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to the book of Psalms, Psalm 
103. I had hoped to be back in John's 
Gospel, though I spent the week with Pastor Naftali. It was a 
wonderful time. We had a good time in Armstrong on Thursday 
night. And he is in Surrey today, where 
he is sharing his report and preaching morning and evening. 
And then, God willing, I take him back to the airport early 
on Wednesday morning. So Psalm 103, we looked at this 
psalm last year about this time, Thanksgiving Day, and Canada 
is tomorrow. I think that every Christian 
ought to celebrate Thanksgiving to some degree or other each 
and every day as we ponder God's goodness to us, as we consider 
His works toward us, and as we consider His grace and mercy. 
Well, Psalm 103 is one of those types of psalms where David blesses 
God, and he gives various reasons as to why he blesses God. So 
I'll read the passage, we'll pray, and then we'll look at 
it in some detail. So Psalm 103, beginning in verse 1, a psalm 
of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. who forgives 
all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems 
your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness 
and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so 
that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes 
righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made 
known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. 
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in 
mercy. He will not always strive with 
us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with 
us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our 
iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so 
great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the East 
is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions 
from us. As a father pities his children, 
so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame, 
He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like 
grass, as a flower of the field. So he flourishes, for the wind 
passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no 
more. but the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting 
on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, 
to such as keep his covenant and to those who remember his 
commandments to do them. The Lord has established his 
throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, 
you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding 
the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, 
you ministers of his, who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, 
all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, 
oh my soul. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
gracious God and Holy Father, we thank you so very much that 
you are God for us, that you are God of grace and mercy and 
glory and power, and a God who has dealt so kindly with us. 
We know we're not heaven-bound because of our works or our law-keeping, 
but because of your provision in the gospel of your dear Son, 
our Savior. We thank you for that life and 
death and resurrection. We thank you for that promise 
of that inheritance to come. We thank you that Christ is even 
now at the right hand of God Almighty, And we look forward 
to his return again in glory to judge the living and the dead. 
And we praise you that you have fit us, that you have prepared 
us through forgiveness and through clothing us in that righteousness 
wherein we can stand before the judge on that day. And Lord God, 
we pray that many others would come to a saving knowledge of 
our Lord Jesus. We pray for this place. We pray 
throughout this city and this country that as the gospel goes 
forth today, you would bless it, By the power of the Spirit, 
sinners would come to see that Jesus Christ alone is able to 
save to the uttermost. Sanctify and strengthen your 
people, build us up in our most holy faith, cause us to be a 
people that exercise gratitude and thankfulness as we ponder 
the great things that you have done, that you are doing, and 
that you promise to do in the future. And forgive us now for 
all sin and unrighteousness, and we pray these things through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, as I said, thanksgiving 
ought to be in the hearts of God's people each and every day 
as we ponder His goodness and His kindness and His mercy to 
us. And I think thanksgiving or gratitude 
is perfectly fitted to acknowledge the graciousness of God. In other 
words, we don't thank God because of our performance. We don't 
thank God because we're great guys and girls. No, we thank 
God because in the gospel He has begraced us. He has bestowed 
upon us favor in and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So gratitude or thankfulness 
expressed in the hearts of God's people is an acknowledgment of 
what the hymn writer said. Nothing in my hand I bring simply 
to thy cross I cling. We receive all blessing. and 
all provision from our good God. David was not a stranger to this. 
The history of David, king of Israel, demonstrates that he 
knew how to abound, but he also knew how to be abased. He knew 
what victory was, he knew what triumph was, but he also knew 
what what the depths of despair could bring. He knew his own 
sin, his own unrighteousness, his lawlessness. He celebrates 
here not only the provision of God in terms of temporal things, 
God kept David going, God kept David alive, but he acknowledges 
God's hand in the spiritual things as well. And so as we go through 
this psalm, I'm going to encourage all of us to consider how it's 
applicable in our lives. To see that David's response 
is appropriate here. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. So let's 
look first at the reminder to bless God in verses 1 and 2. 
Secondly, the reasons to bless God in verses 3 to 18. And then 
finally, the reflection on the kingdom of God in verses 19 to 
22. But note first this reminder. David's talking to himself here. 
After telling us that he himself penned this under the inspiration 
of the Spirit, a psalm of David, we now see David talk to himself. Perhaps you've been in a car 
and you've looked over and you've seen somebody talking to themselves. 
Now, I know it's perfectly appropriate these days to consider they might 
be on the phone. But years ago, when we didn't 
have phones, you'd see people doing that. You might see me 
doing that if you pulled up next to me. People need, at times, 
to talk to themselves, and David here reminds himself concerning 
this particular responsibility to bless the Lord. Notice, bless 
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His 
holy name. This is not a practice confined 
to Psalm 103. For instance, in Psalms 42 and 
43, David again talks to himself. There he's despondent. There 
he's downcast. There he's what we might call 
depressed. And so he says to himself, very specifically and 
appropriately, he says, why are you cast down, O my soul? And 
why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall 
yet praise him for the help of his countenance. So again, Psalms 
42, Psalm 43, David speaks to himself. It is as it were, he 
takes himself by the scruff of the shirt and he says, listen, 
don't continue in this despondency, don't continue in this depression, 
don't continue in this melancholic state, but rather hope in God. 
Now, brethren, that's not going to cure all your ills. That's 
not going to set you alight on the path of joy and happiness, 
but it's a good start. It's a good place to begin, to 
speak to yourself concerning the truth of God's holy words. 
And there is a self-consciousness here. Bless the Lord, O my soul, 
but notice, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. He doesn't 
want to keep anything back. He doesn't want to hold out with 
reference to God. He doesn't want to be a miser 
or a scrooge. He doesn't want to just dole out a little bit 
of blessing. But this God is so glorious. This God is so gracious. This God is so worthy. He imitates, 
or rather, Paul imitates Him in Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed 
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. 
