Psalm 103: The Benefits Of The LORD

[Music] [Music] all right everyone we continue our series on the Psalms I'm really enjoying this and judging by the feedback that I'm getting I think many of you are as well it's it's fun to just go through this book arguably the most important book of the Old Testament at least in terms of the number of times that an Old Testament book is quoted in the New Testament Psalms and/or Isaiah are going to be at the top of the heap and so it's fun to just reflect on these Psalms and to walk through them and to understand the the emotional landscape and the theological landscape and sometimes just to praise and that's what we're gonna find today that's what we're gonna find today an opportunity for praise and for adoration and for worship not just for theological exposition today we're in Psalm 103 so open your Bibles to Psalm 103 and our sermon is titled the benefits of the Lord the benefits of the Lord just want to give a reminder to our young people that are counting our word what's the word that we're counting today benefits very good so Psalm 103 the benefits of the Lord let's see if our clickers gonna work so I introduced last week's sermon on Psalm Orion last week Psalm 65 by talking about a TED talk that I had listened to by Sam Harris and Sam Harris was talking about artificial intelligence and creating machines that are gonna become so wise and so intelligent and they're gonna have such great computational powers that they would be a threat even to us to our own civilization as we know it understand it and love it well this week I went kind of the opposite direction from a devout staunch vociferous atheist all the way to the other end of the spectrum and I watched a 22 minute video that I just want to highly recommend to those of you that are in church and those of you that are watching and it's a conversation that takes place at Eugene Peterson he's the older man on the far right there with the raising of hands how many people here know who Eugene Peterson is okay great nice to see so many hands going up you GP Eugene Peterson is a Bible scholar he is probably best known for his translation of the message Bible right the message which is which is a really modern sort of translation / paraphrase of the scriptures and does anybody know who the guy in the middle is the guy who kind of has his hands like that who's that anybody know okay that's bono very good bono is the lead singer of the rock band u2 well there's a fascinating story because while many of you in this room know who Bono is maybe you've seen him or you've listened to some of his music you say oh I recognize him he's a pop star he's a music star he's a celebrity is a famous person yeah that's Bono a really interesting thing happened many years ago Eugene Peterson was teaching a class I believe at Fuller Theological Seminary and one of his students came up to him and said hey have you seen this magazine and it was Rolling Stone magazine one of the best-known journals of sort of rock and roll music and and the music industry in the United States and all around the world and the student went up to Eugene Peterson and said hey you're talked about in this book or in this magazine yeah you're mentioned here and he said why would I be mentioned in a rock-and-roll magazine why would I be mentioned in Rolling Stone he said well because Bono and he says who's bono whose bond is that and that the students just stopped dead in his tracks what what and this is years ago this is back like Joshua Tree time this was like one of the greatest albums that had ever been released in the entire music industry like a top-ten album of all time and so when when Eugene Peterson says who's bono doesn't the students like what bono bono you to Joshua Tree where the streets have no name I still haven't found what I'm looking for and Eugene Peterson just had this blank look on his face well what had happened was is that Bono had been reading through some of Eugene Peterson's works and he mentioned that he had been hugely influential in his own art and in his own songwriting and in his own life and this video documents the friendship that developed between Bono and Eugene Peterson there's some really fascinating things that take place early on I'll just give you one little spoiler at one point Bono invites Eugene Peterson to one of his concerts says hey you know we're gonna be at a certain town we'd love to have you come and and Eugene Peterson says man I'd love to come but I can't and somebody said to him but who turns down a personal invitation from the Rockstar bono to go and be a featured guest at one of his concerts well at the time he was in the process of translating the message translation and he was in the Book of Isaiah and he said man I I don't have time for bono because I'm too busy with Isaiah I know who Isaiah is but bono I don't really know and so they tell these kind of funny stories back and forth and it's really just a beautiful conversation and this particular conversation centers around the Psalms so if you just google bono Eugene Peterson it will come up it's 22 minutes and worth your time and the reason I use it by way of introduction is so much of what happens in this conversation is not about the exposition of the Psalms it's not about the theological content of the Psalms it's about the artistry of the Psalms it's about the emotional landscape of the Psalms and they begin to share stories and David Taylor here on the far left sort of moderates a conversation between a man who is a spiritual giant and a man who is very much a pop icon a cultural icon and just to listen from an artistry perspective as well as from a theological perspective certainly theology makes its various appearances in the conversation and as I was listening to it I thought that's my experience but the things they're describing are exactly my own experience in the in the Psalms how whether you're greatly elated or you're deeply dejected or you're you're tremendously confused you can just open up the Psalms and find resonance you you just have this strong sense that whatever the emotional situation circumstance in which you find yourself the the Psalms will resonate with you now you might not get the first one right you might go to a psalm and you're like that's not that's not where I'm at right now but just try one or two or three and you're gonna land in one of those first few Psalms there you're gonna land on something and you're gonna find yourself going yes yes confusion and yes frustration and yes jubilation and yes anger and yes you're going