Psalm 103 is our study this evening. I'm entitling the message from
the words that are repeated here. In verse one, bless the Lord,
O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Again, he says in verse two,
bless the Lord, Jehovah, the eternal almighty God. Bless the
Lord, O my soul. Again, down in the last line
of the last verse, verse 22, again he repeats that phrase
again. Bless the Lord, O my soul. David's heart was overflowing
With God's goodness and mercy, he could not contain himself,
and the Lord blessed him under inspiration of the Holy Spirit
to pen these words of Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This is the occupation and delight
of every believer. It is a delight to worship the
Lord. to come to the house of the Lord, to hear His word, sing
praises unto the Lord about our Redeemer. It's the occupation
and delight of every believer to praise Him, to honor Him,
to extol Him, to worship our God and our Savior from the heart,
from the heart. God looks upon the heart, doesn't
He? I like what he says. Look over at Psalm 104 verse
33. I will sing unto the Lord as
long as I live. Verse 33. I will sing praises
to my God while I have any being. While I have any being at all.
I want to praise His great and glorious name. Now some of the
old preachers of the past have said this Psalm It's like a condensed
version of the Bible, for it contains all the great works
of God in creation, redemption, providence, grace, and salvation. The name of Jehovah, our Lord,
is mentioned 11 times in these 22 verses. Again, we learn from
reading this psalm, as in all the psalms, that salvation is
of the Lord. Salvation is a work of our God. Look, turn back one page, I was
looking at this earlier, Psalm 98 verse 1. Psalm 98 verse 1,
singing to the Lord a new song, for he had done marvelous things.
Oh, marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm
had gotten him to victory. The Lord hath made known his
salvation, his righteousness hath he openly revealed in the
sight of the heathen. So we sang unto the Lord, for
He had done marvelous things. Thanks be to God. You remember
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, thanks be to God who has
given us the victory, given us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. We have the victory over sin,
over death, over hell, over Satan, over all things. We are victorious
in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's good news, is it not?
You see, in salvation Christ is all and in all, in all. Now let's look at verse 1. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord,
O my soul. This is delightful, delightful,
the delightful joy. of every believer, to bless him.
And if you look that word up, it means to kneel. Kneel before
him in adoration. Kneel before him in submission. For the Lord is Lord of all.
For all he has done and all that he has blessed us with now and
forever, we bow in submission and worship. We worship him as
God. As someone rightly said, the only place a sinner will
truly worship is at the throne of the almighty God. Our God is God. And we bless
his holy name, don't we? We bless his holy name. As we
read in Ephesians chapter one, verse three, as Paul said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed
us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly in Christ, according
as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now, how should we bless the Lord? He says, in my soul. Oh,
my soul. That is in my heart and in my
soul, inwardly and sincerely. God looketh on the heart. He
doesn't look on the outward countenance. He sees every thought and the
intent of our heart. All things are naked and open
unto Him with whom we have to do. In my heart, in my soul, inwardly. For He is worthy, is He not,
of all adoration and worship? You remember from the Revelation
chapter 5, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive all
honor, Glory, blessing, and power now and forever. When should
we bless the Lord? Well, I've got a couple of references
here if you want to turn with me back to Psalm 34. I think
we looked at Psalm 34 not too long ago. Psalm 34 verse 1, I
will bless the Lord at all times. You see that? Psalm 34 verse
1, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. because it's in my heart. My
soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear
thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us, let us exalt his name
together. Let us do that together. Exalt
the name of the Lord. So he is worthy of all adoration
and worship, is he not? Let me bless the Lord with my
thoughts, with my mind submitting to his words, meditating upon
his word. Let my heart, my affections be
set upon him, not on things of the earth. My heart, my affections,
by loving what he loves, let my hope bless him. My heart and
my affections bless him. My hope bless him by resting
in his. What is our hope? Our hope is
Christ. He's given us a good hope. Christ
is our hope. He's our light. Now, bless the
Lord, verse 2. Oh my soul. He repeats. It's
okay to repeat, isn't it? It's a quote worth re-quoting.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Say it over and over and over
again. Because, he said, we're prone
to forget. We're prone to forget. Forget
not, forget not all his blessings toward us. The Lord has given
us the Lord's table. He said, do this in remembrance
of me. Why would he give that to us?
Because we're so prone to forget? Sadly, we often remember what
we should forget and forget what we should remember, don't we? What kind of benefit does a believer
have in the Lord Jesus Christ? Everything that God has provided,
all grace now and glory forever, Christ now and Christ forever.
We have good benefits, people who are searching for a better
job. or better employment, and one
of the things they always look into is about what kind of benefits
does an employer have. Well, we have, as believers,
we have good benefits. We have the best. The best that
God can give, we have Christ. God so loved that he gave the
Lord Jesus Christ. Forget not all his benefits. Everything God has freely provided
for us, Grace now and glory forever. Christ now and Christ forever.
