Sermon
Our God Of Benefits And Great Mercy
July 28, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

We've been spending the summer going through the various Psalms and today we're in Psalm 103. If you're going to use your pew Bible, you'll find it around page 409. It's one of the great, great Psalms and it was one of the great hymns of the synagogue. The subject, of course, is praise.

"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."

Let's take our notes just for a moment to introduce ourselves to the subject this morning. In our notes I make this observation: some Psalms are addressed to God, others are spoken to other groups of people, such as the righteous, some Psalms are directed with a message to sinners, or to the nation of Israel, or to Gentiles nations, or other groups. But in Psalm 103 the psalmist to speaking to himself, and we only have to read as far as verse 2 to learn why; to remind himself of God's blessings, that 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. And thus, we have here the authentic utterance of a redeemed child of God, who piles up words to express his gratitude to God, the God of grace.

Now there are a great number of wonderful hymns of praise throughout our hymnal, but I've selected only the words of one:
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!

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" or "Jehovah" occurs just half that number of times. It's what we call an envelope psalm. That is, it ends in exactly the same way it begins-the subject matter being thus enclosed or enveloped between the opening and closing words. And the words are, "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul."

In the original text the verses are all of uniform length and all contain two lines each. It's written much then like our own hymns that we sing today. They are metered out so that they have the exact words to fit within the melody, and you'll find the exactness in the original text; it was written as a beautiful hymn to be some publicly.

There is not much we can bring to God. Can we offer Him our money? Yes, and we do that, but He can create galaxies of gold at a word if He wills. Can we offer Him our service? Yes, we do that, but He has ministers of state far greater and more gifted than we to attend His throne. What is it that we can offer to Him? We can bring Him thanksgiving and praise, and His heart and His ears are open to that.

Praise, and what a thrilling subject it is. I have in my library a little red book written by Dr. Jack Taylor, a great Southern Baptist preacher. In 1984 Dr. Taylor was invited to a little church, South Hills, in Fort Worth Texas. The church was struggling. It was without a pastor and they asked Dr. Taylor to come and preach just for 120 days while they were looking for their permanent pastor. The board gave him one assignment, the only subject you can preach on is praise; 120 days, and when he thought through all of his sermons, he only had one on the subject of praise. But he accepted the challenge, and he started studying, and week after week the subjects kept flowing, and after one year he was still preaching on the subject of praise. Something wonderful happened in that congregation. It became alive. It was exciting. His entire ministry was dramatically changed because he learned and he realized the tremendous power of praising God. And I pulled just some thoughts from his wonderful little book.

You'll notice first of all he says: Praise was the swaddling cloth worn by the world when it was born. The earth was girded with praise when, for His own pleasure, God created all that is. And then in the book of Job, as Job wrestles with this whole issue, He says to Job, "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, where were you when I put this all into space? The stars were even singing and the angels were singing. 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 of His own. Praise filled the world in the days of its beginnings.

There's another interesting observation; when history, as we know it, closes on earth, praise will saturate the universe. No other book in the Bible has more words of praise other than Psalms then does the book of Revelation. I want you take your Bible, just for a moment, and turn with me to that great book. Most of us know it as a book of great mystery, and we flounder through its pages. If we'll set aside the mysteries and enjoy the praise, you'll understand the book of Psalms.

Look at chapter 4. It's on page 825 in your Bible. Here is the scene of the closing. This is what it's like in heaven. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created."

The look at verse 8 of chapter 5 -- Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall rein on the earth."

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, that's millions folks, saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!"

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!"

And go to the last word in your Bible. It's a word of praise -- amen, amen. Now some of you folks have had the joy of being in a church where they had an amen corner. And the amen corner was the corner where they praise God, amen, amen! And our wonderful Bible ends with a praise.

Back to our notes. Page 3 in our notes. I make this note: Praise is where God lives! Psalm 22:3 says, "Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel." The King James text puts it this way, "But thou art holy, 0 thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." In other words, praise is where God lives. That's His address, and praise with thanksgiving is the only access into His presence.

Look at Psalm 100:4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." That's why we open our hymn-time with great words of praise. It's through praise we enter the very presence of God. And notice down just a few more lines, praise is the believer's arsenal and it's the chief weapon against the enemy. This is one of the great intriguing mysteries of praise. There are two great windows of scripture that give us a view of this mystery. One is Psalm 8:2, "From the children and infants you have ordained praise." Why? "Because of Your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger."

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." Why? "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."

What is he saying? Praise is powerful in the presence of the accuser. When Satan come at us, and depression and dark nights of despair, start praising God. You say, I don't feel like praising God. That's why it's called the sacrifice of praise. You start praising God and you'll find that when you start giving Christ honor, Satan doesn't like that type of atmosphere and he'll duck out real quick. I found that to be true in the natural, you walk into a conversation when someone is speaking ill of somebody else and you change the whole conversation, you start talking wonderful things about that person, that quick (snaps fingers) the critic silences. And it isn't very long, he feels so uncomfortable, that he's gone.