to find yourself saying yes to the Psalms and to the God of the Psalms the Psalms are of course songs and in 2005 a an album was released this album here titled the message and and this is a number of artists and I don't love every song on the album it there's one song in particular a song that is done by Jeremy Casella and ruo Singha and Sandra McCracken and they they do Psalm 88 it's called the last chance Psalm 88 it's on youtube so you don't have to buy it if you don't want to but but it's so good and I remember years ago probably 10 years ago now when I got this album this is all Eugene Peterson's translation of the Psalms and then artists giving their musical melodic interpretation of the song and I'll tell you I've been listening to the excuse me I've been reading the Psalms for years and I had had some introduction of the sons of korah which I've mentioned but when I heard this Psalm 88 by Casella and a Sangha and McCracken when I when I heard that song the Psalm Psalm 88 and just the Psalms in general they became real to me it was just like wow well the the the emotional landscape the emotional pregnancy the beauty of this the the frustration of this the annoyance of this it just came alive and so I want to talk today about Psalm 103 Psalm 103 let's read it through in its entirety as we have been doing because if ever there was a psalm that just cried out for praise for worship for adoration and for an awareness of who God is in the world and hopefully in your world it's Psalm 103 every time I do a hospital visit a first time Hospital is it every time I read Psalm 103 to whoever I'm visiting right if if you end up in the hospital and I come to visit you on that first visit you will have Psalm 103 read to you because this is the psalm and I just I can't wait to unpack this and spend some time in this amazing Psalm Psalm 103 we're gonna read it through in its entirety I'm reading again from the New International Version praise the Lord my soul all my inmost being praise His Holy Name praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles the Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed he made known his ways to Moses his deeds to the people of Israel the Lord is compassionate and gracious slow to anger abounding in love he will not always accuse nor will he harbour his anger forever he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay US according to our iniquities for as the high as the heavens are above the earth so great is his love for those who fear Him as far as the East is from the west so far he has removed our transgressions from us as a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him for he knows how we were formed he he remembers that we are dust the life of mortals is like grass they flourish like a flower of the field the wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers that no more bucks from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him and his righteousness with children's children with those who keep covenant and remember to obey his precepts the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all praise the Lord you his angels you mighty ones who do his bidding who obey his word praise the Lord you all of his heavenly hosts you servants who do his will praise the Lord all his works everywhere in his Dominion praise the Lord my soul I am keenly aware that an attempt at exposition of this Psalm might actually decrease the grandeur and the beauty of it and I'm hoping that I don't get in the way of this amazing piece of art and of song and of poetry and of literature this is this is a bright shining place in Holy Scripture this is a place where you can find refuge why is it David that this is the psalm you read when you go to the hospital well just listen to it this is the psalm that when you're in your lowest or when you're in your highest or at any stage or step in between this is a psalm you can go to and just bask in the radiant goodness and presence of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob I spent a little time this last week in Matthew Henry's commentary on the Psalms and Matthew Henry as a commentator has sort of fallen out of favor with modern scholars he's regarded as more of a poet and more of a somebody who was you know just kind of a writer for writing sake and and not a careful and sober exegete of Scripture and while that critique might be fair some of the things that Matthew Henry wrote centuries ago are just so so rich and so amazing I just I couldn't resist sharing a few today with you we're gonna begin with one of them the psalm this Psalm Psalm 103 says matthew henry calls more for devotion than exposition it is the most excellent psalm of praise and this caught my eye and of general use that's funny thing to say you think of a hammer as being of general use in a shoes of general use and glasses are of general use i love this matthew henry says man this is an amazing Psalm it requires devotion and not just exposition and it's very useful I wonder if there are people in this room who don't even know how this Psalm could be useful I think that we have a great number of people in our church who would be confused by the notion that a psalm would have any kind of utilitarian benefit what do you mean Matthew Henry a useful a most useful psalm we're gonna talk today about how the Psalms in general and specifically today Psalm 103 shapes our understanding of ourselves and of the wider world and of God Himself how these Psalms are useful let's begin right in verse one Psalm 103 verse 1 praise the Lord my soul all my inmost being praise His Holy Name we've already noted this in one of our earlier sermons on the Psalms that your greatest duty and your greatest joy are the same thing can somebody say Amen the thing that you're called to do is a duty and the thing that will bring you the greatest happiness and joy in life is the same thing and that is to glorify God to insert the word of Psalm 103 we can just substitute the word glorify and use a very similar word to praise God I just want you to hear that I want you to hear that that your highest duty and your greatest joy are not two competing realities antithetical realities polar realities that you're trying to balance the so-called spiritual life with the real world no no the most important duty that you have and the greatest joy that you could ever pursue is to praise God no wonder Henry says it's a useful Psalm let's unpack the usefulness of the psalm the benefits that it brings Henry in his commentary goes on in Psalm 103 to describe what he calls the duty of