Psalm 103 • Bless the Lord, O My Soul

Psalm 103 this Psalm is simply said or told us of David and as we go through this Psalm you're gonna see that it is a call to worship as David begins in this Psalm by encouraging his soul his own heart to lift up and bless and magnify the Lord and then he excites exhorts others to join him as well but let me just tell you before we get into this Psalm that this is one of those many Psalms that is an acrostic and what we mean by that is that each verse of this psalm begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet and just as you and I would start a poem abcdefg the first line begins with a the second one with B that's the way this one works but with the Hebrew alphabet and as we go through this Psalm those of you who have been in the Lord firm perhaps a number of years I'll just tell you you're probably going to be hearing a few older worship songs going through your head as and if you just want if you want to bust out in song great that's that's fine make a joyful noise to the Lord right but it begins by saying bless the Lord O my soul bless the Lord O my soul yeah the word bless is an interesting one because we're not asking the Lord to bless us when we're not saying Lord would you please bless my soul it sounds like that from the outset but that's not what's going on here the word bless interestingly enough literally in the Hebrew means to kneel but it had a more figurative meaning that that meant and is translated bless or blessed the vast majority of the times that it is translated into English and as David uses it here throughout this Psalm he's basically calling for his soul and for you and I to give a blessing or to bless the Lord by our praise and worship and what he kind of means by that is he's saying honor the Lord with the way you worship him the way you praise him in a way that blesses him so he says bless the Lord right in a way that's proper and fitting and you'll notice again he begins by exhorting his soul which as you know we are made up of three parts body soul and spirit and the soul is the seat of our emotions our intellect and our will so what is David saying bless the Lord O my soul David was a man who was very passionate and was very he was a very feeling man he felt things very intensely but because of that that could become a hindrance you know people who are deep feelers can can be hindered in their praise why because you come to praise and I don't feel like it I'm feeling something very intensely I'm feeling something very powerfully that is kind of dragging me down and keeping me from you know an otherwise happy attitude which the world tells us is everything and we usually just obey we usually obey our feelings and so David is doing what he often does throughout the Psalms he speaks to the seat of his emotions and he demands that his emotions follow the command of the Spirit and what is proper and fitting before the Lord and he says I know my a note my emotions are in the dump right now I know that they're in the basement but I'm calling to them now by faith and I'm saying bless the Lord O my soul bless the Lord be a blessing lift up your voice to the Lord as he speaks to his his soul and and you know David understood that real worship real magnifying of the Lord comes from the center of who we are it's it's it's on the inside it's not outside it's not how I lift my hands it's not how I stand or sit or lie down or kneel it's not the music we play it's not the way we sing it's it's not the way we clap our hands it's not getting up and dancing although any of those things are fine and appropriate in their own place but real worship is a deep inner expression of our heart toward God to magnify him and so David you know he doesn't say bless the Lord on my body you know o my soul this is the thing that's keeping me down and then he goes on to say and look at this he finishes that verse by saying and all that is within me bless His Holy Name and so if there's anything else that I've kind of left out here I I want this worship to be a whole person participation have you ever noticed sometimes when you're in the middle of worship you can be singing a song even lifting your hands are clapping and thinking about something else because your mind is elsewhere and and you know it's it's just too easy so david says bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me every fiber of my being I want to stay focused you guys know that that's work right and you know don't get condemned when your mind wanders or this is why David is saying this I think he had the same issues he understood that you can be fragmented you know in your thought between your thoughts and your spirit and and your physical you know it's like man I'm here in church but I'm tired you know I'm just tired you know they want me to stand up and praise the Lord you know and they were just kind of and so my emotions and my spirit just follow suit because my body's tired or again emotionally I'm down somebody the other things follow suit as well bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name you know so he calls upon his whole being and you know honestly I got to tell you this kind of serves as a a gentle rebuke I think for what often passes for praise and worship in our churches today you know and I don't I don't want to be critical or judgmental but I wonder how many of us could say that our expression of worship or praise comes from all that is within us you know I wonder even how many of us have stopped long enough to ponder what that means Lord what does that mean for me to worship you with all that is within me with everything I am what exactly am I talking about so David goes on to kind of put put feet to this command to bless the Lord and he begins to list the reasons the reasons to bless the Lord look at verse 2 bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits hang on to that would you hang on to that phrase right there because we're gonna we're gonna repeat it I'm gonna repeat it throughout this song because what he's gonna do from here on pretty much through this song is he's gonna he's gonna list the benefits that we ought to think about when we are blessing the Lord with our praise and worship and adoration and so he says forget not his benefits which leads you and I to the conclusion that it's probably possible to forget his benefits right yeah I think so I think it's really easy to forget his benefits you know somebody starts talking about what's going on in their life and we're kind of like oh yeah I forgot about that that's you know I just one of the reasons that we do communion once a month here at Calvary Chapel is that we're just reminding ourself of his benefits the benefit of his death on the cross that's what