We're one with Him. Forever with Him. Of His fullness
have we all received grace for grace. Don't forget about these
things. This flesh is so weak. That's
why He said down here in verse 14, He knows our frame. He remembers who we are, senators
saved by the grace of God. He knows our frame. He knows
that we're but dust. Now, let's look at some of these
benefits that he tells us not to forget. We're prone to be
forgetful, aren't we? Especially as we get, what do
they call that, when we start having senior moments, we often
forget things, don't we? May God bring this to our remembrance.
That's why he's given us his word, that we might read it and
read it and have it in our lap, have it in our hand. We can take
his word home with us. We can read his word and look
at his word in the privacy of our home or the privacy of our
car. I wouldn't encourage you to read
while you drive down the road. Now, I used to do that quite
a bit. When I was traveling so much, I would try to read and
drive at the same time. That's not a good thing to do.
That's not a good thing to do. But we have his word. He's given
us his word that we might read these things, that we might not
forget about the benefits we have in Christ. He's talking
about spiritual blessings. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. Now, Let's look at some of these. Verse three, who forgiveth, forgiveth. We are forgiven, but he forgiveth
past, present, future. He forgiveth, forgiveth, and
he forgiveth forever and ever and ever all thine iniquities. Now that's good news. All our
sin has been removed from us as far as the east is from the
west. He uses this word iniquity again
down in verse 10. He had not dealt with us after
our sins, he dealt with us in our substitute, nor has he rewarded
us according to our iniquities. Why would he not reward us according
to our iniquities? The wages of sin is death. because
he forgiveth all thine iniquities, all of them, who healeth, who
healeth, healeth, healeth all thy diseases, all thy iniquities,
all our sin against God, he pardons all our sin through the Lord
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Remember Psalm 130, Lord, if
thou shouldest mark iniquities, who shall stand? But there is
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Remember what
we read a moment ago in Ephesians 1, verse 7, in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His
grace, through His blood, We have the forgiveness of sin.
He pardons all our sin through the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing
our sin in His own body on the tree, and He put it away. That's
why we have iniquities forgiven, because Christ paid the debt
and set me free. We sang that a moment ago. It's
continual. His blood continually cleanses
us. It's complete. It's complete
forgiveness. He said their sin and their iniquity
will I remember no more. And it's all our sin, personal,
thine iniquities. If you're a believer, you can
say before God, he's forgiven all my sin. All my sin. Remember we studied Psalm 32. I guess this has been two or
three weeks ago. Talked about the blessed man. Blessed is he
whose transgression is forgiven. Blessed is a man whose sin is
covered. Blessed is a man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquities. He's imputed our iniquities to
Christ, and he's given us his righteousness. Now I like that,
because I'm a sinner in need of mercy. Who healeth, here's
another benefit that he mentions in verse three, he healeth all
thy diseases. Now how many diseases are there
in this world that afflict this flesh? This flesh is full of
diseases, is it not? One kind of disease or another.
We have heart disease. We have diabetes, that's a disease. We have cancer, that's a disease. All these different physical
ailments we have And we know that our sickness and our diseases
is a result of S-I-N, sin, sin. But this verse is not so much
talking about the Lord healing our physical sicknesses and diseases,
but our spiritual disease of sin. Remember, he was wounded
for our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, and with his
stripes we are, what's the word? We're healed. We're healed. Now
my body is going back to the dust as we read here a moment
ago. Our days are like the grass,
like the flower. He knows our frame where but
dust. This body is going to die because
of sin. It's appointed unto men once
to die, after that the judgment. But He's healed our soul. I told
someone the other day when they called and asked how I was doing,
I said, it's well with my soul. My body is diseased. It's well
with my soul. That's all that really matters.
Because this flesh, one way or the other, one way or the other,
this flesh is going back to the dust. His days are like grass, like
a flower to field, it flourishes and the wind passes over it and
it's gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more." To be
absent from this body is to be present with the Lord, to see
Him face to face. He heals all our spiritual diseases. You remember those sevenfold
names of Jehovah, Jehovah Sid Canoe, The Lord our righteousness, Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide. One of those seven names is Jehovah
Rapha. You know what that means? The
Lord that healeth thee. He's our healing. It's well with
my soul. His body's falling apart, but
it's well with my soul. Look what he says there in verse
4. Who redeemeth thy life. He's
our kinsman-redeemer. Remember our study in the book
of Ruth? He's our kinsman-redeemer, who is near kin to us, who is
willing to redeem, who is able to redeem. He is our redeemer. Saying, O saying of our Redeemer,
of His wondrous love to me. On the cruel cross He suffered,
and He set us free. He redeemeth thy life from destruction. He redeemeth our life from eternal
damnation, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and with
tender mercy. He redeems our life through how
we redeem, not with the blood of bulls and goats. We are redeemed
with his precious blood. We're going to see that in our
study. In 1 Peter 1, we're not redeemed. He says, for as much
as you know, you're not redeemed with corruptible things, like
silver and gold, or with your vain traditions of men, but with
the precious blood of Christ. We are redeemed. I love this
thing about our Redeemer. He cannot fail to redeem us.