praise the duty of praise and the not-too-distant past we spoke about the Sabbath as an imperative in our Eden everyday series and we quoted an author there dr. Sigman Onstad in which he says that the Sabbath will be returned to the Sabbath in just a moment he says the Sabbath is what he calls a reluctant imperative a reluctant imperative yes it is an imperative but it's an imperative in the same way that eating gelato is an imperative it's like yeah I really want to but I need to no no no the things that bring you great joy the things that bring you great happiness the the opportunity to praise God all of these things are are not just they are duties certainly they are duties certainly they are imperatives but there are more than imperatives they are the greatest opportunities and joys that you can have in your life if you're viewing the world as we mentioned last week through a psalm shaped lens a psalm shaped worldview let's talk about the duty of praise to praise God is to recognize his proper place in your own life and in all the world some synonyms too honor to thank to adore to adore God to honor God to thank God now straight up here we have to be honest with the reality of the situation in the circumstance in which we find ourselves and that is this in our fallen condition in our post Genesis 3 condition praise does not come naturally to us but excuse making and complaining and forgive fulness do come very naturally praise is something we have to do with intentionality it's something we have to do purposefully because our natural fallen selfish inclination is to murmuring and to complaining and to the forgetfulness of God we must be intentional about praise we must stir up ourselves and stir up one another to praise God as he deserves this is why the psalmist says praise the Lord O my soul he's stirring himself up he's giving himself own rally cry he's giving himself a motivational speech he's saying hey get to work so start praising and not only are we called to stir ourselves up to praise were called to stir up others in fact as the psalm comes to its grand and glorious conclusion David is not content to stir up his own soul he starts as it were commanding angels hey you angels that excel in strength that could snap a finger and blot me out of existence you too you know praise the Lord stirring one another up to praise stirring one another up to worship stirring one another up to adoration is something we have to do because our natural carnal selfish inclination is to be forgetful of God and of His goodness and of his benefits Psalm 65 verse 1 begins very similarly this is what we talked about last week praise awaits you our god in Zion to you our vows will be fulfilled and so praise the Lord O my soul many of the Psalms open this way praise be to God praise be to the Lord praise be to Yahweh notice this here praise the Lord my soul all my inmost being praise his holy my inmost being my in most being that is what you are the thing that you actually are not the venire that we put on not the clothing that we put on not the posture that we put on the thing that you are the actual substantive granular thing that you are that thing David says I don't want to just praise you for performance I don't want to just praise you for show I don't want to just praise you for pretense in my innermost being I want to praise you if the religious life is not truly internal it is truly worthless in fact it's worse than worthless a religious life that only comes to the epidermis or only to the skeletal system or only the internal organs is not you you in your innermost soul and the psalmist stirs up his own soul praise the Lord O my soul in my innermost being I want to praise two passages from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus itemizes the importance of a not just an external religion of show but an internal religion of conversion Jesus critique of the religious leaders of his day in song of Matthew chapter 15 verses 8 to 11 these people draw near to me with their mouths they honor me with their lips but their heart is far from me in vain do they worship Me teaching as doctrines the commandments of men quoting Isaiah 29 when he had called the multitude to himself he said to them hear and understand this is Jesus now speaking to his disciples about his critique of the religious leaders of the day not what goes into the mouth defileth a man but what comes out of the mouth this defileth jesus here makes a very careful and very critical distinction between the outside coming in he said that's not what defiles a man there's something that's inside of man that's already to file then what comes out is merely in evincing and evidencing a showing or a manifesting of that thing Jesus further articulates this inside outside contrast to Matthew chapter 23 in the woes there of the Gospel of Matthew woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse notices now the outside of the cup and dish but the inside are full of extortion and self-indulgence blind Pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outward ly but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness even so you outwardly appear righteous to men but inside you were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness when the psalmist in this case David cries out and says bless the Lord all my soul from my innermost being he does he's this as he's taking a stab he's taking a shot at personal hypocrisy I want all of that out I want the the person that I actually am in the caverns and in the grooves and in the niche those little niches of our life I want all of that to be open and available to you and to praise you for who you are Jesus primary critique of the religionists of his day was the externality of their religion without an inward conversion now let's be clear there is absolutely nothing wrong with a religion that works itself out into the external there's a lot right with it in fact but Jesus critique is when you have the external but not the internal and he says you're like a tomb yes you say the right sayings and you sing the right songs and you wear the right clothes and you go through the right motions but but your heart your inmost being is not praising me and Jesus critique is of this externality of religion back to Psalm 103 verse 1 praise the Lord O my soul all my inmost being praise His Holy Name this same idea is further explicate ax din Psalm 51 behold you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom not the hidden part to God of course nothing is hidden to God there's actually a verse in the Bible