Introduction: Simeon Trust
This psalm is a stirring call of David to his innermost heart, his soul, his whole inner man to Praise God! To Worship God! He begins with a simple declaration! He then supplies a barrage of reasons to himself both as an individual in the first five verses, then to the gathered congregation, and then finally all creation, angels, heavenly hosts, all the works and cosmos the entire domain of God is to praise God! Is to bless his holy name. It is the brackets of the whole psalm in verse 1 and 22. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
We will actually be keeping our exposition to verses 1-14!
Please keep your Bibles open as we will be referring back to specific words and phrases with attentive hearts and minds to all that God has for us in this passage. Open Bibles, Open hearts to Christ’s revelation to his people and all here this morning.
Let us now hear from God’s holy, inerrant, and inspired word to us this morning….
READ: Psalm 103:1-14
Prayer of Illumination
The two major divisions for verses 1-14 are
· First, David stirring his soul to worship the Lord for so great a salvation! In verses 1-5
· Second, David’s reminder to the gathered assembly of God’s Character: His Mercy and Grace shown in Redemption to the Church in the days of Moses. in verses 6-14
SO first, Look with me again in verses 1-5… so great a salvation!
· Verse 1 Is A Call to whole-hearted affection, praise, and worship of God.
[1] Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
o Jim Boice says, “We often are strangely unaffected, honoring God “with our lips” while our hearts are far from him.” [Jesus just last week, right...]
o Why is this? How can this be? David knows why…We are forgetful and frail dust
· We see in Verse 2 this Recognition that we are forgetful,
o Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
o Verses 1-2 together shows us We need, as Tony Merida says, “gospel self-talk, “preaching the gospel to ourselves.”
o We are frail and forgetful: In both the mundane things and crucially with the Lord’s goodness to us.
§ I am painfully aware of how forgetful we can be. If it’s not in my phone calendar it doesn’t exist, “heads are for having ideas not holding ideas.”
§ Ask any one and they will tell you I love coffee! But even in my love for coffee….every week there is abandoned and forgotten coffee left around the Church!
§ Well, forgotten coffee is not so bad. But that is not all we forget. We forget our miserable state apart from God, we forget our wonderful salvation. We forget The Lord and his goodness. We need to speak to ourselves. We need to Preach to ourselves, we need constant reminders of the Lord and his goodness towards our soul! To our whole being.
§ Already we should take note and mimic David and his refusal to live an unexamined and unintentional inner life.
§ We must speak to ourselves TRUTH. Every child of God must find Consistent, regular, moments and small ways to give praise to God and thus remember!
§ To give praise to God as you go about your day…to regularly rehearse God’s holy name and his many blessings is a good thing for forgetful hearts…Praise God regularly and consistently for his benefits, small and great.
· And if you are weak and heavy laden as we are all at times, then remember God uses the ordinary means of gathered worship and Christians in conversation, Christians singing and praying together to stir up this remembrance...our own soul to REMEMBER!
§ ILL: Think of it this way, Have you ever gotten a catchy tune stuck in your head???
· Get the tune of God’s righteous and fatherly character, his providence, and mercy in your life stuck on repeat in your soul!
· Get God’s holy name, his salvation stuck in your head – Quite literally this is what good Christian hymns are designed to do.
· Singing - Takes God’s truth from your head and drives it deep into your heart, and gets the song of God and his redemption stuck there as a reminder.
· I am grateful that as much as children’s songs, VBS type songs are meant for our kids, or to play in the car… They get in the grown-ups heads too, don’t they? Who is more blessed by kids songs? The kids or the adults who have them memorized? 3 Car singing favorites for me right now are
o This is the day that the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it…
o King of Kings and Lord of Lords glory alleluia….and you have to sing it faster each time of course. and ever popular…
o I’ve Got the Joy Joy Joy Joy down in my heart? Where?
o Stir up your heart to bless the Lord…Bless others around you with: reminding conversations…little prayers and praise…and maybe even catchy tunes.
