Well, please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Psalm 103, I'll begin reading in verse one. 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. 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, O my soul. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, we thank You for Your written Word.
We thank You for the Psalms of David and the fact that You have given them to us for our benefit and for our encouragement. We pray tonight that Your Holy Spirit would be at work in our hearts and our lives, that You would guide us as we consider this psalm, that You would promote in us this desire to bless You, to speak well of You, and to exercise gratitude toward You for all of Your mercies and all of Your benefits given to Your people. As we remember our Lord's death in a specific way tonight through the supper, may we indeed praise your great and your awesome and your holy name for such a wonderful gospel, for such a wonderful means of salvation, how we thank you for the Lord Christ, for His life, His death, His resurrection, how we thank you for His current session at your right hand, and how we pray that even now, He would intercede for us, that we would know his blessing upon us, and that this time of worship would bring glory and praise and honor to Father, Son, and Spirit. Do forgive us now for our sins and our unrighteousness, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Introduction
Well, David certainly had a lot of reasons to bless God or to speak well of God. And essentially that's what it means to bless Him. When God blesses us, that means He conveys good things or He gives us good things. When we bless God, it means we ascribe praise to Him.
We speak well concerning His name. And as we do so, hopefully we will respond with gratitude and thankfulness to our God for who He is and for what He's done. There are several reasons in this particular psalm for us to bless God. Typically at our Thanksgiving dinners, we usually go around the table and persons will express one or two things that they're thankful for.
Sometimes there's a bit of a lull within that sort of rehearsal of God's good gifts. I don't think it's because the people can't thank or don't think or rather neglect God in terms of things to be thankful for. Perhaps it's public speaking, perhaps it's sort of, you know, putting yourself out there and describing, for instance, those things that are very special in your life. Well, I suspect that if you had David over for dinner tomorrow night and you asked him for a list of reasons why he is thankful to God, he would rehearse something very much like Psalm 103.
Now, the psalm breaks down into three sections. First, The reminder to bless God in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, the reasons to bless God in verses 3 to 18. And then finally, an exhortation to bless God in verses 19 to 22.
It's intriguing. David starts the psalm by talking to himself. David ends the psalm by talking to the entirety of God's created order, because God is worthy to be praised, God is worthy to be blessed, God is worthy to be thanked and glorified, so David calls upon all creatures to do that very thing.
The Reminder to Bless God
Now, note in the first place this reminder to bless God in verses 1 and 2. He talks to himself. A Psalm of David. It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Turn back for just a moment to Psalm 42. Psalm 42, you see something or you learn something about David. David was not only a man who at a Thanksgiving dinner would have a whole litany of reasons for thankfulness to God, but David was also a man who talked to himself. And David talked to himself in Psalms 42 and 43 in situations or in times in his life when things were not altogether great.
In fact, if you look at Psalm 42, 5, 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. He repeats this in verse 6.
O my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan. And then in Psalm 43 at verse 5, why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.
So in difficult times, David talks to himself. He exhorts himself to remember God, to think fondly of God. In good times, David talks to himself and he reminds himself to bless the Lord. to speak well of the Lord and to entwine that with thankfulness and expressions of gratitude to the Lord. C.
H. Spurgeon said, soul music is the very soul of music. The psalmist strikes the best keynote when he begins with stirring up his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion, and exhorts himself as though he felt that dullness would all too soon steal over his faculties, as indeed it will over us all unless we are diligently on the watch.
In other words, we need to rouse ourselves to a blessing of the Lord, and this is precisely what He does. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Now, notice He repeats this and adds to it. Verse 2, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.
See, that's something else we learn about David. David knew what the psalm or the hymn writer would later write when he says, prone to wander and prone to leave the God that I love. David knew what it was to have remaining corruption. David knew what it was to perhaps forget to bless the Lord.
And he doesn't want to let himself do this. And neither should we. It shouldn't be the case that one day out of the year we call it Thanksgiving and we express to God some form of public thankfulness. Each and every day ought to be Thanksgiving.
Each and every day we ought to bless the Lord. Each and every day we ought to remind ourselves of His goodness, of His kindness, of His mercies, and of His grace. This is precisely Paul in Ephesians chapter 1. 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.
If you are not actively reminding yourself and actively engaging yourself in blessing God, then you will be forgetting Him. And it is simply unacceptable for the redeemed of God to forget God. And when we look at this particular section, it ought to cause us to reflect upon the book of Deuteronomy. David says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Deuteronomy and the Danger of Forgetting
Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6. God knew and God spoke to the situation. realizing that amnesia would certainly lead to apostasy. In other words, if we forget to praise God, if we forget to thank God, if we forget to bless God, then apostasy is on the horizon.