that says everybody is naked before God Hebrews chapter 4 it's like verse 13 everybody's naked before God so when he says the hidden part he doesn't mean hidden to God he means hidden to everybody else the things that even your spouse doesn't see the things that your children don't see the innermost part of who you are the person that you actually are in your private moments he continues purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow this is the pharisaical washing the outside of the cup this is the pleading rid me of all hypocrisy rid me of anything that would be an obstacle to fully praising you my inmost being I want to praise you created me a clean heart that's internal and renew a steadfast spirit within me internal it's alright at the outset of Psalm 103 we must be mindful of the fact that this is a call to praise it's a call to worship it's a call to adore but it's a call to adore not just by way of public performance or of of pretence but from your innermost soul from your innermost soul to say God you are my god and I am your daughter I am your son we are your people praise the Lord my soul six times in the psalm we're gonna find this race praise the Lord praise the Lord praise the Lord as bookends around the psalm it opens with two and closes with four praise the Lord my soul and forget not all his benefits what a fascinating phrase forget not why would David be stirring up his own soul to not be forgetful why would David be reminding himself to not forget well the answer is pretty obvious because God can be easily forgotten he can be easily not praised all of us in this room are experts at not praising God we're really good at it and we have to try we have to work we have to make an intentional and purposeful effort to be - praise God - to set God in his right orientation relative to our lives and relative to our family's lives the reason that the psalmist says bless alert all my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name and forget not is that the psalmist knows he often forgets he finds it easy to forget so do you so do I in the heat of an argument or when a shiny new widget comes out that you just have to have or when somebody cuts you off in traffic or when you catch a of a rumor that's been said about you it's it's easy to transition we just transition instinctively instantly into not praising and so David reminds himself he's not reminding you is reminding himself oh so don't don't forget all of his benefits this idea of forgetting God is it's not some like new idea in the Psalms or later in the New Testament it's embedded right in Torah where Moses raises a legitimate warning against the children of Israel he says you're gonna go into the land of Canaan and when you get into the land of Canaan a land flowing with milk and honey he says something's gonna happen there's some really good stuff that's gonna happen and then there's some bad stuff that's gonna happen as a consequence of the good stuff what is it Moses Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 12 to 14 otherwise he says when you eat and are satisfied when you build fine houses and you settle down when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied then your heart will become crowd and notice what Moses says then you will what will you do you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery now he doesn't say you'll forget permanently he doesn't say you'll forget incorrigibly he doesn't say you'll forget irredeemably but he makes a true statement what he says you'll all forget every one of you will forget and there's not a person in this room who has not on many occasions in their life forgotten to be mindful of the goodness of God and of the place that he should occupy in our lives whether it's out of skepticism or it's out of sadness or it's out of material prosperity or out of anger or out of gossip Moses doesn't say you might forget you could forget it's a possibility says you will forget any ties for getting to material prosperity and we've talked about that in here before there is a correlation between material wealth and prosperity and a decrease in religion we know that's a documented sociological reality right that you begin to sing that I've got everything I need I've got a nice car and I've got a great wardrobe and I can travel to vary since sundry places on vacation what do I need a God for most of says that's gonna happen that's gonna happen your fields are gonna be are gonna be prosperous and your gold is gonna be multiplied and you're going to forget God the blessings of God can blind us to the god of the blessings somebody ought to say Amen to them true by the way not just the blessings of material prosperity how about the blessing of health why is it that when we find ourselves in a hospital better we find ourselves unwell or or maybe even something potentially terminal we are suddenly instantly mindful of our mortality and our frailty and of our deep need one of the modern idols that we have is the idol of Health and don't get me wrong health is a is a virtuous and an important pursuit i I consider myself a bit of a health fanatic and we should all do that but the truth is that the genetic and heritage that you've received in the fallen world in which you live you can be the healthiest possible person and still died very young of a cancer or of a car accident or of something the blessing of Health the blessing of material prosperity the blessing of social popularity can blind us to the God of the blessing this was Moses concern hey he said you're gonna go in and you're gonna be reaping all of the benefits of God and you're gonna forget hey this isn't me that created this this isn't me that manufactured this this is a blessing from God I would be delinquent in my exegetical and pastoral responsibilities if I didn't remind this church that that we have an institution of remembrance God knows that forgetting is part and parcel of being a human being and so right in enshrined in the Ten Commandments God built an institution of remembrance called the he called it the Sabbath and we need to have no concern or no confusion about what the meaning of the Sabbath is because the Sabbath tells us why what it's about Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 and 11 remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy you could translate that this way don't forget don't forget that's the psalmist bless the Lord O my soul and don't forget all of his benefits while you're busy receiving the genetic inheritance that you got from your mom and your dad you didn't choose