We're going to go tonight to Psalm 103. As we prepare our hearts to observe the Lord's Supper together tonight in celebration for what he's done for us, I seek to meditate on think on what would God have us to look at together as we prepare our hearts for that. I never seem to stay in the series we're in, kind of go out of that, just because that's just where my heart tends to go. And Psalm 103 has been on my mind a lot recently. I've shared it a good bit with some folks. I didn't read it any time recently. I mean, I guess I did read it sometime in the last month or so as I read through the Bible in a year, but if you're on that plan with us, you would have come across that recently. but it's just one that God continues to bring back to my heart and mind, especially when you think about what he's done for us in salvation and the sanctification process. Psalm 103 is a psalm of praise to the Lord, and it's, you know, I titled this message tonight Bless the Lord. I mean, that comes from the first verse of this psalm here tonight. You know, one of the most important terms when discussing a potential new job with an employer has become this term, the benefits package that comes with being employed. Over the years, that's become more and more of an important part of people's, a bit more on people's minds as they take a new job. Employees wanna know exactly what they're going to get out of the deal when they take a job. And that's led to some interesting inclusions over the years. Last week, I came across a news story about the accounting firm Deloitte. Maybe you've heard of Deloitte before. Deloitte, like many other major companies, is well known for its engagement with its employees in what they call workplace wellness. And they offer all kinds of benefits in order to help raise morale amongst its employees. And so this week, this was the headline that caught my eye. This is word for word what it read. Deloitte is fighting employee burnout with Legos. That's right. The accounting firm has approved $1,000 per year subsidized to its employees for what they call Legos and puzzles purchases as part of its benefits package. This is the only time in my life I thought about being an accountant. I mean, I was ready to sign up, you know, but then I saw that you had to have a lot more qualifications than I have, so. This psalm before us tonight, Psalm 103, is a recitation of the benefits of those who belong to God. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, obviously this is written by David in the Old Testament before the coming of Christ, but just as you see God's people illustrated here in the nation of Israel, so are those who know Jesus Christ, God's people today. And so if you belong to God through Jesus Christ, these are the benefits that are yours in him. And in fact, verse two is David's cry that he would not forget all of his, that is God's, benefits. This psalm is vital to the worship of our Lord, especially as we prepare to gather around the Lord's table tonight in remembrance of his sacrifice for us. When we reflect on the character and work of God, then may we truly and deeply bless the Lord as is right and appropriate. What do you see here in this psalm? You see this. the redemptive work and blessings of God call for his people's responses of worship, respect, and fullest praise. These things that we're gonna look at in these 21 verses here, in this 22 verses in this psalm, all of these things are the redemptive work of God, they're the blessings of God, which the blessings of God center around the redemptive work that God has wrought on our behalf. You know, everything kind of flows out of that. They call for a response from us. We're to worship God. We're to fear the Lord, right, to respect him. We're going to talk about that as we look at this psalm because it's mentioned a couple of times. And we're to give to God our fullest and most complete praise. What does that look like? Again, we'll kind of talk about that as we go through. But this is a psalm of praise to God. It's the one that we pray God will use to focus our hearts around this table as we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, proclaim the gospel in doing these things. And so it begins in verses one through five of Psalm 103, seeing God's work on behalf of his people. And in verse 1, it's a blessing that is given to the Lord. It says, Psalm 103, it's a Psalm of David, says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. As we said, this is a psalm that David has written. He is extolling in it the mercies of God. It's a psalm that's filled with appreciative gratitude for who God is and what God's done, right? It looks at what God has done for his people. And in David's context, that's the nation of Israel, In our context, it's the nation of Israel, and all of those who belong to God's church are included in that, right? The church is not Israel, but we experience the same blessings from the Lord, and even sometimes in a greater sense, we see the fulfillment of the things that David talks about here. And it praises God for them. You read Psalm 102, and Psalm 102 is a prayer to the Lord that God would remember, and it's not ascribed to David necessarily. It doesn't say who wrote Psalm 102, but it's possible Psalm 103 is a response to God's answer to the prayer of Psalm 102. In this psalm, David reviews God's marvelous mercy and responds with what is right and proper, praise, confidence, and hope. this psalm begins with a declaration of praise that will carry throughout the psalm. It actually bookends the entire psalm. And you'll notice here, there's not one request of God that is made in this psalm. Now, have you ever done that? Have you ever tried to pray a prayer that is only praising and thanking God? And in the middle of that prayer, you just went, and God, will you please help? Or will you please give? And you went, oh no, I'm not supposed to do that, right? You ever done that before? It's hard, we're naturally given to, yeah, I wanna say good things