Notice in Deuteronomy 6, beginning at verse 10, This is the danger of forgetting God with reference to affluence in the land. There is a danger of abandoning God because of surrounding idolatry and a danger of doubting God because of hardship. That's the nature of this exhortation in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And if you look at verse 10, 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.
Notice verse 12. Lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. David doesn't want that to happen. David doesn't want to forget God.
David wants to call upon his own soul to bless the Lord. Bless the Lord and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Forget not all his benefits.
Because the tendency is and the proneness is for us to forget. It's a terrible thing, brethren, but there is a base in gratitude that the people of God can engage. We don't thank God, we don't rehearse His blessings, we don't come to the supper. If ever there's a great time for us to meditate on the goodness of God, it's in light of what Christ has done.
This is an expression of our thankfulness to God and blessing of God. Notice in Deuteronomy chapter 8. And this isn't just one isolated sort of emphasis, but it's something that would affect or play Israel in the land. Notice in Deuteronomy 8, 11, beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments, his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you today.
And then in verse 14, when your heart is lifted up and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. If David, the man who is described as a man after God's own heart, has to actually talk to himself and remind himself to bless the Lord, if that man who was a man after God's own heart has to actually exhort himself to not forget God, then brethren, we lesser mortals ought to follow suit. We ought to rehearse the blessings of God. We ought to esteem the glory of God.
We ought to consider the manifold mercies that He has conveyed to us, and we ought to exhort our souls not to forget Him. This is David's posture. One final text in the book of Deuteronomy. Notice in Deuteronomy 28.
Deuteronomy 28. Those who attend our Wednesday night Bible studies will know that Deuteronomy 28 is certainly foundational to the rest of the Old Testament. It is God's curses upon disobedience and blessings upon obedience. And as you might expect, when they went into the land and they engaged in idolatry, they reaped the curse of God.
When they went into the land and they forgot God, they reaped the curse of God. And that is precisely what 28.47 indicates. Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart for the abundance of everything. Therefore, you shall serve your enemies.
Lord God takes this seriously. We are saved not to be mute, we are saved not to be silent, but rather we are saved to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into marvelous light.
The Reasons to Bless God
So back to Psalm 103, David calls upon himself to 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. Now note, secondly, the reasons to bless God. Verses 3 to 5 highlight the gifts.
Verses 6 to 7 highlight the recipients of those gifts, and verses 8 to 18 demonstrates the giver of those gifts.
Spiritual and Temporal Gifts
But notice the gifts received in verses 3 to 5. Who forgives all your iniquities? So we see it broken down into two categories for David. I bless the Lord for spiritual things, and I bless the Lord for temporal things.
I bless the Lord for the forgiveness of sins. Now, brethren, at any Thanksgiving celebration or at any time in the life of God's people when they're reflecting upon things that they ought to be thankful for, this really should head the list, shouldn't it? This really should be number one. We were dead in our trespasses and sins.
We were justly liable to the wrath and the fury and the judgment and the penalty of God. We were liable to damnation and hellfire and every bad thing. Things that make Deuteronomy 28, and the curses specifically, look like a walk in the park. We are subject to that by virtue of our connection to Adam but God, in His grace and mercy, delivered us.
God, in His grace and mercy, transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Brethren, that's always a reason to bless the Lord, to express gratitude to God. Again, listen to Spurgeon. He 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.
There's only one Spurgeon, isn't there? And then he says this, pardoned 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." It ought not to surprise us that when David calls upon himself to bless the Lord, that first thing, that first reason that evokes from him blessing to God is the forgiveness of sins.
Christian, you have much to be thankful for with reference to this particular boon. You have much to rejoice in with reference to God in the consideration of this blessed thought. 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. Certainly, as a reason to bless God, forgiveness ought to head the list. Now notice the physical blessings in verses 3b to 5. He speaks of the fact of physical healing.
He speaks of the protection from calamity. He speaks of the crowning with loving kindness and mercy and the provision of temporal goods in verse 5. In other words, it's not just spiritual blessing that God conveys upon his people. David says elsewhere in the Psalms that God loads us daily with benefits.
Isn't that the case? You know, if you're asked to say, why are you thankful to God or why should you bless God? Brethren, David provides for us a great framework to hopefully provoke us into thinking likewise. Now, I realize that some will come to 3b to 5 and say, wait a minute, I had a particular malady and I prayed and the Lord didn't take it away.
