All That is Within Me

God deserves honor, He deserves praise, He deserves to be lifted up on Hight, He deserves to have pleasure. As we have read these verses today, let me remind you of the first verse and not only look at it as a catalyst but also as a reference to everything else we talk about in this chapter.

Psalm 103:1 AV

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

As I have often said, Psalm 51 is a Psalm of repentance and perfecting it. If you want to get your heart right and you don’t know how, go read Psalm 51, read it to the Lord, reread it and get your sins confessed and get back up and serve God.

But in Psalm 103, we might find that this is the quintessential Psalm of Praise - but more than praise, yea, praise that brings blessing to our God.

Maybe you don’t know how to praise the Lord, maybe you don’t know how to lift up his name and praise Him. Read this Psalm, read it to Him, read again and again, and you will find yourself praising the Lord from your soul again.

God wants one thing from you and and it is the only way He really wants it; He wants you to praise God with all that is within you. Give Him your all, everything you have. To do this, we must direct our soul to do it.

You and I must at times in our daily lives insist upon our souls, to bless the Lord. There are times the grit and grime of life affect us negatively; where sin seems to have the upper hand at times; where we don’t know what is right to do. There are often seasons where we face trials and struggles with health, with family, with finances with our country - but in all things with all my soul, I want to bless God - WITH ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME.

I. The Blessing of the Lord vv.1-2a

People may at times wonder, “How can I BLESS the Lord.” Sometimes we think it is as simple as praise, but I want to challenge you that true praise of God is more than singing a song, or saying Praise the Lord, it is a life that is given to God in all things in every way.

Bless means : To pronounce a wish of happiness to one; to express a wish or desire of happiness.

That is what we are to do - bless the God of heaven with all that is within us.

Why should we do this?

II. Bless God because of His Blessings to Us vv.2b - 5

The Psalmist says to remember His benefits. In other words, review, meditate upon, talk of his blessings on your life. What most people like to meditate on are either their problems or their desires. Now there is nothing wrong with having hopes, dreams, and goals - but we cannot dwell upon them all the time anymore that we should our problems. But there is something that will bless your life and that is to dwell upon His blessings:

A. His forgiveness v.3

He uses the word iniquities, it is a strong word for sin – it depicts our ignorance to the law, and our perverseness and our tendency to stray far away.

It is a wonderful thing to know that in Christ there is forgiveness of sin; even from debased carnal nature such as mine. But not only does he forgive, but he goes a great step further because we can bless him because of:

B. His redemption v.4

Think about what He has redeemed you from: From a wasted life, from destruction, from annihilation.

“who redeemeth thy life from destruction.” Our God does that – when he redeemed us he had to pay a price, to pay for our sin. It cost Him something.

· It cost God His Son, it broke their perfect fellowship they had for eternity.

· It cost Jesus His throne in heaven as he came to this earth being the poorest of men – and his cruel death on the cross.

· So yes, we say to our Spirit, - Bless the Lord, Oh my Soul and all that is within me.

C. His superlatives v.4

A superlative is usually and adjective that denotes the highest quality; surpassing all else or others; concerning what is being describing.

Christ uses several of these here to describe what he does for us.

He does not just crown us with kindness and mercies, but rather he crowns us with loving-kindness and tender mercies.

He goes above and beyond what is necessary.

He is not jus kind – it is loving-kindness; he does not just show mercy, but he shows tender mercy.

Mercy can mean a lot of things, when me and my brothers would fight growing up, they were older than me and could take me for a long time, and they would get me in a full nelson, or some kind of head lock, and they would tell me – say mercy, mercy, say it louder Mercy, louder MERCY. And indeed, they would show mercy.

· I’m glad God’s mercy is much greater than that, his loving kindness and tender mercies are sweet, gentle and caring.

· And he calls these a crown to us – but really, as he crowns us with these things, he the glory still belongs to him.

D. His provision v.5

Psalm 103:5 AV

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

III. Bless God Because of His Justice vv.6-7

Our God is a God of Justice. It is always appropriate and right. He will judge all one day. That is something to praise Him for as well. He is fair, and always deals fairly. Notice v.6:

A. He executes righteousness and judgment v.6

Especially for those that are oppressed. God certainly has a tender spot for the oppressed, the poor, the orphans, those that are halt or lame or blind.