· Forgetfulness and remembering also have a strong Covenantal and Spiritual Warfare Aspect to them….This is a theme in Exodus: God comes and rescues Israel and even then warns them of Forgetfulness! Warns Israel of not having a whole and entire giving of themselves unto God in their worship and life.
o Deut. 6:10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, …and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.
§ Don’t miss it, it is when Israel is most blessed. It is after they have been rescued from spiritual bondage to Egyptian god’s, to physical bondage to Pharaoh, it is when they have received all the good gifts…THAT is when they might “forget the Lord who saved them.”
§ They can so easily forget the most central thing. So important is this warning not to forget the salvation of God two chapters later Moses repeats himself. It is when God becomes dim and the world is our focus that we must fear God, remember his majesty, and find our hearts restless with the world and satisfied and resting in him…
o The Lord says, “Take care lest you forget …lest, when you have eaten and are full … then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, (ESV)
o We cannot in our satisfaction, have the very blessings of God, his gifts, be what lulls us into forgetting his great benefits to us our very salvation and life, his very greatness and goodness because we are forgetful in our contentment….
o Therefore, preach the blessedness of God and his redemption to yourself…
§ Let us do that now, What are the benefits we are so likely to forget?…
· Look In Verses 3-5. David says [3] The Lord forgives all your iniquity, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
· God Forgives Your Iniquity! As seen in both verses 3 & 10.
§ David knows something of sin…of his need for forgiveness, and his need of a redeemer. Of a substitute, of sin being covered over by the life of an innocent standing in the gap on his behalf. He had the temple, the day of atonement, a spotless lamb in his place, and oh yes he needed the cleansing of his heart a purging with hyssop that he might be renewed. He knew his iniquity. As we read in Psalm 51 earlier...
o What is our “Iniquity” why is it such a big deal that God forgives it?
§ Iniquity is being downcast, immoral, lacking uprightness, lacking soundness of heart and mind, having broken, trashed, and cast aside the holiness we we were originally created with and called to as image bearers of God.
§ It is specifically taking and twisting, making crooked our relationship to God and others by relational transgression. Relational transgression of God and our original estate of righteous. The image of sin is missing the mark, missing how we were created to live, iniquity is a more visceral image of twisting.
§ Therefore, Iniquity is guilt before a holy God, guilt worthy of justice and punishment, transgressing truth, transgressing what we are called to as we were originally created with knowledge, righteousness, and holiness to be in fellowship with God and fellow man. The physical image is we were created standing upright, on the straight and narrow path and we are now fallen in a twisted wreck.
§ All of us as descendants of the first man Adam are fallen, in iniquity. The Westminster larger catechism uses the language of “sin and misery.”
§ That is what God forgives and indeed heals us from using a mediator who takes that iniquity on himself and gives us healing from sin and misery.
§ Turn to Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53 just have in mind that Westminster Larger Catechism 23-30 will be our conversation partner here as well…
§ As you turn to Isaiah 53, what we will hear is the greatest news that stirs our whole being to praise of God. The greatest news shines brightest as we honestly confess our iniquity as fallen humanity in the words of the larger catechism:
§ A. The fall brought us all into a present state of sin and misery. Our hearts do not love or conform to God’s righteous character. The law of God is now a thorn in our conscience and a mirror showing that we break it.
§ We all bear the guilt of Adam’s first sin, lack righteousness, and have a poison of sin that corrupts our nature.
§ We sin because we are sinners. We have become indisposed, disabled, and made opposite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is commonly called Original Sin, and from which do proceed all our actual transgressions.
§ This means that apart from the grace and mercy of God as a compassionate father through a new representative head and righteous redeemer…we will remain lost as miserable sinners.
§ We need rescue and healing from the miserable estate!
§ But Did God leave us there?
· WLC Q. 30 says God does not! leave us to perish in the estate of sin and misery which our first father Adam brought us into by breaking Covenant with God! No God of mere love and mercy delivers his people out of it that PIT! – just as verses 4-5 teaches us.
