Psalm 103 – Part II: Bless the Lord: A Heart Beating for God Alone
Sermon by Associate Pastor Joe Davis
Union Baptist Church - June 22nd, 2014
Today I have the privilege of preaching Part II of the sermon I started on Psalm
103. When I preached the first half of this sermon about a month and half ago, I
had originally been planning to make it through the whole Psalm in one sermon.
However, there was just too much meat in the passage to handle in one sermon.
Now if you were here, you’ll remember that the central thesis of Psalm 103 is a
command given to our souls. The command is to “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget none of His benefits.” So today we’ll start with a brief review to get us
back to the point where we left off last time.
You may remember that we looked at the meaning of the word translated “bless”
in this passage and discovered that when we bless the Lord we are praising him,
celebrating him, and adoring him, and we’re doing it on our knees. It’s a blessing
that costs us something. At the very least it costs us our pride and our sense of
self-sufficiency and our comfort. So in blessing the Lord, we come excited and
joyful and thankful, but we also come with a spirit of humility and the conviction
that we don't deserve the blessings the Lord has poured out on us. In doing this
we’re giving him the respect and glory he deserves.
We also talked about what our soul is. We defined our soul as our inner being…
The person I really am deep down inside… Going beyond who I think I should be,
to the person that actually exists at the core level or my being.
Remember we did that little exercise where we tried to be completely honest
with ourselves by trying to remove all our ideas of what people expect us to be
and the public persona we’ve tried to create and boiling down to the real person
deep inside. Though it was a frightening picture for most of us, the good news
was the realization that God sees and loves that inner person already because
he's not at all fooled by the layers we put on to cover up our real selves.
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Through that exercise each of us was hopefully able to see our desperate need for
a Savior when we peeled back the layers to that person deep inside, which put us
in a great position to begin blessing the Lord and appreciating all of the benefits
he's poured out on us. When we see the magnitude of our sin and then realize
that it's been washed away, we are in a great position to bless the Lord.
Remember also that in verse 1 of Psalm 103, we’re commanded to not only bless
the Lord, but also to not forget any of His benefits. We outlined 5 benefits that
the Lord has given to each of us personally:
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
He pardons all your iniquities
He heals all your diseases
He redeems your life from destruction
He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion
He satisfies your years with good things.
One of the most amazing of these gifts is the Lord’s lovingkindess. In my last
message we looked at the deeper meaning of this word and found that it contains
three basic concepts which always interact: strength, steadfastness and love.
And isn’t it interesting that one of our Triune God’s most central characteristics
has a triune interaction going on: strength, steadfastness and love…Three in one.
So after looking at the five personal benefits the Lord has given to each of us, we
found three more reasons to bless the Lord in verses 6 through 8.
A. He performs righteous deeds and judgments for the oppressed.
B. He made His ways known to Moses and His acts to Israel.
C. He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in
lovingkindess.
Here we saw our God very to near to each of us and caring about the smallest
details of our lives. We saw Him watching out for, supporting and vindicating
those who are oppressed. We saw Him preparing and carrying out consequences
and punishments for those who do the oppressing. We saw Him revealing
Himself to us so that we can know what He is like and a have a deeply personal
relationship with Him. And we saw the depth of His compassion, His grace, His
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patience, and that His lovingkindness isn’t shallow in any way…Rather, it’s
overflowing and abounding! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of these
amazing benefits!
So today we're going to pick up in verse nine of Psalm 103. Now in my study this
psalm, I’ve broken it up into 6 sections. In my last message we looked at the first
three sections and now we’ll move into the final 3. The first section covers verses
1 and 2 and contains the central thesis of this Psalm which was a command
directed to our soul to bless the Lord and forget none of his benefits. The second
section covers verses 3 through 5 and outlines the Lord's personal benefits to
each of us. The third section covers verses 6 through 8 and provides three more
reasons to bless the Lord.
IV.
HOW THE LORD SHOWS HIS COMPASSION, GRACE AND LOVINGKINDESS
So now we've arrived at section 4, covering verses 9 through 13, where we see
HOW the Lord shows his compassion, grace and lovingkindness to us. We saw the
statement in verse 8 that the Lord IS compassionate and gracious, slow to anger
and abounding in lovingkindness. Now we get to see some of the ways that He
actually shows these characteristics in His interactions with us.