I had a particular affliction, and I prayed, and the Lord didn't take it away." Almost sounds like David is of the school of Benny Hinn. Almost sounds like he believes in the health, wealth, and prosperity. Almost sounds like he believes in the name it and claim it, and you'll never have a sniffle. You'll never have a limp.
You'll never have a hitch in this life. I know that there are some that will evoke this or invoke this passage as a sort of justification for that mindset, but that ain't the point. The point is that any temporal blessing, any good thing, any benefit granted to us is granted to us by a benevolent God. And I would say there are a whole host of things that God has probably spared us from that we will never know.
How many times should we have been hit by cars? How many of times should we have picked up a staph infection when we're at the hospital? How many times should we have been laid low because of some malady or other that the Lord God spared us from? You see, David comes to praise God with a comprehensive worldview.
He sees God not only intimately in the spiritual blessings vis-a-vis the forgiveness of sins, but he sees God in God's preservation of David on the battlefield. He sees God in God's preservation of David on his sickbed. He sees God's hand in all of life, and that is the reason to bless the Lord. And David doesn't ever let go of that reality.
Recipients of God's Gifts
Notice the recipients of these gifts described in verses 6 and 7. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are, what, oppressed. God is a champion for the defeated. God is a champion for the lost.
God is a champion for those who stand in need of vindication. God is the deliverer of those who are oppressed. And then in verse 7, he tells us it is the covenant people. It is the people of God.
He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. So the recipients of the gifts of God are those for whom Jesus died, because those are the ones who are, in fact, the people of God. Those are the ones who were indeed oppressed by sin. Those are the ones who have been vindicated by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the glorious work of redemption.
So the recipients of the gifts, and now David rehearses the glory of the giver of these good gifts.
The Character of the Giver
Notice in verse 8, he says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. That's who God is. All that is in God is God. God is his attributes.
God is merciful and gracious. Isn't that beautiful that David can say it that way? The Lord is. Man has to a certain capacity.
Man does to a certain capacity. When the Bible tells us God is love, it would never say that about me. I have the capacity to love, but the defining characteristic of Jim is not love. Whereas with God, he is his attributes.
And so when David rehearses this, he gives sort of this overarching statement concerning who God is in verse eight. He says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. And then what I believe David does is he teases that out. He fleshes that out.
He amplifies it. He develops it. He demonstrates it in more detail in verses nine and following. So this is who God is.
He is merciful. He is gracious. He abounds, or rather he is slow to anger and he abounds in mercy. And now note how David develops this.
Mercy That Does Not Strive
In the first place, His mercy is such that He does not strive with us. Notice in verse 9, He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. Now, make no mistake about it, when you sin against God, you grieve the Holy Spirit. When you sin against God, you provoke your father.
Just like in a family situation, when a child sins against the parent, the parent shows, demonstrates, or displays displeasure at the conduct of that child. Well, God does that. God treats us as a father treats his children. In fact, that's one of the aspects of mercy that we ought to appreciate in just a moment.
But the Lord will not always strive with us. He will not always hold on to that anger. He will not always hide his smiling face behind a frowning providence. Our God is not that way.
Mercy Toward the Undeserving
Notice, secondly, His mercy is toward the undeserving. That's the very definition of mercy. Grace is unmerited favor, isn't it? Mercy is unmerited favor to terrible human beings. if I could just give you the most basic sort of a definition.
Mercy is when God looks upon a pathetic people and he shows them favor. A people that are not deserving, a people that are not only not deserving of good things, but deserving of every bad thing. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come, according to the Shorter Catechism. And yet God, in His mercy, in His grace, in His kindness, does not press those things upon us at every turn.
God's grace and mercy is toward the undeserving. Verse 10, He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. Now, brethren, do you ever just stop here and thank God for that? Do you ever just ponder that reality?
I think that, you know, it's in us to complain about what we don't have. Well, you know, I could use a little bit more of this. I would want some more of that. Or I could use some more of this particular thing.
Do you ever just stop and consider what we really deserve and what God has spared us from? I'm not talking about car accidents downtown. I'm talking about hell and damnation and fires of hell and judgment. You see, God has been merciful to us.
Notice, He has not dealt with us according to our sins. Turn to Psalm 130. Psalm 130, where this same sort of idea is present. Psalm 130, out of the depths, verse 1, I've cried to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. Why is he in the depths? It's not the physical sufferings that David is undergoing at this particular juncture in his life.