to be born you were blessed don't forget that it wasn't just mom and dad it was God and while you made a good business investment you had a good transaction you you got a win at work and impress to your boss that's all from Jesus Jesus is the god of blessing and don't replace the blessings of god with the god of blessing or you turn an idol into your own prosperity are your own prosperity into an idol rather for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth to see and all that is in them and rested the seventh day and then it says therefore but just because sometimes we read things so quickly and so easily and so from with such familiarity we forget what it means I'm just gonna put this here for you for this reason God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it for what reason for remembrance for the purpose of amendment an institution of remembrance built into the very fabric of scriptural reality and the reality of those that choose to follow Jesus is this weekly reminder that God is creator God is Savior God is Redeemer God is the one who blesses can somebody say Amen which is nice always so cute when people are like all the Sabbath is legalism all the Sabbath is righteousness by works and we come on when God builds an institution of remembrance an institution of not forgetting right in and rights with his own finger on tablets of stone an institution of remembrance into the Ten Commandments itself what God is doing is he's diagnosing human folly and frailty he's saying you're going to forget you're gonna forget you're gonna forget you're gonna forget you're gonna forget you're gonna forget so here enshrined in the Ten Commandments written by my own finger on tablets of stone is an institution of remembrance remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and the essence of the Sabbath is God is God and you are not God is God and you are not remembering is praising this is basically what Psalm 103 says to remember is to praise you might not be able to sing very well you might not be able to play the guitar very well or play drums very well but even just in remembering the proper position of God in the universe and in your own life that's price remembering is praising but watch this to not praise is to not remember and to not remember is to not praise and so the psalmist stirs up his own soul bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me my innermost being bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all of his benefits we're gonna get to those benefits here Klauss Westerman the old German theologian in his book the Psalms writes the secret of praise is the power that it has to make connection with God through praise one remains with God truth agree that you praise to the degree that you honor to the degree that you worship you are connected to God and to the degree that you don't you're not connected with God Westminister Westerman says here to the degree that we are praising this is how we make connection with God in his deliverance in the Psalms law arendelle makes the same point praising God for His goodness is the highest form of prayer beloved yes petitionary prayer and yes a lament those are prayers but Lauren Dale says the highest form of prayer is to praise we talked last week about a psalm shaped world I had a great meeting just yesterday with with Mel Burt and and we were talking about in our own lives as a part of that conversation how just that concept is so life-changing to view the world through the lens of Scripture and in this case particularly through the lens of the Psalms a psalm shaped world for those of you that are wondering maybe you weren't here last week is a world where praise is the priority you wake up in the day and you've got your to-do lists oh my son it's so funny he's always making lists in fact just the other day I took a photo of one of Landon's lists because I had to because it said number one pray number two toilet I thought that's a kid that's got his priorities straight that's a kid that's got and then there was another list you know there's things below that picked up room and you know get sport uniform and all the things that needed to be done that day mr. I like lists at the top of your list should be praise praise right god bless you Lana did you know that I took a picture of your list you didn't know that's going on Instagram let's go I'm kidding that's the standard conversation in my house whenever I now ask to take a picture of my teenage children and any other adult relate to this I'll say oh hey can I take your picture and the first word out of the mouth is do not put it on Instagram it's like okay I won't put on an Instagram now sometimes I actually do because Jesus forgives lies but Psalm 103 verse 2 forget not all his benefits last week we talked about the 10 things that God did in Psalm 65 the psalmist says you forgive you choose you answer you call forth songs of joy you care you enrich you are Dane you drench you soften you crown unsurprisingly we have a similar list in Psalm 103 forget not all his benefits and then in case you're wondering oh wait a minute I need to make my Trello list I need to make my to-do list of what are the benefits of God he just lists them for you he lists five of the benefits of God right in the psalm so you don't have to wonder about what those benefits might be who forgives all your sins who heals all your diseases who redeems your life from the pit who crowns you with love and compassion who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles he forgives he heals he redeems he crowns he satisfies beloved when you read those verbs do you know what you should say right now when you hear those verbs in the context of Psalm 103 the thing that should spring up within your soul should be something like this 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 of his benefits what greater what greater need do we have than to be forgiven these exhilarating blessings says Lauren Dell embrace all of mankind's needs forgiveness is indeed everyone's greatest need without forgiveness life cannot be free and joyful because there is fear in the presence of guilts God's pardon provides our life with a new future a new hope and then this I love this after reconciliation with God life can really begin we loved it until you shake off the snakeskin of guilt and of shame you've not started living yet you've not been born again if you are wracked with guilt and you are wrapped with shame and you wonder about your standing before God your presence before God you have not been born again if your