Let's read verses 9 through 13 together:
9 He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
12 As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13 Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
So as we begin looking at verse nine we first see that the Lord will not always
strive with us. So what does that word strive mean? In looking at the original
Hebrew word, the meaning is to bring a case or a charge against someone. So we
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see here in verse nine that the Lord has a legal case against us. He has brought
charges against us. These charges are very clear in Scripture. They began with the
rebellion of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and they continue up to the
present day.
Gen 3:17-20
Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and
have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not
eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the
days of your life. 18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will
eat the plants of the field; 19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till
you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And
to dust you shall return."
The charges the Lord has against us have to do with our sin and rebellion against
Him. And there is not one of us who is exempt or innocent of these charges He
has brought against us. Consider:
Eccl 7:20
20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and
who never sins.
Isa 53:6
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
Rom 3:10-19
"THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO
UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS
NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." 13 "THEIR THROAT IS AN
OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF
ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS";
14 "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS"; 15 "THEIR FEET ARE
SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, 16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, 17
AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." 18 "THERE IS NO FEAR OF
GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES."
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So God's case against each of us is airtight. There will be no arguing with him
because he knows us inside and out and when we’re honest with ourselves we
each know that God's case against us is legitimate and completely justified. And
notice the summary statement at the end of that Romans passage: There is no
fear of God before their eyes. This will be important as we continue studying
Psalm 103.
We also see in verse nine that God has anger. This is a righteous anger. A good
anger, if you will, that arises out of who God is and his role as Lord and Judge of
the universe. Each of us is deserving of God's anger and wrath. I’m going to say
that again in a different way. I deserve God’s wrath and anger and judgment.
Can you say that statement yourself and do you really believe it?
Have you come to grips with the fact that you personally deserve God’s wrath and
anger and judgment? Because when you do, all of the worldly arguments you
hear about how could a good God allow bad things to happen to good people, fall
into perspective. If you want an eye-opener on this issue, I would highly
recommend reading chapter 6 of the book, The Holiness of God, by R.C. Sproul.
The title of the chapter is ”Holy Justice.”
I'm going to read you a few excerpts from that chapter to help us get a better
picture of the charge God has against us and why it has aroused His anger and
wrath. I’ll start reading where R.C. Sproul discusses what sin really is:
"Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act
of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One
who has given us life itself. Have you ever considered the deeper implications of
the slightest sin, of the most minute peccadillo?”
“What are we saying to our Creator when we disobey him at the slightest point?
We are saying no to the righteousness of God. We are saying, ‘God, your law is
not good. My judgment is better than yours. Your authority does not apply to me.
I am above and beyond your jurisdiction. I have the right to do what I want to do,
not what you command me to do.’ The slightest sin is an act of defiance against
cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting
ourselves in opposition to the one to whom we owe everything. It is an insult to
his Holiness. We become false witnesses to God…”
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“When we sin, we not only commit treason against God, but we also do violence
to each other. Sin violates people. There is nothing abstract about it. By my sin I
hurt human beings. I injure their person; I despoil their goods; I impair their
reputation; I rob from them of a precious quality of life; I crush their dreams and
aspirations for happiness. When I dishonor God, I dishonor all people who bear
his image. Is it any wonder then, that God takes sin so seriously?”
“Hans Kung, the controversial Roman Catholic theologian, writing about the
seemingly harsh judgments of sin God makes in the Old Testament, says that the
most mysterious aspect of the mystery of sin is not that the sinner deserves to
die, but rather that the sinner in the average situation continues to exist. Kung
asks the right question. The issue is not why does God punish sin but why does he
permit the ongoing human rebellion? What prince, what king, what ruler would
display so much patience with a continually rebellious populace? The key to
Kung’s observation is that he speaks of sinners continuing to live in the average
situation. That is, it is customary or usual for God to be forbearing. He is indeed
long-suffering, patient, and slow to anger. In fact he is so slow to anger that when
his anger does erupt, we are shocked and offended by it.”