to God, but I need to ask God for that, because we are needy people. As much as we say we're independent, we're very needy people. And we wanna give proper respect and praise and honor to God as well. David praises God here with his entire being. He says, his soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. He cries out in praise to God. This is how we're called to respond to the Lord. He has created us. He's done truly wonderful things for us. So it is right and proper that we respond to God with every part of us. Understand this, right and proper worship of God, okay, right and proper worship of God is whole person worship. We don't worship God with just part of who we are. We don't worship God with just part of our week or part of a day or these few hours on Sunday. That's not what real worship of God looks like. We've said it before here, worship is a way of life. We live in worship to God. And in times of things like formal corporate worship, it is right that we praise the Lord with our voices. But again, as we've said, when our lips in this place praise God, every once in a while, it'd be okay if your face showed it too, right? Oh, you know, just bless the Lord, brother, you know? Hey, if you believe that in your heart, it shows on your face. If you believe this in your heart, it shows in your life. Our daily lives should ever be lived in praise to God. We praise Him for who He is. And as if we needed any further reason to praise Him, because we really don't. You don't need any more reason to praise God than for who He is. But if you needed more, then we look at what He's done for us. We delight the heart of God by praising Him for who He is and what He has done. God does everything for His glory. So therefore, we are just and right to return to him that glorious praise. And David does so here by recounting the blessings of the Lord in verses two through five. He says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. So David's continuing this declaration of praise, and one of the things that helps him in this effort is he wants to remember what God has done. Another thing here that I think is very key, that if we don't get anything else, I think this is one we gotta get. Short memories make for very poor worshipers. Short memories make us very poor worshipers. We're given, we are given in our home, and probably your home is much the same. I've been in many of your homes for meals or different things, and you've been in ours. So when you sit down for a meal, what do you do? You pray and you thank God, right? Even Joanna knows that, right? You pray and you thank God for the meal, for that provision. That's good and that's right. But interestingly enough, we don't have time to go there tonight, you can look later. In Deuteronomy chapter eight, God instructed his people that after they had eaten and were full, then they should pray and thank God. Now, I'm not telling you you have to do that literally. I mean, you might want to. There are some people who do. They pray before the meal, they eat, then they pray after the meal and thank God for what they've just taken in. Why? Why did God command this? Because He knows our hearts. He knows we're prone to forget His goodness after we have received such bountiful blessings. When we forget what God has done for us, we fail to praise God as we should. Case in point, the Israelites. I mean, here they go, out of the land of Egypt, they get to the Red Sea. God just sent 10 plagues on this nation of Egypt, decimated this country. They get to the Red Sea, what do they say? God brought us out here to kill us, right? God parts the Red Sea, they go across, kills the Egyptian army in the midst of the sea, They get out in the desert, and they go, we don't have any bread and water. God brought us out here to kill us, right? I mean, how many times do you have to read that in the Old Testament? God brought us out here to kill us. It'd be like, you people have no memory, right? And as much as we want to say that, look, look, look, you should have understood, you know, we could point the finger right back here. Look, look, look, we should have understood. Because how many times has God done things for us, and then something comes up, we go, well, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I mean, life's just falling apart. God doesn't really care about me. Why would he do this to me? because short memories make for poor worshipers. And instead of being thankful and giving praise to God, we just take what God's given us and we just go on with our lives. Instead, like David, let us resolve to remember the goodness of God. His actions benefit his creation. God's actions benefit his creation. David continues here, in one of these things that he has done, forgetting all his benefits, what has he done? Who forgives all your iniquity. Now that's vital, right? We're full of sin, but God has extended to us his forgiveness. Psalm 130, verses three and four says, if you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. This passage in Psalm 130 reemphasizes the breadth of God's forgiveness of our sins. Think about this. If but one sin was not forgiven, we could not enter the presence of God. because he requires righteousness, holiness. And in Jesus Christ, he has given us that. David continues, who heals all your diseases. God is the great physician. He is the one who heals people's diseases. So when we, in this life, this transient life, experience physical health and well-being, why do we experience that? Because of the goodness of God in our lives. His grace poured out. He is the one who has the power over all these things. Now, he is not obligated to always heal from every sickness. We know that in his will, we may need to go through these trials. But understand this, one day, this complete physical healing will be a reality when his people are in his presence forever. But I think there's another point here that His healing goes far deeper as He heals those who come to Him of their spiritual