Psalm chapter 103, if you would please stand with us for the reading and the reverence of God's Word. We'll read verses 1 through 12 tonight in Psalm 103, the Psalm of David. Now that's all the Psalm gives us here. It doesn't give us any other information in the superscript. We do know this is a Psalm of David. And he says in verse one, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, but his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. I want to stop off reading there. I want to preach on this thought tonight with the Lord's help, a reason to bless him, a reason to bless him. Last time I preached here, I preached on why do we praise the Lord according to his righteousness. And tonight I want to preach on this thought, a reason to bless him. Let us pray to your heavenly father. God, we love you tonight. We thank you for loving us. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house tonight. And God, thank you for all that you've done for this church and got all that you're going to do. And thank you, Lord God, just for the ability to be here tonight. I pray, God, you'd forgive me of all my sin. I pray, God, you'd empty me of myself tonight as I try to stand to preach. God, there's nothing within myself, Lord, that's able to do any good here tonight. I need your help tonight. And Jesus, I pray that you'd touch this service me to ever need, God, that the individuals have here tonight. I pray, God, you'd just touch the hearts and minds of your people and God do a work tonight that only is able to be done by you and help us to leave closer to you and help us to give you honor praise and glory that's due unto your name it's in Jesus name we do pray amen and amen you may be seated we're preached on the thought of reason to bless him in Psalm chapter 103 we do know as I've already mentioned this is a Psalm of David we are not sure exactly at what time period David wrote this Psalm or what was going on during the life of David during the time that he wrote this Psalm but we do know that This psalm is an exhortation that God's people would bless Him based upon His mercy. And though at times we may come in the house of God, and at times we may not feel like worshiping Him, we may not feel like there's much of a reason to worship Him, But I want to encourage you tonight, if you don't have any reason to worship the Lord tonight, we all have at least one reason to worship Him, and that is because of God's mercy upon us tonight. Amen? We can all find one thing in common tonight. If we're saved, we have obtained mercy from a thrice-holy God, and David here is giving us in this Psalm an exhortation that we would bless God, we would praise God, we would worship God based upon His mercy. Now notice David says in verse one, he says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. That word bless there, when you look up the definition of that word, it means to kneel down, teaching us it's good for us to reverence and kneel down towards the things of God, to bow ourselves before a holy God and give Him thanks and honor for everything He's done in our lives since Wednesday night prayer meeting. And one good prayer we could all pray tonight as we come to the altar and get on our knees and bow ourselves before a thrice holy God and thank Him, just merely thank Him for His mercy. A lot of times we will go about our lives and ask God to bless us here or give us this or give us that. And I think tonight it'd be good for us to understand that God has been merciful to a bunch of sinners, amen? And it'd be good for us tonight to kneel down and bless Him based upon His mercy. But that word bless also carries the word, carries the idea of praise or worship. tonight, teaching us we ought to praise Him. It's not a recommendation that we praise Him, but this is the Word of God teaching us and directing us that we ought to praise God based upon His mercy. We all ought to keep that in common tonight and understand that we all have a reason to worship Him. We all have a reason to praise Him tonight, and that is because of His mercy. We ought to worship Him based upon who He is tonight, amen? But David says to bless the Lord. You look up that word, Lord, it means Jehovah, which stands for the existing God or the eternal God. And we need to be reminded tonight of one thing. When we praise God, we are praising the Alpha and the Omega. Amen. We're praising the King of kings. We're praising the Lord of lords. We're praising the eternal God, the existing God. Amen. We're not just praising man, we're praising the creator of the universe tonight. Amen. So he is worthy of our praise. But David also says there in verse 1, he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. And he says this, he uses this phrase in all that is within me." David says, bless the Lord all my soul and all that is within me. David is saying, when I bless the Lord, I'm going to pour out the entirety of my heart and pour out the entirety of my soul based upon God's mercy towards me and letting Him know how thankful I am for His mercy and letting Him know how worthy He is for my praise. David is saying, I'm gonna pour out every bit of my soul, every bit of my being and my praise and my worship to God. I just wonder at times, what would happen if the churches in America today would come to church with one thought on their mind, that we would bless the Lord, oh my soul, with all that is within us, amen? What would happen if we stopped worrying about what the brother beside us was doing or what the sister beside us was doing? What would happen if we came to church tonight and just blessed the Lord and just praised him? for who he is and with everything that was within our souls, amen. It'd be good for us tonight to come to church with one thing on our minds and one thing alone is that is to bless God for who he is, amen, with all that is within us. Can I remind us tonight that God, the Bible teaches us that God inhabits the praise of his people, amen. And we don't need me to show up, amen, we need God to show up. And when we praise God, when we worship God, when we exalt the name of Jesus, he shows up and that is what we need tonight, amen. Not only does David say, bless the Lord, but he also says to forget not all his benefits. I want you to notice verse two with me real quick. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, David says again, and he says, forget not all his benefits. In other words, David is saying, don't forget how good he's been to you. Too often, I'm afraid we forget just how good God has been to us. I'm afraid that sometimes we forget the goodness of God. And had we not forget that it would not be in our Bibles to tell us not to forget the benefits that God has to offer. The word benefits here as an act of kindness, amen, towards God's people. Can I say tonight that when Jesus died on Calvary's cross, he was more than kind to us as mankind, amen. He was more than generous. He was more than kind for dying for us and redeeming us out of our sins. But at salvation, the Lord's benefits did not stop. Now, I don't know about you tonight, but whenever I got saved, I was desiring to be saved from my sins. I was desiring to escape condemnation for eternity in a devil's hell. I just wanted to be forgiven. I just wanted to be redeemed. I just wanted to go to heaven. But what I found out is ever since I've been saved, there was more benefits that came than just forgiveness of my sins. Amen. The Lord has given us benefits. I'm just curious tonight, has anyone ever read you your benefits package since you became a Christian? Now, when I started at my workplace, they told me that I get so much for 401k, I get so much for health insurance, I get so much towards retirement. And that's all fine and dandy, and thank the Lord for those things. But I'm just curious tonight what the Lord's benefit has to offer here tonight. He says the Lord's benefits here in verses 3 through 5. Let's look at those real quick. He says, who forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all that iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, "'who crowneth thee with love and kindness "'and tender mercies, "'who satisfieth thy mouth with good things "'so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.'" He says, he's forgiven you of all your iniquities, amen. Sir, tonight, ma'am, tonight, he has forgiven you of every one of your sins tonight. That's a pretty good benefit. If you ask me, he's healed you of all of your diseases, that sickness of sin that was slowly killing you, but you did not realize that Jesus has healed all of our diseases. He has redeemed my life from destruction. Redeemed our life from destruction. I don't know where you were when God saved you, but I know where I was headed Amen, I know where me and Sierra was at a very young age. We just got married. I was all she had just got saved I'm here to tell you right now. We were headed down a path of destruction I was on my way to hell and I was tearing my family apart and where God saved me He saved me out of my repit this evening. Amen. I I swear I am thankful that He redeemed me from destruction. I was on a path, and I was headed there a hundred miles an hour, and I was not looking back. And when God saved me, and God rescued my family, He redeemed us from destruction. Amen. I swear I am glad tonight when God saves us. We're headed to hell. We're headed to destruction, but God redeems us. He saves us from that destruction. Has He saved anybody tonight from destruction? Amen. He's been good to us. Amen. I'm thankful for what He's done for us. He's crowned us with loving kindness. He's been nothing but good to us. Amen. God has been nothing but good and kind to us. He's crowned us with loving kindness. And He says, He satisfies thy mouth with good things. The Lord thy God has satisfied my thirsty and my hungry soul, just as He satisfied your thirsty and your hungry soul. Amen. And He's the only one who can satisfy it. So I don't know about you, but that sounds like me some pretty good benefits, amen, to be a Christian. All of our sins are forgiven. He's saved