“We forget rather quickly that God's patience is designed to lead us to
repentance, to give us time to be redeemed. Instead of taking advantage of this
patience by coming humbly to him for forgiveness, we use this grace as an
opportunity to become more bold in our sin. We delude ourselves into thinking
that either God doesn't care about it, or that he is powerless to punish us...”
“We are not really surprised that God has redeemed us. Somewhere deep inside,
in the secret chambers of our hearts, we harbor the notion that God owes us his
mercy. Heaven would not be quite the same if we were excluded from it. We
know that we are sinners, but we are surely not as bad as we could be. There are
enough redeeming features to our personalities that if God is really just, he will
include us in salvation. What amazes us is justice, not grace.”
“We have come to expect God to be merciful. From there the next step is easy:
We demand it. When it is not forthcoming, our first response is anger against
God, coupled with the protest: ‘It isn’t fair.’ We soon forget that with our first sin
we have forfeited all rights to the gift of life. That I am drawing breath this
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morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe him everything. If
he allows a tower to fall on my head this afternoon, I cannot claim injustice.”
“One of our basic problems is the confusion of justice and mercy. We live in a
world where injustices happen… The injustices we suffer are all of a horizontal
sort. They happen between actors in this world. Yet standing over and above this
world is the Great Judge of all. My relationship to him is vertical. In terms of that
vertical relationship I never suffered an injustice. Though people may mistreat
me, God never does. That God allows a human being to treat me unjustly is just of
God. While I may complain to God about the human, horizontal injustice I have
suffered, I cannot rise up and accuse God of committing a vertical injustice by
allowing the human injustice to befall me.”
“God would be perfectly just to allow me to be thrown in prison for life for a
crime I didn't commit. I may be innocent before other people, but I am guilty
before God.”
So the question I have for you today is: Do you believe that deep down in your
soul? Or do you somewhere deep inside still believe that you deserve God’s grace
and should not be punished for what you would consider minor infractions in
your own life? Until we come to that deep conviction that each of us truly
deserves the wrath and anger of God, we will be prone to accusing God of
injustice and to being appalled when bad things happen to us or to those we
consider to be "good" people. The fact is that every breath we are allowed to
breathe each day is a beautiful act of God's mercy.
I took that detour from our passage today because as we consider, in verses 9
through 13, some of the ways the Lord shows his compassion, grace and
lovingkindness to us, we must start with a deep understanding of the dire
situation we are each in apart from the compassion, grace and lovingkindness of
our Lord.
So back in verse 9 of Psalm 103, we do see a glimmer of hope even though we’re
faced with God’s anger and the legal case God has against each of us. This
glimmer of hope is that God will not always be bringing this charge against us and
having anger toward us. The Lord has provided a way to bring an end to his anger
and to provide us a way out from under the airtight case he has against us. While
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David in writing this psalm was seeing the fulfillment of this as something to come
in the future, for us this is now a reality through Christ.
As we move now to verses 10 through 13, the glimmer of hope turns into a
beautiful sunrise in all its glory and we see that in spite of the fact that we are
100% deserving of death and punishment at this very instant in our lives, the Lord
has not carried out that sentence on us. He has not rewarded us with the
punishment that we have earned.
And why have we been so fortunate? The reason is clearly given in verse 11:
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his lovingkindness
toward those who fear him.
So we've already seen that God's lovingkindness abounds toward us. Here we see
an even greater word picture that gives us an even better idea of how great God's
lovingkindness is toward us. It is as high as the heavens are above the earth. Think
about the farthest reaches of the universe and how even the most powerful
telescope in the world hasn't even begun to uncover the limits of the universe
and how far out there the furthest star and galaxy is. That's how great God's
lovingkindness is toward us. His commitment to show strength, steadfastness and
love to each of us is beyond what we can even comprehend.
Now notice that the lovingkindness being spoken of here is not necessarily
directed toward everyone in the world. His lovingkindness is instead directed
toward those who fear him. Remember that statement from Romans, “There is
no fear of God before their eyes?”
