Okay, this evening we're going
to take a look at Psalm 103. This is one of my favorite psalms.
It's a psalm that we can just put in our pocket and pull it
out all the time, and read it, and study it, and meditate upon
it, and then rejoice in the blessings we have in Christ. So I'm entitling
the message from what is repeated at least four or five times,
Bless the Lord. Because it says in verse 1, bless
the Lord. That means to honor Him, to glorify
Him, give Him all the honor and glory. Again in verse 2 it says,
bless the Lord, bless the Lord. Verse 20, bless the Lord, ye
His angels. Verse 21, bless the Lord, all
ye His hosts, His ministers. Bless the Lord, verse 22. All
his works in all places of his dominion. His dominion is an
everlasting dominion. And then it ends the same way
it began. Bless the Lord. Now, this is one of those times
when it's good to repeat the same thing over and over, over
and over. It's not vain repetition. It's a good thing to bless the
Lord. This is the occupation and delight
of every believer to praise and honor and worship our God, our
Savior, from the heart. Look at Psalm 104, verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Oh
Lord my God, thou art very great. Thou art clothed with honor.
Thou art clothed with majesty. So we bless the Lord. We bless
the Lord, our God. Look at Psalm 104, verse 33. I will sing unto the Lord as
long as I live. I'll sing praises to my God while
I have any being. While I have any being. I'm gonna
bless the Lord and honor Him. Now, some have said of this Psalm
103, it's like a condensed version of the Bible. It contains all
the great works of God in creation, the great work of redeeming blood,
redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ, that marvelous sovereign
providence of God, the grace of God, the everlasting mercy
of God, and then salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. The
name Lord, capital L-O-R-D, is mentioned 11 times, and it means
Jehovah, Jehovah, God my Savior, the Lord. It's mentioned 11 times
in these 22 verses. We learn again, we see again
that salvation's His business, salvation's His doing. Salvation
is of the Lord. Christ is all and in all. Now, let's look at verse one
for just a moment. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, my
soul, that is with the heart. and all, all that is within me,
all of my being, my mind, my heart, my will, my affection,
all that is within me. Isn't that our desire? To bless
the Lord, all that is within me, to bless His, His name is
holy, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. We bless the Lord,
our God. This is that delightful service
and joy of every believer to bless Him, to kneel in adoration. And that's just not with the
knee physically, but having the knee of the heart bowed in submission
to Him in adoration. For the Lord, for His person
and all that He is in His work, all that He has done for us,
all that He has blessed us with now and forever. We read just
a moment ago in Ephesians chapter 1 that He's blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
spiritual blessings? We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings? That's so. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. We sing unto Him who loved us
and washed us from our sin in His own blood. Now how are we
to bless the Lord? In my heart. In my soul. inwardly and sincerely. Why are we to bless the Lord?
To honor the Lord. He's worthy of it, isn't he?
Isn't he worthy of all honor and glory and blessing due unto
the Lord? And we bless the Lord at all
times, at all times. Hold your place there and turn
over a few pages to Psalm 145. Psalm 145. Psalm 145 verse one. I will extol thee, my God, O
King. I'll bless thy name forever and
ever. Every day will I bless thee.
I'll praise thy name forever and ever. We start doing that
here and we'll do that throughout eternity in heaven's glory, great
is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is
unsearchable. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, freely, how freely they flow. Let my mind bless Him. submitting to his word, believing
his word, hearing his word. Let my thoughts bless him by
meditating upon him. Let my heart, my affections bless
him by loving what he loves, loving what he loves. Paul writes
about it. He says, set your affection on
things above, not on the things of this earth. Let my hope, the
good hope we have in Christ, our hope, Let my hope bless him
by resting in his precious promises. We have a good hope through grace.
We have the exceeding great and precious promises. All the promises
of God in Christ are yes, and in him, amen, and to the glory
of God. One preacher of the past said,
soul praise is the soul of praise. Soul praise, S-O-U-L, is the
soul of praise, S-O-L-E, the center of praise. So we praise
the Lord and bless the Lord. Now look at verse two. He repeats
his statement with a heart full of thanksgiving, with a heart
full of gratitude. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And
forget not, forget not, all his benefits or all his blessings,
all his blessings. He said, forget not. Our Lord
told us to remember him as we partake of the Lord's table.
He said, do this in remembrance of me. I don't know about you,
but my memory anymore is pretty short. But he says, Remember
me. Don't forget, don't forget. Sadly,
we often remember the things we should forget and forget those
things we should always remember. What kind of benefit does a believer
have? What kind of blessings does the
believer have? Everything that God has provided for us, all
grace now and all glory forever. Christ now and Christ forever.
My God shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Of his fullness have
we all received grace for grace. It's grace for grace. He gives
us all grace now and he gives us all glory forever. Let me
read this one to you in Psalm 84. Don't turn, let me read it
to you. For a day in thy court is better than a thousand. I'd
rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell
in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is sun and shield. The Lord will give grace and
glory. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the
man that trusteth in thee. He gives us all grace now and
glory forever and ever and ever. Now, forget not all his benefits,
all his spiritual blessings unto us. And then in verse three,
all the way down to verse 17, He described these benefits and
blessings that we enjoy freely. We freely enjoy these in Christ.
He's performed all things for us. Number one, it says there
in verse three, he is the one who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Boy, that's good news, isn't
it? Wouldn't you say that's a good benefit? To have all your sin
against God forgiven, all of them, Forever and ever and ever,
we've all sinned against God, and the Lord, our God, pardons
all our sins through the Lord Jesus Christ, making a full payment
for our sin. In Psalm 130, turn over there
to Psalm 130. Psalm 130, look at verse one
and follow it. Psalm 130. Out of the depths, verse one,
have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine
ears be attended to the voice of my supplication. If thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But
there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. There is forgiveness with thee.
As he forgives some of our sin, Or does He forgive all of our
sin? It says there in the text, "...who forgiveth all thine iniquities."
The Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt of our sin. It's a continual
Forgiveness, it says there, who forgiveth, forgiveth, forgiveth. It's a continual forgiveness.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us, cleanses us,
cleanses us from all our sins. Well, that's good news, is it
not? to have sin forgiven, to have sin pardoned. And it's complete
forgiveness. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. Thine iniquity, it's a personal
forgiveness. Turn back to Psalm 32. You remember
this Psalm? This is such a blessing. Psalm
32, verse one. Psalm 32, verse one. where it talks about who the
blessed man is. You remember Psalm 32 verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is a man unto whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit there is no God. That's a blessed man. All of
our iniquities have been forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. And then
he goes on, he says in the second part of verse three, back at
Psalm 103, who healeth, he's healing all our diseases. He is the wise physician Now,
we know this body is frail. We know this body is going to
get sick. And at some point, this body is going to die. Thus
thou art, thus thou shalt return. It says down here in verse 14,
He knows our frame, He knows that we are but dust. But this
healing here that we need is spiritual healing. Spiritual
healing. Remember, He was wounded for
our transgression, bruised for our iniquity, and with His stripes
we are healed. Our sin is a terminal disease. He heals us from all our diseases. Sin is a terrible, loathsome
disease, and we've been healed. We've been healed. Spiritually,
all our sins have been gone, therefore we are healed in Christ.
The only remedy for the terminal spiritual disease of sin is the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He took our infirmities to himself. God made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. He's called in Exodus 15, he
said, I'm the Lord that healeth thee, Jehovah Rapha. That's one
of his seven or eight, nine, 10 names, Jehovah Rapha. Rafa,
I am the Lord that healeth thee. Notice, he forgiveth, he forgiveth,
he forgiveth all thine iniquity. He healeth, he healeth all the
diseases from our sin. And then verse four, it says
that he redeemeth us. He delivered us. That's the word,
redeem is delivered. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of his grace. Ephesians 1 verse 7, we read a moment ago, who
redeemed thy life from destruction. The wages of sin is death. That's
what I've got coming. How are we going to be delivered
from that? He delivered us. Who redeemed
it? Thy life. He redeemed our life
from destruction, from eternal damnation. He redeemed us. Christ has redeemed us from certain
eternal judgment condemnation. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. He redeemed us from the
judgment of our sin. We read in Romans 1 that there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He redeemed us from the curse of the law. He
redeemed us from the judgment of sin. Our sin was judged in
Him. That's why there's no condemnation
to those who are in Christ. And He's redeemed us from the
grave. He delivered us from the grave. He was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification. You see how
these benefits are excellent, spiritual blessing, superior
blessing. Forget not these benefits. He
heals, He forgives, He redeems, and then He crowns us. You see
that? He crowneth thee. Verse four,
He crowneth thee with loving kindness. He crowns thee with
tender mercies. I mean, we're blessed, aren't
we? The believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is blessed with
all spiritual blessing. He crowns us with loving kindness
and tender mercies. Turn back to Psalm 51. You can't
look at that word loving kindness without looking at Psalm 51,
verse 1. This is after David had committed
murder. David had committed adultery.
He said, have mercy upon me, O God, verse 1, Psalm 51. According, I love that word according,
don't you? To thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude that attend to mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgression and my sin is ever before thee. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. Lord, forgive all my iniquity. That's our prayer, isn't it?