us from destruction and he's satisfied our mouth with good things, amen. God has been so good to us tonight, amen. But here David is saying in Psalm 103, we need to bless him. We need to bless him. We need to praise him, but we need not to forget how good the Lord has been to us. My thought tonight I really want to focus on is verses 10, 11, and 12. David in these verses really begins to deal with the mercy of God, a topic that I do not believe that anyone in this building and I can fully comprehend or fully understand. The mercy of God is greater than we can understand. The mercy of God and I is greater than we can comprehend. But first off, I want to notice here that David gives us the definition of God's mercy. If you notice in verse 10, the word of God in a nutshell gives us the definition of God's mercy. He says, He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. That is the mercy of God tonight. Grace is God giving to you and I what we do not deserve. Grace is God blessing us with things that none of us deserve. But mercy is God withholding from us what we do deserve. It's not popular preaching tonight, but every single one of us sitting here tonight deserve the judgment of God. Every single one of us here tonight deserve the wrath of God. But here, David is saying in verse 10, God has not poured out His wrath. God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor according to our iniquities. He's given us the mere definition of God's mercy. The problem is here is we all have sinned, amen? We all have fallen short of God's glory. We all have sin in our life. We all have mistakes in our past. And every single person here tonight has committed sins worthy of God's wrath. Everybody here tonight has committed sins worthy of God's condemnation. That's a scary thing to think about tonight, that we're all guilty of committing sins worthy of the wrath of God, the wrath of Almighty God. And here he says that he has not dealt with us according to our sins. Amen, and we need to be reminded tonight that the wages of sin is death. 100% of the time, the wage of sin is always death. It always kills. It always slowly kills. Amen. Ask Adam and Eve if the wages of sin is death. We all know the story that God said, if you partake of the tree, you shall surely die. We know that the devil deceived them to sin. They did eat of the tree and slowly but surely they began to die. And years on down the road, we know the story where Cain rose up and he slew Abel. And Abel had died. And here, I want you to understand here tonight, Adam and Eve were not used to death like we are. Adam and Eve were not used to experiencing funerals like we are. It's a pretty common thing for us to understand that someone died and go to the funeral home. It happens on a daily basis here. But Adam and Eve have never experienced that before. You think when Cain rose up and slew Abel. And that dead body laid on the ground there and they put that body into the grave, I guarantee you, on that day when they look down at that lifeless body, they look down at their son, I guarantee on that day they realize that the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death and ever since then, man has died. Man has died ever since the creation of man, the fall of man. But to think about this tonight, if God truly dealt with us according to our sins, we'd all be in hell tonight, amen? That's not popular preaching. That's not the hot topic for today. But the truth of the matter is, if God, a thrice holy God, really dealt with us according to our sins, we'd all be in hell today. But that's not what David's saying here. David is saying here that God has showed us mercy, amen? Despite all of our sins, despite all of our shortcomings, the Bible here is teaching us that God has showed us mercy. I don't know about you, but that's something to get excited about tonight. That we all are sinners, we all have fallen short of His glory. But God, the thrice holy God, sitting upon His throne, has not dealt with us according to our iniquities. I don't know about you, but I'm a great sinner, amen? I've got a laundry list of sin, but the Bible teaches me tonight that God has showed me mercy. If you're thankful for God's mercy tonight, say amen. Amen. The Lord's been good to us. In the Gospels, there's a great illustration of God's mercy by a man named Barabbas. Barabbas was a convicted criminal. Barabbas was a murderer. He was a wicked man, and Barabbas was on trial, I believe, to be crucified. I believe the cross that Jesus died on was supposed to be Barabbas' cross. And one day while Barabbas was on trial, awaiting his trial, awaiting the day of crucifixion, Barabbas was in a jail cell worthy of the crimes he had committed. He was chained up and he was locked up and his days were numbered. He was headed to that cross. One day as Barabbas was awaiting his trial, the soldiers came walking down the hall with another man, and this man's name was Jesus. And they opened up Barabbas' jail cell and they said, Barabbas, sir, you're free to go, but Jesus is going