Psalm 103. This passage of scripture, it begins and it ends with these words. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless. It can also mean The same thing as the word praise. Praise. Over one of the other Psalms, David wrote this. He said, let everything that hath breath. That covers it all, doesn't it? Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Bless the Lord. Let others refrain, if they can, but bless the Lord Oh, my soul. Let others murmur, and that comes pretty natural to this flesh. But may he be pleased by his grace to enable us to bless the Lord. Let others bless themselves and idols, but truly calls us at all times, to bless the Lord. David said, as for me, I'll cry. I'll cry. You know, let others use only their tongues. Just speak with the mouth. But cause us to bless the Lord, oh my soul. He said, all, all that is within me, bless his holy name. A few observations, some of the old commentators agree on these things. They say that David probably wrote this in his later years. In it we see a clear sense of the frailty of life. We don't typically see that in younger days, but as we grow older, we become more and more aware of the frailty of this life. There's an awareness here of sin, of David's sin, and a true need, a true need for mercy and forgiveness. And as we read through this passage, we won't get through the whole thing tonight, but there's one petition, one, not one, I'm sorry, not one petition, not one request, but just praise, praise for the Lord. Wouldn't that be wonderful if we had less petition and more praise, more gratitude and less give me. As we grow in grace, our prayer, I think our prayer changes. I hope it does. And in this passage, the name Jehovah is mentioned 11 times. in just 22 verses. You can almost see David kneel down in adoration and praise for the Lord. You know, we're thankful. We're thankful for his gifts. We're thankful for his benefits. But let's not ever let those things get in front of us praising him. to praise the Lord, praise Him from whom all blessings flow. So let's look at this, just here for a few minutes this evening, let's look at this passage together. Verse one, bless the Lord, oh my soul. The highest form of praise, again, not just with the lips, We use that term lip service, right? Most of what we say is lip service. He says, praise the Lord, oh my soul, with my heart, with my innermost being. A soul that loves and praises the Lord. And David says this, he said, all that is within me, bless his holy name. I don't know if it was Brother Henry or Spurgeon that wrote this, but he said, let my judgment bless him by submitting to his word. Let my imagination bless him by holy meditation to be taken up with the thoughts of him. Let my affection Bless him by loving what he loves. Let my desire bless him by seeking not my will, but his will. Let my hope bless him, resting in full assurance of peace. Bless his holy name. His name declares everything we truly need to know. To bless His name, that name which is above everything. That name which is worthy of all praise and honor and adoration. To bless Him as the word written. All these pages written that declare Him. Bless Him in the Word incarnate. God became a man. He became flesh and He dwelt among us. Truly let God be God. His holiness, His chief attribute is His holiness. And holiness is very important. In the Hebrews we read this, that without it, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. The holiness of His name. Isaiah wrote this, he said, Tell ye, and bring them near, Let them take counsel together. Who hath declared it from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me. He's a just God and a Savior. None beside him. He's holy. He's just. He's righteous. He's merciful. Well, let's read on in our text, verse two. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. I believe Jacob spoke for all of us back in Genesis 32. He said this, he said, I'm not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all thy truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. Forget not all of his benefits, all that he has given his people. And these benefits, listen, they don't flow from the merit of men. They flow from the mercy of Almighty God. His benefits are many. In fact, they're innumerable. We can't even begin to reckon them up in order. They're new. They're new every morning. And they continue, whether we see them or not, they continue all the day long. Great. We couldn't even begin to rack them up. Great is the sum of them. We can't even begin to add them up. And not one should be forgotten. How often, how often we do. Like the Israelites of old, quickly we forget, don't we? How often, how often can you go back in the Old Testament and see where they, the Lord delivered them and they would sing the praises of the Lord. But time and time again, they forgot. for God, his wonderful works. You know Moses, Moses was up on Mount Sinai for less than six weeks. That's such a short period of time, six weeks. Actually, it was less than 40 days, 40 days. And when he came back down off of that mountain, he found the people of God dancing naked around a golden calf. Oh, how quickly, how quickly we forget. He's left us an ordinance for that purpose. An ordinance to be continued until the end of this world, until the Lord returns for this purpose, to remember, to not forget, but to remember His chief blessing, the redemption of His people by His precious Son. He said, this do. For what purpose? In remembrance of me. In John 14, 26, it says, the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. He'll teach you all things and he'll bring all things to your remembrance. Well, we need to be reminded, don't we? How often Lord calls us to remember. the great things that you have done for us through your son. He says, forget not all his benefits. And here in the next few verses, beginning with verse three, we see a list of just some of those benefits. And with what time we have left, I'd like to look at them. Look at the first benefit mentioned in verse three. He forgiveth all thine iniquities. Forgiveness, forgiveness of sin, it's of God. God who is holy and just and righteous, yet God who delights to show mercy. Only God can forgive. David wrote in Psalm 130, he said, There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. None but God can forgive sin. In Isaiah 118, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, They shall be as wool. The forgiveness of sin. Original sin in Adam, actual sin, sins of the heart, sins of my mouth, sins of this life, sins of omission, sins that we've committed. All, all are forgiven for Christ's sake. Let the wicked forsake his way. The righteous man, the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he'll have mercy. Here's a reason to return to the Lord. He'll have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. He's not stingy with it, is he? He'll abundantly pardon. Back there in 2 Samuel 12, remember when God used Nathan, Nathan told that story to reveal David's sin to him. David said to Nathan, after he figured out he was talking about him, when he said, thou art the man, David said, I've sinned. I've sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord hath also put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. The Lord Jesus Christ, our ransom, our Redeemer, our righteousness. Scripture says that we're complete in Him. It's by His blood. It's by the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, that He cleanses us from all sin. The first benefit we read of it, He forgives. all our iniquities. Well, let's read on. Verse 3 of Psalm 103. Look at the second part of that verse. Here's