The psalm that Pastor Bob read at the beginning of your gathering, Psalm 103, it was written by me. It was a psalm of personal reflection that the Holy Spirit led me to consider, to write, to reflect upon. One of the great preachers of The last several hundred years, Charles Spurgeon said of this psalm that I wrote that I wrote it later on in life. A lot of other commentators that you have access to indicate that as well. I'm not going to tell you whether that was true or not, but it would certainly be fitting that as you read through this psalm, you can see my life's journey. You can see the ways in which the Lord truly blessed my life, truly watched over my life and gave me so much that I could not but write, oh bless the Lord and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. I certainly did not deserve that which God gave to me. I certainly did not deserve the material blessings, but I certainly was not deserving of the grace that he showed me in my life. I'm a sinner. And some of the sins that I committed in my life were pretty heinous, pretty horrible things. I'm ashamed of that which I have done and the consequences that those sins brought. Myself? No, I deserved. But my people, the nation, my family, my son, my wife. And yet as I reflect upon that which God did, and thinking about that great grace that I experienced, those words that Nathan after pointing that finger at me and saying, I am the man, also gave that most wonderful word, God has removed the guilt of your sin. This psalm I wrote as a personal expression But the Holy Spirit is using that to expand it. It gets incorporated in the Psalter, the psalm section. It has come down through the generations so that you have the privilege to join with me in expressing this beautiful psalm of thanksgiving, for that's really what it is about my life. And I trust it's your experience as well. Let me just take you through some of these opening verses. I won't go through the whole psalm, but I just want you to think about this in relationship to my life. And as I relay these things, maybe you can think about them in relationship to your own life. After that great call that occurs in that first verse, at least as it's designated, that we bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. If you look at verse two, the thing that I mentioned first of all is to not forget all his benefits. Perhaps as you've sat here tonight and listened to the men pray, You pause to think about, I really hadn't thought about that. I really hadn't thought about that. I really hadn't thought about that. All those benefits. And I'm sure each one of these men who prayed would probably say something to the effect, yeah, and I forgot some. Yeah, there were some things I was going to add, but I was a little nervous I forgot them. I didn't include them. There's more. Don't forget all his benefits. Count your many blessings, but you can't do it, can you? You really can't even begin to start to count them all. Every day brings so many hundreds and thousands of them. For it's each breath. It's each heartbeat. In each, every vehicle that you pass that is held and stays on the correct side of the road. All those benefits. Look at my life. Shepherd to warrior. I was just a shepherd boy. And yet God blessed. by allowing me to be a warrior and to take down one of Israel's greatest enemies. And then he took me from being that warrior to being a king. Let me tell you, I never dreamed those days of sitting there watching those sheep hour after hour after hour that someday I was going to be the king. All his benefits. from field to palace. Maybe some of you, the older folks in the room, can perhaps reflect upon that a little bit better. Maybe some of you remember when your toilet wasn't even inside the house. Okay, I won't ask for a show of hands. Maybe it was your grandparents' house. Think of all the blessings that you folks have enjoyed since the time that you were born. All the things that have made life easier. Sometimes you perhaps get down on the progress and perhaps with good reason, but there's an awful lot of blessings too. All the benefits that you've had to enjoy. Some of you in this room might actually remember packing ice into a box to save your food. Now you got a refrigerator. All the blessings. Your lifespan, so much longer than the lifespan of most folks even 80 years ago. Pastor Bob prayed a few minutes ago about your healthcare. All the benefits that you have. Verse three. How could I not write this? Who forgives all your iniquity. All your iniquity. I go on later in the Psalm to describe that forgiveness. It's a removal of our sins from east to west. For me and in my day, it was looking forward to the one who was going to crush the head of the serpent. It was looking forward to that Messiah. It was looking forward to that Christ, that promised one. You can look backwards and see the fulfillment of all of those promises. He forgives all, not some, not part, Not most. As I told you a few minutes ago, I got so many. I got so many. Most of you think, when you think about my life, of the whole episode with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. But I was a lousy dad. I was a lousy father. Think of my son Absalom. I did not do a good job. And yet, he forgives all your iniquity. Every single one. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Verse three, I also included, he heals all diseases. He's the healer. He doesn't always choose to heal every single disease, but every single disease that is healed, he does it. You see, I did another foolish thing once. I told my military commander to go out and to count the people. It resulted in a disease upon the nation. And yet, the Lord did not let it go further. He stopped it. In a way, that points again to the one who is indeed the great physician, Jesus Christ. Verse four, he redeems your life from the pit. You know, my life reached some pretty low points. And I don't mean just in regards to sin. I mean in terms of my emotional health, my spiritual health. There were some low days. Read some of the other Psalms that got put into the Psalter of the discouragement. Sometimes there's some outright anger. How come the wicked people get away with so much? Do you think the time that I'm sitting in that Philistine prison and they're plotting how to kill me was not a low point? Do you think I enjoyed acting like the crazy fool that I had to act like, scratching on the walls? You think I enjoyed writing Psalm 51? Sometimes I was brought very low. Perhaps you've experienced that in life. We don't always dwell upon the mountaintop of life, do we? Sometimes there are valleys, sometimes there are things that happen. But the Lord redeemed me. He brought me out of that pit. He lifted me up. Maybe old Spurgeon was right. But at the end of my life, when I look back, I can see how many ways, how many ways the Lord redeemed me from a pit and lifted me up upon a rock. That's what I write in several Psalms too, that the Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. He is the light. Why did I stress those things? Because of that discouragement. The Lord redeemed me from those things. Verse five, he satisfies with good things. Oh, there were always blessings and blessings and blessings. There were always good people around me, even at that low point when I had to hightail it out of Jerusalem, there were those people who were there that God brought to support, to uphold, to strengthen. When I got to the river, there was Brazilian with some supplies. At first, I kind of wondered, what's he doing bringing all these tablecloths and utensils and everything? But he was doing what he could to be my friend. He satisfies with good things. Sometimes that good thing was Nathan, always coming. and pointing out. But I can see that as the hand of God pointing out my sin, driving me to repentance, driving me to look again to the one who would crush the head of that serpent. And then verse five in your Bibles ends with these words, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. How many times I wasn't sitting out there in the field and keeping watch over those sheep and just watching those eagles soar so effortlessly. And then a few flaps of their wings and off they go again. The Lord lifts us up on eagles' wings. The Lord renews us, he re-strengthens us, he recharges us, perhaps to use your terminology, like an eagle, to soar, to soar above the issues and the difficulties and the problems of life. We don't soar ourselves, no, he lifts us up. and he renews our strength like an eagle's. Pastor Bob said I had to keep it short, so I've only gone through the first five verses. Perhaps over the course of the next couple of days, I know you have a busy day tomorrow, but maybe over the course of the Next couple of days, you can read through the rest of the psalm and reflect on it in terms of how it relates to my life, the author, David. But then how it's so true for your life as well, because I'm no different. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm no different than you are. And the psalm may be what I wrote, but it's what we all experience. So that we, you gather tonight to say thank you, Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Let's bow in prayer as Pastor Bob leads. Father, we pray that these words of David might indeed again give us pause to think and reflect about the spiritual blessings for which we can upon this Thanksgiving say thank you. Thank you for all that you do for us in and through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Thank you for inspiring through your Holy Spirit a man called David. to write these Psalms. Psalms about real life, Psalms about the experiences of life. Father, may we treasure these words. May we make use of them often as we go through the various phases of life. Lord, may we always, may we always return Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. In Christ's glorious name we pray, and God's people say, amen. We're gonna turn in our hymn books once again to selection 103A. 103A. So we're now gonna sing Psalm 103 through this selection. We'll stand and sing all the verses. Note that you have to turn the page on this one. Did you know that too? Okay, okay. So 103A starts on the right, you turn the page and we get through Three more verses. We're going to stand to sing, and then I'll offer prayer once again, and then we'll close with the doxology. Let's stand to sing.