God is worthy of Praise

Introduction:

As we continue with our worship of the Lord this morning and continue with our series titled, “Summer in the Psalms”, I want to encourage you to turn with me to Psalm 103.

We have worked our way through a number of Psalms that deal with how we are to handle life when everything seems to be falling apart. If you were not with us, I encourage you to go back and watch them on our Facebook page, because I honestly believe that they are good for our souls. We need to know that in times when the world seems to be crashing in on us, we are able to run to God with our feelings and lay them down before Him. We need to know that God does not sit there in condemnation of us. He is not there giving us the stink eye. NO. God wants us to run to Him. And if you remember, that is what we said was one of the most important lessons that we can learn from the Psalms: God wants us to Run to Him.

This is both in the really bad times and the good times. God wants us to continue to come before Him.

And what we are going to do today, is switch gears a little bit and look at my 2nd favorite Pslam this morning and notice how the word of God directs us. What I want you to notice up front from this Psalm before we read it together, is that it is not circumstantial… meaning that this Pslam is a good Pslam to apply to our lives AT ANY MOMENT. This Psalm is not only for when life is really bad and you do not know where to turn. This Pslam is also really good for when life is really good because it will keep you grounded. This Psalm is also really good when you have messed up so badly in your walk with the Lord that you feel just crushed. The enemy is attacking you and beating you up. “How can you be a Christian if you have done THAT....AGAIN. I Mean come on. There is no way that God still loves you after that.” As Christians we wrestle with these thoughts don't we?

This Psalm is universal in the fact that it speak truth to all of life.... at every moment.

Hear the Word of the Lord.....

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, 3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. 8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, 18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. 19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! 21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! 22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Ps 103:1–22).

As we walk through this text this morning, let us run to God asking Him to speak to our hearts this morning.

Let’s Pray Together.

Body:

Reading through this Psalm, it is not hard to pick out what the main point of this Pslam is, is it? What is God calling us to do?

Main Point: God is to be Praised.

It is that simple. If you are a follower of Christ, if you have been adopted into God’s family, if you have given your life to Jesus.... then God calls you to come and praise Him.

We see the Word “Bless” used 6 times in this passage. We see it used here at the beginning of the passage. Look at verses 1 & 2 with me...

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! and then we see the call again starting in verse....2 Bless the Lord, O my soul (Ps 103:1–2).

We see David, preaching truth to himself here at the beginning of this Pslam. This is David looking at his own life.... and reminding Himself.... Bless the Lord O my Soul.....and everything that is in me. Come and Bless Him.

But notice, David goes from calling his own soul to Bless God to a universal Call of Praise.... look at the end of this Psalm. Look at verses 20-22 with me.

20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! 21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! 22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Ps 103:20–22).

Do you see what David is saying here? The Command to come and worship God is not some small endeavor. God is a God who is to be praised by All of His Creations. Angels are called to come and bless Him. ALL His hosts.... ALL his ministers… who do His will.... ALL HIS WORKS…in ALL PLaces of His Dominion.....

Stop and think about this for a moment. Is there any place that God does not have dominion? NO. As we will see here when we walk through the body of this Psalm.... God’s kingdom rules over all.... and you are going to see that word “ALL” a lot in this Pslam. In fact, it would be good for you, if you write in your Bibles, to circle that word everytime we come to you. We already see it used three times in the last three verses, in verses 20-22.

But going back to verses 20-22, what we are seeing here that all of God’s creation is called to bless Him.... and David ends with this reminder… if all of creation is called to Bless the Lord… then.... I am to do that as well. So, “Bless the Lord, o my Soul.”

We have to see that this Pslam begins and ends with this command to come and Bless the Lord. But, when you think about Blessing the Lord, what does that even mean? How are we to Bless God? Have you ever thought about this? I mean, we use a similar phrase all of the time. We say things like, “I am so Blessed.” Or we can think about how God has Blessed us as a nation. We say things like, “God Bless America.” We get what that means. We understand that means that God has been so good to us. He has given us things that we do not deserve.

But when it comes to the command, “Bless the Lord....” How do we do that? We cannot give God something that He does not deserve. We cannot do good to God as if He needed anything. So, what exactly does it mean to Bless God?

And maybe you have noticed that I have been using two words interchangeably already in this message, but I want us to understand exactly what we are called to do here. I have been using the command to Bless the Lord.... and I have written down as the main point for this Psalm as.. God is to be praised.