to take your spot. See, that was God not dealing with the iniquities of Barabbas. Barabbas was set free, though he was a criminal. Barabbas was set free. though he was a wicked man. Barabbas was set free despite everything he had done. The prison doors were open. The chains were taken off Barabbas. And even though he was a guilty man, even though he was a wicked man, even though he was worthy of the death that he was going to face, the Bible teaches us that he walked out of that prison cell on that day. And Jesus, they led Jesus up to Calvary's cross and they crucified him for Barabbas' sins and the sins of the entire world. Can I say tonight that you and I are the same as Barabbas? Not one of us is different from Barabbas. We all were headed to that cross. We all were worthy of that cross. We all were worthy of that punishment. We all were worthy of that condemnation. We all were worthy of the sins that we have committed, the punishment coming towards them. But the Bible teaches us that Jesus died in our place, amen. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, but God has showed us mercy tonight. Not only does David give us the definition of mercy, but also David gives us the depth of his mercy. Did you notice verse 11 with me real quick? He says, for as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. David begins to try and explain to us the depth of God's mercy. And in doing so, he tells us, as high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. When David wrote this, the best that David could do during his time was look up to heaven and look into the skies and say, as high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. Now, the Bible, if you study your Bible, you'll find that that word heaven is used and it's used in different terms all throughout the Bible. We'll find that heaven is sometimes referred to as the sky where the clouds are when the birds fly. The Bible teaches us that is considered a heaven. Sometimes it's referred to outer space where the sun and the moon and the stars are, and sometimes the Bible teaches us that is considered as heaven. But also the Bible teaches us of a literal place where there is a literal throne, and God sits upon His throne, And that also is referred to heaven. I still believe in heaven tonight, don't you? I still believe in Jesus. I still believe he's on the right end of the father. And I still believe there's a throne in heaven. And I believe he's coming back to get us one day. I believe of a literal place where Jesus is. If we were to die today, we'd be absent from the body and be present with the Lord for all of eternity. Amen. I believe in a literal place called heaven. Now when David talks about the height of heaven as high as the heaven is above the earth, I do not believe he's talking about the clouds. I do not believe David is even speaking about our space where the sun, the moon, and the stars are. But I do believe David is referencing to the throne of God where heavens, where God does abide in heaven. When David penned this on paper, little did David know that one day we would come to technology and studies that could take this phrase to a whole different meaning. We have technology today that can give us a greater understanding, a greater depth of what the height of heaven really is. I'm reading a book that speaks on this, and it deals with creation, and it deals with how complex our universe really is. And in this book, they say that even atheist scientists, when they study the universe, when they study outer space, they are in awe and amazement of the things that they find. They are able to figure things out on this earth, so they say. But even atheistic scientists, when they study outer space, they study the sun, the moon, and the stars, the galaxies beyond what we've ever even understood. These atheists are in awe, and they have no explanation on what they're even finding. The most intelligent men cannot wrap their minds around the findings they find when studying the universe. That's why David says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. When David says, as high as the heaven is above the earth, he's referring to a distance tonight. Now, how far is heaven above the earth? I also study this in this book, and I want you to think about the moon just for a second. I'm going to try and give you some facts just for a moment. Think about the moon. If we were to travel to the moon, and we know astronauts have, it took astronauts three days to get to the moon. The moon is 240,000 miles away from planet Earth, and traveling at a rate of 17,000 miles an hour in space, it took them three days to arrive on the moon. But David did not say as high as the moon is from the earth. So in other words, if we were to get on a space shuttle and travel for three days, you still would not reach the depth of God's mercy. Think about the sun. If we were to get on an airplane, one study says, if we were to get on an airplane and travel from today to get to the sun, it would take us about 18 years to get to the sun. Just