life is characterized by guilt and by shame you have not even begun to live the Christian life the Christian life commences the true life commences the abundant life that Jesus promises in John 10:10 commences after reconciliation well how does reconciliation happen it happens when you come to God and say God I blew it I made a mistake and he says I forgive all of your iniquities I forgive all of your sins hey that's a pretty good benefit that's a pretty good benefit the beginning of life as it was intended to be lived can somebody say Amen that's a reasonable benefit heals redeems crowns satisfies and I love this that your youth is renewed like the Eagles the Eagles show up several times in the Old Testament and as a as a keen bird watcher as somebody who loves birds and and my wife and I work we're crazy about birds we have a goal one of our goals is to see half of the world's species of birds in our lifetime if God blesses us with a long life we would be so blessed to see 5,000 plus species of bird there's over 10,000 species of bird in the world we love birds and so anytime there's the mention of a raven or of a fowl or of an eagle eye my ears perk up my ornithological interest is piqued and I want to talk to you a little bit about Eagles Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 but those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength and then Isaiah goes straight to the illustration what's the thing that symbolizes strength and and vitality and and gracefulness they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint this last year earlier this year Violetta and I and the boys we took a trip to Norway and some of you would be aware that my favorite country in the year on the earth used to be New Zealand and I've said that all over the world I love New Zealand but after this our fourth visit to Norway in probably 15 years Norway is now at the top because we had never been to this place yet now don't get me wrong New Zealand I'm looking at you Chris and Carl Steadman wherever you're hiding out that's still number two solidly number two on the list but let me tell you something about Norway this place here is is one of the most beautiful places in what's called the Lofoten Islands so this is a this photo was taken at about one o'clock in the morning it's land of the Midnight Sun well above the Arctic Circle and you you catch a ferry not far from where I took this photo in a place called musk Ennis and we we wanted to go out because the photon Islands actually you can drive to the very tip of them but then if you want to go out to the next two islands beyond that you have to take a ferry and so we boarded a ferry in a place called musk Ennis and we took a ferry about an hour and a half long ferry out to a place called VA and as we made our way out to vital Roy we had to take the ferry very early in the morning and we arrived at this fishing village in VI a small island in fact where's Campbell at Campbell we are you and your assigned seat good roughly the size of Lord Howe Island so think sort of Lorne and very similar to Lord Howe by the way I just go look it up look up vital and notice the shape very similar so this is the little village that we landed in there and it was really rainy this is at the end of the day actually but it was rainy and we rented some bikes and we had to bike our way all the way over to the other side of the island up these hills and it was raining and it was a bit of a mess and we had this goal that we wanted to get to this seabird colony but we kind of got a little off and we just kept following this this windy first we rode our bikes then we ditched our bikes and then we went on about a 15 kilometer hike and I don't mean a kilometer hike like this flat this was a very very difficult hike and it rose about let's see the peak was 1035 metres above sea level so you start at sea level and you're gonna go up over a thousand metres and so we began to make our way there we are on our bikes ready to go on the first part of our adventure here we are hiking up the top of the Mount we're gonna get to the summit and we're already at this point about seven hours into our probably six hours into our journey and the ferry only dropped us off for fifteen hours so we've got to get back in time to catch the ferry but the the rain went away and the the light came out and if you've spent any time in the land of the Midnight Sun you have this sort of beautiful evening light for hours and hours and hours and it's just like almost all day you have that really low beautiful light and you can see that here in the photo this is the boys and I hiking up and it was to be honest an absolutely terrifying hike the hike went up a ridge right in here in fact it went up this Ridge right here and then we've wound our way over this way it was it was the only time I've ever been scared for my life while hiking and the boys will test if I land in am I kidding I mean I was I was freaking out and I don't easily freak out one slip and it was muddy and it was wet one slip you're done you're gonna go tumbling down six 700 meters there's no way you could have arrested your stop and the boys were just I was like boys just look at that and they were just like oh dad you'll be fine to be great so here we are hiking and as we got up to the top we were by ourselves or so we thought we had left our bikes behind we'd only seen a couple parties on the sort of 15 mile walk in and it's a it's not exactly a grand central location so we start to walk up this hill and as we get to the crest of the hill all of these white-tailed eagles are flying all around the summit of the greenest grass you can possibly imagine bathe in the most beautiful saturated photographic light you've ever experienced and these Eagles are soaring in in most cases not above us no no the Eagles are soaring below us they're just soaring and we counted 20 white-tailed eagles and and they just soared over the mountains and we were looking again not not up at them but but down at these Eagles and I we just all sat down there and we had a moment of what can only be described as worship we didn't we didn't have the Bible open as such and we didn't we did certainly pray but we just we just took in this place that we were in this thing that we were seeing in these Eagles just gliding by us so effortlessly so beautifully I mean coming right within a meter or two because the these these beautiful Peaks that would come up the updrafts on the peaks the Eagles would just sit there about where this light is they would just sit there hovering and you