He's crowned us and he's made us kings and priests and to our
God. Our crowns are not gold. but he's crowned us with the
crown of life. We're gonna see that in our study
in the book of James. He's crowned us with a crown
of righteousness, who crowneth thee, crowneth thee with loving
kindness and with his tender mercies.
His mercies are so tender. It's of the Lord's mercies that
were not consumed, tender mercies. And then he goes on, he says,
verse five, He crowneth thee, He redeemeth thee, He forgiveth
thee, He healeth thee. You see all the things we have
in Christ? And then it says, verse 5, He satisfies thy mouth
with good things. Oh, taste and see, the Lord is
good, so that thy youth is renewed, like the eagle, like the eagles. He satisfies our mouth with good
things. The gospel of Christ indeed is
good, full of good things we enjoy. The gospel is good news
to the guilty, is it not? God who spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? We're justified freely by His
grace through the redeeming blood that's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He satisfied us. with good things. But more importantly
than that, we are satisfied. He satisfies us. But more importantly,
God is satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're gonna see
this in our message, Matthew chapter 17, where the Father
speaks from heaven, said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm
well pleased. God is satisfied with our Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember Isaiah 53? He shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Satisfied. He satisfies thy mouth with good
things so that thy youth is renewed. The inward man, the outward man
perishes every day, right? The inward man is renewed day
by day. That's that new nature given
in the new birth. That's the Holy Spirit of God
dwelling in the believer. Renewed like the eagle's wings. Renewed like the eagles. Eagles
soar, don't they? They soar. They're the masters in flight.
I think of a song that I read years and years ago, where it
compares the law to the gospel. And the law says, run, run, the
law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. The gospel bids
a sweeter song, it bids me fly, and it gives me wings. We have
the wings of eagles that soar above. in Christ Jesus. Now look at verse 6. Any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Look at verse 6. The Lord executeth,
He satisfieth, He renews us. The Lord executeth righteousness
and judgment for all that are oppressed. The Lord appoints, accomplishes,
and bestows The Lord executed, that is, He
appoints, He accomplishes, and He bestows righteousness and judgment in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness accomplished by
Him for us by His obedience in death. He was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He's established righteousness
for us by His obedience unto death. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. And then our sins
were judged in Him. He bare our sin in His own body
on the tree. He executes us for us. He executes
our salvation in a righteous and just manner. Remember Psalm
85 verse 10. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other in Christ and
Him crucified. Look at verse 7. He made known
His ways unto Moses. His acts of judgment to the children
of Israel, but He made known His ways to Moses. He revealed the way of salvation
to Moses. The children of Israel, they
saw his judgment, didn't they? When they rebelled against him,
many times they experienced the Lord's acts of judgment. But he made known his ways of
mercy unto Moses. When Moses asked him, Lord, show
me your glory. Remember what he said? I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And he makes his ways
known unto his people. He reveals them unto it, hid
from the wise and prudent, but revealed them unto babe. His way of grace, goodness, and
mercy in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse eight and following.
Still talking about forgetting all his benefits. What a list. What a list. The Lord is merciful. The Lord is gracious. He is merciful. He is gracious unto his people.
The Lord is slow to anger and he's plenteous, plenteous in
mercy. It's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. God
saves us by his grace, doesn't he? For by grace are you saved. The Lord is merciful and the
Lord is gracious. He's slow to anger. He's plenteous
in mercy, great of mercy, it says in the marginal reference.
You remember Ephesians chapter two, verse four, but God who
is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even
when we were dead in sin. Verse nine, he will not always
chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. The Lord does
chastise his people out of love. We've seen that in the book of
Hebrews. but he will not chastise us forever. The Lord does correct
us out of love. He will not always chide us. He chides us, chastises us when
we need it. Neither will he keep his anger
forever. The Lord is merciful. The Lord
is gracious. Now look at verse 10, and this
is such a blessing here. Verse 10. The Lord has not dealt with us
after our sin. Now, if he dealt with us according
to our sin, we'd be in big trouble. But he's not dealt with us after
our sin. Now, he dealt with our sin in
our substitute, didn't he? He has not dealt with us after
our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
those that fear him. The Lord of glory is gracious
and wonderfully and graciously dealt with our sins and our substitute. He did not reward us according
to our sin, His mercy is not giving us what we do deserve.
