It is glorious to sing such truths with you, because I know you believe those things. And to hear you express it together, it just spurs me on. Let's pray together. Oh, Heavenly Father. We acknowledge that not only are you our eternal salvation, but also our firm foundation. Lord, when all around our soul gives way, there you are. You are a rock. You are a fortress. Lord, I don't know what it is to scale a wall. I've never scaled a wall. But I do know what it is to be rescued from my sin. I do know what it is to be given strength that I don't have. And you are our salvation. We trust in you. We know that you have both the power and the plan for our nation, for our church, for our family, and yes, for our very souls. Lord, I ask for all of us that you would help us to know the joy and the freedom of re-fixing our eyes away from the things below and fixating them on the things above. on you and your gospel ways. Lord, truly, for only then will we have the perspective and the strength and the motivation to fulfill our purpose for which we were created, to be a glory to you and an eternal good to those around us. Lord, we ask that you would teach us from your word this morning, collectively, move us from where we are toward your glory. Lord, show us both what is your glory and what is our response. And Lord, then we ask that you would receive from us our devotion to you as we share communion together this morning. Our communing by your spirit with you and with your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is in His name we pray. Amen. Let's come to the Word of God this morning. As we gather here this morning, we're going to take a pause from our progression through the book of Romans. We're in Romans chapter 9 as we're working through that wonderful portion of Scripture, but we're going to take a pause this morning to consider a psalm and reflect. on the nature of God and His gospel ways. At the end of last week, as we were in Romans chapter 9, we came to a clear picture on the nature of God as the ultimate sovereign in the salvation of individual souls, having absolute freedom to have mercy on whom He wills and even harden whom He wills. And that He does so, just as He does all things, so that His glory will be made known throughout all the earth, and that His glory will be responded to, especially by those who are the objects of His mercy. The picture that not just Romans 9, but truly all of the scripture paints is crystal clear about God's sovereignty and salvation. And yet, it often raises questions as to the how, and this all works out. How it fits into what we know the scripture teaches is of human responsibility and human accountability for our own life and response to God. And Paul's next words in Romans 9, which Lord willing we'll pick up next week, verse 19 of Romans 9, and then on into chapter 10, Paul begins to answer some of those questions that naturally rise up and concerns. He begins to address them. But as we saw last week at the very end with the example of the Israelites standing there on the other side of the Red Sea having just witnessed the glory of God displayed not only in mercy but also in judgment. Their first response was not to ask questions of God. Their first response was to turn around and praise Him and glorify His name. And so I thought appropriate this morning that having come to that point in Romans 9, we do the same. And we spend a Sunday just responding to the greatness of God, both in His mercy and in His justice. And let me just lead us through Psalm 103 this morning that considers God's sovereign freedom and His grace, and let this psalm show us our proper response. The psalms, like Romans, contain much theology. It's been said, properly so, that well over half of the theology of God, what we know about God, is clearly stated and reflected in the psalms themselves, and much like Romans. But the difference between Romans and the Psalms is that Paul is using systematic, logical arguments and statements to present the knowledge of God. Where in the Psalms we get it in the midst of a personal expression, in the midst of life experience, as the psalmist forging out and working out their knowledge of God pens these excellent expressions of God's words. And now the Psalms themselves follow a basic pattern, not all of the Psalms, but you see it there on your outline if you have it, but I have it up on the screen here too, just kind of a common structure for the Psalms. As you read through all of them, a common structure comes out. Again, not in every single one, but overall. And basically they form a cry of action and then added to that the reason for that cry. I mean, that's kind of a very simplification of the Psalms, but there's a call for action and then there's the reasons given for that action. And that cry for action often takes one of two forms. It'll either be a cry out to God for God to act, either to help His people or to judge the wicked, mercy or justice. Or that cry for action will be a cry out to men to act, either to praise God or to act wisely in light of the knowledge of God. So our psalm this morning, Psalm 103, is going to follow the pattern of 2A. It's going to be a cry for men to act. to praise the Lord on behalf of who He is. So if you've got your Bible open there to Psalm 103, let's consider the first part of this, and that is a cry for action, which is, in this case, to bless the Lord. Look at verses one and two. 