were just it just made you wish you could fly you just I it was the most glorious amazing thing now this is coming from somebody who loves birds and I've seen some amazing things and hiked to some amazing places and backpacks in some amazing places and traveled some amazing places I said to violet I said Violetta this is the most amazing experience of my life in nature it was just God being God and us just saying man it's not just beautiful Eagles and it's not just beautiful cliffs and it's not just beautiful viroid god is awesome you can just imagine on the way home I snapped this photo of the Midnight Sun beloved I want to read you a quotation here from NT Wright's book the case for the Psalms why they are essential that captures the essence of what we were experiencing there Wright says the Psalms celebrate in fact they positively relish the sheer physicality of creation it's stuff and it's substance it's seed times and harvests the winds and the rocks on the night and the days and the eagles and the mountains and the ocean to be immersed in the creation of God to be mindful that he is creator to be mindful of all of his benefits he's to live a Psalm shaped life by the way that's a harder life to live when you're stuck in Surfers Paradise or Sydney and Sydney's nice but there are man-made things like the Opera House which sure is nice and then there are God made things it's crucial I just can't I can't say it enough you've just got to get out and you've got to go camping and I don't mean glamping right you've just got to go out and sleep in the dirt and you've you've just got I was so proud of Matt Murray our drummer this morning God bless you Matt last night he stayed the night and we played with him we said Matt come come stay at my house because he stayed the night lesson I didn't want to drive the way back up to Brisbane and Daryl was saying no come stay at my place and we were really putting the hard word on him and then finally he said look I just want to go sleep on the beach exactly there's just there's just times you have to be out in the elements you have to be out there because if you spend all your time surrounded by movies and Netflix and architecture and Surfers Paradise there's nothing wrong with any of these things as such but if you spend too much time surrounded by the works of man weather cinematic works of manner the architectural works of man you're gonna miss you're gonna forget you're gonna forget ah he says the sheer physicality of creation alright let me speed this up Psalm 103 6 to 8 the Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed he made known his ways to Moses his deeds to the people of Israel the Lord is compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in love can somebody say Amen we preached the Sermon a few probably a year ago now from Jonah titled God has a big nose and it was this idea that that in the Jewish idiom when the nostrils flared it was a sign of anger as a sign of wrath and and literally it says God's nostrils are big that's the idiom in the Old Testament God is slow to anger his his nostrils are so big they don't move easily it takes a lot to get God angry verses 9 and 10 he will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever he does not treat us as our sins deserve somebody better say Amen he does not repay US according to our iniquities one of my all-time favorite statements from the pen of Ellen White this one desire of Ages page 25 Christ was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as he deserves he was condemned for our sins in which he had no share that we might be justified by his righteousness in which we had no share he suffered the death which was ours that we might receive the life which is his with His stripes we are healed friends God has not dealt with you according to your sins when you put your faith in Jesus and when you remember that he is the healer he is the one that crowns you are treated like Jesus deserved treated because Jesus hung on Calvary's cross and was treated as you deserve to be treated Psalm 103 verses 11 to 13 the the psalm is reaching its grand climax of praise here and and David calls on three illustrations because God is so mysterious and goddess so other God is so holy that it requires metaphor and illustration and analogy to top tap into what God is and so he uses three illustrations he says you want to know how slow God is to anger you want to know how kind he is you want to know how gracious he is you want to know how merciful he is you want to know how forgiveness forgiving is I'll give you three illustrations as high as the heavens are above the earth number one so great is his love for those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far he has removed our transgressions from us and as a father pities takes compassion and has pity on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him Matthew Henry again God restores us to himself by revealing himself to us who are like that God reveals who he is and because we can't have direct access to God intellectually or physically God gives us access by metaphor by analogy Jesus says things like I am the door and I am the bread of heaven and I am The Good Shepherd these are all analogies because the actual substantive essence of what God is is inaccessible to us and so we got these three analogies here a spatial a philosophical and a paternal illustration of God's amazing goodness first of all spatial he's like as high as the heavens are above the earth not just the heavens that the Eagles were soaring in or even the heavens that the satellites are in no no how high are the heavens above the earth that's how great God's love is for you oh you're not a spatially oriented person how about a philosophical one as far as the East is from the West that's how far God has removed your sins from you friends how far is the East from the West let me answer that for you it's an infinite distance God has removed your sins from you at an infinite distance so stop reclaiming them stuck stop feeling guilt over them God has removed your sins from you as far as the East is from the West okay you're not spatial and you're not philosophical then you'll probably get this one as a father pities his children God pities those of us he knows that we are frail and I tell you any of us in this room that our parents you know that fatherly and certainly motherly need to insulate and to protect your children and so the psalmist is like man God is so good god is so awesome he's high and he's wide and he's like a father he knows how we are formed he remembers