infirmities in forgiving their sin. You see this even in the fulfillment, you see the fulfillment of this even in Jesus Christ who when He was on earth. walking and teaching in the land of Israel, right? What was he doing? He was proclaiming the truth of himself and the gospel, but he was also healing people, right? He was proving who he is. And it was almost like that was just a little taste of what heaven is going to be like. There's not going to be any sickness. There's got to be an infirmity. There's not going to be any of this present. Because of who God is, he's the great physician. He heals us of our infirmities. And Jesus, even then, is using this to point to the fact that, hey, you have a greater need. You think of like Mark chapter two, when they lower the guy down on the cot, and he says, your sins are forgiven. He wasn't even interested in dealing, first of all, with the fact that he couldn't walk. He wanted to heal his soul. And then he also healed his body. God heals us of our infirmities, both spiritual and he takes care of our physical well-being as well. David says he is also the redeemer of his people. He redeems, who redeems your life from the pit. The pit here is a Hebrew image that is used throughout the Old Testament. It talks about the grave. God saves those who trust him from eternal death. What you see here, when it talks about saving from the pit, this is a picture of resurrection. This is a coming back to life. He saves them from eternal death and brings them to himself. And then he says, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. He saves you from this eternal death and he enriches our lives with his love and his mercy. The word crowning here at verse four, when it says he crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, speaks of bestowing blessing on his people. God has shown his loyal covenant love to his people, giving them mercy. Our lives are saved in God and they are bestowed with incredible blessing and he satisfies the soul of his people then with good. He says he satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. He satisfies the soul of his people with what is good. And let me ask you this. What is the ultimate good? Or who is the ultimate good? It is God himself. People spend their entire lives on this temporal planet looking for satisfaction and meaning. I mean, goodness gracious, in the last year, we spent an entire series going through the book of Ecclesiastes talking about how do you find meaning and purpose in this life. The only ones who are ever satisfied in this life are believers. Those are the only people that are ever truly satisfied. And I'll tell you this, those believers are only ever satisfied if God is their satisfaction. If you are a Christian and you are trying to make your family your satisfaction, it's not going to work. If you're a Christian and you're trying to make politics your satisfaction, it's not going to work. If you're a Christian and you're trying to make your job or your neighbors or your grandchildren or your belongings or your sports team or whatever else your satisfaction, it's never going to work. It never has, it never will. Your satisfaction can only be found in God and who he is. And like the eagle, God has given his people spiritual strength for their entire lives. In scripture, the eagle is used as a picture of one that has tireless strength. You ever seen the eagle and it soars across the sky and you think, there's just power in that, right? There's this majestic, and yes, probably here in the United States we think, oh yeah, you know, it's a little bit more, right? But it's this picture even in scripture, right? He will renew their strength in Isaiah, right? They will mount up with wings as eagles, right? This tireless strength God gives to his people. He encourages his people's hearts by promising them and giving them strength in himself. Now, physically speaking, We expect that as the years go by, we are going to grow weaker physically, right? And if you are an earthly-minded person, if you are someone who does not know God, who just lives by what in the here and now, then this is the truth, that the best part of life is always behind you, right? If I don't know God, and I just know this life, the best part of my life is always behind me. I mean, those were the years, man, those were the days, the best days yesterday. As people grow older, they naturally grow more discouraged because they think, well, life just passed me by, I'm not really good to anybody anymore. But for those who belong to God, here's the expectation, the best is yet to come. And yeah, your physical strength may leave, but you have an eternity in heaven with God. For a Christian, This life is the worst it's ever going to get. For an unbeliever, this life is the best it's ever going to get. So therefore, we are strengthened to serve the Lord. We don't have strength in ourselves, but we enjoy God's empowerment if we are his children. And God's strength does not run dry. So what we see here is God has truly done great and wonderful things on behalf of his people. And that calls for their endless praise of him. And as David wrote this, undoubtedly, I see here David is reflecting on the things that God has done for the nation of Israel that you read about in those first five books of the Bible and then Joshua and Judges and beyond. God's goodness had been borne out time and again throughout Israel's history. And David himself had experienced God's goodness in his own life. Today, God's work has not ceased. He continues to do his great and mighty deeds. He continues to act on behalf of those who belong to him in Jesus Christ. So therefore, we continue to bless the Lord. And ultimately, we reflect on his work of redemption. The major section of this psalm is taken up in verses six through 19 with God's redemptive mercy, love, and grace. It begins in verses 6 and 7 with God's acts of righteousness. The Lord, Yahweh, works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. David