Psalm 103 (2)
The Psalms • Sermon • Submitted
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· 40 viewsThis Psalm exults in the goodness of God and all His benefits
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Imagine that you have a relative that is a treasure collector.
-They are world renowned for collecting some of the most amazing and valuables antiques in all the world
-All kinds of rare gems and diamonds, gold and silver, etc.
-Imagine that they decide to leave you a chest when they die, a huge locker, of some of their treasures
-They bring the chest to your house, and it’s so heavy, you can’t even lift it
-You pry open the lid, and begin to look inside in amazement
-You begin to pick up all sorts of rare jewels, diamonds, jewelry, etc
-Every piece you pick up, you look at and it delights you
-You feel the weight of each piece, and rejoice, and as you’re adding it all up, you’re thinking “I’m so rich!”
-I’ve got something even better for you! It’s Psalm 103
-It is a treasure trove, of the riches we have in God
Vs. 1-2
-What does it mean to bless the Lord?
-It means to praise Him! To speak well of Him! To extol Him
-I believe at least in part we can define it this way by the way the Psalmist goes about fulfilling his mission
-But notice who he addresses this to!
-Where we might expect a public call to worship, we find that the Psalmist is exhorting his own soul to worship!
WHY??
-We’ll come back to that at the end
We must not forget all his “benefits”
-What does that mean?
-When we hear “benefits”, we think of a job right?
-What is their insurance, do they offer vision and dental, how much vacation time do I get?
-The word here has the idea of reward or dealing
-It is the gracious way God deals with us, and the way He rewards us, even though we are unworthy
So, what are these gifts of grace God gives to us?
Vs. 3 — “who forgives all your iniquities”
-Wow
-We could stop right here, right?
-God forgives all my iniquities??
-How??
-Those in the OT might read this and think of the sacrificial system and how God would pardon the sins of the nation each year through sacrifice, or the sin offering an individual could offer
-But as NT believers, we look back on the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29)
-Jesus Christ, through His perfect life, His death and then His Resurrection, has provided a way to have our sins forgiven!
-1 John 1:9
He forgives ALL our sins!
-Past, present and future, it’s all been taken care of by Christ
Vs. 3 — “who heals all your diseases”
-Obviously, we can and still do get sick
-David is not claiming freedom from all physical sickness or harm, which would mean that none of us would ever die
-But, God does so often bless us with health
-If you’re here, alive and breathing, it is by God’s grace
-If you have ever had any sickness in your life at all, and have been healed, it is a gift of God’s grace
Vs. 4 — “who redeems your life from destruction”
-This could mean that God delivers from hard situations, but I think David is speaking in the ultimate sense here, a theme he’s already addressed in Psalm 16
-You and I were heading for destruction
-Ephesians 2:1-7
-God rescued us
-He redeemed us, meaning he paid the price to keep us from destruction, and has brought us into His family by the sacrifice of Christ
Vs. 4 — “Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies”
-the word for “crowns” can also mean “encircle” or “surround”
-God surrounds us with His love and tender mercies
-tender mercies is a very emotional word, and is used in 1 Kings 3:26
-God has crowned us! Has encircled and surrounded us with His lovingkindness and tender mercies
-Vs. 5 — “who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
-God satisfies us with good things
-God has given us so much
-We have a place to stay
-We have food to eat
-Our church has a building and modulars
-But more than anything else, God has given us Himself!
-We are satisfied in Him more than anything else!
-With language similar to Isaiah 40, David here shows us that God renews our strength
-God’s goodness that he shows us in all the areas above, His works for us and the sheer wonder of His character and covenantal faithfulness to use renews our strength so that we can soar when we wait on Him
Vs. 6
-God is the Just Judge
-At the end of time, He will make sure all wrongs are righted
-Perfect justice will be met out to everyone
-Those who are oppressed or taken advantage of, God will avenge them perfectly in His own timing
Vs. 7-9
-God in His mercy, revealed Himself to His servant Moses and His covenant people Israel, even though they were unworthy of it
-Despite Israel’s constant complaining and doubting and wavering, God graciously revealed Himself to them
-And how does He reveal Himself to them?
-Exodus 34:5-6
-God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy
-It’s the same as we find in Jonah 4:2
-This is how God is known! This is who He is!
Vs. 9
-Whereas the humans often keep their anger and quarrels going for a long time, sometimes even a lifetime, God will not always strive with us
-This word is several times used for the children of Israel in the Exodus and wilderness wanderings
-The Israelites were people who seemed to be constantly in striving and contending with others and God, God is not like that
-He does not keep His anger forever
Vs. 10
-This is my favorite verse in the whole Psalm
-God has not dealt with us as we deserve!
-How is this even possible??
-God has not punished — the word has the idea of repay or reward
-God hasn’t punished us like we deserve
-We deserved the wages for sin, which is death
How can this be?? Does this make God unfair?
-No! Jesus Christ was punished and dealt with like we deserved
-2 Corinthians 5:21
-God has treated Christ like we deserve to be treated (forsaken and cursed and punished by God), so that He can treat us as Christ deserves to be treated (blessed, accepted by God as a son)
-No wonder the Psalmist then says this:
Vs. 11
-God’s mercy is unimaginable
Vs. 12
-How far is the east from the west?
-If you were to send one rocket ship to this side of the galaxy travelling at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second), and send another rocket ship in the other direction at the speed of light, after a trillion years, they won’t be as far apart from each other as God has separated our sins from us
-How can this be??
-Because in Christ, my sin has been completely dealt with
-He has forgiven me all my sin
-“My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my soul”
Vs. 13-14
-Not only does God judicially forgive and pay for our sins, but He adopts us into His family and treats us as His own children
-To be honest, this is a concept that I struggle with at times
-It’s easier for me to view God as the Judge, who can pardon me based on the finished work of Christ
-But God as a sympathetic and compassionate Father? that’s incredible
-Isaiah 49:15
-In the same way a Father looks down in compassion at his little son or daughter, that’s how God views us.
-He understands our sins and failures and weaknesses
-He knows that we’re prone to weariness and failure
-He is compassionate and gracious towards us, even in our failures
-Our sinfulness and ugliness does not deter God from looking at us in pity and compassion
Vs. 15-16
-With language similar to other places in Scripture, David describes the shortness of and brevity of man
-He’s here today and gone tomorrow
-We’re frail and easily blown away
-And when we’re gone, we’re pretty soon forgotten (place remembers it no more)
-As wonderful as I’m sure they are, I can’t really much of anything about my great grandparents
-I can’t name to you our US presidents
Vs. 17-18
-In contrast, the character of God never changes, and the way He manifests His character to His children and the benefits of it will never end
-Those who keep His covenant and His commands (meaning those who are His people by faith, whose lives have been changed and whose hearts seek Him) will get to enjoy Him forever
Vs. 19
-His kingdom rules over all
-God is ultimately in complete and total control and will rule forever and ever
-Daniel 4:3
And with that, David launches into a universal call to worship
Vs. 20-21
-He calls on the whole of the heavenly host of angels to worship God with him
-All of heaven should join in
Vs. 22
-David then calls on all of creation, every last created thing in the farthest corners of God’s created order to join him in son
Application:
-Can you take something from this Psalm this week to exult and rejoice in?
-In a time that’s to be set aside to give thanks, can you do that?
And then David ends where he began
“bless the Lord, O my soul!”
So, why does David address this to his soul?
-What’s the point of that “oh my soul”?
Because it’s easy to exult in God and His goodness when it’s preached to you or given to you by other Christians
-And this is a good thing! We need to be encouraged by the preaching of the Word
-We need to be around other Christians who encourage us in Christ
-This is a good thing
But, it’s hard to do this on our own
-We are so prone to forget God’s character and His works
-Vs. 2
-We are so prone to fall into discouragement due to forgetting who God is
-Deut 4:29
Imagine taking that huge chest of treasures, taking it to your attic, and leaving it there
-you stop delighting in it
-you fall on hard financial times, and you’ve forgotten what you’ve got upstairs
-you live in the misery of being poor, and the treasure is right up there where you left it
It’s easy to listen to yourself
-listening to yourself is simply allowing your thoughts and emotions to go wherever they wish and you kinda ride along with them
-But it produces weak, unstable Christians
-Because our hearts and minds are easily deceived
It’s easy to listen to yourself, but it’s hard to PREACH to yourself
-to keep your mind on truth
-To speak the truth of the Word to your soul
And this is what David is doing
-We’ve got to be people who speak the truth of God’s Word into our soul, and say "bless the Lord oh my soul!”
And this can’t be done in our strength
-This doesn’t come naturally or easily
-But because of the mercies of God in the sacrifice of Christ and our redemption, we can be people who speak the truth to our souls
-We can meditate on God’s Word day and night (Psalm 1)
-We can be people who are thinking on things that are true (Phil. 4)
-We can be people who are transformed by the renewing of our minds
Beg God to teach you to be someone who preaches to yourself instead of listening to yourself
-and let’s exult in the glory of our God and all that He is and all that He has accomplished in the Person and Work of Christ (that’s the point of this Psalm)
Isn’t our God great?