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. The first thing we see right at the beginning is who is being cried out to. And you always find the who's being cried out to if you just follow the letter O. It's the evocative form of speech, oh. Sometimes you hear, oh Lord, or oh Israel, or oh man, or oh wicked. Well, who's the oh? Oh my soul. Okay, the psalmist is David here is speaking to himself and he's calling upon himself to act. Have you ever called out to yourself to act? I mean, like out loud, you cry out for yourself to do something? It's usually when there is something you know very well you ought to be doing, but you find yourself not doing it, and so you start crying out to yourself. Ted, Ted, dude, what are you doing? Golly, what is your problem? Get with the program. Right? I'm not the only one. Hopefully you don't use the word Ted in that sentence, but you know. Well, that's what this kind of psalm is. It's David crying out to himself, but it's not just for David. In fact, the Spirit led David to pen this cry for action to his own soul as a reflection of what we should be crying out to our own soul and had him put it here in the Psalter in Psalm 103 for all of God's people. of all time. That's the who. Well, what's the action? What's the cry about? The cry is plainly to bless the Lord. Six times we find that phrase in this psalm. To bless someone is to do them good, to enrich them, to honor them, to bring joy to them. We just have to stop immediately and ask the question, if the Lord is the one that is being blessed here, how can we as humans enrich the Lord? Do some good for Him? Bring Him joy? Help Him in some way? What does that even mean when we say we are going to bless the Lord? He needs nothing. And the answer is that we bless the Lord by giving to God a proper response that appropriately acknowledges, honors, magnifies, appreciates, celebrates who He is. Or as David put it here at the end of verse 1, we bless His holy name. That means who He is. And that response of blessing the Lord, that could be in song, as we have just done. It could be in speech, as we talk to others, or him, in serving his son, in yielding to his spirit, in obeying his word, in engaging in humble, dependent prayer, assisting his other servants, et cetera. I mean, there's lots of ways we can respond appropriately to who he is. And we heard last week that if the chief aim of God in all that He does is to have His name glorified by His creation, that's His chief aim, then we ask, well, what's the chief aim of any individual person? It is to glorify or bless the Lord in response to His glory and to enjoy Him forever. Okay, so let me ask you this question. Do you bless the Lord enough? It's almost nonsense to ask that question because we're talking about the creator of the universe, infinite in power and glory. How much would be enough for me to bless him. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 16 says, even the forests of Lebanon are not enough to burn, and all its beasts enough for a burnt offering, considering his infinite nature. We would say, not even the forests of Alaska or all the cattle in Texas are enough. So of course, you yourself personally cannot bless God in an appropriate proportion to His infinite nature. But that's not really the question I'm asking. The question I'm asking is if you get your mind off of the infinite nature of God and from His perspective and ask it from your own perspective, in your own life, in your little bubble, is what is coming out in the way of blessing of the Lord out of your bubble, do you believe it is sufficient? It is adequate? Is the amount of praise, is it enough? Are you satisfied with the blessing that God is getting from you? Now, I am talking about you in total. As the psalmist says here, second line, all that is within me. So we're not just talking about what you do with your lips, we're not just talking about verbal blessings, but also with your life, that entire bubble that is you and your life. And we're certainly not just talking about rote expressions of actions or songs sung or prayers stated. We're talking about the kind of blessing to God that comes by a full engagement of your total person, your mind, your very soul, with all that is within me. Perhaps some of you left your mind at home this morning. You're here. You sang loud enough. The songs were rousing. But your mind was somewhere else. It was not an expression of all that is within you. Now, others, you brought your mind with you, but you left your heart. You hold these Bible truths to be self-evident, but you're as cold as a dead frog toward the Lord. There's just no warmth, there's no zeal. It's right for you to be here, but your heart's not here. Matthew 15, 8, Jesus himself said, this people worships me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. The question I'm asking is, are you okay with that, if that's the case, when that's the case? Look, I just ask such questions to my fellow eternal souls out of a recognition that we are all very much in need with what David is saying here, with the cry that he is offering for us to repeat after him. Soul, soul, soul, what is your chief aim? Bless the Lord with all that is within you. How are you doing in that regard, soul? I don't think I exaggerate when I say that we all struggle here. So I think we can be thankful that not only David has penned this cry to bless the Lord, but he's also tacked on to it that primary call of action to a secondary call that assists us with blessing the Lord. And we find it in verse 2. not. Bless the Lord and forget not." Which means to purposefully recall to mind something you're likely prone to forget, forget not. And then let all that is within your bubble be a response to what you forget not. And what is it that we're to forget not? What does the text say? all his benefits." Benefits. That's a very intriguing word for David to use here. Probably there isn't a better English word than benefits. But what comes to your mind when you hear benefits? He got benefits. We typically think of our job. I mean, that's the first thing that comes. You have a job, they offer you a pay, which is a sort of benefit, but then there's other benefits, right? 401K, vacation time, sick time, specified hours, fair labor practices, bonuses maybe, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, these are the benefits. They are in fact, though, a form of the agreement that you have with your employer and part of why you are working for that employer. Some people go to work not for the pay, but for the benefits. It's part of the pay. And this is the word David uses here. The word translated benefits in the Hebrew means a repayment, what is expected, what is due. You just pause and think about that for a second. God's giving us what is a repayment? What is due us? Something's wrong here. Because even as we go through this psalm, we're going to see we don't want God's just repayment for our transgression, iniquity, and sin. But David says, bless the Lord for all his benefits. Don't forget them. And what we see here is that David is not talking about benefits that God owes us due to what we have done. What David is expressing is what God owes to himself based on who he is. It's as if there's an effervescence to His nature and character that just bubbles out of Him. And anyone so privileged to be brought near to Him is just going to get showered in this flow of benefits that God cannot stop from coming out of Himself because that's who He is. He cannot help being true to Himself, and these are His benefits, and so if you are with Him, then these benefits are yours. Not because you have earned them or deserve them, but because He cannot help but give them, and if you are with Him, you are getting showered by these benefits. And what we learned about God, both in Exodus and In Romans and everywhere else in the Scripture is that a person doesn't come to be with God because they happen to have stumbled upon Him by accident or because they've been so pious they have earned and found their way to God. People end up being in the presence of God because God, in His love and grace, chose them, sought them, found them, transformed them, put His Spirit in them, drew them near to Himself, adopted them, gave an inheritance that is supposed to be for His Son, and now they get all His benefits. That's how one is in the presence of God. and thus we forget not, and thus we bless." So that's the call to action. Bless the Lord. Forget not all of His benefits, and thus the reason. And the reason we do that is because of the very benefits themselves. The reason for the cry, all his benefits, and this is the bulk of the psalm. Let's walk through them. First benefit David mentions is essentially God's ways to me. Look at the text. David begins to catalog the benefits. Who forgives all your iniquity, soul? Who heals all your diseases, soul? who redeems soul, your life from the pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you, soul, with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." David's still speaking to his own soul here, begins to recount the gracious blessings of the Lord. These are not unique to David, for they were experienced by all in Israel who are of the faith of Abraham. And let me just say this up front, when I say that they were experienced by all who were of the faith of Abraham within Israel, it's because David, in expressing this, is expressing these particular benefits that those who were of the faith of Abraham under the old covenant in which David writes, they received these things immediately and temporally in their actual life right now. And yet we live in the new covenant that has been inaugurated in Christ which comes with better promises and yet those better promises are given to us as a down payment of the Spirit in a spiritual sense now with full payment immediately received when we enter into the presence of Jesus. That's how the new covenant works. It's better promises because the promises of the old covenant were temporary and they were just immediately or most of them were just immediately for this life. Our promises are better because they're eternal, and once received, we will have them without fail forever. But David speaks here as one under the old covenant. He received such things immediately, and yet they weren't always permanent or lasting. But look at what he says. These are the benefits of God. He forgives iniquity. He heals diseases. This was the promise of God to Israel. I will not put on you the diseases that I put on all the other nations. He redeems your life from the pit. David's life was spared by God. David's acknowledging that. Surround you with steadfast love and compassion. Satisfy you with good. That's prosperity. That's literally what it means. Fill your jewelry. is one way to translate it. You have prosperity, and that was what was promised to Israel in that day. We don't have a promise of immediate prosperity, but what we do is a promise of eternal prosperity that can never be taken away from us when we enter into the presence of Jesus. He renews your youth to be like an eagle, swift and vigorous. I don't know if you're like me, but I get older every year. And my youth goes away. I can't keep up with my kids anymore. The promise to me is not like the promise to David that even in old age he was still out there fighting battles with his soldiers, or like Caleb in the Exodus, he went and conquered a whole territory even though he was older than all of them. I don't have that promise of physical youth, but what do I have the promise in the present? Of spiritual vigor. He is transforming me day by day to be more and more conformed to the image of his son so that I am spiritually being renewed and one day even my body will be renewed. These are the promises we have in the new covenant. And by faith we reach out and we believe those promises and we bless the Lord that they are our sure possession. because they are. And we forget not these benefits that are ours. So these are David's ways, or God's ways to David himself, to the soul. And then David begins to explore God's ways to all. His nature, who he is in verse 6 through 14. He adjusts his gaze from what God has done to him to what God does for all. Well, Actually, not all all, but all who are His. As he clarifies later in verse 13, those who fear Him. Verse 17, those who fear Him. Verse 18, to those who keep His covenant to remember to do His commandments. So we modify that to say His ways to all who fear Him. The transforming of the Spirit causes us to walk in His ways, those who are the objects of His mercy. Now, David formats this, verse 6 through 14. We won't walk through it in detail, but I just want to point out how he formats this. It's fascinating. It's a series of statements about God's nature and then how it's applied in particular statements to those who are His. You can see that there again on your outline. I'll put it up here. There are statements about God's nature. We read these this morning. He works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. As He told the Israelites in the days of Moses, He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. Exodus 34, 7. And then beginning in verse 9, He makes a statement about God and then He applies it to those who are His. He does not always strive or chide. He won't retain His anger forever. And so how does that get applied to those who are His? Well, verse 10, He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Next character of God, verse 11, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. That's who he is, that's his character. How does that get applied to us? Verse 12, well, as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. That was true for David, it's true for us in Christ. Verse 13, nature of God, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. How does that get applied to us? Well, verse 14, he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. And praise God, we have a compassionate father. Because our frame, our nature, is not worthy of His perfections, but He knows that. He remembers that. He calls it to mind in His dealings with us such that He is very compassionate, very patient. Those are His benefits to all who are His own. And we say at this point, well, I mean, all is well and good that God is gracious like that, but what cause for blessing would it be if God were kind but powerless? I mean, He has good intentions, but He can't, He doesn't quite have the position or the power to carry through with it. What if He's just like men, and He just doesn't have what it takes to keep their word? Well, David says, yeah, so let's talk about His power. Not only His ways to me, not only His ways to all who fear Him, but let's talk about His power. Verse 15 to 19. First off, His longevity. Look at verse 15. As for man, let's compare Him to man. As for man, His days are like grass. He flourishes like the flower of the field. The wind passes over it, and it's gone, and its place knows it no more." Now, David spent his youth growing up as a shepherd out in the fields. He knows the wind. He's very familiar with the wind. I don't know, maybe Bethlehem has tornadoes like Owasso does, and so he's especially familiar. I don't know, but you know what? It doesn't take a tornado to dry up and blow away the grass. Likewise, men and their promises have no longevity, in light of eternity anyway. But, verse 17, the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. on those who fear Him. His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. The Lord's benefits, such as His steadfast love, David picks an example here, they're from everlasting to everlasting. And His righteousness, which he already mentioned in verse six, is to children's children. Now, that's not just stating that God's righteousness only lasts three generations, to children's children. But it's just a way of saying, as long as children grow up and have children, that's how long God's righteousness will last. Forever. It's a poetic way of saying, again, forever. And so when you compare God to men, the question in verses 15 to 18 is not really how long will God's benefits last. But the question is really, am I among those who fear Him and keep His commandments to do them? Or am I just me and my bubble? Do I, my soul, and all my life, does it really just belong to man? to the ways of man which are temporary and will eventually go away? Or does my heart belong to the Lord? Am I part of the church more than physically here? That's the question. There's a second contrast here that David gives between God and mankind and all mankind's power. It's not just the longevity of His power, but the absolute sovereignty of His power. Verse 19, the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all. God's not limited or inhibited in any way by man and man's value systems on the earth. He's unlike any ruler or any purveyor of benefits. On the earth, His throne is in the heavens, and from there He rules. Not just the heavens, but He rules all. Such that whatever benefits He purposes to share with the objects of His mercy, with whomever He determines to share them, they will, in fact, certainly receive such benefits. Because He alone is sovereign in our salvation, and for that reason, our election, our salvation is secure. Not because of what we've done, but because He is sovereign, that His throne is in the heavens. Again, what good would it do to have a powerful God who has many, many gracious benefits to bestow, if you are too weak, too sinful, too ugly, too average, too broken to catch His eye? What if with God it was like it is with men? that only the rich, only the beautiful, only the talented, only the well-spoken, maybe even only the lucky actually get the full award. That's how it is with men. What David is saying is, but God's not like that. God's throne does not sit on the earth. His throne is in the heavens. And as David says in Psalm 115, three, our God is in the heavens and he does whatever he pleases. And what is it that pleases him to glorify his name by giving justice to the oppressed, not to the impressive. Those who receive His eternal benefits are not those who can earn it, not those who have some race or riches or intelligence or beauty or piety. No, it is that He has chosen to favor those He has chosen to favor, regardless of anything about them. And they receive His benefits, mostly His Son, His Spirit, and His steadfast love. Again, I think the question here is not just who is God. David has made that so plain. The question is, have your eyes been opened to see your sin for what it really is before such a God? Have your eyes been opened to see God's Son for who He really is? Has