now turns to the past to reinforce this call to praise God with all of the people's being and reflect on his goodness. He looks at Yahweh's acts of righteousness on behalf of his people when they were afflicted and oppressed. You read in the book of Exodus of the nation of Israel that was afflicted, that was oppressed by the nation of Egypt. And they saw God do great and wonderful things to deliver them from this slavery. He made himself known to Moses and his people. Notice this in verse seven. Moses knew God's ways. The people saw God's acts. I think there's a great delineation here. You see, the people knew what God was doing. They saw him do it. Moses knew why God was doing it, because he was close to God. That verse is just a striking picture. Again, if you read the first five books of the Bible and you ever kind of scratch your head and wonder what's going on here between the people and Moses, that verse pretty well sums it up. God revealed his character and his compassion through his revelations and acts on behalf of his people. But Moses, he revealed exactly who he is because Moses sought him and was his chosen man. And what a great and wonderful God he revealed himself to be to his people. And we see now the mercy, love, and grace of God in action for the forgiveness of sins. We see in verses eight through 14, here are God's acts of forgiveness. This is what I consider the core of everything that we're gonna see here tonight. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. David launches into a great exposition here on who God is and what he's done for his people. He extols the fact that God is a merciful and gracious God. And so therefore, because he is, he is slow to anger and he abounds instead in steadfast, covenantal love. That's an important Hebrew word, chesed, which talks about this covenantal love that God has for his people. And this has clearly been demonstrated to Israel throughout her history. And again, you read the selected history of Israel from Genesis to Malachi, right, and you'll see God's redemptive work and his mercy and his grace poured out to them so many times. Because God's people forsook him in his ways so many times, yet he continued to care for them. Again, if you've been here for our Judges series, we've seen that, how God continued to do his mighty work amongst his people who had forsaken him. Now, this doesn't mean they never experienced consequences for their sin. They certainly did experience those. But God in his mercy did not wipe out his people, but called them back to himself time and again. Furthermore, David says here he doesn't always chide, or the word is, you know, contend with his people. He doesn't always, and understand, God doesn't always bring consequences upon sin immediately. It doesn't always happen that way. He doesn't indefinitely hold onto his anger, nursing a grudge. You see, if God were only a God of justice and only a God of wrath against sin, then none of us in this building would be here tonight. We wouldn't exist. But instead, we have a merciful, long-suffering God. He has endured much sin, committed against Him over the years. Whether it was His people then or His people today, He does not repay according to their iniquities, it says. Now again, this doesn't mean that God always delays His action. I mean, there are times when God's judgment on sin is a lot sooner than later. You can't presume on that. but there are many, many times when God's judgment is delayed. And as David continues, we learn why. Why doesn't God always do that? Because, again, of his loyal, steadfast love. He says here in verse 11, okay, why does God not always deal with us according to our sins, and why does he not always repay us according to our iniquities? Because as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love to those who fear him. So David's gonna turn to two pictures here, of nature to help us to see who God is. Okay, remember Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament shows his handiwork, right? This is one of those times. And if you were in Sunday school this morning, the illustration was used that the heavens aren't the revelation of who God is. This is the revelation of who God is. This is the word. The firmament, it's like the finger, right, pointing to God, saying, there he is, there he is, see him for who he is. And here, David uses this picture of the sky, okay, the firmament. Look up in the sky. And we understand when we look up there, it is far and away greater than we can imagine and sometimes comprehend. This is what God's love is like, David says, to those who fear him. It is as the heavens are higher than the earth. When you look out there at the night sky and you see the stars so many light years away, understanding the light from those stars took years to get here for you to be able to see it. Understand God's love is greater than that expanse. Those who belong to God are kept in his love. Notice, here's the description. His steadfast love, and it's going to be used here and then I think later on here, towards those who fear him. This is the description of who belong to God. They are described as those who fear the Lord. That means they have a reverent holy respect for who he is and they walk in his ways. And those who have come to him in this fear, seeking forgiveness for their sin, have found it. In fact, the transgressions of those who have placed faith in God have been removed, here's the second picture from nature, as far as the east is from the west. He says as far as from the east is the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. So creation is witness. If today you decided It is far too hot in Michigan, I'm going to go north to the North Pole, okay, because that may be where I would find some reprieve. And you started out north. Eventually, guess what would happen? You would turn south, right, after you visit the polar bears, okay, and not Santa Claus, and kept going, right? You would go south. But if today you decided to go east, you could go east forever and never go west. It's the way these things have been set up. It's the way God has ordained it. And so here in this picture, we understand this. Those who have come to God in faith for forgiveness of sin have found this promise of forgiveness. It's like your sin's been removed as far as the east is from the west, they never meet. Your sin will never be dragged back out and held against you by God. And if God's not going to do this, by the way, Satan can't do this either, try as he might. He will accuse you of these things, but you can say, in Jesus Christ, my sin is forgiven, paid by the cross of him. When David wrote this, again, Jesus had not come, but those who would receive this type of forgiveness from the Lord, they worshiped in the tabernacle. They followed God's instructions laid out in the law in order to experience God's forgiveness of their sin. It still required a heart of submission to the Lord, but that is how they found that forgiveness. Today, this psalm speaks to us. We do not come to God through the covenant of the law. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin, but a better covenant has been opened to us, the covenant of God's grace poured out through Jesus Christ, and it secures this reality for us who believe. God has removed our sin from us and placed it on his son on the cross. And so therefore, God does not deal with his children according to their iniquities because those things have been laid on the cross of Jesus Christ and paid in full. Tonight, we gather to celebrate this reality around the Lord's table. If you know Jesus Christ, this is exactly what you have experienced in your life. You have experienced God's mercy, love, and grace in your life in Jesus Christ. And just as God was the father to Israel, he is your father as well. And here's another real life example David uses. He says, a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. The most basic human thing that a earthly father should do is show compassion to his children. And I'm not here tonight to debate the merits of your parentage. I don't know what your home situation is like. I know this, it doesn't matter what kind of earthly father you had, God is the greatest father you will ever know. But what should an earthly father do? Why do I do the things I do for my children? Why do I provide for them? Why do I transport them to places? Why do I teach them and more? Because I have compassion on them. And if you and me, earthly people, sinful human beings, can show compassion on our children, how much more and how much greater is God's compassion for us? This is used again by Jesus in Matthew chapter seven when he talks about the answers to prayer that we receive. And then we get down to verse 14. This is not my favorite verse of scripture, but it's pretty close. This is one of the most encouraging verses of scripture, especially when it regards growth in the things of God. We are reminded that God knows exactly who and what we are. He says, for he re-knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. You say, well, that's not a very encouraging picture of us. Well, it's reality. We are frail, sinful beings. We are in need of a savior, we are in need of a sustainer, we are in need of mercy, we are in need of grace, we are in need of strength. God is all of these things and more to his people. So when you sit around or you have something happen in your life and you're just not really sure if God knows you, you go back to this verse and remember he does. When you're not sure where to turn, you should turn to him who knows you better than yourself. When you need help with your spiritual walk, taking steps of obedience in the Lord, know that God knows you and is there to guide you and strengthen you. This is the great comfort of God's compassion and knowledge of us. And I love this verse, especially when I'm talking to believers who, you know, they're struggling, they're saying, look, I'm trying to grow in the Lord, I'm struggling with this, I'm struggling with that. I love to go back to this passage and say this, if you belong to God, this is your relationship with God. He knows you. If you don't belong to God, this is who God is, and He wants to have that relationship with you through Jesus Christ. There is great comfort in God's compassion and knowledge of us. And we can always count on Him, for He is everlasting. That's what we see in the last part of this section. In verses 15 through 19, we see that God's acts are eternal. He says, as for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. So David now turns our heart to meditate on our temporal natures in order to respond to God's eternal work. He says, we as humans are like the grass. What does he mean by that? Well, we don't last forever. Our time on this earth is likened to the wildflowers in the field. You know, when the grass is green and the flowers are in full bloom, that's a very beautiful thing. Every spring in Michigan, I enjoy the deep green grass that has been nourished by the winter snow. I grew up in the South. Our grass is mostly brown, because we don't get enough rain, and we're always in a drought, and we don't get no snow, okay? But here, you know, when every year when the snow melts in like May, right, what do you see when you look out in the backyard? The beautiful green grass. Now when you come to our house, if you were to come about two or three weeks ago, you'd see that on the corner of our property, as you pull into our driveway, we have this humongous snowball bush. And it was in full bloom just two or three weeks ago. But these things don't last long. If you come to my house now, that snowball bush is past bloom. Later this year, the grass will go dormant and some of it will even die. Think about David when he wrote this. In the dry, arid climate of Israel, these things would wither and die quickly. They would be blown away. And so in the middle of a Michigan winter, I'm not gonna really think much about that snowball bush because I'm gonna be too busy dodging real snowballs my kids are chucking at my head. And here's the deal, we're like these plants. Our time on earth is short and one day we'll be gone. And here's the most encouraging thing I'm gonna tell you tonight, okay? After a couple generations, the memory of who we are will be gone as well. Thanks, right? But I mean, that's the picture. He says, the wind passes over it and it's gone and its place knows it no more. You know, here's the grass, it withers, it dies, the wind blows it away, the ground doesn't go, oh, do you remember that grass we had? That was really nice, right? The dirt doesn't know anything about it. We wither, we die, we leave this place. Eventually, people don't even know who we are. That's the way the world works. But God isn't like this. He's eternal. His loyal love is also eternal. His love is from everlasting to everlasting to those who fear him. That phrase, everlasting to everlasting, what does it mean? It had no beginning and it has no end. Before you even existed physically, God knew you and loved you. Fascinating. Mind-blowing. And when you are physically gone from this place, God will continue to show his love and his righteousness to your grandchildren. Because he is eternal and he is unchanging. So when you and I are gone, he remains. And if you know God through Jesus Christ, when you cease to live here, you'll be with him there. So therefore, here's what I do not wish to do in this life. I do not wish to train my four children to hold on to the vestiges of my earthly legacy. and say you never forget dad and you do this so people always remember who dad is. I want them to cling to God who will never leave them or forsake them. That's who I want them to know. He has established his throne in heaven above, it says here. He is the king of kings. Everything he does is eternal. And so therefore when my short life on earth is over, I will be with him forevermore as his child. Salvation from the Lord brings life eternal with the eternal God. And this eternal, merciful, compassionate, and gracious God then is worthy of all praise for all time. Very quickly as we close, in verses 20 through 22, we see God's deserving of universal praise. And it begins with that praise coming from his servants. David says, bless the Lord, 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. So having reflected on and having extolled God's great and wondrous works for his people, David now returns to the praise he rendered to God at the beginning of the psalm. He calls first for all the servants of God to praise God. His angels, who are his mighty ones who perform God's work, should praise the Lord. When they obey God's word, they praise the Lord. All the hosts of heaven should render praise and honor to God who created them. In fact, in David's first appearance on the battlefield in Scripture, in 1 Samuel chapter 17, when he is staring down Goliath, He refers to God as this, the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. And he returns to that imagery here. He says, bless the Lord, all his hosts. He's calling for God's hosts to give him proper praise. All these beings who do God's work in accordance with his will are to offer to the Lord their highest praise. Everything in heaven should praise the Lord. And then David turns to things on the earth and says, everything from creation should give God his deserving universal praise. This is, verse 22 is really a catch all, right? He says, bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. So God says, or David says, all of Yahweh's works in all places of his dominion should bless the Lord. I love that phrase, right, in all places of his dominion. Okay, so where does God have dominion? Yeah, maybe a better question is where does God not have dominion, right? Since God created everything and God rules in all places, this includes everything, the expansion of the universe, the beautiful scenes of nature that we observe, the animal kingdom, everything that God has made should render to him praise for his great and wondrous work. We were created for God's glory, so therefore we should render that to him. David then returns to his own soul and closes with that same line he opened the song with. Bless the Lord, O my soul. As one created in the image of God, he could give to God the highest praise he is due. You understand that, right? God created everything. God created the sky and the sea and little fluffy the cat, right? God created your little goldfish and God created this and that. And they all give praise to God, Psalm 148, they all give praise to God by doing the things which they were created to do. When the sun shines, it gives praise to God, it gives glory to God. But the highest glory that God can ever get comes from us. Why, because we're so special? No, because we're created in the image of God. We're created to have a relationship with God. We're not God, okay? Let's get that through our heads, right? But the highest praise and glory that God can ever receive is when His creation, the pinnacle of His creation, praises Him and renders to Him the glory He has due. And so may we echo David's cry and give to God our highest praise for His great work of redemption of His people. The redemptive work and blessings of God call for his people's responses of worship, respect, and fullest praise. This psalm is right and appropriate for our study and reflection tonight as we approach the Lord's table. We who belong to Christ are the recipients of God's mercy, love, and grace in this life. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you've received everything tonight that we talked about. in this psalm. The table of celebration, and that's what the Lord's table is. It's not a table of mourning. It's not a table of some kind of mystical thing. This is a celebration of what Jesus has done. It's a solemn celebration, but it's a celebration nonetheless. This is a gift that has been given to the church by Jesus himself to commemorate his work on our behalf.