He will speedily judge the oppressor, even though we may not see it, God will take care of them, God is the executor of the poor and the executioner of the oppressor.

OH MY SOUL, God has promised that he will execute what is right and just on my behalf, me a nobody with no future; he said the will care for me.

He cares for you – those here who have lost their way; those here that are finally learning, those here that are suffering losses – he loves you, he is your defender.

Psalm 18:2–3 AV

The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Look at v.7

B. He has made His Word clear v.7

He made it clear to Moses and the Hebrew children in Egypt. He showed them the path out, they followed it, and he gave them the Law to live by.

He had it written down so they wouldn’t forget and all of His revealed Word for us.

Luke 10:24 AV

For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

1 Peter 1:10 AV

Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

We can praise him with all of our soul, and all that is within us, because we Have His Word to read, study, learn, heed, and obey.

Oh MY SOUL, he has made His Word even clearer to us today.

IV. Bless God because of His Mercy vv.8-13

Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy, and when he does get angry, it is not forever

He has not given to us what we deserve because of our sin

His mercy is unfathomable

His Forgiveness is un-chartable

His pity is unmistakable

Think about this, “Anyone can be polite to a king. It takes a gentleman to be polite to a beggar.” If you will consider that statement for a moment and the apply it to the Lord and his mercy towards us – and you will realize how Great his mercy is as how we ought to say, “Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul.”

Then notice who he speaks of:

V. Bless God Because Man is so Frail vv.14-16

A. He knows what we are made of v.14

What are we made up of? Dust, or dirt, either way, its worth pennies, and even for the best dirt, you can buy a sack of dirt your weight for less than a few dollars, and it has better fertilizer in it than you do.

He knows that we are sinners too. He knows our tendencies, our lacking, our bad habits, our inconsistencies.

He knows when we do well for a while and how easily we backslide.

B. He knows how fleeting our existence is vv.15-16

James 4:14 AV

Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

1 Peter 1:24 AV

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

Obviously, in the vast scheme of things, we are not very valuable, we are prone to failure, and we are just a blip on the radar of time.

· In spite of those things, notice this:

VI. The Responsibility of Man vv.17-21

It is very exciting to me that right after God says that I am forgiven and after he says that he remembers that I am dust – I am worthless; and that I am a quickly passing flower. Yet, He gives me some responsibilities, some things that I need to do.

Me, Mark Sage, who has failed God so much in the past, he still wants me to take the life that I have left and serve Him with ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME!

In what ways.

V. 17 teaches us that I should Fear him with all that is within me.

To know who He is and have a reverential awe and amazement of his power and majesty.

By the way fear and being afraid are different things:“Fear is a force that sharpens your senses. Being afraid is a state of paralysis in which you can’t do anything.” ― Marcus Luttrell, Service: A Navy SEAL at War

V. 18 says that I must Keep his covenants and commandments with all that is within me

Do what he says, follow his commandments – it is not fleshly or carnal to do what he says; it shows that you love God.

Follow His Word with all that is within me v.20

Follow this book, be obedient to it. Never put it down, read and know it and apply it to your life.

Do His pleasure with all that is within you v.21

Along with fearing Him, keeping his covenants, following his Word, we need to do what please him.

1 John 2:17 AV

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

2 Peter 3:9 AV

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

His will is to show you mercy, he wants to give to you – he wants to show it to you, but he won’t make you take it, you must ask for it. John 1:12 tell us Believing is receiving. You must accept the gift of mercy and salvation.

You and I have wronged him far more, we are the ones who sent him to the cross because of our sin, and the we disregard his will and his forgiveness. Friend, forget not his benefits – “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name; and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities.”

I’ve been reading a book called “LONE SURVIVOR” by Navy Seal Marcus Lattrell,

I enjoy military books and books about courage and leadership. One of the interesting things about the seals is of course their training. There training really endeavors to abuse the

“I will never quit. My nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight.” ― Marcus Luttrell, Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Why, because of his love of his country, love of freedom, love of his family and fellow soldiers.

If he can do that, I can certainly Bless God with all that is within me.

Never giving up, never out of the fight, living the life that God desires of me and that blesses God.

I like how John put it in his third epistle.

3 John 4 AV

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.

There is not better way to bless God that to do it with all of your heart souls and mind - there is no better way to bless God than doing from all that is within you.

All That Is Within Me

Psalm 103

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