Well, what is the heart of what God wants from those he has created? Is it that
we keep every jot and tittle of the Law? Is it that we do our best to be good
people and do good things? Let's go back to a great passage in Romans that
clearly explains the origin of God's wrath.
Rom 1:18-23
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because
that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident
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to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood
through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even
though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they
became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22
Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the
incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and
four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
In this Romans passage we see that people are actively suppressing the truth
about God. Even though they know he exists, they refuse to honor him or give
him thanks. Instead they prefer to exchange his glory for man-made objects. This
is the heart of sin: to live as if there's no God and to give him no thanks or glory.
Think about what Abraham did that was so great. He believed God and God
credited it to him as righteousness. God is simply calling each of us to believe in
Him and trust Him… To acknowledge him as our Creator, giving him the glory he
deserves, and to trust Him, living in a dependent relationship with him.
For those who live as if there's no God, there’s only wrath and anger and
judgment. But for those who acknowledge him and come into relationship with
him as their Creator, there is abounding lovingkindness and freedom from God's
wrath and anger and judgment.
There is also complete removal of our transgressions. Verse 12 of Psalm 103 tells
us that for those who fear God, He has removed our transgressions as far as the
east is from the west. Notice it's in the past tense. He has removed our
transgressions, our acts of rebellion against Him.
Now I know a lot of you are dads out there. You know what it's like to have a deep
love for your children and to continue to love them even when they're making the
worst of mistakes. You want the best for your kids and when they mess up you
hurt for them and you're always willing to forgive and help them get back on the
right track. Well this is how our God relates to us as well. Look at verse 13:
Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on
those who fear him.
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So not only does the Lord pour out his lovingkindness on us, and remove our
transgressions from us, but he also feels compassion for us. I think it's important
to emphasize that he FEELS compassion for us. God cares about the details of our
lives and when we hurt, He hurts. When we suffer, he sympathizes.
Do you ever feel like people don't really care about the struggles you face in your
life? That they're not really willing to invest the time to listen to you and to try to
relate to your challenges and struggles? It's rare indeed to find a true friend who
really truly cares about you as a person and is willing to take the time to really get
to know who you are and to listen to what you have to say.
I had a boss one time who when I first met him seemed like a very nice man who
was easy to talk to. However as time went on it became very apparent that he
had no interest whatsoever in really listening to anything I had to say. Whenever
I would speak he would simply use it as a springboard to tell me something about
himself or something he’d experienced in the past. I soon lost all interest in
talking with him because it was all about him. I had no desire to tell him anything
going on in my life because I knew he wasn't really listening but was rather just
looking for another opportunity to talk about himself.
Well fortunately our God is not like that. In fact he must be the best listener in the
universe because most of us do a lot of talking and very little listening when we
come to him. And yet he feels compassion for us when he listens and he
sympathizes with our weaknesses and our struggles.
V. THE TEMPORAL NATURE OF MAN CONTRASTED WITH THE ETERNALITY OF THE
LORD
This brings us to section 5 of Psalm 103 where we see the temporal nature of man
contrasted with the eternality of the Lord in verses 14 through 19. In the first 3
verses of this section we find out why God feels compassion for us. Look at verses
14 through 16:
For he himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man,
his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind is
passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer.
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So God feels compassion for us because he knows us inside and out and he knows
that we are as permanent as the grass that grows in the field or flowers that
bloom.
In the great scheme of life we are just a flash in the pan. Our bodies are frail and
easily broken and at most last around 100 years. We are made out of dust and
after our brief life will return to dust. Our glory days are about as long as the life
of a peony flower… So beautiful but only lasting a few brief days.
Last fall when I was in Portland for a class, I got to spend some time at one of my
favorite places, Powell’s bookstore. I could easily spend an entire day there. Well
on one of the sale tables was a really cool photo book called, “Lost London.” It
had some amazing black-and-white photos of London taken from the late 1800s
through the early 1900s. I’ve always had a fascination with London, so I
immediately got drawn into looking through the book. The photos documented a
lot of the amazing architecture of historic London and focused especially on a lot
of the buildings that had later gotten destroyed in the Second World War or that
were demolished to create new more modern buildings and highways.