to get there, 18 years. The sun is about 94 million miles away from planet Earth, but David did not say as high as the sun is from the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. So if you were to get on an airplane today and travel for the next 18 years, you'd still yet to reach the depth of God's mercy towards us. But think about the stars. This is what I really like. When studying the stars, it's amazing to me when you study the stars in the sky, there are more stars in the sky than there is sand on the seashore. Just in our galaxy alone, there are 100 billion stars. There are more galaxies that we have yet to even discover. And here's what's crazy, those stars on average are 30 trillion miles apart from one another. If we were to travel from one star to another in a spaceship at 17,000 miles per hour, it would take us 201,000 years, 450 years, just to get from one star to the next. If you started traveling from one star to the next on a space shuttle, if you started during the time of Christ, you would not even be a hundredth of the way there tonight. So you could travel for 200-something thousand years from one star to the next in God's great universe and you still would not have reached the depth of God's mercy towards you. David did not say the sun, David did not say the stars, and David did not say the moon. David said, as high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. Way beyond the furthest galaxy, way beyond the furthest star sits a place called heaven where God sits upon his throne and I. How far away is heaven? We can't measure the distance of heaven. David is saying the distance of heaven is so immeasurable that God's grace and God's mercy to you, we cannot measure it tonight, amen. But he says towards those that fear him. His mercy is as high as the heaven is above the earth towards those that fear Him. In other words, if you and I will just reverence the Lord and respect the Lord and walk in honor before the Lord, you cannot measure His mercy in your life. His mercy will go on and on and on and on and on. If you'll just live in the fear of the Lord, you cannot outrun the mercy of God tonight. Amen. Ain't you thankful for God's mercy? Lastly, I want to notice the distance of his mercy. The definition of his mercy is he's not dealt with us according to our sins. That's his mercy. The depth of his mercy, it's in a measurable distance. Notice here the distance of his mercy. I love how David uses distance to explain God's mercy. He says, as high as the heaven is above the earth and as far as the east is from the west. Now, how far will God's mercy take away our sins? I want you to look at verse 12 with me. He says, as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. I've preached this before, not really understanding this. I was sharing this with Brother DeWayne the other morning. And I guess I probably should have paid attention in school, but I've always thought that you could go from one place in the east to the west and reach from east to west, but that's not what this is teaching. What I found out in my study is if this verse said from north to south, that would have a whole different meaning. Because you can travel north to south and reach a point where you are going north and you reach the North Pole, then you begin to travel south. And once you reach south, you begin to travel north again. And once you reach north, you begin to travel south again. So, if this verse said, he's cast our sins away as far as the north is from the south, that'd have a whole different meaning. But in traveling east to west, these two directions never meet one another. In other words, when you start traveling east, you're always going east. Whenever you start going west, you're always going west. You'll never go west and end up east. You're always going to be traveling west. And you're never going to go east and end up west because you're always going to be traveling east. What David's saying here, as far as the east is from the west, he's removed our iniquities from us, amen? He's saying that He's taken our sins away. He's done away with our sins. If you wanted to get to your sins, you could not get to your sins. Amen. He's removed our transgressions from us. Amen. The Word of God is teaching us His mercy has removed our sins from us. On the cross, Jesus says, It is finished, that phrase means it's completed. It's a debt that's been paid. Hebrews 8, 12 says, I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. Because of God's mercy tonight, we can look to heaven and God can look to us and he can say, what sins are you talking about tonight? I mean, because of his mercy, he can look to me and say, what sins are you talking about? Because of his mercy, he can look to you and say, what sins are you talking about? Because of God's mercy, amen. We have our sins removed and thank the Lord for that tonight. Amen. The devil may remind you of your sins. You may remind yourself of your sins, but as far as God is concerned tonight, your sins are gone. Your sins are no more. If you're