Psalm 103

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Do you talk to yourself? Are you an inner dialogue person?
David talks to himself allot. He would use that internal dialogue to adjust his perspective. One of his most memorable places is in Psalm 42:5 “5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation”
He is reminding himself of something that he knows is logically true but his emotions cannot access. He says “in spite of what my feelings tell me I know who God is and that is where I will base my reality.” My soul is in turmoil, I am depressed and hopeless. But according to what I know about God, I will actually be led to praise him for his salvation again. It’s almost like he’s scolding himself. “What’s your problem? You know this!” Today we have another one of those passages where he is preaching to himself.
Psalm 103:1–5 “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.”
Pray
He gives himself this laundry list facts for some reason. What I want to do this morning is answer the basic questions like what, why, and how. And we will see what we this says to us.

Bless the Lord

He tells himself to “Bless the Lord”. How do we use bless? Bless you when someone sneezes, or Bless their heart. Mainly it means to us to “bestow” or give someone something they need. Maybe fill a vacancy or a deficiency. Or even give a reward.
But if we look at it in our terms then what David is saying here is… “hey David, give God something he needs”..... Or “Give Him a reward, some credit, for what he has done for you.”
Augustine said it best in regards to this passage. (in plain English) “What reward wilt thou give the Lord, for His having created thee above all the cattle; and above all the fowls of the air, in His image and likeness? Seek not how to reward Him: give back unto Him His own image: He requireth no more; He demandeth His own coin. …
He is saying, in order to “Bless God” we turn back to him what he has given to us. And we hold it up and we acknowledge it and we live like we believe it down to our very soul. David says “all that is within me.” He wants this to go to his soul and change his outlook much like in Psalm 42. That’s why he is commanding himself these things. When we talk about knowing something from our soul. (spider illustration)
Now, if we bless God by holding up before him, who he is and what he has done. What does that look like?

"Remember His Benefits”

Benefits are something else that we see differently. We might keep a job we don’t like. Or stay in a location we don’t like because of benefits. It is the pro side of the pros and cons list. It is the positive side of the coin and hopefully it outweighs the liabilities.
So, again, to put this in our terms “ remember there are some good things about God too, not just flooding the earth and punishing sinners.” There are some “benefits”. I dwell on this to make sure that we do not read this as a trite word here. Like “remember the good stuff.” To see rightly we have to put God into perspective. God is what we call an independent being as in, depends on nothing for his existence, we are dependent beings. If we acknowledge that we are completely reliant on God for every breath, that changes our perspective of the word “benefit”. So we need to expand our idea of benefit. What God gives is not added onto the original deal. What God is to us is ALL of it. God IS benefit. So I would argue that the best way for us to Bless the Lord is by remembering this.
What Benefits? Specific benefits. As we follow this inner dialogue, our sermon to ourselves should go. “Soul, something I want you to remember about God so you can turn it back and magnify him with it is....3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit, (in summary) who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

He Forgives

V 3 “who forgive your iniquities.”
Guilt drives most of us. Much of our internal and external conflict comes from our desire to get out from under guilt. Think of your bigger conflicts. So much centers around “this is not my fault and I’ll fight you over that.” We spend an extraordinary amount of time justifying ourselves. “I really did all I could.” or “no one else would’ve done different or better.” We are driven by guilt and we run screaming from it because what a hopeless place to be.... to be wrong, guilty, over and over again slapped in the face with my fallenness until I am proven to be so much less than I thought. And actually much more of a problem than a help. The reality of the consequences of our fallenness is crushing. The fact is we are guilty. Sin is so deep and complex that, if we could stand before the bare truth, you would see how your sin has affected everyone and everything around you profoundly. As we remind ourselves of the benefits of God we are brought face to face with the liabilities of the human, and they are staggering. Sounds like we need to remind ourselves of something.
He forgives. He looks at the complex mess we’ve made and declares a pardon on us. “He forgives our iniquities, he heals our diseases.”