another benefit. Who healeth all of our diseases. Now, the diseases of this body are the result of sin. That's not necessarily an individual sin that we've committed or our parents committed. Back there in John 9, our Lord passed by and he saw a man that was blind from his birth. And his disciples, apparently they wondered about those things too. And they asked him, they said, Master, who sinned? Was it this man or was it his parents that caused him to be born blind? And our Lord answered, he said, it wasn't this man, and it wasn't his parents. Now he's not saying that this man or his parents had never sinned, but that's not the cause of that young man's sin. This is why he's blind, that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Suffering, affliction, death, Listen, they're caused by man's sin. If sin had never entered into the world, there wouldn't be any suffering. There wouldn't be any death. But that suffering and affliction, it's not due to a personal transgression. And God heals when He's pleased to do so. when it's according to His will, when it serves His purpose. But listen, the diseases referred to here, they're spiritual diseases, our sin. They're healed in Christ. He bore them. He bore our sicknesses. He bore our diseases in His body on a tree by His stripes. What's the rest of that? By His stripes, we are healed. Our Lord is the great physician. He can, and here's an amazing thing, He can heal the body if He's pleased to do so, and He can heal the soul. Sometimes He does both. Remember that man back in Mark 2? Our Lord was in the house and there was such a crowd, nobody, they couldn't get any more people in. That fellow's friends, they took him up on the roof and they dropped him down through the roof in front of our Lord. And our Lord spoke to that man, and he spoke to the people there that day. He said, this is what's going to happen here, that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sin. He saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise Take up thy bed, and go thy way to thine own house. And immediately, immediately he arose, and he took up his bed, and he walked before everybody there. And they were all amazed. And they glorified God, saying, we have never What a sight that must have been. We've never seen anything like this before. Only God can cure. And he speaks in power. He heals by his word. He heals by his gospel, preaching peace and pardon and righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. by his shed blood, by his wounds, by those stripes that were laid on his son, by his pardon and grace and mercy, healing our diseases and forgiving our iniquities. Well, third, look at verse four. Here's another benefit. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction." He redeems our life. We must die. All men are going to die. The wages of sin, there's just countless scriptures, but the wages of sin is death. We read that sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. It's appointed unto man wants to die, and after that, judgment. Some men, some men die peacefully in their sleep. And some die a long and painful death. But hear these words of comfort. The believer, the believer shall never perish. The Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness, he redeems us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. As our sin offering, he's redeemed us from the judgment of sin. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God who justifies. Who's he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God making intercession for us. He redeemed us from the grave. Our Lord told Martha that. He said, I'm the resurrection. I'm the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. He said those words and then he looked at her and he asked this question. You believe this? Believest thou this? He plucked us. His people have been plucked out of the fire. We've been lifted up out of the deep miry clay. Scripture says He reached down. That Psalm, He reached down His hand for me. Listen to just a few verses here. He said, Once my soul was astray from the heavenly way, I was wretched. Does that describe you? I was wretched and vile as could be, but the Lord, my Savior, my Savior in love gave me peace from above when he reached down his hand for me. He redeemeth thy life from destruction. Fourth, we read, he crowneth thee with loving kindness and with tender mercies. The kings of this earth, we still see some pomp and we still see that in our day, don't we? A king with a crown of gold and silver and diamonds. A symbol, those are supposed to be a symbol of that kingdom, of its wealth and its majesty. But all those pass away in time. Over the years, great, great kingdoms have risen and fallen. In 2 Samuel, David, he conquered a city. And the king of that city, must have been slightly vain, but he had a gold crown that weighed, they believe, 75 pounds. 75 pounds, a talent. When David conquered that city, He took that crown. They took that crown from that man and they put it on David. Every kingdom of this earth is gonna pass away. But he crowned thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. Revelations 1, 6 says, he hath made us, now just listen to this, he hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. It'll rain forever. Our crowns are not of gold, but glory. Just like our robes, huh? Clothed in a royal robe of righteousness. Clothed in beauty, not my own. Turn to 2 Timothy, chapter four. 2 Timothy 4. Look at verse 8. Paul writing here to Timothy. He said, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown, a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Bless the Lord. Oh my soul. And forget not all his benefits. He forgiveth thine iniquities. He healeth thy diseases. He redeemed thy life from destruction. He crowned thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. And last, We'll stop here, but he says, he satisfies thy mouth with good things. I don't know of any man on this earth that is ever truly satisfied, that is ever truly at peace. There's always something, there's always something newer, there's always something shinier, there's always something bigger. The things of this earth never, can never satisfy the soul. But it says, he satisfies thy mouth with good things. good things of our Savior, good things of Christ. All that God has given His Son is ours. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things. If God so loved that He gave His Son, and Christ so loved that He came into this world and He bore the sins of His people, that He bore the shame of all His people, shall not the Father freely give us all that He purposed? all that the Son purchased, and one day, one day, those that are Christ are going to be satisfied, completely satisfied. We're not going to want for anything more. We're not going to desire anything more. We're not going to need anything more. But we'll be satisfied. Turn with me to one more scripture. We'll finish with this, Psalm 17. I know myself, I know myself and I ask that question, could I ever truly be, truly be satisfied, truly be content? Look at Psalm 17. Psalm 17, look at verse 15. A prayer of David. Look again, Psalm 17 verse 15. David says, as for me, I'll behold thy face in righteousness, and I shall be satisfied. Satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. To have communion with God. to have his favor, to be made like the sun. I shall be satisfied. Well, I would encourage you tonight, this passage, before you lay your head down, and just a few more verses, but take time to read that psalm in its entirety. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. All right, let's stand and sing a closing hymn.