Call His name Jesus, He shall save His people from their sin.
He redeems us from eternal damnation. And then He crowns us. He crowns
us. He redeems us from the curse
of the law. He redeemed us from the judgment
of our sin. There is no condemnation to those
who are in Christ. He redeemed us from the grave.
One day we'll have a new body, like unto His glorious body.
And this word here, down here in verse 4, where it says, with loving kindness, I looked
that word up today, and it means to encircle. It means to compass
about. Christ encircles us and compasses
us about with his, with his what? His loving kindness and his tender
mercy. He circles us about with his
loving kindness. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness, I'll draw
you unto me and his tender mercies. Tender mercies. Look down to
verse 17. But the mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness. Oh, his righteousness. He is
the Lord, our righteousness unto the children's children. His
loving kindness, His loving kindness and His mercy. You remember how
David prayed in Psalm 51, where it says, have mercy upon me,
O God, according to Thy loving kindness, according to the multitude
of Thy tender mercies. Remember, same thing, isn't it? Have mercy upon me, O God. And
then David says here, he prays for that. And then he said, he's
crowned me. He surrounded me. He's encircled
me with his love and kindness. Have mercy upon me, oh God. That's
the way he prayed. And then in Psalm 103, he said,
he's encircled me. He answered my prayer. according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgression, wash me throughly from my iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin, or acknowledge my transgression, and my sin
is ever before me. Thank God it's not before him,
because he put away our sin as far as the east is from the west.
Now let's read on, look at verse five. Who satisfied, and notice
these again are all present tense. He forgiveth, He redeemeth, He
crowneth, and He satisfies your mouth with good things. Notice the word things has been
added. He satisfies us with His goodness. Surely goodness and mercy, you
remember Psalm 23? Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life. He's talking about the good things
of the gospel. He satisfies our mouth with the
good things so much so that our youth is renewed spiritually
like the eagles. He gives us eagles' wings to
soar. He crowns us. He's made us kings
and priests unto our God. He satisfies us with the gospel
things, the good things of the gospel. The gospel of Christ
is indeed The goodness of God to us is good news to the guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners such as we are. We're justified freely by his
grace through the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ. So
much so that we are renewed like the eagles. The outward man is
perishing. The inward man is renewed day
by day. I quote that song often. Run,
run, the law demands. but gives me neither feet nor
hands. The gospel bids a sweeter song,
it bids me fly, and he gives me wings. He gives me wings. So that thy youth is renewed
like the eagle's wings. Oh, taste and see, David said,
the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Thy youth is
renewed. God's people do grow old in the
flesh. They do get weary in the body.
But they never grow weary of the gospel, do they? It's new
every morning. It's refreshing, it's reviving
more than when we first embraced it, isn't it? The gospel, as
we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, we see more and more
of our sin, but we see more and more of His blessedness, don't
we? He's altogether lovely to you
who believe. He is precious. His mercies are
new to us every morning. Look at verse 6. The Lord executeth
righteousness. He executeth righteousness and
judgment for all that are oppressed. The Lord executeth, or appointed,
or accomplished, and to bestow righteousness and judgment in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness Christ accomplished
for us by his obedience unto death and our sin was fully and
completely judged in Christ Jesus. He executed that for us. He's
executed a righteousness and established a righteousness for
us and he judged our sin. So much so that he said their
sin and their iniquity will I remember no more. Look at verse 7. He made known his ways. And that
word known is revealed. He's revealed himself. He hid
himself from the wise and prudent and revealed himself unto babes.
He made known his ways unto Moses. He revealed himself to Moses.
When Moses asked him, Lord, show me your glory. Remember what
he said, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll cause
all my goodness to pass before thee. That's Christ. And I'll
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will harden whom
I will. He made known his ways unto the
prophet of God. Moses. You remember our Lord
said, Moses wrote about me. He told those Jews, if you'd
believe Moses, you would have believed me. He wrote about me.
He made known his ways of mercy and grace unto Moses, one of
his elect, and his acts of judgment unto the children of Israel.