Anyway, apart from the really cool architecture and cobblestone streets and all
the other unique features that make London so fascinating, I noticed a lot of
pictures of people. Some of them took on the appearance of ghosts in the
pictures because of the long exposure time used in photography back in that time
period. If a person moved while the picture was being taken, they ended up
looking like ghosts in the picture.
So it got me to thinking about all those people that lived back in that time, and all
the cares and worries and dreams they had, and how now they're all gone and the
only trace of most of them is these photos that were taken. It kind of puts your
life in perspective and makes you think about what's important and what's not.
Well isn't it comforting to realize that God knows how frail each of us is, and how
short our earthly lives are in the great scheme of things. And with that
understanding, He feels compassion and mercy for us. He is patient with us,
knowing our weaknesses and frailty.
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And even better is what we see in verses 17 through 19. Though we are weak and
frail, our God is eternal and everlasting and in control of all things in the universe:
But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those
who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his
covenant and remember his precepts to do them. The Lord has established his
throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules over all.
So not only is the Lord Himself eternal and everlasting, but also his lovingkindness
for those who fear him never ends. It’s from everlasting to everlasting… Not just
one everlasting, but two everlastings. That’s a really long time. His
lovingkindness long outlasts our brief lives in these weak bodies on the earth. It
will be poured out forever and ever on all those who fear the Lord.
The Lord also possesses unchanging righteousness. This righteousness will be
shown to children's children. It's not going to fade away in future generations.
For all those who keep the Lord’s covenant and follow His guidance and direction,
the lovingkindness and the righteousness of the Lord will continue to be poured
out. God will remain faithful throughout all generations and will continue to
guide and direct and love and support all those who fear him.
Notice that verse 19 tells us that this promise of the Lord’s lovingkindness and
righteousness being poured out is only for certain people.
First, this is a promise for those people who keep the Lord’s covenant. Secondly,
it’s for those who remember his precepts to do them.
So what is the Lord’s covenant? Well we need to remember that Psalm 103 was
written by David and that for him, the Lord’s covenant would have been the
covenant outlined in the book of Deuteronomy wherein the Jewish people were
promised blessing if they obeyed the statues and judgements written in God’s
Law. The heart of this covenant was summed up in the Ten Commandments and
in Deuteronomy 6:4-5:
Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD
you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
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But the beauty of the psalms is that they are filled with prophecy and contain
shadows of many things that reach their full fulfillment in Jesus Christ. In fact the
whole of Psalm 103, while powerful in the time of David, is even more powerful
now that Christ has come and given complete fulfilment to many of the amazing
blessings we see here.
Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant for us. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
9. After discussing details of the first covenant and how its rituals could never
bring true transformation, the writer of Hebrews says, starting in chapter 9, verse
11:
Heb 9:11-18
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He
entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands,
that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and
calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having
obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the
cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 For this reason He is the
mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the
redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant,
those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
So for those of us since the time of Christ, the Lord’s covenant refers to the NEW
covenant wherein God made a way through Christ’s death on the cross and
resurrection from the dead for us to have eternal life through placing our faith in
Christ alone. So placing our faith in Christ alone as our Savior and Lord is what it
means now for us to keep the Lord’s covenant.
Now how about the second condition listed in Psalm 103, verse 18? The promise
of God’s lovingkindness and righteousness being poured out is for those who
remember His precepts to do them. Notice that there are two parts to that
statement: 1) remembering His precepts and 2) doing them. There’s a big
difference between just remembering them and actually doing them, isn’t there?
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This touches on the concept where faith without works is dead. We can have a
lot of head knowledge about the Bible and about what’s right and wrong, but if
we don’t actually live out the principles, we’ve gotten nowhere. If you really
believe something, you will show that belief by acting on it. True belief will be
shown by actions.
Similarly, you can’t just have actions without knowledge or you’re going to make a
lot of mistakes in life. If you’re just passionate and trying to do as much as you
can, but you’re not studying and following the guidebook, you’re going to waste a
lot of time and head down a lot of rabbit trails. We need to study and know the
Bible and allow it to change the way we live our lives. That is the essence of
remembering his precepts and doing them.