· God forgives all our inquity! And brings us into salvation by a redeemer! And we will have healing from our sin and misery and FULL satisfaction in Christ Jesus, our King, our Brother, our Savior, and blessed Lord. BLESS THE LORD OH MY SOUL AND FORGET NOT ALL HIS BENEFITS! He crowns you with steadfast love and MERCY!
· Can it be true Verses 4-5 says it is true and Isaiah tells us how it is accomplished by our Savior Jesus.
· Hear from the prophet Isaiah of the steadfast love and mercy of Jesus the lamb slain and risen to redeem your life from the PIT!
· Isaiah 53:3–6, and verse 11 - He (that is Jesus) was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
[4] Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
[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.
[verse 11] Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Christ Jesus bore our iniquity on the cross, if you desire healing from the sins and miseries of this life then turn from your iniquities unto Christ; be united to him trusting in his work on behalf of sinners, and experience the life and satisfaction of the Holy Spirit who renews us![1]
In Christ Jesus we are redeemed, forgiven, sons and daughters who are satisfied with God, indwelt by the life-giving Spirit – though we grow old and feeble we have the crown of glory awaiting us with the same glorifed bodies as our Lord Jesus Christ!
This brings us to our second major division, remembering we’ll keep to verses 6-14 this morning. This is David’s public testimony to God’s Character to his Mercy and Grace shown in Redemption to the Church in the days of Moses.
Note the transition from David’s speaking of “my soul” “your sin” to “our sins, our frame, to us”
Look in Verses 6-7… [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.
§ We know of God’s righteousness and justice in his grand redemption of Israel in Exodus.
· After preaching the gospel to himself, the personal benefits of salvation he has experienced David turns to the assembly, turns to his brethren and says not “tell me the old old story of Jesus and his glory” but “tell me the old old story of Moses and the Exodus!” The grand story that reveals his mercy and grace, his justice and his patience. And most importantly, even as we forget. God REMEMBERS!
· God REMEMBERS his Covenant…Even as we are needing to remember God and forget not all his benefits God REMEMBERS; He will not forget!
o Years after God made his promises to Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, when Israel has multiplied and become a captive and enslaved nation within Egypt, Exodus 2:23ff says, During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. [24] And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. [25] God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.
o Surely the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has forgotten his people? Surely they will be forgotten in the land of death in Egypt, under oppression of a foreign nation and foreign so-called gods?
o But no verses 6-7 remind us that God is not like the wicked gods of Egypt. God is not like Pharaoh, saying, “Make bricks without straw.”
o No, God is righteous; he hears their cry, he rescues his oppressed people, he remembers his covenant and he chooses a mediator and redeemer in Moses, one who foreshadows the work of Christ our greater prophet-redeemer.
Verses 7-9 says, God 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, [that is accuse Israel] nor will he keep his anger forever…
· God Acts powerfully – in the 10 plagues of Egypt, powerfully in the crossing of the red sea, powerfully in coming mercifully to give his law to them on Mount Sinai. He draws near. He draws near…but then what?
o Then the golden Calf! Crass idolatry and perversion of Worship. Oh no, we are fallen in sin, depraved, transgressors worthy of death! Why has the Lord made a covenant with sinful rebels? We deserve death and condemnation!
o And yes 3,000 fell that day. But the Lord did not withdraw his presence, he renewed the covenant with Israel.
o He remembered his covenant with Noah and the sign of the rainbow that he will withhold judgment until he finishes fulfilling Gen. 3:15 and the promise to save a people by Jesus and gather such that not one sheep will perish
o He could’ve justly obliterated them but no; he is, in the words of Exodus 34:6-7, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, merciful.
§ He Both shows patience towards a sinful people & an Abundance of Grace and mercy to redeem.