communion is all about that's what I love about Christmas it's a reminder of the benefit that God loved the world that he sent His only Son to be born as a human being and he though December 25th certainly wasn't the day on which he was born who cares I don't and I don't care if you celebrate his birth on June 22nd or August 3rd it doesn't matter what we're doing is we're celebrating the benefit of what the Lord did for us by sending his son forget not his benefits it's an exhortation it's a writer hey don't forget cuz you know we can do that can't we boy I'm forgetful I especially when I'm going through a hard season forget his benefits you know so he gives us this exhortation and then he begins to list them here in verse 3 he says first of all who forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases Wow than the benefit wouldn't you say let's go with the first one he forgives all your iniquities that's kind of a you and I probably don't talk that way I don't walk up to people and go don't you know he forgave all your iniquity I just say you know he forgiven you for all of your sins we use much more simple language but it's really the same thing but you know I think about this and I think you know we talk a lot about forgiveness and Chris Christian circles you know I mean I bring it up I'm pretty sure in every message or at least in prayer and worship we talk about forgiveness right well you know whenever you talk about something and when something becomes a common topic among believers it has the potential of becoming white noise you guys know what white noise is kind of like the noise that a fan makes that you just it makes so consistently and it's for such a long period that you stop hearing it it's just that drone in the background that you eventually tune out and I think that all of the talk that we we do and perpetuate about forgiveness for Christians can almost become white noise and and and there are there are two things related to our to to forgiveness that I think we can lose sight of and forget his benefits and the first is we lose sight of the depth of our own sin and the gravity of that we we lose sight of it and the second thing is we lose sight of the magnitude of God's purity and holiness and you put those two things together and you begin to forget his benefits you know when people are talking and I'm talking now unbelievers when I'm talking to an unbeliever and and I'm talking about sin and they don't understand it I I get why they don't understand it they've not been given a revelation of the gravity of their sin nor do they have an understanding of who God is and the incredible magnitude of his glorious splendor and purity and so when we talk about sin they're kind of like huh my what and it's like what's the big deal with my sin and why does God even care they don't get it we get it but we can forget it we can lose sight of it and I'm not talking about reminding you of the gravity of your sin so you feel perpetually rotten but just so that you understand the beauty of his mercy right that's what the reminder of the gravity of my sin does it reminds me just how merciful God is to have forgiven me from it because I also know from the scripture it talks about the magnitude of his purity and holiness which I don't understand but I understand I I get it from a standpoint that he is holy and perfect and pure I can't understand the depth of that by any stretch but I understand he's a holy God knowing those two things remembering how how much he's forgiven me is a pretty powerful thing and the first thing David says about for not forgetting hid the benefits forget not his benefits as he says here in very clear terms who forgives your iniquity all right don't forget don't ever forget how much you have been forgiven don't ever forget who forgave you it's it's it's no big deal for me to forgive you because I'm a fellow sinner it's a big deal for God to forgive you because he is a holy righteous pure God who cannot abide the stain of sin and there is no darkness in him at all and so don't forget his benefits right it you know it's just too easy to fall into that idea of I'm a sinner God's in the business of forgiving you know it's what he does right isn't that just what God does thank you God for forgiving me I know it's your job and so I'm gonna give you lots of reasons to do it today that's forgetting the benefit right forget next he calls us to challenges us to recall that God is the one who heals all our diseases now even though the we know that these physical bodies that we have our temporary we know they're not gonna last forever God still cares about them and we're thankful for that you know and he has included some pretty incredible healing capabilities and given them to us and there are basically four kinds of healing and the first is the natural healing that has just been factored into the creation of our bodies which does not cease to amaze me you know just a couple of weeks ago I was I was helping move a box of something at Home Depot for one of the clerks and and I got this paper cut right right on the joint you know and where you use your hand and and it hurt it was like ouch and for a few days you know every time I moved my finger you know I was reminded of that paper cut and and then I just satin it became kind of just a curiosity to me because I watched it I watched it heal I mean over a period of days I didn't just sit and do nothing else kind of sounds like I sat in my room and watched my finger heal but I I paid attention over a course of days and I watched it closed up and heal from the bottom and now I can't even show you any sign that it had ever occurred that I'd never been cut and I looked at it and I went sweet you know I am fearfully and wonderfully made and God has factored healing capabilities into our bodies that thankfully even with sin and the influence of sin in this world still function and I'm really thankful for that so you know that's that's wonderful and that's one of the ways that God heals us he has also allowed us to grow in knowledge and the workings of our bodies through scientific research and medical treatment and that's the Lord guys that's the Lord who has allowed us to grow in our understanding of how the human body functions and I'm thankful that that there are times that the Lord uses medical advancement to bring healing into our lives I mean I'm I'm thankful for that i I don't I don't take it for granted and I don't consider it contrary to the Lord it's like God look what you did you know I mean that doesn't mean that man can't get in there and mess things up or go overboard or prescribe too many drugs or you know we can and we do but man I'll tell you I'm thankful to be living in this day and age when we have