The apostle John talks about what this looks like in 1 John 3:21-23:
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and
whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments
and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that
we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He
commanded us.
So when we come to new life in Christ, our calling is still:
To…love the LORD you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your might…and to love your neighbor as yourself.
And this is a command that can truly be lived out now because of our new life in
Christ and the Holy Spirit that now lives inside each of us.
Back in Psalm 103, let’s move on to verse 19 where the fifth section ends with
another powerful vision of the Lords eternality and control over all things: Verse
19 says:
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his sovereignty rules
over all.
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Here we see that the Lords throne will not be moved. It has been established on
an unshakable foundation. No one will remove God from his throne or take over
his authority. And his sovereignty rules over all. God is in control of even the most
minute detail of the universe. His sovereignty doesn't just reign over a large
portion of the universe… It reigns over all. Satan may think that he has control of
the earth. He’s still deceiving himself into thinking that he could win this thing.
But nothing escapes God's control. The universe is marching on to that beautiful
day when everything will be summed up in Christ and every knee will bow to his
rule and authority.
And for each of us who have placed our faith in Christ, though our bodies are frail
and our lives on earth our short, yet we have been given a part in the eternal
inheritance of God. Our life won’t end when our bodies die here on earth. We
have been given eternal life in Christ that will never end. We’ve been made the
recipients of the amazing lovingkindess of the Lord of the universe. In the ages to
come, God will be showing the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus! Now those are some reasons to bless the Lord, O my soul!
VI. BLESS THE LORD ALL YOU WORKS OF HIS
This brings us to sixth and final section of Psalm 103, where we hear a resounding,
four-fold command to bless the Lord. In case you haven’t gotten it yet, we have
some amazing reasons to bless the Lord. And in fact, blessing the Lord is the
heart of what God is calling all of his creation to do as we seek to love Him with all
our heart, mind, soul and strength. It’s NOT blessing the Lord that arouses the
wrath and anger of Almighty God.
Let’s read the last 3 verses of Psalm 103, starting in verse 20:
Bless the LORD, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word,
obeying the voice of His word! Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, you who serve
Him, doing His will. Bless the LORD, all you works of His, in all places of His
dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!
So we see here that there is not anything or anyone in all of creation that should
not bless the Lord. The Lord's mighty angels whose job is to for perform the word
of the Lord and obey his voice are commanded to bless the Lord. The hosts of the
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Lord, which speak of powerful angelic armies of warfare that carry out the will of
the Lord, are commanded to bless the Lord. All the works of the Lord in all places
of his dominion are commanded to bless the Lord. That would cover everyone
and everything everywhere. God created everything out of nothing. All praise and
glory and thanksgiving belong to God alone. Our every breath comes from God
alone and is an act of his mercy.
So as we close today, I want each of you to ask yourselves: Are you blessing the
Lord with your life and with your words and everything that you do? Are you
blessing him in the way you relate your spouse and your kids? Are you blessing
him with your coworkers at work and in the way you conduct yourself out in the
world? Are you blessing him in the way you spend your time? Are you blessing
him with your attitudes? Is your heart beating for God alone? Remember that
blessing the Lord involves praising, celebrating and adoring the Lord on bended
knees. It's a lifestyle of constant thanksgiving and fellowship and dependence on
him in everything we do. It’s simply sharing every moment of your life with Him
and letting Him guide and direct you in all things.
Blessing the Lord can be done at any place and at any time, except that we can't
be blessing the Lord when we’re actively sinning against him and doing things that
we know are against his will. If that's where you are, get out. Start praying with
desperation. Get help from a godly friend. Avoid those places and situations that
draw you in to those addictive sin patterns. Pray. Pray. Pray. God will honor the
prayer offered with the heart of true repentance and will make a way for you to
get out of sin.
Our life is a vapor. Time seems to go faster with every year we live. Let's not
waste any more time chasing after emptiness. Let's bless the Lord with every
heartbeat of our life. Let’s allow the Lord to be a part of every moment of our
lives so that fellowship with Him and dependence on Him becomes like breathing
to us.
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