This is what it means to Bless the Lord. Quite literally it means to come and kneel down before. It is to pay Homage to God. It is to see Him in His rightful place. It is to bow low in worship. It is to adore Him. It is to fix your eyes on Him and to see Him as God. It is to express Love to Him.

That is what all of creation is called to do. We Are Called To Come And Bless The Lord. To lay down before Him and just to Worship Him.

This can be hard to do at times, though right? It is hard to come and worship Him when life seems really really hard. It is hard to Worship Him when we feel so far from Him. It is hard to Worship Him when we do not feel like it. It is even hard to worship Him when everything is going well in our lives, because we tend to forget what God has done for us.

We are a short-sighted people. When life is falling apart we lose sight of God and live in despair… and when life is going well.... we neglect to look to God and give Him praise. But this Psalm calls us to come before Him.

Why Should We Praise God? What are some reasons we can think of that would give us a good ground to stand on for offering Praise to God? This is where the Psalm turns rather quickly when we look at it.

Look again at verse 2 with me…

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Ps 103:2)....

Do you notice what is said there in this verse? What are the people of God called to do? “Forget not all his benefits.” This is the grounds for us giving praise. We are to remember.... not to forget… all of the Benefits that the Lord has bestowed upon His people.

Let’s look at these benefits… look at verses 3-5 with me.

3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, 5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Ps 103:3–5.)

The Benefits of the Lord…

Forgives ALL your Iniquity.

Think about this for a moment. One of the reasons that we are called to give Praise to God is because He ALONE is the one who forgives… not some… not just the little ones… not just the past sins.... but He Forgives ALL of your iniquity. There is nothing in your life that you have done or will do that is not covered by God’s forgiveness. Now, that does not mean that we are free to keep living however we want. This is not a license to Sin… and this does not mean there are no stipulations to His forgiveness either. We will see that in just a moment. But for right now, focus your heart and mind on this. The Lord Forgives you for all of your iniquity. As the old Hymn says… “Not in part but in Whole.”

Heals ALL your Diseases.

Now I know that there are many of you who are going through some really hard things in life right now with loved ones who are battling some serious illnesses. This verse does not take away from that. Nor does this verse mean that Christians will not get sick. It cannot mean that. But what it does mean is that our hope is only in God. Doctors and medicine are not bad things. They are God-giving blessing to us… that is for sure.... but what we have to see is that without God… none of what they do would matter. As followers of Christ, we are to stake all of our hope in God. God is the one who brings the healing. And we know that in the most ultimate sense, God brings healing in the life that is to come. God is preparing a world where there is not sin, death, nor disease. God is preparing a world where we can walk freely with Him with no pain and suffering.

This is actually what we see listed here as the next blessing…

Redeems your life from the Pit.

This is a reminder to the people of God that God is going to be the one who saves them. He is going to raise them up at the last day.

Crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

This is God’s disposition to you. This is what God has given you. He has given you his steadfast love and mercy...which gets unpacked here in a little bit further down in this Pslam.

Satsifies you with good.

This is God’s way with you. He is for you and not against you. He is for your good. That is even in the times when you do not feel like what you are going through is a good thing… God knows what you need even in those times and He is working all things together for Good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

But notice, why does God do these things? He does them so that you are renewed. He does these things so that are strong like an eagle. He is not wanting you to grow weak or weary. He wants you to rest in His goodness towards you. He wants you to see the benefits that are there for you. He wants you to see what He has done for you.

Here is what I want to do with the remainder of our time left in the Word this morning. We are going to turn our attention to verses 6-19, which is the bulk of this Pslam and just look at how David spells out these blessings to the people of God. We are going to walk line by line here and just think deeply about what God’s word is saying to us. I want us to get overwhelmed with the truths of God’s word. I want us to get this picture of Who God is and just to worship Him.

What we learn about God…

Start in verse 6.

6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed (Ps 103:6)

In a world that feels like there is no justice and where people feel oppressed… we are reminded that ..

God is the one who works righteousness and justice.

He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel Ps 103:7.

God revealed Himself To His Chosen People.

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.

The Lord Is merciful and gracious to us.

Think about this for just a moment. I know I am saying that a lot. But there are times when we just need to slow down and think about the words that are written down for us. I think at times, especially when we mess up, we picture God as one who just flies off the handles at us. We think that he is just waiting for us to mess up so that He has set us straight or smite us. That is not the picture that we see in Scripture. What we are told is that God is long-suffering with us. He is patient with us. He is slow to anger....and ABOUNDING in steadfast love… this is a love that never gives us and keeps chasing us down. Are there times when we are disciplined by God? Yes. God will discipline His Children. But God’s discipline is not wrathful or vengeful. Nor does it last forever. In fact, what we see next is the exact opposite…

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

There are 4 things that we learn about God from these verses that we need to keep in mind.