It's not Saul It's not the Philistines, it's not the very battlements that he has to engage in. What provokes David to cry out of the depths is David's own sin. And look at how David says this in verse 3. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
You see, brethren, be very careful when you pray to God with reference to justice. We want grace. We want mercy. Justice means hell for each and every one of us.
Now, certainly, it is good to pray for justice. May God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. May you indeed show your justice throughout the land, certainly. The brethren, with reference to our case before God, a great big dose of grace and mercy are those things we ought to be seeking from the hand of our great King.
But he says, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. And similarly, in Psalm 143, Pastor Kirkpatrick preached on this last Sunday night and highlighted that it's at least an allusion in some of those passages of Paul that speak to justification by faith alone. Notice in Psalm 143, 1, a Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications.
In your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness. Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous." How many of us pray that? How many of us actually say that with David? How many of us go to the throne of grace and say, please God, do not enter into judgment with your servant?
I don't want you to enter into judgment with your servant, because your servant is a wretch. Your servant is vile. Your servant is a transgressor. Your servant has lacked conformity under your holy law.
God, I want grace. I want mercy. I need loving kindness from on high. So back to Psalm 103, David highlights. who God is in terms of His mercy and grace.
And then He gives us a play-by-play description of how that mercy comes to us. His mercy is such that He does not strive with us, verse 9. His mercy is toward the undeserving in verse 10.
Mercy That Is Infinite
Thirdly, He says His mercy is infinite. Notice in verse 11. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. Do you ever just stop at these things and go, praise God, this is good.
I'm a terrible person, I need infinite mercy. I'm a lawless man, I need infinite mercy. I'm not just speaking about me, I'm kind of including all of us here. It's all saying there, but he's got a messed up case.
So do you. May I just say to you in the most loving and non-triggering sort of way, you're in the same mess I'm in, and we ought to praise God for infinite mercy. It's infinite. Look at how David does this.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. Brethren, we don't have just a little bit of mercy in God. We don't have just a little bit of grace in God. We don't have a God who's a miser, a God who's an Ebenezer Scrooge, weighing out the smallest shekels and apportioning them out in strict divisions.
No, He's a God who's abundant. He is a God who is definitionally merciful. He is a God who is definitionally gracious. He is all that He is.
All that is in God is God. And when He displays that mercy to us, it is mercy unbounded. And he goes on to say that his mercy, I don't know how else to say this, is thorough. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
You see what he's doing? He's highlighting the height of God's mercy. the breadth, the width, the depth of God's mercy. He is wanting us to come away from this appreciating the infinite mercy of God. But as far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Again, do we ever ponder that? I know we struggle with sin. I know there is that remaining corruption. The reality of Romans 7 and Galatians 5 are real in our own hearts and soul.
The flesh lusts against the spirit. Spirit lusts against the flesh. These are contrary to one another so that you don't do the things that you want. Galatians 5, 17.
Paul the Apostle in Romans 7, the good that I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I find myself doing. So I know that we're all there. You know, we get these ideas on a Sunday that I'm going to read my Bible tomorrow, I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to love my wife, I'm going to be like Christ, I'm going to be like Jesus, wiser, you know, I'm going to submit to my husband, I'm going to make him waffles, I'm going to do all those good things.
Not that that's the only expression of submission, but it's a good one. And they get all into that. So we have this active campaign against our remaining corruption, as well we should. But do we ever just stop and think, the Lord has taken my transgressions and he's cast them away?
Have we ever just pondered the reality of Micah the prophet? Micah 7, 18, and 19. Who is a God like you? Now, that's what Micah means.
The name Micah, you know, like Jesus means Yahweh saves, or Joshua means Yahweh is salvation. Certain names, I think Kelly, our oldest daughter, that word means warrior woman. I never knew that. Well, maybe I guess I did, but she seems to have that sort of spirit about her.
But the name Micah means who is a God like you. When you stop and think about this God described, say, by David, who is a God like God? So Micah now takes his name, invokes his own name, or utilizes his name to ask this very pertinent question. Who is a God like you?
And here's why he asks the question. What follows is indicative of why he says, who is a God like you? We might do this. Who's a wife like you who does all these great things?
Who's a husband like you that does all these great things? It's the question that's a demonstrator, highlighter, put the spotlight on the person focused there. And this is what the prophet says, 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.
Isn't that beautiful? God delights in mercy. Sometimes people might think, why do you preach the gospel every Sunday morning? Because God delights in mercy.
