Sermon series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Psalm 103
"Bless the Lord, 0 my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, 0 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 lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger; and abounding in mercy.
He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.
The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.
Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul."

Message:
Some psalms are addressed to God, some are spoken to other people—the righteous, sinners, Israel, the Gentile nations, other groups. But in Psalm 103 the psalmist is speaking to himself! We only have to read as far as verse 2 to learn why——to remind himself of God's blessings so he will continue to be grateful for all that God has done for him. He is cataloguing the goodness of God; enumerating His blessings, lest in a moment of depression or backsliding, he would forget the source of his prosperity and take God's grace for granted. We have here the authentic utterance of a redeemed child of God, who piles up words to express his gratitude to the God of grace.
Ah! What great hymns of praise fill our hymnal.
Praise my soul, the King of heaven,
To His feet your tribute bring:
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, who, like me, His praise should sing? Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise the everlasting King!

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Psalm 103 is David's Hallelujah Chorus! It is a psalm of singular beauty, with a rhythmic quality all its own. It contains twenty-two verses——the same number of verses as there are letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The covenant title "Lord" (Jehovah) occurs just half that number of times. It is what we call an envelope psalm—it ends in exactly the same way as it begins—the subject matter being thus enclosed or enveloped between the opening and closing words: "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul." In the original text the verses are all of uniform length and all contain two lines each.
There is not much we can bring to God. Can we offer Him our money? He can create galaxies of gold at a word if He wills. Can we offer Him our service? He has ministers of state far greater and more gifted than we to attend His throne. What can we offer Him? We can bring Him thanksgiving and praise! PRAISE! AH WHAT A THRILLING SUBJECT!
Praise was the swaddling cloth worn by the world when it was born. The earth was girded in praise when, for His own pleasure, God created all that is. God tolerated the incomplete information of Job and his friends until at last He was compelled to speak, "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! "Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone...while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?" (Job 38:2-7).
The stars sang together in glad anticipation of what was coming to pass. The angels shouted over the soon-to-be revealed glory of God in His dealings with humankind. God was building a laboratory of love and would erect a forever family as His very own. Praise filled the world in the days of its beginnings.
When history, as we know it, closes on earth, praise will saturate the atmosphere. Just as human history began with praise, so will praise be the background of the close of history. No book aside from the Psalms discloses more praises than the book of Revelation. The scene described in Revelation 4, was one of unprecedented praise. The praises of the four creatures sparked the praise of the elders who left their thrones and bowed before the central throne of God! In Revelation 5, many angels numbering "thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand" encircled the throne and say, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise." After that every creature on earth, in heaven, and in the sea joined in the mighty chorus of praise: "To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever."
The last word in the Bible is one which is connected with praise. Amen! Jesus used this wonderful word as did the Psalmist. It was often employed in praises in the Old Testament. "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting; let all the people say, amen!" Amen was ranked in high company with HALLELUJAH in Revelation 19:4 when the elders and the four creatures fell down and wor-

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shiped at the throne, shouting; "Amen, hallelujah!" Praise is where God lives! Psalm 22:3 we read, "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel." The King James says it more distinctly, "But thou art holy, 0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." In other words, praise is where God lives...it is His permanent address!
Praise, with thanksgiving, is the only access into the presence of God. The psalmist suggests in Psalm 100:4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." Since praise is God's home element and He dwells in praises, as we praise we are visiting His presence, standing in His courts. Just as there was a gate into the tabernacle, there is a gate into the worship experience whether, private and personal or public and corporate. How often we mistakenly dart into the experience of supposed worship and prayer without praise. The gate is thanksgiving, and it ushers us into the mid-court of God's glorious presence.
Praise in the believer's arsenal is the chief weapon against the enemy. This is one of the most intriguing mysteries of praise. There are two great windows of scripture that give us a view into this mystery. One is Psalm 8:2, "From the children and infants you have ordained praise because of Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." The other scripture is Psalm 149:4-9: "For the Lord takes delight in His people; He crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honor [praise] and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the people, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all His saints. Praise the Lord." The devil and his abominable accomplices, along with their labor and results, are sentenced by the divine court of jurisprudence. We, the saints of the Most High God, have the privilege of implementing this justice now on earth through the means of praise.
Our psalm begins..."Bless the Lord, 0 my soul." And David begins with five attributes for which the believer can offer praise as he or she comes before the Lord.
"He forgiveth all thine iniquities." The word "iniquities" is a strong one. It does not mean "mistakes." What if the Bible said Christ died for our mistakes? God forgives our iniquities, all our ingrained perversity, all the bentness of our being.
Forgiven! The forgiveness of "sins" is God's gracious act of removing the consequences of sin as well as sin itself.
When we understand all the things which most affect our welfare, and which enter most deeply into our happiness here and hereafter, we shall find that this is a blessing compared with which all other favours are comparative trifles!
It is observable that this is the first thing in view of the psalmist——the first of the "benefits," which he had received from God, or the first thing in importance among His acts and His dealing, which called for praise. In both the Old and New Testaments the idea behind the word forgiveness is "to take away and put somewhere else. Thank God! He has taken our sins away and cast them in the sea of God's forgetfulness!