made medical advancements and and and you know that's that's a blessing of the Lord and I think we should thank him for for healing in that way and then the third kind of healing that happens in our lives from time to time is is supernatural healing you know natural is where my body heals according to its natural properties but but there are times when God allows a supernatural healing to take place in our physical bodies and and how do we know that it's supernatural well there's no natural or scientific explanation for it it just happened and you know it happens doesn't it somebody goes to the doctor and they've got this desperate situation and then they go back a couple of weeks later in the there's like I don't know what's going on because whatever we saw before is gone and it happens from time to time and we all kind of go whoa you know and it's and it it really is wonderful but there's a fourth way that God heals sometimes we don't like to think about it but sometimes he brings the ultimate healing by allowing us to breathe our last and enter into his presence and you know what we forget about that kind of healing we forget that Paul called it better by far to enter into his presence we forget that we think it's worse by far and that's because we have a different mindset than did the Apostle Paul he said you know if I had my druthers I just soon go home which is better by far but he says you know but I'm convinced I'm gonna be sticking around a little bit longer for your benefit but rather go home and be with the Lord you know better by far but you know so forget not his benefits the benefits of of healing and then verse 4 he cites another one who redeems your life from the pit and the pit is a biblical term for destruction and it doesn't necessarily mean eternal destruction you know from your sin it could just be some destruction of any kind but he redeems your life and the word redeem is a is a term of the marketplace it means to purchase back he says in the middle of verse 4 who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy so God's goodness is directed to us so much Minoo so much further than in just rescuing us from the destruction and devastation of sin disease in trouble it says here he literally crowns us he crowns us with love and mercy can I ask you just to think about that for a minute are you aware that you've been crowned with love are you aware that he's taken his love and put it on you as a crown you probably don't see it but you know what the enemy does he and he wants very desperately to knock that crown off I think it makes him pretty mad to see that crowd on crown on you but there's a crown on you and it's God's love and mercy he crowns you with it and you know what when when we begin to understand and lay hold of the profound idea that he has crowned me with love and mercy it literally changes everything about the way we live our lives when you are convinced that God loves you you suddenly become bulletproof I'm serious you become bulletproof it's like God loves me and he crowned me he crowned me with love he didn't just say laughs yeah and then walk away he crowned you with love and that's not going anywhere and again when you lay hold of that and when you when your soul understands the depth of his love Paul wrote about it he said you know what he says I'm convinced that nothing can separate us from it I am I am absolutely a hundred percent convinced that nothing in heaven on earth can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus when you get ahold of that and you recognize it that you've been crowned with it you're just kind of like you be bring it on doesn't matter he crowned me with this love you know bring it on bring on your worst he's crowned me with his love forget not his benefits verse five he says who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles don't look at that too quickly take a moment to consider what he's saying there he satisfies you with good do you guys understand the our definition of good is often very different from the Lord's because our definition of good is is is really derived from the perspective of living on this fallen planet that is under the Dominion of sin and and ruled temporarily by the Prince of the power of the air and so good to you and I is a is is tweaked you with me the Bible tells us that God works all things together for the good of those you know who who love him and are called according to his purpose and many times we don't see it because our understanding of good is different from his and it's it's a worldly definition but but so what I'm telling you is this I'm telling you that as earthbound people we struggle to recognize true good I'm telling you now you don't know yet what good is when the Lord returns do you remember when he created the earth the book of Genesis tells us that each and every time he created after every day it says the Lord looked on what he had made and what did he do he declared it good didn't he said it's good we don't we don't understand what that good even means because we're living in the not good because sin entered into the equation well our so again our definition of good is compromised from God's definition so when the Bible says that he satisfies you with good he's not talking about worldly good he's talking about his definition of good which is so much superior to ours and that's why it is satisfying the good that often comes our way from a worldly perspective is usually fleeting you know because today I feel good and tomorrow how are you doing I'm not so good you know and then the next day how you doing not good at all and then the next day I'm good right but the Lord's goodness is a different brand of good and God and this is one of the benefits of him in our lives so don't don't forget not his benefits right he he satisfies you with good and then he continues verse six the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed he made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the people of Israel yea the Lord works righteousness and justice and then he goes on to say Moses saw it the people of Israel saw it they saw his righteousness they saw his justice you know just a reminder verse eight the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love this is what the Lord Himself declared to Moses remember in the cleft of the rock remember when Moses God came to Moses up on the top of the mountain he said Moses you're okay that's a paraphrase and Moses said then Lord let me see your face and God said well no can do buddy but here's what I'll do I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock I'll put my hand over you and I'm gonna pass by I'll let you see the trailing edge of my glory but as I pass by I will declare myself and