Most of those who perished in the wilderness never saw the
glory of God's mercy in Christ Jesus. Moses did. Joshua did. Caleb did. The only two men that entered
into the promised land that were 20 years of age or older, those
that were older all perished in those 40 years. Look at verse 8. We know the
Lord is merciful. The Lord Jehovah, God our Savior,
He is merciful. He will have mercy. He delights
to show mercy. Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve, and grace is God giving us what we do not deserve.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, and He's slow to anger. He is
plenteous in mercy. The storehouse of his mercy never
runs dry. It's eternal mercy. His storehouse
never runs dry. Look at verse nine, he will not
always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. The Lord
Jesus Christ endured the wrath of God for us, and there's no
anger God has no anger or wrath toward His children. Because
in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation to those
who are in Christ. Look at verse 10. He has not
dealt with us after our sins. He dealt with our sins in Christ.
God made Him to be sin for us. He bare our sins in His own body
on the tree. He has not dealt with us after
our sin nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. God dealt with our iniquities
and our sins in our substitute, who was wounded and bruised for
us. Look at verse 11. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, how high is the heavens above the earth? I don't know. It's a far piece, I know that.
For as the heavens For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is His mercy. So great is His love toward us. So great is His love. God, but
God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, have quickened us together
with Christ. So great is His mercy toward
them that fear Him. To fear Him is to believe Him,
to submit to Him, to reverence His holy name. I love what it
says in verse 12. I quote this often when we talk
about the Lord Jesus Christ putting away our sin. He didn't make
an effort to put away our sin. He didn't try to put away our
sin. He fully made complete atonement
for the sin of God's people. For as the heavens 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 transgression
from us." They're removed. They're removed. You remember
Isaiah 59 where it says, our sin has separated us from God? In Adam we died, in Adam we are
shut out, in Adam we are separated, fallen, ruined, But here he says,
he separated our sin from us. So, once we had separation, and
because of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for our sin and fully making
complete atonement for our sin, we have reconciliation, don't
we? God was in Christ reconciling
us unto himself. Isn't that good news? As far
as the East is from the West. He removed our transgressions
from us. That's something that we could
not do and we cannot do. But it is exactly what Christ
has done for us. He's forgiven all thine iniquities.
He removed all our transgression. Like as a father, verse 13, like
as a father pities his children, A father pities his children,
doesn't he? A loving father, he pities his children. He understands,
a wise father understands that his children are children. You
don't expect a three-year-old to act like a 40-year-old, do
you? No. The father pities his children.
The Lord pitieth them that fear him. The Lord is merciful to us. He
pities us. Look at verse 14. He knows our
frame. He knows our frame. He remembers
what we are. We're dust. The old rock and
roll song back years ago, back in the 70s. All we are is dust
in the wind. You remember that old song? It's
a pretty song. Got a good melody to it. And
it's got some truth to it, too. While we are this flesh, it's
just dust in the wind. As for man, his days are as grass. Isaiah
40, all flesh is grass. Has a flower to feel, so it flourishes,
it comes forth. 30 years old, I guess, is probably
the peak of are flourishing and after that
it's all downhill, especially after 50, maybe after 60, maybe
70. I think it's all downhill after
70, isn't it? All downhill. I remind myself
all the time, I tell my dear wife, it's all downhill from
here. Flesh is going right down, right
down to the dust. The wind passes over it and it's
gone. The place thereof shall know
it no more, but, but the mercy of the Lord, the mercy
of the Lord, the goodness of the Lord, the Lord is merciful
and gracious. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. You know, everything God gives
us is everlasting. He's obtained for us eternal
redemption. He saved us with everlasting
salvation. He's given unto us eternal life. Everything we have in Him is
everlasting. The fashion of this world passes away. It's fading away,
isn't it? In the Lord Jesus Christ, we
have an everlasting covenant. We have an everlasting righteousness. He loved us with an everlasting
love. And it's upon them that, again,
he mentions this, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. Holy and reverent is His name.
We do reverence His name. The fear of the Lord is to believe
Him, submit to Him. And His righteousness, and I'll
end with this, verse 17, but the mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. That's what we need, an everlasting
salvation. And it's upon them, His covenant
children, and they do fear Him. He's put the fear of God in our
heart, the reverence of God in our heart. Remember in Romans
3 when Paul talks about there is none righteous, no, not one.
And he describes the flesh and the fallen humanity. And one
of the things he said, there's no fear of God in them. Not with the believer now. With
the believer, we have a reverence of Him. Holy and reverent is
His name. That's His chief character. Holy
is His name. And His righteousness, Blessed
is a man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
His righteousness is upon the children's children. To such as keep his covenant,
and to those that remember his commandments to do them, the
Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom
rules over all. His kingdom rules over all. He's
the king, isn't he? King of kings and Lord of lords.
And he rules. His dominion is everlasting dominion.