Christ suffered for our sin, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us unto the Lord, the Lord our God. A little verse
11 now. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, I don't think this is talking
about the heaven where the birds fly, or the heavens where the
clouds are, or even the heavens where the stars are, but it's
beyond that. But Paul described, I was taken
to the third heaven, wherever that is. whereas the heaven is
high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward his covenant
children, those that fear him, those that worship him. The height
of his mercy is great, the length of his mercy, verse 12, as far as the east
is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression
from us. Now when Adam all sinned, right?
And Adam all died. Isaiah 59 verse one said, our
sin has separated us from God. But now he says, as far as the
east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgression
from us. He removed our transgression
from us. Our sin one time separated us
from God. Now he separated us from our
sin. You see that? He separated us
from our sin. How did he do that? By putting
it away by the sacrifice of himself. He redeemed us with his precious
blood as far as the east is from the west. Now how far is that? Infinite. God said their sin
and their iniquity will I remember no more. You remember our study
in Hebrews 10? By the one offering has perfected forever them that
are sanctified. He said, their sin and their
iniquities will I remember no more. They're cast behind his
back. They're cast into the depths
of the sea. They're blotted out as a thick cloud. As far as the
east, the east is that way from the west. So far has he removed
our transgression from us. He'll talk about the benefits
we have in Christ. He's made us righteous. He's
imputed righteousness unto us. And He's removed all our sin
from us. He did that. When He had by Himself
purged our sin, He sat down on the right hand of the throne
of God. So far has He removed... I know one thing for sure. We
cannot remove our transgression, our sin, our iniquity. We can't
remove it. The blood of bulls and goats
never put away sin. The only way our sin can be removed
if it's removed through the blood sacrifice of Christ. Verse 13,
like as a father pitieth his children, does a father pitieth his children,
naturally speaking? Does a mother pitieth her children? Certainly they do. So the Lord
pitieth them that fear him. He knows our frame. He knows
what we are. He remembers what we are. Dust. Dust. And then it talks
about, as for man, his days are as grass, as a flower, the field
so it flourishes, the wind passes over it, and it's gone. It's gone. Remember that old
country saying, That boy's a goner. He's gone. He's gone. The wind
passes over and it's gone. And the place thereof shall know
it no more. Where's those men who walked upon this ground that we walked
150, 200 years ago? They're gone. They're gone. Back to the dust. So man's days,
he makes this our frame, we're but dust, dust thou art, dust
thou shalt return. As for man whose days are as
grass, as a flower, the field that flourishes, the wind passes
over and it's gone, the place thereof shall know it no more.
Verse 17, but, there's that big word, B-U-T, but the mercy of
the Lord, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.
Everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness
unto the children's children. The mercy of the Lord is eternal
mercy. He saves us with an everlasting
salvation. He's obtained for us eternal
redemption and he's given us everlasting life. Everlasting
to everlasting. we have been eternally justified
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are made righteous, righteous
in Christ. Now look at verse 18, to such
as keep his covenant and to those that remember to do his commandments.
Now he's not talking here about salvation by the deeds of the
law, but he's talking about those covenant that everlasting covenant
of grace made between God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit to such as keep His covenant and to those that
remember His commandments to do them. This commandment He
gave us, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. The Lord our God honored and kept the law of God for us.
Verse 19, the Lord had prepared His throne in the heavens. Remember our Lord said in John
14, I'll go away and prepare a place for you. If I go away,
I'll come again and receive you unto myself. The Lord hath prepared.
Heaven is a place prepared. His throne is a place prepared.
And His kingdom, His throne, rules everywhere. Rules over
all. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He does in heaven, earth, sea, and all deep places.
The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom
ruleth over all. Where is the place where the
Lord doesn't reign and doesn't have dominion? Is there such
a place? He rules and reigns everywhere, over all things,
over all people. He rules everywhere. Shall not
the judge of all the earth do right? And what he does, he is
right. Now, what do you say to that?
The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens? His kingdom ruleth
over all? I know what the rebel says. Well,
I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't want
that. Believer doesn't say that. What does he say? Bless the Lord.
Thank God he rules and reigns. Bless the Lord. He is angels. His angels do His business that
excel in strength, strengthened in the Lord, that do His commandments,
that follow His decrees, hearkening to the voice of His Word. You
think the Lord has any disobedient angels? Even the fallen angels
are under His dominion. Even Satan is under God's dominion,
hearkening to the voice of His Word. His word is His decree. Verse 21, what do you say to
that? Bless the Lord. All ye His hosts, His church,
His redeemed, ye ministers of His, servants of His that do
His pleasure, bless the Lord. All His works and all places
of His dominion. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion, is it not? in all places of His dominion.
Now, it ends the same way it begins. Bless the Lord, O my
soul. Bless His holy name.