this is exactly what he declared the Lord merciful gracious slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and then the psalmist goes on to say he will not always chide although it seems sometimes nor will he keep his anger for ever those chastening times don't go on forever it's nice it's really an encouraging thing to say to somebody when they're going through a hard spot hey listen it won't be like this forever and then in verse 10 I love this and this is such an important statement he says he does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay US according to our iniquities so important we we understand this because the fact that that God does not treat us as our sins deserve is what keeps us out of trouble doctrinally it keeps us from legalism it keeps us from triumphalism it's just so important when we understand that God does not deal with us according to our sins we understand why because he did deal with someone according to our sins he dealt with his son according to our sins right thank you God you don't deal with me according to my sins because you dealt with him according to my sins you dealt with him you gave him what I deserved and now you give me what he deserves which is craziness you know but he's saying forget not his benefits guys forget not his benefits I would call this a benefit yeah verse 11 for as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him and as far as the East is from the West what a great statement so far as he does he remove our transgressions from us it's a good thing you didn't say as far as the north is from the South you know because when you go toward the north you get up to the North Pole and then you're not going north anymore now you're going south but if you start on the equator and you head east and you keep going east you will go east perpetually you won't ever go west and let you turn around and go the other way and so there's a continuation of infinity and I love how the psalmist makes that clear that he has separated our sins as far as the East is from the West and it's just a beautiful picture of the depth of his love forget not his benefits you guys forget not his benefits verse 13 as a father shows compassion to his children so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him for he knows our frame in other words that's a way of saying he knows how we are formed and he understands all of the limitations and so forth of our physical bodies and in fact it goes on to say in the end of the verse 14 he remembers that we are dust and that means that you know we are made from dust and to dust these physical bodies will one day return but you know notice it says there that he shows compassion upon us he has compassion for those but you'll notice too that it says to those who fear Him to those who fear Him he shows compassion to those who fear Him that's important to fear God is to recognize who he is and who you are and never to mix up the two right don't don't don't ever mix up who you are and who God is because that's what a proper biblical fear of the Lord is predicated upon he's God and I'm not he's the sinner I'm excuse me I'm the sinner he's the Savior I got to be careful how I say that I'm the sinner he's the Savior I'm not gonna mix that up you know he's the judge I am the judged so and that by the way to fear God we're told as the beginning of wisdom and then in verse 15 the psalmist begins to speak of of those differences between us and God he says as for man his days are like grass we saw that in the last Psalm he flourishes like a flower of the field yeah but then the wind passes over it and you know it's gone almost as quickly as it came it's gone and its place knows it no more you wouldn't even know there was a flower or grass there but the steadfast love of the Lord is from ever to everlasting again on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children again a condition to those who keep his covenant and remembered to do his commandments and I want you to notice that condition that's that's given there the promises are made to those who fear Him those who keep his covenant and those who remember his Commandments and those kind of statements were are common in the scriptures they're included in there to remind the reader that a life lived of ungodliness does not guarantee the Lord's goodness and compassion it doesn't guarantee it it doesn't mean he won't be good to you or compassionate but it means if you're gonna live outside of his projected will for your life then you're inviting all kinds of things into your life that you know are just gonna go bananas and so these things are laid out there to remind us that we can't expect to lay hold of all these benefits that this Psalm has been talking about if we're are if we're determined to live contrary to the Word of God you know if I'm just determined you know I'm just not going to do it I'm not gonna live I'm not gonna live in any sort of a way in keeping with his word well you know you you've stepped outside this place of laying hold of all these benefits and the surety of them and that's what the scripture is telling you and I listen salvation is free but the benefits of the Lord have conditions you know salvation is free but if you're gonna be stupid you know you can you can expect stupidity and and the things that go along with it verse 19 the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all again a declarative statement about God's sovereignty and rulership and so forth bless the Lord O his angels you mighty ones who do his word obeying the voice of his word bless the Lord all his hosts again another word for angels his ministers who do his will bless the Lord all his works and that's kind of crazy even his works are said to praise Him in all places of his Dominion which of course is everywhere and so he ends the psalm as it began bless the Lord O my soul and so it ends as it started with the the call to the will the emotions and the intellect plus the Lord amen let's pray thank you father so much for your word thank you for these two Psalms we're so grateful Lord for the beauty of what you have laid out in the scriptures thank you for the insights that you give us and lord help us please to forget not your benefits be with us Lord as we take some time to fellowship and encourage one another fill us with your spirit continue to teach us your ways guide us and direct us and all that we do and say for we look to you Lord in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior amen amen

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 22,488

Rating: 4.8218265 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament

Id: V-2ZoB85MNQ

Length: 34min 51sec (2091 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 18 2019