He does not deal with us according to our sins.

He is loving towards us.

As far as the east is from the west, He removes our transgressions from us.

He is fatherly towards us.

Again, think about what this means for your life. If God dealt with us according to our sins, what would that mean for our lives? We would all be given Hell. That is what we rightfully deserve… but that is not the way God is towards His people. If fact, and I love the word pictures that are used here to drive home this point… God is loving to us. As far as the heaven are above the earth… how how is that? That is pretty high. We are not going to reach there on our own. This is the measurement of His love toward those who fear Him.

Or look at the next word picture. How far does God remove our sin from us? We said earlier that he forgives ALL of our sin… but is that true? Yes, that is true. As far as the east is from the west… that is the length that God has removed your sin from you. It is like you went one way and your sin went the other way. These two objects are never going to touch each other. That is how far God has cast your sin from you.

Just as a loving Father shows compassion to his children when they mess up and make a mess of things..... the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.

Why does he do that? Look at verse 14..

14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

God Knows You.

He knows what we are made of. He remembers that we are dust. And here is what we are told. Look at verses 15-18

15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. 17 But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, 18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

The Steadfast of the Lord Never Runs Out.

That is what we are seeing here. David compares and contrasts the Love of God with the frailty of humanity. We are here for only a short while. We may live 100 good years. But in the grand picture of everything… that is nothing. We are here for but just a moment. But, God’s love is not like that. God’s love is from everlasting to everlasting. He is faithful to the end.

But notice here, that there is a stipulation that is given. These things are only true from those who “fear him” and those “who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.”

Now some of you might be thinking… Now wait just a minute there Pastor. Are you telling me that I have to work for or earn my Salvation? That is not what I am saying. And that is not what the texting is saying. But it is saying that these things only apply to those who are in a right relationship with God. This is not a universal statement about God as if He is able to overlook sin in our lives. The Bible is very clear about that fact. God is not the proverbial grandfather who just winks at our sins or says things like.. “Boys will be boys.” NO. Sin is a serious offense to God. And because it is so serious to God, He sent His only and Only Son to come and die on the Cross for our sins.

The apostle Paul put it this way in Romans...

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

(Ro 3:21–26).

This is the means by which we are made right with God. God did not just overlook our sins. God did not just sweep them under a rug somewhere. God pour out His wrath on Christ for our Sins. Jesus took the punishment that we deserved for our sins so that we could be forgiven. That is how any of this Pslam is possible for us. It is only those who run to the savior who are in a right relationship with God. It is only those who have repented of their sins and turned to God through Christ in faith that are able to be in a covenant relationship with Him. It is only because of Christ that God is able to cast our sins from us… because Jesus cried out… IT IS FINISHED on that cross and then rose again three days later defeating sin and death.

You see, this is not about earning God's forgiveness. This is about surrendering to Christ. Through Christ God’s love is extended to us.

Lastly, look at verses 19…

19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

God Rules ALL Things.

There is nothing in all of creation that does not sit under God’s rule. He is the one who rules and owns everything.

Conclusion:

As we think about this text this morning, and I feel like we had to rush through most of it.. I want us to be overwhelmed by the love and grace of God that has been shown to us through Christ.

Berean, as we celebrate our anniversary… I want you to think about all of the Ways that God has been good to us as a church. He has certainly walked with this congregation through many things… but He has saw you through them all. This is true even in the midst of your own life. Think about all of the ways that God has walked with you on a personal level. Think about all of the Blessing that he has given you.

If you have given your heart to Jesus, think about all of the sins that He has already forgiven you for. Maybe you have been beating yourself up and questioning His love for you.... See today that your sins are cast far from you. See that God’s steadfast love is for you.

And if you have not given your life to Christ yet, I want to encourage you… all of the things that we have talked about today could be yours. Christ welcomes you to come and lay down your life, to repent of your sins, and to place your faith and trust in Him today. When you do that, you are given a new relationship with God. You become adopted into His family.

Church family, here is my challenge to all of us today....

Give God Praise Today.

Give Him praise for who He is.

Give Him praise for what He has done.

Give Him praise because He alone is worthy.

Let’ s pray together.