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WHO HEALETH ALL THY DISEASES. This verse does not refer to the healing of the body, but to the healing of the soul. That is evident from the grammatical construction of the sentence. Pronouns are nouns which stand for another noun. In this verse the. pronoun "thy" stands for the noun "soul." Notice carefully what David is saying. He is saying: "Bless the Lord; 0 my soul...who healeth all THY [the soul's] diseases. Psalm 107:20 tells how He does it. "He sent His Word and healed them." His own Word is the medicine. It heals the soul's diseases. The infirmary in view here is for the soul, not for the body. The soul does indeed have its diseases, just like the body. Guilt, fear, doubt, depression, anger, lust, hate, jealousy, spite, and greed are some of them. Psychiatrists and physicians are now telling us that these things can kill us. They can be linked directly to certain diseases and disorders of the body which they cause and aggravate. It would be a poor salvation if soul-healing did not follow forgiveness, for without the latter we should soon be back to our sins again.
WHO REDEEMETH THY LIFE FROM DESTRUCTION: OR, as it can be rendered; "He redeems your life from going to waste." Sin had made paupers of us all. Our lives had been scarred and ruined, pawned for a pittance, but Jesus came into the pawnshop of life, and at Calvary He paid the redemption price. How great a price it was! "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich yet for your sakes He became poor that ye through His poverty might be made rich!" At Calvary He not only redeemed our souls from hell but He redeemed our lives from being wasted and destroyed by sin! Dr. Alexander Whyte loved this Psalm, and few could interpret it as he did. In these verses, he said, we have the Law Court--forgiveth all thine iniquities: the Hospital——healeth all thy diseases: the Slave Market— redeemeth thy life from destruction: the Throne Room—— crowneth thee with lovingkindness: and the Banquet Hall—— satisfieth thy mouth with good things. Wonderful!
WHO CROWNS YOU WITH LOVINGKINDNESS AND TENDER MERCIES.
Instead of letting His beloved be taken by adversity, the Lord redeems by exalting him to royalty with His love and compassion. Though humiliation may be rightly deserved, God bestows on His people the largess of His favors, whereby He "makes you feel like a King on the day of his enthronement. "Love" is the assurance of the constancy of His fidelity toward His own. The complement of "love" is divine "compassion" as that quality by which God as the Heavenly Father empathizes with man's frailty.
WHO SATISFIES YOUR MOUTH WITH GOOD THINGS. Rotherham tells us that the word translated "mouth" can be rendered "old age." "He satisfieth thine old age with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." Whatever may be true in regard to the supposed fact pertaining to the eagle, about its renewing its strength and vigour in old age, the meaning here is simply that the strength of the psalmist in old age became like the strength of the eagle. Sustained by the bounty of God in his old age he became, as it were, young again. Isaiah 40:30-31 says: "He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall

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renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
THE LORD EXECUTES RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUSTICE FOR ALL WHO ARE OPPRESSED. The Lord does not leave the poor and needy to perish at the hands of their enemies, but interposes on their behalf, for He is the executor of the poor and the executioner of the cruel. When His people were in Egypt He heard their groanings and brought them forth, but He overthrew Pharaoh in the Red Sea. Man's injustice will receive retribution at the hand of God. Mercy to His saints demands vengeance on their persecutors, and He will repay it. All wrongs shall be righted, all the oppressed avenged. HE MADE KNOWN HIS WAYS UNTO MOSES, HIS ACTS TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. This another ground for praise, ——that God had revealed His will; that this had been done in an indubitable manner to Moses; and that these revelations had been recorded by Him for the instruction and guidance of His people. The word "ways" here means His laws; His methods of administration; the principles on which He governs mankind, and the conditions on which He will save men. There is no higher ground of gratitude to God than the fact that He has given a revelation to mankind. For the Scripture, we should forever be grateful!
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.
God can be angry, and can deal out righteous indignation upon the guilty, but it is His strange work; He lingers long, with loving pauses, tarrying by the way to give space for repentance and opportunity for accepting His mercy. Thus deals He with the greatest sinners, and with His own children much more so: toward them His anger is short-lived and never reaches into eternity, and when it is shown in Fatherly chastisements He does not afflict willingly, and soon pities their sorrows. "Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." (Heb. 12:11)
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 the lofty heavens canopy the earth, water it with dews and rains, enlighten it with sun, moon, and stars, and look down upon it with unceasing watchfulness, so the Lord's mercy from above covers all His chosen, enriches them, embraces them, and stands forever as their dwelling place. AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST! We take a point on this planet and we draw a line horizontally, we can start to travel east and there is no point, so long as we continue in that direction, at which we start to travel west; or we can start to travel west and, no matter how long we continue, there is no point at which we start to travel east! West is always west; east is always east! So we take a point on earth and draw a line vertically into infinity. We also draw a line horizontally into infinity——"so far hath He removed our sins from us." There is a point on this planet where those two infinite lines intersect—the point is Calvary!'" That is how the Lord measures His mercy—in terms of the cross!

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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.
God often compares Himself with a father, and it is by carrying out our ideas of what enters into the parental character that we get our best conceptions of the character of God. That which is referred to here, is the natural affection of the parent for the child; the tender love which is borne by the parent for his offspring; the disposition to care for its wants; the readiness to forgive when an offence has been committed. Such, in an infinitely higher degree, is the compassion—the kindness—which God has for those that love Him!
HE KNOWETH OUR FRAME. He knows how we are made, for He made us. Our make and build, our constitution and temperament, our prevailing infirmity and most besetting temptation He well perceives, for He searches our inmost nature. We are made of dust, dust still, and to dust we will return. He knows that we are frail; that we are subject to decay; that we soon sink under a heavy load. This is given as a reason why He pities us. He tempers His dealings to the weakness and frailty of our nature, and His compassion interposes when the weight of sorrows would crush us.
AS FOR MAN, HE IS LIKE GRASS! The grass lives, grows, flowers, falls beneath the scythe, dries up, and is removed from the field...such is the life of man! "You sweep men away in the sleep of death; they are like the new grass of the morning." (Psalm 90:5). Isaiah 40:6 says: A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass."
AND THE PLACE THEREOF SHALL KNOW IT NO MORE. So soon forgotten! So it will soon be in all the places where we have been; in our dwellings; at our tables; in our places of business; where we walked from day to day——we shall be seen no longer.
BUT THE MERCY OF THE LORD IS FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING!
His mercy is from eternity past to the eternity to come! It had its foundation in the eternal decrees of God; it has its security in His purpose that where it is conferred, it shall not be withdrawn. It had no beginning...it will have no end! His mercy is boundless. "For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies" (Psalm 108:4). "Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy" (Mic. 7:18) "But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior" (Titus 3:4-6).
And our psalm ends with this thought...THE LORD HAS ESTABLISHED HIS THRONE IN HEAVEN, AND HIS KINGDOM RULES OVER ALL.
"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations." (Psalm 145:13) The psalm also closes with an exhortation to "bless the Lord," yet on a much wider scale. God is worthy of universal praise; all worlds—should join in that praise!
Oh! may our lips forever speak forth His praise!