In other words, God is so great, God is so glorious, God has been 
so profuse in His blessing to us, let us in turn bless Him. Let us in turn praise Him. Let us meet His grace with our 
gratitude and let it well up in our hearts and minds so that 
we can adore Him and honor Him. Lloyd-Jones makes the observation 
with reference to David speaking to himself here. He says, have 
you not realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due 
to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking 
to yourself? You listen to yourself, oh, you're, 
no, no, nobody likes you. Nobody cares about you. Nobody 
wants you. You have all these circumstances 
that are bad. You need to talk to yourself. 
You need to get God's word in your mind and heart. You need 
to say with David here, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all 
that is within me, bless his holy name. And not only does 
he do this once, but he repeats it specifically in verse 2a. 
So after verse 1, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within 
me, bless His holy name. And then in verse 2a, bless the 
Lord, O my soul. What do you think the theme of 
his psalm is? Ah, blessing the Lord. Yes, that's it precisely. When he repeats this, but as 
well, notice how the psalm ends. He goes from A to Z with the 
same theme in mind. Notice in verse 22, bless the 
Lord all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord 
Oh, my soul. So for David, this is a necessity. For David, this is a corrective. For David, this is a rebuke. 
For David, this is encouraging. For David, he needs to remember 
to bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and all that is within 
me. Bless his holy name. And I think 
that one of the reasons why David reminds himself is because of 
the tendency to forget. We just sang in the hymn, prone 
to wander, prone to leave the God that I love. That's pathetic, 
isn't it? It's sad, but it's the experience 
consistently of all God's people. We're prone to wander. We're 
prone to leave the God that we love. We're prone to not bless 
the Lord. We're prone to not express gratitude. We're prone to see our situation 
and our circumstances and our miseries, and we're prone to 
not acknowledge the reality that God is for us even in the midst 
of that. So notice in verse 2b, he says, 
bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless 
his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not. all his benefits. He wouldn't 
say that if there wasn't the tendency to forget the benefits 
of God. He wouldn't say that if there 
wasn't the propensity in the heart of even God's people, a 
man after God's own heart, to forget this vital aspect of true 
and undefiled religion. not only visiting widows and 
orphans in their distress and keeping oneself unspotted from 
the world, but praising our great God, expressing gratitude to 
our glorious Lord. Forget not all his benefits. David outlines this because of 
a few things. First, the command to Israel. 
Go back to the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy, you 
see an emphasis at least a couple of times on the necessity to 
not forget. You can mark this down, brethren, 
and I'm stealing this, borrowing it from Dale Ralph Davis. Amnesia 
produces apostasy. Amnesia produces apostasy. Forgetfulness leads to defection. Well, it's one of the means by 
which the people of God continue steadfast. One of the means by 
which the people of God continue perseveringly. One of those means 
is gratitude, thankfulness, acknowledging the grace of God. Well, God knew 
this relative to the history of Israel. God knew this with 
reference to the covenant people. God knew that he was going to 
bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. What might 
their temptation to be once they go into that land flowing with 
milk and honey? The temptation might be to not 
thank God. The temptation might be to forget 
God. In fact, they are reminded on 
several occasions when you go into the land, when you have 
vineyards that you didn't grow, when you have wells that you 
didn't dig, when you have food and blessings that you didn't 
get on your own merit, then remember the Lord, because this tendency 
to forgetfulness will bring defection from the Lord very quickly. So 
notice Deuteronomy 6. We have what's called the Shema 
in verse 4. It's the central confession of 
Israel's faith. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our 
God, the Lord is one. And then the response to that 
proposition is, you shall love the Lord your God with all your 
heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. And then God, 
through Moses on the plains of Moab, enjoins that the people 
of God teach these things to their children. When you rise 
up, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, there's to 
be impact of the Word of God on the life of the individual, 
in terms of the family. This law should be written on 
the gate so that society benefits and prospers from the goodness 
and the kindness of the Word of God. And then notice specifically 
in verses 10 to 12. So it shall be when the Lord 
your God brings you into the land of which he swore to your 
fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and 
beautiful cities, which you did not build, houses full of all 
good things, which you did not fill, hewn out wells, which you 
did not dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you did not plant. 
When you have eaten and are full, then beware. Why? Lest you forget the Lord who 
brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. 
You see a similar emphasis in Deuteronomy 8, and then a curse 
associated with the covenant is in Deuteronomy 28, 47. In 
other words, God pronounces curses upon the nation of Israel if 
they go into the land and they defect. if they go into the land 
and they apostatize, if they go into the land and they don't 
do what God had called them to do. 2847, God upbrings the children 
of Israel when they end up in the land, and instead of being 
joyful, and instead of expressing their gratitude, and instead 
of expressing their thankfulness to the God who provided that, 
they were just the opposite. It's for no accident that Paul 
in Philippians chapter 2 tells us to do all things without complaint 
or without disputing. Why is that? Because the proven 
track record of Israel in the Old Covenant shows complaint. 
It shows a lack of remembrance. It shows a tendency to apostasy 
through amnesia. And so David, as he takes his 
soul by the scruff of the neck, and he says, bless the Lord, 
forget not all his benefits, he knows that this is a temptation. 
He knows that this is a peculiar challenge for the people of God. 
You have the tendency, so there's this command given to Israel, 
and then this tendency to forget. Brethren, is your day punctuated 
by thankfulness and gratitude to the Lord? If it is, praise 
God. Maybe give us a lesson on how 
you achieve that and how you manage in a successful way to 
operate at that fever pitch. For most of us, we need to be 
reminded, we need to take our soul by the scruff of the neck 
and say, bless the Lord and forget not all his benefits. And then 
of course, the presence of remaining corruption. It's not confined 
to one place or the other in the New Testament, but several 
of Paul's epistles emphasize the necessity for thankfulness. Again, it acknowledges the grace-based 
character of our salvation. So we see the psalmist's practice, 
we see the psalmist's reminder. Forget not all his benefits. 