Why do you witness to people on the street? Because God delights in mercy. Why do you tell people about Jesus? Because God delights in mercy.
See, it's a God thing. You see? It's what God does. It's who God is.
That's why it's always offensive when I get this idea or I hear these sorts of statements like, God really isn't about saving sinners. God really isn't about running like the father in the prodigal son and falling upon him and kissing him and putting rings on his finger. That's who God is. You may not like that.
You may be a bit uncomfortable with that. A God that sort of runs from the porch and falls on this pig-smelling son. That might offend your delicate sensitivities, but that is our God. He delights in mercy, is what the prophet says.
He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. So brethren, I think the point that I'd like to encourage here is this. In all your striving against sin, in all of your...
Now notice, I'm assuming that this is going on. In all of your pursuit after holiness and righteousness, in all of your striving to kill those things that rise up against you in terms of sanctification, never forget what David is able to say. David is able to say that God has removed our transgressions from us. When all is said and done, we may have issues, we may have struggles, we may have trials in terms of the daily battles in life, but never forget the war has been won.
There may be mop-up battles along the way, and we may not always mop up as well as we ought, but the war has been won by our Savior. He has removed our transgressions.
Mercy That Is Tender
Notice as well, His mercy is tender. Notice in verse 13, as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. God isn't embarrassed with showing how he really is to us. And I think at times we get a little uncomfortable with such sorts of expressions.
We say, well, wait a minute. We can't actually think that. Well, of course we can actually think that. Now, it's intriguing because I mentioned earlier Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy is basically a series of addresses on the plains of Moab before the children of Israel enter into the promised land. Remember, the first generation dies in the wilderness because they grumbled, they complained, they murmured. So Deuteronomy takes up the second generation. And essentially, on the plains of Moab, Moses gives them a series of exhortations to prepare them for life or tenure in the promised land.
And one of the things God says in Deuteronomy chapter 1 is that, as a father carries his children, so the Lord carried you. And that's intriguing, because for the most part, I think Israel complained about their time in the wilderness. I mean, face it. It was the wilderness, right?
They didn't have homes. They didn't have cities. They didn't have all the good benefits that they'll have later in the land of Canaan. So for Israel, it was probably a time of taxing, taxation.
Not literally, but it was a taxing time. It was a trying time. It was a time of tumult. But it's just then that God says, I carried you like a father carries his children.
What an indictment. Here they're complaining about what it was like in the wilderness. And God says, you know, if you actually want to interpret things properly, I was like a father unto you, carrying you through the wilderness. See, God uses that imagery.
God uses that language so that we'll know who God is for us. And when it comes to sort of explaining God's mercy, I think verse 13 is one of those verses the people of God ought to keep close to their heart. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. It's a blessed reality, isn't it?
That's mercy.
Mercy That Is Sympathetic
And then notice, His mercy is sympathetic. Verse 14, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. I think at times in that fight for sanctification and that pursuit of holiness, we can be hard on ourselves, and I suspect we ought to be. Probably in our situation, we probably need to be harder on ourselves than we are.
You go back to the Puritan era and times where guys used to really take these things seriously. Maybe they would have needed to lighten up a little bit. But I don't think our issue is that we need to lighten up a little bit. I think we probably need to step it up a little bit.
But in all our strivings after holiness, in all of our pursuings after godliness, in all of our seeking to be faithful to the Lord, may we never forget that He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. We need to keep that near and dear to our hearts. In other words, God's not like us as parents.
Now, maybe this never happened in your home, but I think it happened in my home where you yell at your kid and you say, how in the world could you ever do that? How in the world could you ever do that? How in the world could I ever say that to a kid knowing my own heart and sin? That's the bigger issue, right?
How in the world could you do such and such a thing? And I think we as parents need to be very careful at this particular point. How could you ever call yourself a Christian and do those things? Man, I'm glad God doesn't deal with us that way, because he'd always be right.
But notice what the text says. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Now, Jesus chides the disciples for their having fallen asleep in the garden.
But He doesn't smack them. He doesn't dispossess them. He doesn't cut them off. He doesn't say, well, no longer are you my disciples.
No, Christ knows. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Christ understood because He assumed our humanity with all the essential properties and all the common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. So Christ is able to identify His sleeping disciples and say, look, you couldn't watch with me for one hour?
But he doesn't stop them from being his disciples. They failed. They failed at a crucial moment. Their friend needed his friends, and they were asleep on him.
But what about Peter? Peter denies the Lord Christ three times. Does Jesus cut him off, never ever to have him again? No, he doesn't do that.