§ Exodus 34:8–10 says, And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. [9] And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
§ And [God] said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
§ God will take a stiff neck people, redeem them, train them in the wilderness, , and bring them as his Son, or as the metaphor is other places as his Bride, into the land flowing with milk and honey. They will be cleansed fit for heaven on earth in other words, surrounded by his presence and righteousness!
What of us? The Application is the same!
You see Verses 10-13. It says it all. God acted with grace and mercy to idolatrous and sinful Israel. He saved them from death in Egypt.
He acts with grace and mercy to idolatrous and wicked you and me and he rescues us from this sinful and broken world, whatever form that may take in your life. It is a scary thing. But if a Holy God shows you the depths of your heart’s corruption in sin…that is just how much deeper the cleansing of forgiveness can go. Everywhere the Holy Spirit shines his light in the dark places of our hearts and minds, revealing the twisting’s of iniquity, that is the very place the cleansing balm of the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus goes. …Verses 10-13 is a sweet reminder of this!
[Our heavenly Father verse 10] 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.
Israel was to erect Ebenezers, Rocks of help, memory stones. So that Father’s could tell their children of the mercy of God in salvation towards Israel
o Parents tell your children of God’s goodness to you, point out the EBENEZERS.
o Tell of all the ways there was forgiveness and removal of guilt and shame, and transformation the expulsion of sin with the greater affection for Christ and the good news of the gospel.
o Gospel culture regularly confesses sin and offers forgiveness of sin. We can give others only what we have received from the Lord. But at appropriate times we should give glimpses to others of what the Lord has done for us if verse 10 is true.
· Look with me at Verses 12-13 they only expand on what we have been seeing: God is a compassionate father who forgives his children by dealing with their sin in Christ, but what does it mean to fear him?
o The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! We do not deal lightly with God because of his grace and mercy.
§ Israel in their rescue from Egypt treated God lightly when they bowed down to the golden calf, lightly when they held a raucous festival and rose up to play in pagan revelry before a tiny golden god of their own making.
§ How foolish. We ought to be transfixed, tremble before our heavenly father with awe at his grace and mercy.
§ All while remembering that in Christ, He is Abba, Father, showing mercy to those in Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit…If we are in Christ, we will Fear God and keep his commandments. Not in craven fear, not in a slavish fear, not in the fear of Israel to Pharaoh, but as Children to a Father-King. As Children before their creator, redeemer, and Lord.
· This is all possible because Christ kept Covenant bringing us into the new Covenant by his blood!
o The fulness of time has come! Galatians 4:4–7 declares, that “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, [5] to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. [6] And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” [7] So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (ESV)
Look in verse 14: Jesus knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
o Hebrews 2:17–18 [17] Therefore he (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. [18] For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (ESV)
o As a covenant community in our own strength, We are dust. But Christ is our head, he strengthens his church, he removes our iniquities, he brings us to the Father’s throne of grace where we receive pardon in Christ, are renewed, satisfied with God, and frail children of dust are made sons and daughters of a compassionate Father. Christ is righteous and strong for you if you are united to him by faith.
· Bless the Lord, O my Soul and forget not all his benefits!
Prayer
Hymn
Benediction: The LORD bless you and keep you
The LORD cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace…go in peace
[1] [[As an aside, I will just quite briefly say this. This Psalm 103 verse 3 and Is. 53 verse 5 are commonly and wrongly used as a prooftext for word of faith or healing ministries. God does not in any way promise all who have enough faith or pray hard enough that they will always be delivered from all physical diseases! Or that all disease is a 1:1 result of sin. I tried to make this case briefly but It took 10 minutes and I promised the youth this wouldn’t be a 50 minute sermon. And I don’t think that is where are at…Yes, God gives physical healing but we must look forward to the glory of heaven and the new heavens and new earth.
God is good. He does in his providence heal us physically, but we are guaranteed by a promise and an oath that those who trust in Christ will be forgiven of sins and are made alive and new by the holy spirit and await Resurrection bodies and life in Christ.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jamesensley.substack.com