Now we move to the reasons to bless God in verses 3 to 18. 
So you see the progression. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
forget not all his benefits. Well, what benefits are those, 
David? I'm going to tell you in verses 3 to 18. If his soul 
should say to him, well, what are those benefits, David? He's 
going to tell his soul. And as one who's penning scripture 
under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he's going to tell 
all of us. If you ask the question, what am I supposed to be thankful 
for tomorrow? What am I supposed to be thankful 
for today? What are the reasons that I have 
to bless the Lord? Well, listen to David. David 
furnishes us with a lot of things, a lot of particulars, a lot of 
details by which we can appropriate our own prayer closets. We can 
appropriate around our own dinner table tomorrow. When we rehearse 
the blessings of God, gratitude and thankfulness is the natural 
reflex from the blood bought children of God. It's just normal. It's just the way it ought to 
be. So let's look at this section, 3 to 18, under three considerations. First, the identification of 
the gifts, verses 3 to 5. Secondly, the recipients of the 
gifts, verses 6 and 7. And then finally, the section 
rounds out with the giver of the gifts in verses 8 to 18. 
So in other words, David starts first with what God does in terms 
of gifting his people, but he ends with who God is in terms 
of gifting his people. That's two good things for us 
to contemplate. Not only what we have as provision 
from God, but the God who gives it, right? God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth 
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We need 
to understand not only the fact that he gives his son, but we 
also ought to contemplate the giver of the son. God did not 
spare his own son, the apostle says in Romans 8, but he delivered 
him up. How shall he not with him then 
freely give us all things? In other words, if the father 
did the greatest in giving up his son to death, then he's going 
to do the lesser visiting you on a Thursday when you stand 
in need of grace. So we need to not only know the 
gift, but it's good to know the giver as well. So David highlights 
the gifts, but David highlights the giver. Notice in terms of 
the identification of the gifts. We'll break these down into two 
sections, spiritual, physical. Spiritual and physical. We as 
New Covenant Christians know all about the spiritual. We're 
not so much thankful to God for the physical. And I don't know 
why that is. I mean, food from Costco is as much provision from 
the hand of God as going out into your garden and reaping 
the harvest. We have been blessed by God in 
terms of temporal provision. Perhaps you need to be in a less 
affluent country to sort of focus in on this or hone in on this. 
You know, the Lord Jesus teaches us to pray, you know, for your 
daily bread. You know, some have, you know, 
pantries, and I'm not saying this is necessarily wicked with 
a few, you know, foodstuffs stored up. Perhaps we lose sight of 
our dependence upon God each and every day. But our dependence 
upon that God each and every day is as much the dependence 
that David had on that God each and every day. So we'll notice 
those physical blessings in just a moment, but notice the spiritual 
blessings, and he starts this off in verse 3a. And he starts 
this off with what Spurgeon calls a chief boon of our gospel. When he highlights the spiritual 
provision that God has afforded, he begins with the forgiveness 
of sins. So notice in verse 3, who forgives 
all your iniquities. Why do you think David starts 
there? Because David understood his guilt before a holy God. 
David understood what he was before God's grace came to him, 
as both shepherd and as king. Remember that incident in 2 Samuel 
chapters 11 and 12. When kings went out to battle, 
David didn't go. David sent Joab in his place. 
David instead engaged in some leisurely recreational activity. just happened to turn out to 
be adultery and murder, of course, and God dispatches Nathan the 
prophet to reprove him. And then God says, I have atoned 
for your sin. I have dealt with your sin. So 
David understood not only the guilt of his wretchedness, but 
he understood the grace of God. So those who know their guilt, 
those who've experienced grace, again, the reflex action is the 
gratitude that is consistent with God's bounty. And that's 
precisely what we see here. He says, who forgives all your 
iniquities? So David's guilt, 2 Samuel 11 
and 12. David's the grace of God, 2 Samuel 
12, 13. So David said to Nathan, I have 
sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the 
Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. And then the 
gratitude of David expressed here and elsewhere. This isn't 
confined to Psalm 103 in this altar. We've got Psalm 32, 1 
and 2. Blessed is he whose transgression 
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the 
Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is 
no deceit. Psalm 65, 3. David says, Iniquities prevail 
against me. As for our transgressions, you 
will provide atonement for them. When he starts to sort of underscore 
God's goodness and graciousness and provision that demands or 
elicits the response of gratitude and thankfulness, it's not accidental 
that he starts in the forgiveness of sins. It's not accidental 
that when Paul does a similar thing in Ephesians chapter 1, 
I've already cited verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. And then he outlines the specific reasons 
why we're to bless God. The Father chose us, the Son 
redeems us, the Spirit seals and guarantees us. Notice, when 
he deals with the Son, guess what gets the attention in Ephesians 
1.7. In Him we have redemption. Through His blood, the forgiveness 
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. That doesn't surprise 
the blood-bought children of God, does it? When you read the 
celebration on the part of the people of God and the thing that 
they seem to isolate for specific attention, being forgiveness, 
as a Christian believer, you're not surprised. Because as a Christian 
believer, you say, yay and amen. As a Christian believer, you 
rejoice when we sing, 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. Isn't this one of the chiefest 
boons of our religion? To be forgiven, to be cleansed 
in that fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness, to have 
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according 
not to just a meager amount of the riches of grace, but according 
to the riches of His grace. It ought not to surprise us that 
David begins here. The Geneva Bible says that is 
the beginning and chiefest of all benefits, remission of sin. Spurgeon says he selects a few 
of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine love, threads 
them on the string of memory and hangs them about the neck 
of gratitude. He goes on to say pardon sin 
is, in our experience, one of the choicest boons of grace, 
one of the earliest gifts of mercy. In fact, the needful preparation 
for enjoying all that follows it Till iniquity is forgiven, 
healing, redemption, and satisfaction are unknown blessings. So again, 
it's not accidental that David starts here. It's not accidental 
that Paul starts here. It's not accidental that the 
Christian believer starts here. We're forgiven of our sins. We're 
cleansed in the blood of the righteous one. And notice, it's 
not some of our sins. Wouldn't that be miserable if 
in verse 3a he says, who forgives some of your iniquities? He just 
forgives some of them. That's not good news, is it? 