that we are dust there is a purposeful contrast in Psalm 103 where we are inclined we are we are likely to forget he always remembers he always remembers we may forget God but God will never forget you can somebody say Amen he remembers what does he remember he remembers that you're made of dust he knows what you are and he knows what you aren't God is in full possession of your ontology and of your substance again Henry I couldn't resist this he says dust thou art that's an Elizabethan way of saying you are dust he considers the frailty of our bodies the folly of our souls how little we can do and he expects accordingly from us how little we can bear and he lays accordingly upon us God says don't don't don't worry I remember what you are I know what you're made of I know your weaknesses I know your substance I know your sins I know your shortcomings your failures your we I know what you are verses 15 and 16 the life of mortals says the psalmist as he waxes poetic is like grass they flourish like the flower of the field the wind blows over it and it is gone its place remembers it no more we've already commented in Psalm 73 about the impermanence of life Asaph went into the sanctuary and there in the sanctuary he was reminded of the of God and the impermanence of mortal beings so to here in Psalm 103 from everlasting to everlasting is the Lord's love with those who fear him and his righteousness with chill his righteousness with their children's children with those who keep his covenant and who remember to obey his precepts this sounds so strikingly similar to Romans 8 38 and 39 one of the most beautiful poetic passages in all of Holy Scripture where Paul comes to the end of a fine tune and tightly airtight argument I am persuaded he says that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord can somebody say meant he said nothing no created thing verse 19 the Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all the God of Israel says Lauren Dell is not a one nation god he's the king of all the nations he's the god of all the creatures in the universe his sovereign will rules over all not just over Israel not just over the church not just over me and you and not just over your family his throne is unassailable his saving will is invincible the glory of His Holiness is irresistible for praise one man's voice can never do justice to the majesty of God's being and so David here as he's coming to the close of his Psalm he says man I have I have reminded my soul to praise and I've given all of the benefits of God the goodness of God and I have praised but then he he calls out even to the heavenly intelligences in the outer realm and he says the whole household of the king of the universe I summon you to unite with my exaltation of the glory of God because friends the praise of God is never a song that you sing solo you always sing it with your brothers and sisters in Christ you sing it with all creation and you sing it even with the Angels praise the Lord the psalm comes now to its glorious and climactic ending it opens with David praising his from his inmost being and from in most microcosmic being of david now to the outermost macrocosmic being of the universe praise the Lord you his angels the mighty ones who do is bidding who obey his word praise the Lord all the heavenly hosts you his servants that do his will praise the Lord all his works everywhere in all of his Dominion praise the Lord my soul david has stirred up not only his own soul he has stirred up the ears of anyone that will listen and i hope by the grace of God it has stirred up your soul it has stirred up your soul to make praise a priority and we close on that the Lord's benefits those that are known and unknown to us call us to a state of continual praise we get a little window into this in the book of Revelation where these angels also in Isaiah these angels that just orbit and abide around the throne of God and they sing continually holy holy holy you might be thinking man that's the height of boredom that's the height of repetition no remember your greatest joy and your greatest need are not two opposing realities no no no to praise God to be in a state of continual praise is your highest joy last slide praise the purposeful awareness of the presence and of the benefits of the Lord is your greatest joy your deepest need and should therefore be your top priority for David in Psalm 103 he's saying this very simply praise is your priority praise is your priority you have all of the benefits and he enumerates some of the benefits he forgives he heals he crowns he satisfies make your own list make your own list whether it's an external list on Trello or a piece of paper or an internal list in which you are in a continual state of stirring up yourself reminding yourself God is God the natural inclination is to forget the natural inclination is to complain the natural inclination is to inwardly to oneself in Psalm 103 says now praise is your priority praise is your priority God knows that you are dust he lays no greater burden upon you than that which you can reasonably bear God is so good his goodness is as high as the heavens are above the earth he has separated his sins as far as the east is from the west and he takes pity on you as a father tenderly pities his children that is a god that we can't not praise we are called we are commissioned with the great privilege of not only reaping and enjoying the benefits of God whether it's a beautiful vacation to Arctic Norway or just a meal that you'll eat in a few short moments or just spending times with your mates walking on the beach or listening to a beautiful song whatever that thing is you have ample opportunity for praise and God calls you to praise because your highest calling and your greatest joy are not two things they are one thing you are called to praise Father in heaven today we say with the psalmist of old 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 father we have forgotten we are prone to forget we easily forget we are wired to forget today may we stir up our soul whether it's a beautiful song sung by Tolly or an opportunity to respond in offering or just the ability to go outside and walk freely of our own volition Lord we have so much to praise you for today we fall at your feet and we say Lord we praise you externally but wash us on the outside and the inside that in our innermost being we might praise you we might worship you we might adore you and in the name of Jesus we pray let all of God's Prazeres say Amen [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2018