your life been transformed by His Spirit so that it is becoming increasingly more and more what it really ought to be? If so, then He has done it and not you. It is His sovereignty that has acted on you to bring you up to receive His benefits. And we forget not this truth. We say it. We say, I bless you, Lord, because you in your sovereign freedom chose to bring me to your son to receive eternal benefits from you. My salvation is from the Lord. And the psalm ends right where it began, only bigger and better. David gives a re-cry for action, which is, bless the Lord to the X degree. Verse 20 and 22, David here, he gives an exponential function. He's not trying to flatten the curve. He's trying to increase the curve. He's trying to add others to those who would bless the Lord together with him. He's trying to infect them with a sense of who God is and cause them to bless the Lord. Look at the text. Bless the Lord, verse 20, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word. Obeying the voice of his word bless the Lord all his hosts his ministers who do his will Bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion What's going on here with David? Well, I I think his mind's eye in verse 19 is in the heavens where God's throne is And David calls out to those who are in the heavens his angels his hosts And then he calls out as broadly from there as he can, all works in all places of his dominion. This just reminds me of one of the classic scenes in those Disney animated movies, you know, like Aladdin with this grand parade of Ali Ababwa coming in, you know, to the town, or Beauty and the Beast, you know, be our guest, you know, all the dishes and plates and cups are called to all, come, let's join the whole celebration. This is what David's doing here. Even all that is within me coming out of my little bubble is not enough, given the magnitude and the gracious, beneficent God that you are. So you've got to praise the Lord with me. You've got to join me. You've got to know who He is. We've got to give Him blessing together. That's the heart of a true worshiper, one who truly blesses with all that is within him, actually tries to bless with all that is in others, too, because God is so worthy of it. But ultimately, as David acknowledges in the very last line, what matters most is not what others do, but it comes right back to where I began. Bless the Lord, O my soul. With all that is within me, bless His holy name, forgetting not all of His benefits. This is how we respond to God and to His gospel ways. This is what we have a special privilege of doing when we come to the Lord's table. not doing it alone, by ourselves, but by Jesus's grace, a pre-programmed way where we all remember the most important benefit we receive from the Lord, and we all bless His name by taking together. I'm going to ask those who are serving us, the elements and musicians, to come, if you would. as we prepare ourselves to take communion. In doing so, we remember God's Son. It's as simple as that. That's what we're doing. We're remembering God's Son. He is the means of all God's benefits for us. Crucified, dead, buried, risen, ascended, returning again. our salvation, our only salvation. What we do is we take the bread and the cup and we take it all together. Not individually, but together as a means of saying we are unified only by one thing. not by our race, not by our age, not by our level of maturity, but by what Christ has done for us. We are together in this. What Jesus did is He gave His body and He gave His blood as the appropriate sacrifice for our sin, inaugurating the covenant by which we have hope that not just temporarily will our sins be forgiven, And we've got to offer more sacrifices next year. No, once and for all we receive our pardon. So this observance is for those who have been brought near, evidenced by repentance from sin, confessing Christ as Savior and Lord, demonstrating that in water baptism, and who are presently walking in fellowship with Jesus and with His church and every individual in it. if any here are not in that condition that I just described, then to take in such an unworthy manner, Paul actually warns in 1 Corinthians 11, would be to become guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Himself. Sober warning. And so, Paul says, let a person examine himself and so eat the bread and drink the cup. By taking it again and again, we say, Lord Jesus, we forget not. And we treasure and bless your holy name, for it truly is a cup of blessing that we receive, and we truly are participating in the body of Christ. So, just like David cried out to us here, we are to do this with all that is within us. To engage in even this cup of blessing, without all that is within me would also be to dishonor the body and the blood of Jesus. And I say such things not to frighten any of the faithful away from taking the Lord's Supper, but rather just to communicate to you once again just how wholly a sacrifice has been made for us, nothing less than the Son of God Himself dying on our behalf. Let me pray for us, and then we'll continue to meditate as the men pass the bread and the cup among us. Oh Lord, we thank you for this expression in the Psalms, reminding us not only of the glorious benefits of your own person, not something we deserve, but something you delight to give. And Lord, it's our desire just to give back to you the appropriate blessing. all that is within us to take, to receive, to rejoice in your Son. Oh, Father, you know our frame. We are but dust. We are frail. But we come to this moment. If we have sins that have stained our hands, we confess them now. Lord, if there is turmoil between us and another one of your children, O Lord, we purpose, we will not even take this until we get that straightened out. O Lord, give us faith to grab hold of the promises and rejoice in them every day and bless you with everything that is in our bubble. Lord, we take these elements, remembering your Son and rejoicing in Him. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.