Not at all. Just some? Just a part? Just a few? Just a little bit? 
That would be depressing. See, we don't preach the depressing 
news. We preach the good news. We preach 
the gospel. In Him, we have redemption through 
His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 1 John 1.9, if we confess 
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Well, that 
must mean just the small ones, right? He doesn't really forgive 
the big ones. Again, it's not some of your iniquities, it's 
all of your iniquities, and the all there means all. Big ones, 
small ones, medium ones, whatever sins you have, when you bring 
them to that fountain that is open for sin and uncleanness, 
they will be washed. You will be cleansed. In Psalm 
2511, pardon my iniquity, O Lord, for your name's sake, for it 
is great. It's the greatness of the psalmist's 
sin that provokes him to go to the greatness of God's grace 
to fetch out forgiveness. See, this idea that I'm so sinful, 
God could never forgive me, that's not biblical. That's the devil 
getting betwixt you or between you and the cross. If you hear 
that whispering, I'm not saying audible, I'm not saying that 
he's gonna come and whisper in your ear, but if you feel in 
your heart, I've just done too many wrong things. I've just 
done too many bad things. I've just sinned a lot against 
God. A Psalm of David. He's the man 
identified in 1 Samuel 13 as a man after God's own heart. And he's the man that covered 
up his own sinful adultery with conspiracy to commit murder. 
You get that sometimes. You ask people, are you a sinner? 
Well, no, I'm not that bad. I've never committed adultery 
and I've never, you know, I've never killed anybody. Those are 
the benchmark sins. Intriguing that God tells us 
that the benchmark sins can be forgiven. God tells us in 1 Samuel 
11 and 12 that those sins, as wretched and as foul as they 
are, I'm not saying it's okay. I'm simply saying that God's 
grace is sufficient. Newton said, I'm a great sinner, 
but I praise God because He's a great Savior. He doesn't heal, 
He doesn't forgive, He doesn't pardon some of your sins. Brethren, that's not good news. 
Good news is verse 3a, who forgives all your iniquities. Now notice, he turns from there 
to the physical blessings. Again, something that you and 
I need to see the hand of God in. The fact that God does provide, 
the fact that God does load us daily with benefits. That's another 
Psalm. We have in Psalm 68, 19, blessed 
be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits. The God of our 
salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, 
and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. Yeah, he's probably 
speaking there of the spiritual provision of God's grace in terms 
of keeping us from death and hell, but based on what we read 
in Psalm 103 and other places in David's life, we see that 
he's not only thankful to God for the spiritual provision, 
but for the temporal provision also. The fact that on several 
occasions, humanly speaking, David should have died. David 
at Keilah was ultimately saved by the Philistines from Saul. I mean, go figure that one out. 
God, in His infinite grace, uses the Philistines who hate David 
and want to kill David as an actual means to spare David from 
Saul, who wanted to exterminate him. So David doesn't say, well, 
I've got this forgiveness of sins, but the rest of the world, 
you know, that's up to me. And every accomplishment that 
is wrought out, it's based on my ingenuity, my savvy. No, he gives glory to God most 
high. In fact, at the beginning of 
his life, or beginning of his kingship, and at the end of his 
life, he makes the same statement. 2 Samuel 4.9 and 1 Kings 1.29. This sort of bookends the professional, 
monarchical life of David as king of Israel. He says, as the 
Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity. As the Lord lives, who has redeemed 
my life from all adversity. In 2 Samuel 4, 9, it's pretty 
obvious. David's on the rise. Everything 
David touches, it's just turning to gold. It's good. He's a king. He's prosperous. He's engaged. He's doing these wonderful things. 
But then what happens? I might have mentioned 1 Samuel 
earlier. It's 2 Samuel 11 and 12. What happens there? So 4, 
David says, God has delivered me from all adversity. And that's 
a big statement concerning the threat of Saul and concerning 
the threat of the Philistines. But then, yeah, Midas touch. 
Everything he touches goes well. He consolidates Jerusalem as 
the political capital of Israel in chapter six. He has already 
assumed both northern and southern tribes in terms of his rule. 
Chapter seven, there's the centralization or the statement concerning the 
Davidic covenant. Then of course, 2 Samuel 11 and 
12, he takes a turn for the worse in terms of this murder and adultery 
thing. But at the end of his life, he's 
able to say, God has redeemed me from all adversity. That's 
a great, great testimony and a great, great witness. And brothers 
and sisters, as we work through this list, if you've got an illness 
or a malady or a sickness or a disease, remember, this isn't 
a promise that nobody will ever get thanks. I think it's a general 
statement concerning God's goodness and faithfulness to His people, 
and its certitude is seen at the end of this age. Whatever 
crosses or problems or difficulties we have to bear in the here and 
now, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will 
be no more sorrow, there will be no more pain, there will be 
no more hunger, there will be no more thirst when we get to 
that new Jerusalem. Yes, we may have some tough times 
now, like David did, but in the midst of the tough times, we 
appreciate the fact that God and His grace delivers us. God 
and His grace keeps us going. I wonder if we ever ponder that. 
