Psalm 103

Intro:

I’ve had the opportunity to start help coaching Middle School Football team this year

Its a blast

It’s also not barbies and dance recitals so it’s good for my soul

It’s bee a lot of fun being around the kids and watching them progress

Teaching them more than just football

But I think sports in general and football specifically is a great life teacher

One of the things I’ve seen with these kids is as soon as one thing goes wrong

They drop a pass, the miss a throw, they forget their assignment, they do 2 things

Sometimes one or the other and sometimes both of these things

They yell at their teammates because it’s their fault

Or they hang their head and mope around the next few minutes

And so the teaching moment for these kids is

First: take responsibility. Own your mistakes. You messed up, don’t blame your teammate

Second: Use it to get better!

We are all going to make mistakes

There’s only one who was perfect in all things

So take those mistakes and use it to improve

If we all moped around for 10 minutes after every mistake we made we would have a team of that walked around with their heads down all the time

It’s a great life lesson!

Well, Scripture teaches us a similar concept.

And in our Psalm today what we will see is the author, David, literally have to coach himself up.

He preaches to himself.

Essentially he saying to himself, it’s time to pick up your head, pick yourself up off the mat and press on.

I had a coach tell me once that our life goals should never be downward

When we hang our heads, our eyes follow and we lose sight of the goal in mind.

Keep your head up so that you can remember the goal set before you.

David is going to teach us a very similar thing this morning

Psalm 103 NIV

Of David. 1 Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 6 The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. 19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. 20 Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul.

Pray

One of the things I love most about Psalm 103 is David’s desire to show us the complexity of God

And it’s the glory of His complexity that becomes a driving factor of our praise

Learning the complexity of Dorie

Wives can be complex creatures right?

The more we get to know the Lord

I think you realize how little you know Him

But that complexity of His character actually drives a love and praise and adoration of Him

So, notice the hints of that character that David talks about in this Psalm

the loving one

a Judge

a Father

a King

a Creator

a Lord

And so, if we only have a one dimensional vision of God then we are missing out on His complexity and therefore selling short of our praise

If we don’t hold each of his attributes together, we will end up with an errant view of God

And so because of this reality David commands for his soul to bless the Lord

Much like we talked about last week

The Lord is deserving of our whole hearted worship

And David is preaching this truth to himself

Dont forget his benefits

it’s vitally important for believers to remember the blessings of God and to live in constant gratitude towards Him

Whenever we go to join anything one of the first things we ask is “what are the benefits.”

And in every circumstance you have to pay for them

Whether that be monetarily, effort, time, whatever

Here we find undeserving people receiving the most important and amazing benefits you could ever receive

We see things like forgiveness, healing, redemption, a crown, satisfaction, renewal

And we don’t earn this. We simply receive it.

It is the beauty of the gospel

That a wretched weak dead sinner like you and like me

have a heavenly Father who loves us enough to send His Son to die on the cross for our sins

So that even though we were dead in our trespasses Christ comes to make us alive

And give us a benefit package far beyond anything we could even come close to deserving

So, opening portion of Psalm 103 is this:

Preach to yourself to praise the Lord!

Why?

Because He is a heavenly Father who forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies, and renews.

Yes, life can be hard.

Yes, mistakes are made

but your circumstances don’t change the goodness of God

And you may need to preach a little harder to yourself

You may need to coach yourself up more than others

But regardless, God is still the same

These gospel truths remain

So, praise the Lord!

The next section now reflects on more of the attributes of God

Right so you can kind of think of it like this.

David preaches to himself to praise the Lord

And says, praise the Lord because this is what He does

Now, he moves to the idea of praise the Lord because this is who He is

He begins with thoughts around God being perfect in righteousness and and justice

And then moves to a phrase in verse 8 that is a key hebrew and OT thought throughout Scripture in regards to Yahweh

Psalm 103:8 NIV

8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.

The first time we this is in Exodus 34:6-7. If you came to our more class during the Jonah series this should be ringing some bells for you

Instead of spending an hour going back and explaining all of the implications of this I just want to read it and I’ll try to boil it down to a few sentences

Exodus 34:6–7 NIV

6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Remember our point from a few moments of ago?

The glory of His complexity becomes a driving factor of our praise

Well this is another one of those complexities

There is a lot of mysteries concerning the Lord

Things we just can’t comprehend and understand

And one of those mysteries the OT authors wrote about was God ability to inflict justice when needed and extend grace when needed

And so this phrase became one of the essential truths of God

It was the people of God recognizing the mystery of God that He and He alone was able to determine perfect justice and perfect grace.

Wrath when wrath was needed

Grace when grace was needed

So this verse in Psalm 103 is a call back to that same thought

God, is a mystery. He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger abounding in love. He is faithful.

But He will also drop the hammer when it’s time

It becomes the most important statement concerning God’s character in the OT

The other thing this showed was that only God defines who He is.

no one else gets to decide what he’s like

He has revealed himself to us

And that is who He is

And so, we must resist the temptation of worshiping the God of our imaginations or the God of our desires

We worship the God of revelation

The one who has been revealed to us

And then what David does is he lists 4 corresponding acts of God that are tied to these attributes of God.

God doesn’t just simply say that he is merciful and compassionate but he also shows that he is!

As we read the book of Exodus, for example, we find that to be the case.

which is the example David uses

And this becomes a distinction between the Lord God and all other gods and remains a distinction to this today

For example if you contrast with Islam for a moment

In the Quran, each of the 114 chapters it begins like this: In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate.

And while Allah may be called this, he deals with people on the basis of their performance, not according to grace.

So on may call Allah merciful and compassionate but does he actually show mercy and compassion in the Quran itself?

No! He doesn’t

But the bible is clear about the nature of God.

And every attribute God claims, He also displays

He has dealt with us on the basis of grace, not our performance

So, he doesn’t merely declare to be gracious, he demonstrates it.

Look at verse 10 for example

Psalm 103:10 NIV

10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.

Then in this next section, David does his best to describe the love of God

And how can you possibly describe God’s great love

Well David attempts to use immeasurable distances to get the point across

He first goes vertical

When you look to the sky and see the sun

When you look up at night and see the stars and marvel at the distance between, God’s love is greater still

Then he goes horizontal

east to west

As far away as one point can be from another is the vastness of God’s forgiveness

And then David goes from speaking of great distances and turns to the Lord’s nearness

He not only loves and liberates us but also draws us in as family

What a good good father

Then vs 15-19

David now zooms out even more

He considers the everlasting nature of God

and portrays him as the great King over all in vs 19

Like a wildflower we flourish then fade

Like grass we’re here then gone

And if so fleeting and fragile what hope do we have?

That our God endures

His love permanent

From everlasting to everlasting

Unchanging, unmoved

He reigns forevermore

And our eternity is secured in Him

So, with all of this in mind

This is how David concludes

Praise the Lord!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord

All of heaven, all of earth praise the Lord

All angelic host praise the Lord

Every spiritual being and heavenly host praise the Lord!

All of creation praise the Lord

From bird to bug from scales to sea creatures

Every person from young to old

Praise the Lord

And finally, David returns to his original audience, namely, himself:

Praise the Lord, my soul!

When it’s difficult, when it’s easy praise the Lord

when life is good and life is hard praise the Lord

In the morning and in the evening praise the Lord

In time of need and in time of abundance, praise the Lord

When you’re going and when you’re laying down, praise the Lord

When you know just what to do, and when you’re lost and confused, Praise the Lord

There is a chorus of praise from every creature in heaven and earth

So join in with the chorus of praise

Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord!