God's Word in Psalm 103. 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 lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, 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 toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This far we read God's word. Our text is taken from verses 11 and 12 of the psalm. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Beloved saints in Jesus Christ, Psalm 103 extols the mercy of Jehovah God. After the opening verses calling us to bless Jehovah for that mercy, it sets forth the all-encompassing character of that mercy. It's shown in forgiving our sins and healing our diseases, redeeming our life from destruction in every aspect of Our life, the child of God, experiences and enjoys the mercy of Jehovah. The psalmist then turns to demonstrating that this is the mercy Jehovah has shown to Israel throughout Israel's life and history. And then points more to the mercy as it's rooted in Jehovah's own being. Merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. And in that section, in which our text is also found, shows that that mercy that's rooted in His being shows itself to you and to me in the way of forgiving our sins. After that, verse 14 and on, this psalm explains why man stands in need of that mercy, for we are dust. We are frail and we are sinful. having pointed out how transitory our life is, like grass green in the morning, withered ere the close of day. By contrast, how great again the mercy of Jehovah, which is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. And again, having set forth different ways the glorious character of the mercy of Jehovah God, the psalmist calls His soul, all creation to praise and bless Jehovah, who of all gods alone, for after all, He is the only God, is a God of mercy. To that mercy of Jehovah, our text directs us also and points us to several aspects. Two of the aspects which are found in our text are found elsewhere in the psalm. The fact that Jehovah's mercy shows itself forgiving sins and the fact that Jehovah's Mercy shows itself to a particular people not a common mercy for all men but for some only but there is in our text one thought that is not found elsewhere in the psalm and that is the infinite character of Jehovah's Mercy As he removes our sins as far from us as the heavens are above the earth and as east is from west And it's that word that we desire to hear this morning as we prepare to come to the table of the lord Understanding we must that the work our lord and savior did for us on the cross and the work the spirit Applies to your life and mine is not a work That's true today, but not tomorrow. Not a work that's true for just a while. And it's not a work that's true for just a while, because it's not a work that Jehovah did in part. It's a work He did completely. A work He did infinitely. And therefore, the forgiveness of sins that I enjoy, and of which the table of the Lord testifies to you and to me, is a complete forgiveness which we will enjoy now and forever hearing that and being reassured in that faith the child of God has great hope even in the midst of the troubles of this life I call your attention to the text under the theme as far as east from west notice first that the text is speaking of divine mercy Secondly, righteous mercy. Third, particular mercy. And finally, infinite mercy. Very clearly, the text speaks of His mercy. So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. And the His refers to Jehovah God. Jehovah has mercy. What is His mercy? We're going to give two lines of answer to that question both come out of Hebrew words translated mercy The first not found in our text but found in the psalm Translated tender mercies in verse 4 and merciful in verse 8 According to this word the mercy of Jehovah is the disease the compassion of Jehovah for a people in distress and in trouble You and I sometimes look at somebody in trouble and we have no compassion for him or her. Our nature does not. And we act and suppose as if that person deserved all the trouble he or she is getting and experiencing and therefore we are not moved to pity and are not going to take any action to deliver him or her from his trouble. But Jehovah's mercy is first of all a being moved to pity by the trouble in which he sees his people." The scripture speaks sometimes of the bowels of his compassions. That is, so moved to pity, using a figure of speech, that it is as if his stomach and internal organs are affected by the trouble in which he sees his people. being moved to pity, Jehovah does not just say, I wish I could deliver them, but Jehovah delivers. He exercises His all-omnipotent power to deliver us from our trouble and not just take our trouble away so that we are without troubles, but rather, more than that, delivers us to fellowship and friendship with Him. In other words, He doesn't just take our misery away, but He gives us in its place a blessedness that is beyond compare. That, first of all, is the mercy of Jehovah to a sinner, not just forgiving his sin, but declaring him righteous as to a poor man, not just paying his debt, giving Him in addition a billion dollars. There's another word translated mercy in the Hebrew and that's the word found in our text in verse 11, His mercy. It's the word that refers to mercy as being a revelation or a manifesting of the steadfast covenant love of God. That word is found in other places in the psalm as well. Verse 4 where it's translated loving kindness. Verse 8, verse 17. But the word loving kindness in the English gets more at the idea of this Hebrew word. A loving kindness of a covenant keeping God. And that's the significance really of that word. And what you and I have to see in the first point is I'm explaining that this is divine mercy. This is not just the mercy of some idle God, some figment of man's imagination, but it is the mercy of Jehovah God, the one, only, true God. Notice that throughout the psalm. The psalmist refers to God as calling Him Jehovah. Bless the Lord, O my soul, where the word Lord in our King James is in all capital letters. He's calling attention, first of all, to the covenantal being of Jehovah, because Jehovah reveals God as a covenantal being. And in the psalm, he puts the mercy of Jehovah in the context of God's covenant. This paves the way for all that follows. To whom does Jehovah show mercy? To his covenant people. In what way does Jehovah show mercy? By bestowing on them the blessings of the covenant. For how long will we enjoy this mercy? Forever, because the mercy of Jehovah and the covenant of Jehovah is an unending, unbreakable covenant. That's the significance of noting here that the mercy of which we speak is divine mercy. If you and I possess this mercy, by the grace of the one true God, then we are blessed beyond all measure. Psalm speaks of how that mercy of Jehovah is manifest. The psalm not only, but our text also. And in so doing, teaches us about the righteousness of the mercy of God. For His mercy, we read, is so great toward them that fear Him, that he removes our transgressions from us. Now we remember what is that misery into which we have fallen that makes Jehovah's mercy so necessary. It is the misery of sin. Not only Adam's sin some time ago, but the sins which you and I have noticed in ourselves also in this past week. And then sin, not just in some vague general way, but sin as it brings on me guilt and makes me liable to punishment. And I understand, as we have going through Lord's Days 4 and 5 of the Heideberg Catechism lately, that that guilt and that punishment which I deserve is an everlasting punishment of body and soul in hell. That is my misery. Not only so, but the misery of sin is that I, being fallen into sin, am unable of myself to improve my moral character in the least, and can only sin more and more and more, so that I experience myself to be ever more and more apart from God, and I experience even more and more that the misery He is preparing for me in hell is a greater and greater suffering and misery. That is our misery. And Jehovah says, of some of whom that is our misery, I will forgive. Showing mercy to us then, first of all, He declares in His righteousness, that He does not see guilt in us. Then He goes a step further and declares that rather than seeing any guilt in us, and rather than seeing us as simply without guilt and morally neutral, He sees us positively as righteous. As those who have not in the least transgressed any commandment of His law, but on the other hand as those who have, as it were, kept his law in every demand from the beginning to the end of our life and therefore those who can have fellowship with him forever. Do you experience that mercy? In delivering us from our sin and guilt in His righteousness, Jehovah also removes not just our guilt, but the corruption of sin. It's not the focus of the text, but it's not something we're going to ignore. For the supper is going to build us up this morning, not only in a knowledge and in a confidence, but also strengthening that faith by which we live. so that we will go forth from the house of God this morning convinced that our sins are forgiven and ready anew to live a new and godly life. Jehovah in his mercy has taken our sin away and empowers us to obey. Do you experience Jehovah's mercy in that respect? In showing us this mercy Jehovah shows himself to be the righteous God. In delivering us from sin, and then not just leaving us, as it were, to start over on our own, but saying, rather than seeing you as neutral or giving you a fresh start, I give you the blessedness that is my children's blessedness in Christ, in exalting us so highly, Jehovah shows his righteousness. When Jehovah says of a man that he does not see his sins in him any longer and of a woman that he empowers her to live a new and godly life, Jehovah does that in order to make us enjoy life in his covenant and equip us to serve him in his covenant. Let us come this morning to the table of the Lord confident that Jehovah has taken our sins away has given us this life in Christ. In so doing, Jehovah manifests his righteousness because he brings sinners to enjoy his life, but it still begs the question, on what basis can Jehovah do this? Here, too, we see the righteousness of the mercy of Jehovah God Though the psalmist doesn't spell it out in so many words here, yet Israel understood in picture form that basis on which Jehovah would show this mercy, the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Jehovah does not ignore sin or set sin aside. He doesn't just say, you are so miserable that I will give you the blessedness that I will give my own without atoning for sin. In mercy, He sent His Son into our flesh. The bread, the wine, a picture of that. In His compassion, He sent His Son not only to our flesh, but sent His Son into our flesh as a servant who bore the curse of God and finally to the death of the cross. The breaking of the bread and the pouring of the wine. reminds us and assures us of that. Where more clearly do you see the bowels of the compassion of Jehovah God than when he put on his Son your guilt and mine? Declared that the work he did on the cross was a complete work, not only has Christ cried out, it is finished, But when God gave him to rise again the third day to show that he was righteous, and in him you and I enjoy righteousness." Again, we were just in Lord's Day 4. There we were reminded that many desire a mercy that ignores justice. But you and I stand before a much more amazing God and a much more amazing mercy today. Not a mercy that ignores justice, but a mercy that is based on justice. And here becomes the ground, the foundation for me to be sure that my sins are indeed forgiven, as he promises. Our text also indicates those to whom this mercy is shown, and in so doing indicates that it is a particular mercy. In verse 11, toward them that fear Him. And then in verse 12, not making that objective as if there might be a group of people out there that fear Him, but saying, Us! The psalmist is speaking for Israel. We are those who fear Him, and therefore we are those to whom that mercy is shown. But at the same time, as the psalmist makes that point clear, he reminds the Israelites again, and you and I are reminded by the Spirit, of what characterizes us, and that is, transgressions. Mercy to sinners. It is a particular mercy of God, but it is a particular mercy in that it's shown to those who have sinned. And here in the first place, we're going to see once again the enormity of our sin and the fact that we brought the misery on ourselves. When we walk by somebody who wallows in misery and we say, but I'm not going to help him because he brought it on himself, then we are forgetting that it's exactly when we were in that circumstance that Jehovah showed us mercy. They are our transgressions, our failures, our covenantal rebellion against God. But lest one look at the word transgressions and remembering that all the human race has fallen into sin, begin to conclude that the mercy of Jehovah that is not particular but is general and for all, the psalmist makes clear that he has in mind a particular people to whom the mercy is shown. Them that fear him. Not those who are afraid of him, who are terrified by Him, but those who stand in awe of His majesty and bow in reverence before Him. Have we that fear? Is that the fear with which we come to worship Jehovah today and with with which we come to the table of the Lord? Do we come casually, as if the table is for anyone, because the death of Christ was for anyone, and every human may take it for granted that it is for him or her? Or do we stand in awe, rather, of a God who distinguishes sinners from sinners. Who does so not for anything that we have done, even our fear and awe and reverence of Him is not the reason why He shows us mercy. But who in His sovereign grace from all eternity having chosen us in Christ as He chose Israel to be His particular people. having then sent Jesus Christ to the death of the cross for some, among whom were Israel, in the covenant promises of God to Abraham, and therefore working His Holy Spirit in the hearts of some, enabling and empowering us to stand in awe of Him, as we recognize that those who fear Him are those who fear Him in the power and life He gives. We stand amazed that He has separated us from others. I am not worthy. I did not choose Him first. My life is not the sort of life that distinguishes me from the rest of humanity and makes me better, but he has shown his mercy to some in his love and grace." Not only that is that mercy shown to those who fear him, but an explaining of that mercy in a consciousness of its amazing character induces us to fear him all the more. Because that mercy of Jehovah is a particular mercy for some that you and I were called to examine ourselves and prepare to come to the table of the Lord and that we have taken that calling to heart, have we not? We have found that by His grace we are those for whom the table is prepared and are those for whom Christ died. But how amazing that I should be and not another. Then the text draws our attention to the infinite character of this mercy of Jehovah God. Here two figures are used to express the thought. The first in verse 11, as the heaven is high above the earth. From man's perspective As he stands on earth and looks up toward heaven, he sees an infinite, vast expanse. I say from man's perspective, because of course the Lord created a finite earth, and there is a distance that can be measured between earth and heaven, that is, even using heaven in the sense of outer space. But you and I will never find that distance out, and the human race will never know it. so great that as I stand on earth and look up to heaven and cannot see into the very reaches and border of outer space, I can say to myself, so far have my sins been removed in infinite mercy of God. Lest anyone come forward and say, but because outer space and creation has a finite limit, even if not known to man, it may be that Jehovah has removed our sins very, very, very far, but not infinitely far. The psalmist adds another thought that puts the matter to rest. As far as the East is from the West. East and West never meet. walk east, keep walking east, and you will never find yourself walking west. Walk west, keep walking west, and you will never find yourself going east. So far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Whether David and the Israelites understood that the earth was a globe or not. The Holy Spirit did. And you and I can rejoice that he uses the directions of East and West and not those of North and South. Walk North and after a while you find you are going South. Walk South, if you could, to the South Pole and you must of necessity Go north. If therefore the Lord removed our sins as far away from us as north from south, we could say that's a long ways, but it's not infinite as far as east from west. So far points us to an infinite mercy of Jehovah God. His mercy never ends. On the one hand, that's important for me to know because my sins created an infinite guilt. And now I'm being assured that that infinite guilt is taken away and an infinite righteousness is put in its place. In addition, that word is precious to me because I, as the text, as the psalm later makes known, am a finite creature. My days are numbered and I come to an end of my life on earth. And yet the mercy of Jehovah does not end with my death. Rather, through death and through the glorification of the soul and later the resurrection of the body, the mercy of Jehovah continues. Indeed, it becomes manifest in even greater measure forever and ever. Only an infinite mercy saves me. Although the text doesn't explicitly have this in mind, of course, David wrote before the Roman Catholic idea of purgatory. And on the basis of this text, we can see again the folly of any idea that in addition to what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, we must suffer after death? Or even that before death, we must add something to what our Lord and Savior did. Speak of the need for me to add something to it, and you have denied the infinite character of the mercy of Jehovah God. If Jehovah's mercy is not infinite, Then I may enjoy His mercy for a thousand years or a million years, but when finally His mercy reaches its ending point, I am doomed forever. Because He removed our sins as far from us as east from west, I have the hope that the blessedness I enjoy with Him now, I shall enjoy forever. Do you believe this? Do you come to the table this morning to see the Lord's sign and partake of the seal of this? Do you rejoice in this so that you heed the exhortation of the psalmist at the beginning and the end of the psalm, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name? Are we ready? seeing how great his mercy is toward us to live for him and to him all of our life long we are for that mercy of God which works in us a fear works also in us a faith and a trust and renews us in life crowns us with loving kindness and tender mercies satisfies our mouth with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. God give us to experience that his spirit has done that to us this morning. Amen. Father which art in heaven for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord Satisfy our mouth and our soul with good things. Assure us that Thy mercy for us is an infinite mercy, and Thy love an unending love. Then we shall praise Thee forever. Amen.