Why do Christians persevere? Well, they're especially self-disciplined. They're stoic in their approach 
to life. They can grin and bear it. They 
can knuckle under. Why do they grin and bear it and knuckle 
under? Because God's grace is sustaining them. Because God's 
grace is upholding them. Because God's grace is vindicating 
them in these daily battles. Notice, David praises the fact, 
or God, for the fact of physical healing, who heals all your diseases 
in 3B. He speaks of the protection from 
physical threat, who redeems your life from destruction. He 
speaks of the provision of loving kindness in 4b, who crowns you 
with loving kindness and tender mercies. And the blessing of 
temporal goods, notice in verse 5, who satisfies your mouth with 
good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Brethren, 
these are physical blessings received from God. I think it 
was Matthew Henry commenting on that bit when Ruth is invited 
to sit at the table of Boaz's servants. And she not only gets 
the bread, but they pass her a little dish of vinegar to dip 
in, right? God is good. He could have made 
everything taste like dirt, but he made mangoes, and avocados, 
and steaks, and shrimp, and all kinds of blessings. See, the 
psalmist recognizes the provision of God in the physical. Certainly, 
he forgives all our iniquities, but he sustains us on the daily 
basis. He is there with us in the midst 
of trial. He is there with us in the valley 
of the shadow of death. He is there with us, sustaining 
us and blessing us and providing for us in all circumstances. And again, this Psalm is not 
a promise in the hand of the health, wealth, and prosperity 
guys saying, you're never going to have any trouble. You're only 
ever going to eat steak and lobster. Brethren, that's not how the 
psalm is to be interpreted. We reflect with David on the 
kindness and the provision and the goodness of God. We reflect 
on the reality that could always be a lot worse. I could be in 
hell, what my sins deserve, but God in his grace provides for 
us, and David has no problem celebrating him for those facts. So he identifies the gift, spiritual, 
physical, and then notice he highlights the recipients of 
the gifts. Specifically in verse seven, he made, I'm sorry, verse 
six, the Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Paul tells us not many wise, 
not many noble are the ones that typically God calls to his kingdom. 
Now, when Paul says that, he doesn't mean no wise, no noble. God saves rich people. God saves 
noble men. God saves persons that need Bible 
studies from Timothy. Command those who are rich in 
this present age not to trust in uncertain riches. Not to be 
uncharitable, but to give profusely to those who have need. God does 
save all kinds of people from every class, every section in 
society. But there does seem to be, in 
the heart of God, this love for the oppressed. There's the bit 
in the book of Exodus when God basically says, if you don't 
treat your widows and orphans properly, I'm going to kill you 
with the sword. What would he say to our generation 
that doesn't treat the widow or the orphan at all well? What 
would he say to our generation that doesn't treat the baby in 
utero or the older person getting ready to pass from this life? 
How do we treat them? We treat them barbarically. We 
ought to fear that sword because God Most High is not mocked. 
And yet we see that heart of God for the oppressed. And I 
think some of it is connected to what you see next in verse 
7. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children 
of Israel. In Exodus chapter 2, right around 
verse 25, the children of Israel are suffering great bondage. 
They're in Egypt. The old Pharaoh's gone. The favor 
toward Joseph is forgotten. And now the Pharaoh has enslaved 
the children of Israel. What do they do? They cry out 
to Yahweh. They don't cry out in repentance. 
They don't say, Lord, we've sinned. Help us to repent and get our 
eyes back on you. No, they're just crying out because 
it hurts. And God hears their cry. Same 
with the book of Judges. You see them oppressed by foreign 
invaders, and what do they do? They cry out to God. And always 
not in the case of repentance, but, it hurts, Lord. Vindicate 
your people. And what does God do? He vindicates 
His people. So the targets of His mercy are 
the oppressed. The targets of His mercy are 
the children of Israel. They're the recipients of the 
gifts of God. Now there is a general sense 
outside of the communion of God's saints where people, image bearers, 
oftentimes have good lives. I mentioned this earlier in the 
confession study, Psalm 73. Sometimes the wicked have such 
good lives that Asaph starts off with, God is good to Israel, 
to such as fear him. Then he says, as for me, my foot 
nearly slipped. Why? Because I saw the righteous 
suffer and I saw the unrighteous abound. I wasn't sure how to 
make heads or tails out of that until I went into the sanctuary. 
Then I understood that God has set them in slippery places. 
Talking about the wicked. In other words, they might enjoy 
things for a time, but not exercising gratitude to God, not having 
that forgiveness of sins, it will ultimately be their undoing 
on that day of judgment. So God looks to His oppressed 
people, God looks to His people and abounds in terms of gifts 
toward them. And that brings us to the giver 
of the gifts. Notice the perfections of God 
are indicated in verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. 
Don't you love that? You and I can be or have, to 
a small degree, mercifulness and graciousness. Right? If there 
is a command in the scripture that says, go and be merciful 
and gracious, you can, with the Spirit aiding you, have a degree 
of that. It's a nice thing, right? As 
Christians with the Spirit, we can respond to God favorably 
and do those things. But you can't say of us, He is merciful 
and gracious. You can't say of us, He is love. You can't do that. But see, God 
is His perfections. All that is in God is God. His 
essence is identical with his perfections. All that is in God 
is God. And so the psalmist is able to 
say the Lord is merciful and gracious. This is who he is. So brethren, it's good to praise 
him for his gifts, but it's good at times to bask in the glory 
of the giver himself and rejoice in the understanding of this 
God. He's merciful and gracious. Consider the fact that there 
is a lot of things going on in the world today, and not just 
today. If we lived at the time of the 
Roman Empire, this would be as appropriate. Righteousness and 
justice are the foundation of God's throne, according to Psalm 
89. What's that tell us? It tells us what Jesus says in 
Matthew 25. There's a day of reckoning coming. The enemies 
of God will be cut off. That's not given so that we are 
arrogant or bold or unsavory or ungodly, but it is there to 
steady us and to comfort us in the knowledge and the reality 
that nothing gets past God. It just doesn't. He doesn't, 
you know, turn his back for a moment, and all the wicked just go nuts, 
and then he turns back, and they're not going to get recompensed. 
Oh, no. We will all stand before the 
judgment seat of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5, to give an account of deeds 
done in the body, whether good or ill. The eyes of Yahweh, according 
to Solomon in the book of Proverbs, are in every place, beholding 
the good and what? The evil. You see that today. People get away with what we 
see as murder, and we think, oh man, where's God? Well, that's 
not the first time that response has been evoked. God's patience 
is not to be interpreted by us as God's disinterest. God's ways 
are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. 
