think I'm, turn to 1 John 3. Verse
23. And this is his commandment that
we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as he gave us commandment. Now, I do believe
on the name of his son. I really do. I believe his name
is the name, the only name given under heaven whereby we must
be saved. I'm looking to his name, every
one of his attributes in my salvation. And I love his people. I do. Anybody he loves, I love. That's
keeping his commandment. Now back to Psalm 103 verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth over all. Now this is
a statement regarding the absolute sovereignty of God. His throne
has prepared all things from The heavens. Where he rules and
reigns and his kingdom rules over all absolutely sovereign
in all things. I love this. I love his sovereignty
because who he is, it's not a doctrine. Somebody says you believe in
the doctrine of God's sovereignty. No, I believe in the God who's sovereign
that this is who he is. And he rules and reigns and controls
everything. If he's not sovereign over everything,
he's not sovereign at all. Are you saying that God's responsible
for evil? I'm saying God is responsible
for everything. Now, I don't know how all that works, but
I'm not going to try to apologize for anything he does or try to
explain him away. He's God. And whatever he does is right.
Whatever he does is holy. Whatever he does is true. Isn't
that it? That's all we can do is bow down
to who He is. Verse 20, Bless the Lord, ye
His angels that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening
unto the voice of His word. And you can't help but think
of the seraphims, six wings flying, Around the throne, holy, holy,
holy. With two wings, they cover their
feet. They're ashamed of themselves.
They're ashamed of their walk. Somebody says, well, if they've
never sinned, how can they be ashamed of their walk? Well, the scripture
says he charges his angels with folly. They might not have actually
committed the folly, but he knows they would if he didn't prevent
it. That's how vain they are. That's how vain we all are. With
two, they cover their face, they can't look upon him. With two,
they fly, hearkening to obey his commandments. Verse 21, bless
ye the Lord, all ye his hosts. Ye ministers of his that do his
pleasure. Isn't it wonderful to think that
everything is his servant doing his pleasure? You know, I know
some things right now going on in places that absolutely break
my heart to think of what's taking place. And I think, oh, and then
the Lord lets me remember these are his ministers doing his pleasure,
working out his purpose, everything. And David says, bless the Lord
for everything. Everything bad that happens to
you, real bad, that's his minister doing his pleasure. Everything
good that happens to you. Well, when it comes right down
to it, me and you don't have enough sense to know if it's good or
bad, really. I mean, boy, this is good. Well,
you know, you don't, I don't have enough sense to know, but
we know, we have enough sense, by grace, we have enough sense
to know that it's his will being done. His good pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works. Oh, don't the works of God ascribe
greatness to Him? What about His works of creation?
When He spake the universe into existence, you think of the galaxies
in the universe and the planet we're living on. Oh, they all
speak of His greatness and His glory. Think of His works of
providence. He controls everything. Everything that happens is His
will taking place. All things work together for
good to them that love God. To them are the called according
to His purpose. Oh, how His works of providence
glorify His great name. And what about His work of salvation?
For Him to be so good and so glorious. as to take someone
as sinful as me and conform me to the image of Christ where
I'm glorified even now. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, all his works
and all places of his dominion or his absolute sovereign rule.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now, David didn't ask for anything,
did he? You know why? Because he already
had everything. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you. For who you are. Lord, we ascribe blessedness
to you. And Lord, to think that all of
our iniquities are forgiven, all our diseases are healed,
that you've not dealt with us after our iniquities nor rewarded
us according to our sins, that you remember our frames that
were dust, that your mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that's within me. Bless his
holy name. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Rich Cumley is closing in.