saved, you're saved. Amen. And he has done away with our sins. Amen. I'm talking about the mercy tonight. I'm talking about God's praise that we should give him tonight based upon his mercy. David is saying here in Psalm 103, we should bless Him. We should praise Him based upon His mercy. I understand life can be hard sometimes, and it's hard to worship the Lord. But if you're looking for a reason just to bless Him tonight, If you're looking for a reason just to praise Him tonight, if you're looking for a reason just to give a testimony tonight, when you understand His mercy, it'll help you praise Him. When you understand His mercy, it'll help you worship Him. When you understand His mercy, it'll help you bless Him. When you understand what you deserve and look around at what you've got, it'll free you up and allow you to praise Him. When we understand that we were all headed to destruction, and we deserved the life that we were headed towards, but look around at what God's blessed us with tonight, that ought to help us praise Him. God's blessed us with homes to live in. God's blessed us with food to eat. God's blessed us with a wonderful church to come to. And when we realize what we did deserve, we deserve God's wrath. We deserve God's judgment. We deserve the condemnation of God. But look what He's gave us tonight. Look where you sit tonight. We're all blessed, amen, we're blessed beyond measure. And David is saying because of His mercy, we ought to praise Him and we ought to worship Him. And I will say this right here, whenever you find someone who never praises or never worships the Lord, that person does not understand the mercy of God. That person that always comes with a sour attitude does not understand the mercy of God. That person that comes and never lifts the testimony of the Lord, never comes to the altar, never worships the Lord, never thanks Him for all He's done, does not understand the mercy of God. No wonder David said, all that is within me. Bless the Lord, all my soul and all that is within me. The reason we're here today and not in the life we used to live is because of God's mercy. The reason my family is still together is because of God's mercy. The reason my marriage is not falling apart is because of God's mercy. The reason I'm at church tonight and not in a bar somewhere is because of God's mercy. The reason I'm preaching the gospel tonight is because of God's mercy. The reason I'm not in hell tonight is because of God's mercy. The reason you're here tonight is because of God's mercy. The reason you're not who you used to be is because of God's mercy. The reason you're at church tonight and you love your church family and you want to serve the Lord is because of God's mercy. The reason you have your family tonight is because of God's mercy. As a matter of fact, what I'm saying tonight is because of everything we have is because of God's mercy. Amen. David's trying to get us to praise him for his mercy. I want to think about this. God went to the extreme for us by saying, as far as the east is from the west, As high as the heaven is above the earth, and He sent Jesus from the glory world to this earth to die for our sins, He went to the extreme for you and I, the least we could do is worship Him. That's all He desires. That's all He desires. At the end of the day, the only thing that God really desires is a relationship with you. He's went to the utmost extremes for us, and all He wants is our worship and our praise. I don't believe that's asking too much, amen? Our worship and our praise. Some of you, the devil has told you and wore you out that God don't love you and he's reminded you of your past. Some of you remind yourself of that, but I want to remind you tonight of God's mercy and his love. You cannot measure the mercy of God. You cannot measure the love of God. His love for us is more than we can comprehend. His mercy for us is more than we can comprehend. I was talking to an individual today, and I'm closing. They were concerned and broken over a child that was in the far country. feel like there was no hope for that individual. They were broken. They don't know what else to do. The child is in a far country. Don't know what else to do. They don't know where to go. Don't know where to turn. All they're doing is praying and asking God to do something. I knew I was studying for this message tonight. Do you think there's still hope for that mama? Do you think there's still hope for that little son? Oddly, I believe so, because you cannot measure the mercy of God. You cannot measure the love of God. David said, as high above the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him. We can't comprehend it tonight. He's went to the extremes for us. I just wonder, before we have these boys come up and pray tonight for us, will there be anybody? I'm not even going to ask anybody to play tonight. Will there be anybody? Just anybody, not want to come asking for anything, but just want to come thank Him. Kneel down before Him and thank Him for His mercy upon your life.