It's true spiritually. When Satan comes to attack us in many ways, and he does, in moments of despair, temptation, just start praising God -- and he'll flee. It's a marvelous, powerful thing.

Now let's go to the Psalm. I'm down near the bottom of page 3. In our psalm, "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul." David begins with five attributes for which the believer can offer praise to God. First of all, he says, "He forgiveth all thine iniquities." The word "iniquities" is a strong one in the Hebrew text. It does not mean "mistakes." What if the Bible said Christ died for all our mistakes? No, God forgives our iniquities, all that ingrained perversity which is the result of our sinful nature, all that bentness to sin.

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. In other words, you and I sit here today as Christians and the deepest thing that thrills our heart with praise is to know we've been forgiven.

And he takes the middle of his song and he tells us how far that forgiveness has taken place. He says, as far as the East is from the West He's taken our sins from us. And I use the illustration because it's a beautiful, take a globe and start running your finger around the equator. Go West as far as you can -- forever -- infinity. Start going East. Isn't it marvelous that he didn't say as far as the North is from the South? That's a specific distance, but East and West is immeasurable. Some of you sit here today and out of pathways filled with darkness and sin, God forgave you. And all those sins are never to be remembered against us anymore. Isn't that marvelous?

Not only does He do that, but He redeems our life from destruction. In the original Hebrew what says is it redeems your life from going to waste. Isn't that great? Lives filled with sin and wastedness, and all of a sudden that great moment when we're forgiven and our life takes on a new dimension with purpose, and no longer is the precious gift of life wasted in the pathways of sin. He redeems your life from going to waste.

I'm right in the middle of page 4. There's a quote here. Dr. Alexander Whyte loved this Psalm. He's a great English scholar. This is what he said we have in this text: we have the Law Court--forgiven of all thine iniquities: we've got the Hospital--healeth all thy diseases: we've got the Slave Market--we've been redeemed: the Throne Room--we've been crowned with lovingkindness: and we've got the Banquet Room--because He satisfies our mouth with good things.

Then David says He crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies. The complement of love is divine compassion, that quality by which God as the Heavenly Father empathizes with man's frailty. And then he says, who satisfies your mouth with good things. Now I like this one, but I like it for what it really says. Rotherham is the great Hebrew scholar, and this is what he says, that word mouth is translated old age. "He satisfies thine old age with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

What he is saying is that a man who praises God, who lives a life of joy and happiness and a life of worship, is a man who most likely will have longevity and the blessings of God will surround him.

I was thinking about that the other night and I turned on the television and Larry King was interviewing Art Linkletter. Larry said, Art, you look so good for being 90 years of age. And he did, just as sharp as he could be, and his mind was alert. Art said a number of things then said, you know I was the son of the Baptist preacher. That, of course, affected my life deeply. And he talked about the joys that God gives him in life. His lifestyle is very, very simple. He said, I neither drink nor smoke; I don't carouse around; I love my family.

Larry asked him, Art, what is the greatest thing that you enjoy as an older gentleman? Art said, well, you know when I was born in 1912, the average length of life was 47 years. He said, now it's 77 years; so God's given me of another 30 years while I'm still alive. But he talked about the blessings of old age.

And what the psalmist says here is a man whose life is filled with praise and worship to God and who forgets never the benefits of being a child of God, but always finds reason to rejoice, that man will be blessed by God's mercies and he'll enjoy longevity.

And as I say, the middle passages you can understand, he then deals with those five subjects. But then come to verse 20 with me. He pulls out all the stops in the organ. He realizes he doesn't have enough in himself to really lift the praise that he wants to say so he says: Bless the Lord, you His angels. In other words, angels, come and join me; let's bless the Lord. You who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all you His hosts.

And then he invites me. He says, the Pastor Sheley, come and rejoice. Well he does, doesn't he? You ministers of His, who do His pleasure. I find that's one of the great joys of blessing the Lord; thanking Him. I stand here today and life has moved along and I'm 70 plus, and I'm enjoying life and God's work. I say, God, thank you for all of life's blessings; a wonderful family, seven grandchildren, a wonderful church family, and blessings. I want to praise God today with you.

Now that's my sermon, but you'll have to preach it as you drive home. I want you to talk about the things you are grateful to God, and you praise Him for it. Watch how you drive, but just have a wonderful praise time. Amen.

Father, thank you for this time we've been together. Make us a people filled with praise, always rejoicing, never forgetting, never taking for granted all of Your lovingkindness and Your mercies. May our lips always be filled with praise. Praise Your wonderful name, dear God. And everybody said, amen.