His timeframe is not our timeframe. Imagine receiving the promise 
from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that you're going to receive 
the promised land. Well, did they get it right away? Jacob 
and Joseph breathed their last and boom, there they are in the 
promise. No, we know there's a 400-year period there. We know 
there's a 400-year period, much of it marked by slavery and misery 
and oppression. A 400-year period there where 
it might have appeared that God's long-suffering was to be interpreted 
as God's disinterest into the current doings of men. Brethren, 
we need to think God's thoughts after God, and not impose our 
thoughts upon Him. That is one of the fundamental 
problems that people make. Whatever we see, we interpret, 
and then we predicate it of God. Well, you just don't care. No, 
God is most loving. God is most gracious. God is 
accomplishing His purpose in this world. And the people of 
God confess that, and they find comfort in it. So the psalmist 
praises God that he's merciful and gracious. He does this elsewhere. 
Psalm 35, for his anger is but for a moment, his favor is for 
life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the 
morning. And then he outlines various 
blessings of God. So the Lord is merciful and gracious. Well, what does that look like? 
How do we know this? Well, he's slow to anger and 
he abounds in mercy. Notice what he continues with. 
He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger 
forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor 
punished us according to our iniquities. See what he's doing 
here? He's highlighting who this God 
is. The specific perfections in view are his mercy and his 
graciousness. And now he is showing us how 
that is in fact the case. He doesn't strive with us. In other words, He is there with 
His people, and He does, as far as we're concerned, respond to 
us in that condition, but with reference to His grace and mercy, 
He will not retain that anger forever. As well, notice, He 
showers us with great mercy. I love verse 11. For as the heavens 
are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those 
who fear Him. Now you've got to remember, this 
is using an analogy and a metaphor, right? It may be the case that 
God's grace abounds even the distance between heaven and earth. It actually is the case. He's 
using a creaturely metaphor to illustrate God's mercy to his 
people. Now, brethren, you might think, 
well, why is that good? Well, I think it's good, as a 
sinner, if you've never come to the Savior, to consider that 
sort of boundless mercy. In other words, will He receive 
me? Well, according to David, He 
will. Will He receive me? Well, according to Paul, He will. 
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of 
sins, according to the riches of His grace. You see, there's 
only so much a human author can do to illustrate just how glorious 
and wondrous and kind God's grace and mercy is. And here he uses 
this analogy, a creaturely analogy. For as the heavens are high above 
the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. And then notice, he continues 
on. He says in verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, 
so far has he removed our transgressions from us. See again, brethren, 
He's not come to deal with you on just some of your sins, on 
just a part of your sins. Once He fixes that, then He puts 
you on a self-help program and you better figure it out. No, 
His mercy is this glorious, this wondrous. Listen to the prophet 
Micah. Who is a God like you, pardoning 
iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant 
of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because 
He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion 
on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into 
the depths of the sea. I submit that is blessed news. that God goes deep sea fishing 
with our sins and doesn't just throw it in right at the shallow 
end. What happens in the shallow end? It keeps bubbling up, right? 
There's my sins, there's my sins, there's my sins. When he takes 
those sins and he casts them into the depths of the sea, and 
he thinks that the background is Pharaoh and his armies were 
cast into the sea in an act of destruction by God most high 
to vindicate his bride as he brings them out of Egyptian bondage. 
He celebrates the fact that he casts our sins into the depths 
of the sea. They're not gonna keep coming 
up to harm you or to call you to liability. Now, we remember 
them and we are ashamed of them, but we go to the blood of Jesus 
that cleanses us from all unrighteousness and helps our conscience to deal 
with these things. Notice, not after he forgives 
our sin, notice that he's tender toward us in verse 13. As a father 
pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. Isn't 
that good language? Does it make you just want to 
run to God? Not run away from God? He pities us. Why? Because He's a father to 
us. I mentioned Exodus 2. They cry 
out in bondage. What does God do? God calls Moses 
to function as the deliverer to bring his people out of bondage. 
In other words, they cry, he delivers. You see it as well 
throughout Old Testament narrative. Deuteronomy chapter one on the 
plains of Moab, Moses says, God, or God through Moses says, I 
carried you through the wilderness like a father carries his son. 
That's the way God acts to and for his people. It's a blessed 
and a wonderful thing. Notice in verse 14, he knows 
our frame. He remembers that we are dust. 
Isn't that a wonderful statement? I kind of think it is. We can 
be somewhat, and maybe I shouldn't predicate this of we. I have 
in my past not been always, you know, as kind to my children 
when they were little as I ought to have been. You know, get up, 
knuckle under, brush off that gaping wound, and come on, let's 
go. God pities us. Why? Because he knows our frame. We've 
got the world, and we've got the devil. And both of them function 
to accuse us. Friends might say, you're not 
as holy as you ought to be. The devil's right there roaring 
in your ear. You're not as holy as you ought 
to be. But it's that self, I think, that a lot of people struggle 
with. Don't you say that to yourself? You're not as holy as you ought 
to be. You've heard how many sermons and you're still like 
dead weight. Your heart's the equivalent of 
a cold fish on a Sunday morning. David wakes up and he says, I 
was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of 
the Lord. Sometimes we wake up and we hit the snooze button. 
I don't know that I want to get up. We can be pretty hard on 
ourselves. We need to remember this aspect or facet in terms 
of God's nature. He pities us. He knows our frame. He knows that we're dust. I love 
this, the sort of a parallel to this is in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
when Jesus says, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. 