In fact, he preemptively warns him that he's going to do this, and then affirms to him that when you return, strengthen your brethren. You see, God knows our frame. He knows that we're but dust. Keep that in mind.
God's nicer to us than we are. I don't usually like using the word nice relative to God, but it seems to fit here. You know, everybody wants nice. God is nice.
No, God's not nice as far as nice is concerned. But in this regard, I think it's legit. He's nice to us. He knows our frame.
He pities us. That's the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is all of this to us because of what Christ has done on the cross.
Mercy That Is Enduring
And then notice, His mercy is enduring. Verses 15 to 18. 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. You see the temporariness of man, but, verse 17, contrast, 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. Again, Spurgeon writes, how vast the contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God. How wonderful that His mercy should link our frailty with His eternity and make us everlasting too.
From old eternity, the Lord viewed His people as objects of mercy and as such chose them to become partakers of His grace. The doctrine of eternal election is most delightful to those who have light to see it and love wherewith to accept it. It is a theme for deepest thought and highest joy. Well, brethren, I hope that you see David had his reasons for blessing God, and when we bless God, we ought to express gratitude and thankfulness for those things that we ascribe to Him.
The Exhortation to Bless God
And then notice, finally, the exhortation to bless God. He makes this statement concerning the establishment of God's throne and the scope of His rule. We asked the question yesterday in our theology study, what's the kingdom of God? It's a big question.
I think most of the guys that were there yesterday would say, yeah, it is a big question. I don't know that we ever answered it. But there's a sense where the kingdom of God is all comprehensive. It encompasses everything.
And that's what verse 19 tells us. Yahweh has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom does what? It rules over all. Now, David understanding this, David conscious of this, moves from this soliloquy, that means speaking to himself, to calling upon the created order.
Notice what David does here in verses 20 to 22. He says, bless the Lord, you his angels. David, don't you realize the packing order in terms of creation? It goes worm, and it goes cat, and it goes dog, and it goes man, and then it goes angel.
Who do you think you are? Would you let a dog call upon a man and tell him to bless the Lord? Absolutely. Positively.
It's the universal duty of all of God's creatures to remind one another to bless the Lord. And for David to call upon the angels to bless the Lord is perfectly consistent with what God reveals concerning himself and the responsibility. 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. The reason for this is because God is altogether lovely. God is chief among 10,000.
God is worthy to be blessed, worthy to be praised, worthy to be glorified, worthy to be honored. His people ought to engage in this blessed privilege so that then they will issue forth in gratitude, thankfulness, and praise unto God. Man specifically knows what it is to be forgiven of sin. The good angels don't know that because they never sin.
The bad angels don't know that because they're never forgiven. The reasons that David gives specifically in verses 3 to 18 are specifically appropriate to man. fallen man, redeemed man in Jesus Christ. We have been forgiven, we have been watched over, we have been preserved by the God who is definitionally merciful and gracious. And that mercy is detailed by David in such a way that when we come to the end of the psalm, there's only one consistent response from all of God's people.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. If you are not a believer tonight, the means by which you learn to bless the name of the Lord is the cross. In other words, it's not just take this home and think about it and then speak well of the Lord.
Now, there's a sense where every creature, every single creature, ought to thank God for provision. We ought to thank God for food. We ought to thank God for water. We ought to thank God for shelter.
We ought to thank God for safety and provision and all of the good things that he gives us. But in terms of blessing the Lord, the way that David does is not simply reflecting upon a list, but it's rather believing on a person, even our Lord Jesus Christ, that one in whom is forgiveness, that one in whom is redemption, that one who saves to the uttermost all who draw nigh unto God through him. The way to be a truly thankful person. is not by having a good October 8th, but rather by finding life eternal in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's close in a word of prayer, and may God indeed cause us to be a people who bless and praise Him.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you for this psalm. Thank you for these reasons to thank God. Thank you that David fills in the blanks and helps us to think through the implications of who you are and what you do in our lives. And God, these are certainly reasons to bless the Lord, certainly reasons for us to express gratitude.
And God, help us in this, not just one day out of the year, but each and every day. We know that gratitude and thankfulness is an expression of a grace-based salvation. We're not thankful for the good things that we have done, but we're thankful for the great and glorious things that Christ has done on our behalf. We praise you that you made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
And as we eat this bread, as we drink this cup, as we proclaim the Lord's death till He comes, may we see this as the chief reason to bless God Almighty and to express our thankfulness to You. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.