He Heals

Physical healing? yes... but.... That’s not enough is it? a physically well man can only comfortably shuffle to eternity. Sickness is as much a result of mans sin and fallen nature as any other part of the curse. So healing our diseases is not just a physical healing, it is a spiritual healing we need. Therefore in times of sickness we can look to God and know, he has ultimately broken the curse and any physical ailment is purely temporary. That’s a benefit!

He Redeems

Not only have we been pardoned but we have been bought and paid for. You can be pardoned for a crime. But the corruption of your nature is still on you unless you are totally bought out. If you pardon a prisoner, he can leave prison but he is still a product of the environment, mindset, and heart that caused him to commit the sin in the first place. So something more sweeping than a pardon is needed. A full on redemption.
But how does God accomplish this and remain just? Look at V 8-10....
Psalm 103:8–10 “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.”
David says “he’s been better to me than I deserve.” But Moses says.
Numbers 14:18 “18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’”
Contradiction? Who’s guilty? I’m guilty. God is just and perfect. As a matter of fact we need him to be just and perfect in regards to sin or we get something much worse. An all powerful unjust being who plays favorites when his creation appeals to his fancies.
So how do we have both guilty and redeemed people? A forgiving and a just God?
To see where David and Moses meet you have to go to Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:5–6 “5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
God remained perfectly just and infinitely compassionate when he laid the penalty for our sins on Jesus. In Jesus, God became both the just and the justifier. The one who carried out the punishment and took the punishment. In him the effects of the curse and the consequences of our sin are quenched like a flood over a forest fire. We have seen Psalm 103 come alive in a way that David could only see a faint shadow of. We should understand this in our soul in a way that David couldn’t even imagine.

Satisfaction and Renewal.

Psalm 103:5 “5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
When you read that, do you think “maybe he does that for others?”
(The eagle.) Through the illustration of the eagle we are told that we will endure very difficult things and that those things will serve to restore our strength. And when our strength is restored we are satisfied in God.
Why does my soul need preached to?
We need perspective. Perspective changes everything. It is under false perspective that we become self focused, it is under false perspective that we fall to temptation, cause division, grow discontent, become down and discouraged. When we grow discouraged and depressed, we operate out of fear not faith. We live defensive lives under a cloud of guilt. But here we are called to sit up and tell ourselves what know to be true about God. Grab the bigger picture and see sin for the horror that it is and see the cross as the amazing cure that it is. What you believe about God shows through everything you do every day and every attitude you have, every word you say and every thought you have. That’s enough to put me to shame. So I need reminded every day. I need to contemplate, consider, I need to be changed from the inside out. I need to believe it to my core. I need my beak broken and my feathers plucked. I need to realize the spider. Look at who God is and fix your perspective.
What do we do?

Remember, and Praise

Deuteronomy 8:11 “11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today,”
Take care, don’t forget. He knew exactly how we are. We forget and specifically here what we forget is the holiness of God. That is the primary function of the law, to show us the distance between us and God. The distance that God bridged on the cross through Jesus. When David said in our passage “Bless the Lord” he specifically said “Bless his Holy name.”
In reminding yourself of God, remember the impossible holiness that we could not reach apart from His work on the cross. While the cross is a reminder of our sin it is also a reminder of the holiness of God. So perfect and set apart that full payment for sin against it must be paid, but also that only a perfect sacrifice could pay for it.
How does a sinner remember? Stay near the cross.
Galatians 6:14 “14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
We have always been called to live with the cross in front of us. The blind hymnist Fanny Crosby wrote:
Jesus, keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain
Free to all, a healing stream
Flows from Calvary's mountain.
Near the cross, a trembling soul,
Love and mercy found me;
There the bright and morning star
Sheds its beams around me.
Near the cross! O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me;
Help me walk from day to day,
With its shadows o'er me.
Near the cross I'll watch and wait
Hoping, trusting ever,
Till I reach the golden strand,
Just beyond the river.
In the cross, in the cross,
Be my glory ever;
Till my raptured soul shall find
Rest beyond the river.
Your life depends on this. Remind yourself of God. Contemplate God in his holiness and in his benefits. To do this you must know of God.
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