Brethren, if it were you and I, and we're just on the crux 
of heading to the cross, and we bring our three close friends 
with us into Gethsemane, and they fall asleep while we're 
exceedingly sorrowful, and while we're, you know, sweating drops 
of blood out of our pores, I'd be mindful to smack them on the 
head and say, wake up! Come on! I'm in dire straits, 
I've got issues, I've got things I've got to contend with. He 
acknowledges, the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. He's not condoning 
sin or sluggishness or anything like that, but he pities us and 
he knows our frame. We need to know our own frame 
before a thrice holy God and to realize that he deals with 
us as a father deals with his children. Again, not so that 
we can go out and sin, but when we do sin, knowing that we have 
an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. 
And then he summarizes this brief section in 15 to 18 with a contrast. With a contrast. Notice first, 
man. Man's transitory-ness. Man's 
temporary-ness. Man's here for a while, maybe 
has some prestige for a while, but once he goes the way of all 
flesh, everybody forgets him. I mean, if I said name 10 historic 
figures, we could probably do that, but 11? No. I mean, you've 
got to really do something pretty amazing to be remembered in future 
generations. If your kids love you and your 
grandkids love you, you're doing well. You don't need everybody 
else, the memory of so. Again, if you can get 10, great. You get 11, I'll be impressed. 
But notice the contrast, verses 15 and 16. As for man, his days 
are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place 
remembers it no more. In other words, life moves on. 
When you rip out a piece of grass and you cover it with a parking 
lot, not many people reflect on, well, you know, there used 
to be grass there. When a guy has made major contributions 
to the history of the world, he dies. Usually it's his wife, 
his kids, and his grandkids. What's the contrast? The transitoriness, 
the temporary nature of man is contrasted with what? The constant, 
steady faithfulness of God. Verse 17, but the mercy of the 
Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. It's not 
transitory, it's not temporary, it's not just for Monday, but 
by the time Thursday comes, He's done with you. No. He says, the 
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear 
him and his righteousness to children's children. That's not 
a Pado-Baptist promise that God is always going to save all our 
children. But the general truth is that God very often does work 
in families. People get converted and what 
do they do? They schlep their kids to church on a Sunday. Those 
kids sit on the gospel preached. They also have family worship 
after dinner. They take out the Bible, they 
read a few passages, they might sing a hymn or psalm in praise 
to God. What does that do? It provides means to needy sinners 
so that by God's grace they can be saved. So again, it's not 
an absolute promise and formula that every child of every believer 
is only ever going to be saved. Experience doesn't teach us that. 
The Bible doesn't teach us that. But in terms of the axiomatic 
principle, in terms of God's mercy, it is on those who fear 
Him and His righteousness to children's children, to such 
as keep His covenant and to those who remember His commandments 
to do that. In other words, His people are safe. His people are 
secure. The grace of God in the heart 
of a sinner not only brings justification, not only results in sanctification, 
but God's preservation of that person unto the very end. So you see what David's tactic 
is? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, namely the 
forgiveness of sins, the physical provision, the reality that God 
is merciful and full of kindness, the reality that God does not 
harbor that to himself, but profusely gives it to his people. So that 
is the reason. Then he ends with this reflection 
on the kingdom of God, because this is a great encouragement 
to him. Notice in verses 19 to 22, the 
Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules 
over all. This is an encouraging statement. 
This is a very encouraging passage of Holy Scripture, one that I 
would encourage you to look at often. The Lord has established 
his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. That's 
not a future contingency. That's a present reality right 
now. God is sovereign. God has made 
the world. God does govern all His creatures 
and all their actions. God Most High has stationed the 
Lord Christ at His right hand, who has all power, all authority 
in heaven and on earth. Brethren, let that encourage 
and comfort you in light of the various things going on in your 
life as an individual, as families, in terms of corporate societal 
life. Whatever difficulties we may 
face, we come back to these axiomatic principles. His kingdom is over 
all. He has absolute authority. He 
is in control. He is author of Romans 8.28. We know, Paul says, that God 
causes all things to work. for the good of those who love 
God and to those who are the called according to his purpose. 
We're not left in doubt. We don't kind of wonder and hope, 
is God able to make this okay? You know, when you read the Joseph 
narratives, rehearsing a bit of what we looked at in Providence 
this morning in chapter five, well, you know, when Joseph is 
sitting in that pit, moaning and groaning to get out of that 
pit, do you know those brothers actually sit around the pit and 
have a sandwich? It wasn't a sandwich, but they ate. Could you imagine 
the callousness and the wretchedness of a man who could put his brother 
into a pit, conspire to murder him, and only be prevailed upon 
by the other brothers, and then, oh, let's sell him into slavery. 
Great option B. But while he's in that pit, they're 
eating their lunch. What happens at the end of the 
life? What happens at the end of the story in Genesis 50-20? 
See, we don't read the Joseph narratives to say, oh boy, just 
to be a hero amongst your family members. Oh boy, isn't that? You meant this for evil, but 
God overruled it for good. Joseph sees a theology lesson 
in God's dealings with him. What looked miserable, him in 
the pit. What looked doubly miserable, his brothers eating a sandwich 
while he's in the pit. What looked triply miserable 
was when he was sold into the hands of those marauders and 
then ultimately delivered up to Egypt. See, they didn't see 
that he was going to be instrumental in preserving those people, keeping 
those people. You meant this for evil, but 
God overruled it for good. Pastor Naftali's sermon last 
Sunday morning, Acts chapter 2, how did Jesus go to that cross? 
Yes, via lawless hands, but according to the predetermined plan and 
purpose of God. God takes horrible things and 
makes straight things out of them. That's what he does. And 
that's what brings the psalmist comfort. And that, brethren, 
is what is going to bring you comfort. So he makes this declaration 
in verse 19. The Lord has established his 
throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Now, the implication 
of that declaration, he teases out there in verses 20 to 22. So now David is not content only 
with grabbing his own soul by the scruff of the neck and saying, 
bless the Lord, oh my soul, but he wants the entirety of the 
cosmos to join him in blessing the Lord. Bless the Lord, you 
his angels who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the 
voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, 
you ministers of his and who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, 
all his works and all places of his dominion. Why is this 
the implication? Well, if God has sovereignty 
over all things, if God is over all things, if he governs all 
his creatures and all their actions, then the necessary conclusion 
is that all his creatures should bless him. should praise Him, 
should honor Him, and should adore Him. This is David's call 
to the entirety of the cosmos to have thanksgiving before God 
Most High to acknowledge His gifts, to acknowledge the fact 
that the giver is good, and to respond with gratitude that is 
appropriate in light of such a great God. Just a couple of 
thoughts and then we close. I would suggest first that thanksgiving 
keeps us in good company. I don't necessarily mean tomorrow 
you're going to be in the company of your friends or family having 
good food. That's not what I mean. Thanksgiving keeps us, I mean, 
that's not what I mean. Have a good day tomorrow and 
enjoy the benefits of created goodness with food and your family. But the angels, the servants, 
the hosts, and all his works. We're in their company when we 
bless the Lord. All around us, men complain. All around us, 
men grumble. All around us, men dispute. All 
around us, men just do not have good things to say. So when we 
bless the Lord, we enter the rank of the angels. We enter 
the rank of these holy servants of God that bless His holy name. I would suggest, secondly, thanksgiving 
directs us to God and hopefully keeps our eyes off of self and 
sin. It directs us to God. It acknowledges the grace-based 
nature of our salvation and relationship to Him. And so when we're praising 
God for His grace, hopefully we're not engaged in sin that 
necessitates more of His grace. We have the examples of the godless 
in the scripture. You see it in the Psalms. I'll 
just tell you, you can look it up later. Psalm 10, three to 
11, Psalm 94, four to seven. But you have that sort of characteristic 
of the godless in Romans chapter one. So Paul in Romans chapter, 
Romans, is going to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. He sets 
forth his thesis statement in 1.16 and 1.17. I'm not ashamed 
of the gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation for 
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to 
faith, that as it is written, the just shall live by faith. 
That's his thesis. That's what he's going to write 
about. Just like you know Psalm 103 is about blessing the Lord, 
you know the book of Romans is about the glorious gospel of 
Jesus Christ. Well, before he gets to how men are saved, he's 
got to deal with why men need to be saved. And so in Romans 
1.18 to Romans 3.20, he makes his case. As the prosecuting 
attorney representing God the crown, he shows that all men 
everywhere are justly liable to God's wrath and curse, both 
in this life and that which is to come. And one of the things 
that he says is symptomatic of the Gentile, the person outside 
of the covenant people, outside of the oracles of God. He deals 
with their sin. He deals with their homosexuality. 
He deals with the fact that children are disobedient to parents. He 
deals with their violence. He deals with their theft. He 
deals with all those sins, those vices, those things that we look 
at that characterize godless men. But before he ever gets 
to that vice list, he deals with the crux of the matter. He deals 
with the problem of the heart. And you know what he says in 
Romans 121? He says, because although they 
knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, 
but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were 
darkened. In other words, this is what man looks like. If you 
were to see his heart, he doesn't glorify God as God, neither is 
he thankful to this God. And the result is, is that he 
engages in all these vices. The result is, is that he engages 
in all these acts of lawlessness and rebellion. So when we engage 
in thanksgiving, it hopefully separates us from that godlessness 
and puts us or includes us with the company of the faithful. 
As well, thanksgiving keeps our eyes and affections upon God. 
James 5.13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone 
cheerful? Let him sing psalms. What's he 
saying? that whether times are bad or 
times are good, come to the Lord God most high. Prayer and praise 
are fitting and appropriate for the people of God in whatever 
their situation or their condition. And then finally, Thanksgiving 
promotes the proper disposition for God's children. It promotes 
praise to the Lord. We see that in the Psalm, verses 
1 and 2. It promotes the fear of the Lord. You see that in 
verse 13. And it promotes dependence on 
the Lord, according to verse 17. So, thankfulness in a Christian's 
life is a vital component to walking carefully before God. 
If you are not a Christian, I would simply ask the question, who 
do you thank tomorrow? Really, we have this national 
holiday called Thanksgiving. If you're not a believer tomorrow, 
you might thank your wife, you cooked a nice ham. You might 
thank your daughter, oh, you brought a nice pie. But isn't 
the concept of Thanksgiving supposed to be a bit more than that? Isn't 
there a transcendent sort of element that is to be involved? 
Who does the sinner thank for tomorrow or thankful for tomorrow? May I invite and encourage you 
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. Believe on Him and 
He will receive you. You get the forgiveness of sins 
and a righteousness that avails with God. And then I would encourage 
you tomorrow to thank Him. And then on Tuesday, to thank 
Him. And then on Wednesday, to thank Him. And don't stop thanking 
Him and expressing that gratitude because of our guilt and God's 
grace and the reality that He's brought us out of darkness into 
marvelous light. He's still in the business of 
doing that. He's still in the business of forgiving all the 
sins of sinners. So do not tarry, do not hesitate, 
but come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let us pray. Our Father 
in heaven, we thank you for this psalm. We thank you for David's 
mindset and heart that he so wonderfully communicates here. 
And I pray that you would help us to do likewise, to bless the 
Lord with all our soul, with everything that is in us. Cause 
us to reflect upon your gifts to us. Cause us to reflect upon 
you as the giver. And may we respond in worship 
and in praise and in adoration. We thank you for the gospel of 
our salvation. We thank you for the grace of 
our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that though he was 
rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty 
might become rich. We bless you, we praise you, 
and we thank you. In Jesus' holy name, amen. Well, 
why don't we stand and sing praise to our triune God, Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit using the doxology. Page 568 in the hymn book. 568, 
we'll stand as we sing together. Oh Great Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ 
and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you 
all, amen. Lord, go with us now, help us 
to sanctify the day, to call it a delight. And may you bless 
and encourage each one of us and build us up in our most holy 
faith. And we ask for your blessing upon the word as it goes forth 
throughout the earth. May it run swiftly and be glorified. 
And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. We may be seated 
for a brief time of meditation.