lesson so that's a good one last week last couple weeks have been doing the crucifixion and today they're gonna talk about the resurrection so that's always exciting if you would turn with me to Psalm 103 Psalm 103 I don't know about you, but I, for one, always appreciate a good, simple instruction. Good, simple task. Though, you know, surprisingly, simple tasks are not always as easy as they may come across. For me, I think about, you know, when my wife is not able to go to the store, and I say, okay, I will go to the store, and she says, okay, get what's on the grocery list. We have an app, you know, that we just put stuff on there and I can see it. And, uh, okay, this is easy. There's a list. Go to the grocery store. I'll get what's on the list. And invariably it's not quite as simple as that seems. You know, it's like get canned corn that's on the list, canned corn. And then I go and I'm like, okay, where's the canned corn? Okay. I think I know where that is. Go down that aisle. And then I say, okay. And then I think, wait, there's like four different varieties of canned corn. I get the sweet corn. Do I get the regular corn? Do I get the low-sodium corn? Do I get the cran corn with diced peppers in it and tomatoes in it? You know, the Fiesta style. And then it's like two cans. You're like, wait, are those the 16-ounce cans? Do I get two of those? The two of the eight-ounce cans? And any of you wives probably have the experience of your husband goes to the store to get what's on the list, and then he texts you or calls you anyways, and is like, wait, which one do you want? And then there's always some random item that's not where you expect it to be. And you're like, where is the thing? I've looked in five aisles. I can't find it. But I do love a good, simple task, good, simple instruction. And today, there is a very simple instruction which we're going to talk about from this passage. It's not very complicated. There's really only one thing. You know, sometimes you hear messages and they have three, four, five imperative, five things I got to remember to do. And in this one, though, it's not always as simple as it seems. There is very one simple command from Psalm 103, and that is to worship God. You can see the title up there, Praise Our Great God. Worship God, that's the one thing I want you to take away from today. It's really simple. Hopefully it's a little easier than even me going to the store to get groceries from the grocery list. To worship God. This is the first message in the book four of the Psalms. Book four is Psalm 90 through 106, I believe. I'm not sure I got that right. 106, I'm right, 106. Psalm 90 through 106. And this section of the Psalms is really straightforward. There's a lot of praise going on. There's a lot of remembrance going on. You read Psalm 90 through 106 and there's a lot of remember, remember, remember, and there's a lot of calls to worship God. There's not as many of the Psalms that we maybe remember, that we have verses cross-stitched on, our pillows, our grandma, grandma's house. Perhaps not as many as things like Psalm 1, Psalm 119, Psalm 23. There's many other Psalms that have these very personal verses. Psalms 90 through 106 are a lot of corporate Psalms, a lot of remembering Israel's history. And some of them you read and you're like, this is all just a history lesson in Psalm 101 in this book. But the Psalms 100 through 106 are really all about the worship of God. All about worshiping God. So I want to look at Psalm 103 and see that our call today, our command today, is to worship God. Psalm 103 reads as the following. A Psalm of David. 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. forgives all your iniquities and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. And the Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from him. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember his commandments to do them. The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all." By the way, if you read Psalm 4, Book four, Psalm 100 to 106, you will see that that phrase, the Lord reigns all over the place. Bless the Lord, you, his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you, his hosts, you ministers of his who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. God, I pray that you would help us to truly worship you today. that we would bless you with our very hearts and our minds and our souls this morning, that we would remember what you have done, that we would see you for who you are and know what you have done for us and what you will do for us, and that would cause us to know your love in a more deeper, more serious, significant way. As Paul writes that, we would know the height and breadth and depth of the love of God in Christ Jesus for us, and that we would be moved to worship you because of it. We pray all these things in the name of Christ. Amen. Six times in Psalm 103, this command, this imperative, bless is used. And if you read the Psalms, you'll know that blessed, blessing, blessedness, blessed, is a common phrase. Six times he used this here. In the beginning, bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul. At the end of the Psalm, bless the Lord, you his angels. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts. Bless the Lord, all his works in all these places. Bless the Lord, O my soul. I say six, there's seven there. There's actually only six times that word appears in the Hebrew, but one of those is, put into the English to help us understand. It's not an incorrect translation, it's just a helpful translation. Six times this word appears in the psalm, bless, and it is a command at each time. It's an imperative. He's saying, do this, bless. What does that word really mean? Well, in this context, the word means to kneel down. to kneel down towards something or someone, specifically in the way it's used in this Psalm, is to adore with bended knee. As one writer says, David calls on his own soul, you'll notice how often he's talking to himself, calls on his own soul to bow its metaphorical knee in adoration of Yahweh. So when I say worship God, where is that coming from? It's coming from that use of the word bless. And again, what is the takeaway from Psalm 103? Bless the Lord. Bow down your heart to Him. Submit yourself to Him. Worship Him. If you want to know big picture up front, you guys who like the summary right at the beginning, this is the whole message. Worship God, for He is a loving, gracious Redeemer. Worship God, for He is a loving, gracious Redeemer. You know, when we look at this use of the term bless here, bless, worship God, bow down before Him, adore Him, humble yourself before Him, praise Him, we can see that first, it is the call to worship God. And what is worship here? What is worship? Worship begins as an internal act of submission and thankful praise to God. Notice in this Psalm 103, who is David first speaking to and who does he end with this command to bless, to worship God? Who is he talking to? Himself. His own soul, you know, which we kind of think it might be a little funny. Soul, you know, speak to myself. But this is very common. If you look at psychology today, they will talk about self-talk. It's the idea of what are you speaking to yourself? What are you saying to yourself? What are you calling yourself to do? One of the marks of maturity, by the way, is having a command of your own self, not being out of control. We all struggle with that to various degrees. But especially with children, you can tell they do not have control over what they're feeling, what they're thinking, or how they're reacting. And we as mature Christians are called in a way to call our own souls to worship God. David's call to worship is not that God would appear with him. The call to worship is a call to oneself. It's a call to worship directed at one's own soul, one's own heart, one's own mind. And I will just make a point to say this. In much of Christianity, I believe today in America, there is this version of worship which is a call to God to appear to us. If you listen for it and pay attention, you'll notice it in many popular songs and kind of Christian-y songs you'll see. It's a call to worship, but the call is directed at God. God, come down. God, fill us. God, do this. God, do that. And while those are not totally inappropriate in every context, when we gather together, God is already here. We don't worship by saying, I'm here, God, you better show up. We worship as the Bible evidences and shows us. God has already acted. He is already here. He has already done things. And we are calling ourselves to show up. It is not that God is absent from our worship. It's most of the time that we are absent from our worship. And so that's what this is. David says this is a call to worship to his own soul. It is an internal act of submission and thankful praise to God. We also see that worship is a response to who God is and what he has done. This is the biblical paradigm. As you see here and you'll see throughout the Bible, David says, worship, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and what does he do for the rest of the soul? He talks about who God is and what God has done. Worship is always a response to who God is and what he has done. Again, it is not, worship is not where we do these things, pray and sing and read scripture and do these things until God appears to us and then we feel like God has joined us and now it's worship. Worship is a response to who God already is and what he has already done and what he has promised he will do. You'll notice in this psalm, if you look at the beginning part, who is, what are the, let's look at the pronouns, like grammar, boring, but just pay attention, okay? At the beginning, this is what we call a second person. David is speaking to his own soul. He's saying, you soul, okay? You, second person singular, you, oh my soul, do this, worship God. Look at verse three, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. He's talking to himself. who crowned you with lovingkindness." That's the first part. He's saying, look, this is what God has done for you. He's speaking to himself. Then look at verses 6 through 10. It changes. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, a bounty and mercy. He will not always strive with, us. So it changes. All of a sudden he's shifting. He's saying, I was speaking to myself about what God has done and now I am changing to say what he has done for us. Then look at verses 11 through 19. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far he has removed our transgressions from him. There we go. As the father pities his children, so the Lord knows, pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. Then verse 15, look at the switch. As for man, he's saying now this is true generally. So he's moved from what has God done for me, what God has done for us, and then what is true generally. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes, and the wind passes over, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. He's speaking generically, generally true, about what is true of all mankind, and what is true of God. And then, go down to the end of the Psalm, verse 20, Bless the Lord you, again. What's he doing? Speaking out again. But it changes. He says, you, his angels. Bless the Lord all you, his hosts. Bless the Lord all his works, all of creation. But then how does it end? It comes back to, bless the Lord, oh my soul. So he kind of goes on this roundabout path to speaking to himself about who God is and what he has done. to speaking of what God has done and who he is for the community, for the people of God, then to speak about what is generally true, and then he speaks out toward all of creation, and then it comes back to himself. It's a response. It's a response to what God has done. David calls his own soul to bless the Lord, to bow down in adoration, to worship God's holy name, to not forget all his benefits, the gracious actions of God. Don't you see that at the beginning? Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me. Bless his holy name. That's who God is. He is holy, holy, holy. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. These are not like employee benefits, okay? These are the things that God has done for us is God's grace. So what is worship for us? Worship is an internal act of submission and thankful praise to God based on who he is and what he has done. And today we are to call our own hearts to worship God while gazing at God's glory. We do not call God to our worship while we gaze within ourselves. And again, this is something that afflicts a view or perspective that afflicts a lot of modern Christianity. And again, if you listen for it, you'll hear it all the time. What are we singing about? Well, how, what's going on with me and how I'm feeling, and I just pray God would show up to help me. And again, are there instances of that in the Bible? Yes, there are. And there are times of that. But primarily worship is looking at God and calling us to draw near to him and to worship him, not the other way around. So that's the call to worship. That's the command today, worship God. And why? As we saw, worship God for he is a loving and gracious redeemer. He is a loving and gracious Redeemer. If we want to know who God is and what He has done, then we must consider what is true about God and what is true that He has done for us. Look at David. Again, we've read these verses many times. Notice he says in verse 3, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, or as we'll get to in a second, the pit. crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's wings." does David see as redemption here in Psalm 103? A couple things. And they're not exclusive to one another. They kind of all work together in a big cycle. But if we're going to say five specific things, God forgives. In verse 3, who is this God who David is calling his soul to worship? He is the God who forgives all your iniquities. If you want to take away the big idea here of redemption is this, it is a God who forgives. It is a God of mercy. Did David know a little bit about forgiveness? Yeah. Did he know a little bit about iniquity? Yeah. What sets David apart from someone like Saul? Why is David a man after God's own heart? First, he's chosen by God, but secondly, when confronted with a great sin, a public sin, as king, what does he do? He does not harden himself, but he repents and receives forgiveness. This is David. This is that man. And he says, this is who God is. This is why he's worthy of worship, because he is a God who forgives. Secondly, God heals. You know, what is the result of sin in the world? What happened from the very beginning when sin entered the world? Death, destruction, sickness, illness. I think that's what David's imagining. He's like, there's sin, and then there's like the results of sin, which is sickness. He heals all your diseases. That's in verse three. Now, I don't want to get into this quite yet. and I'm not gonna have time to get into it fully, does God always heal all diseases in this life? No, because we are not faith, health, and wealth. We don't believe the health and wealth gospel. God does not promise that if you have faith, you will be healed physically all the time. Does God heal? Yes, he does, and we should rejoice in that. But our hope is not always in this life, but does God always heal illness eventually? Yes, and that's the next verse. God rescues. Look at verse four. He redeems your life from destruction. I'm okay with that translation, destruction, but really I like that the literal word is the pit. He rescues or redeems your life from the pit. Like the pit, what's going on with the pit? Okay, the pit is referencing the grave, the shield, the place of death, the place of the dead. You know, think about Joseph, the story of Joseph. They take his brothers, take him, and what do they do when they kidnap him? They throw him in a pit. And their intention was, he's dead down there. He's already buried. They changed their mind and sold him to slavery. But Joseph is someone who's thrown into the pit. And David is like, I have seen death before me. God has rescued me. In David's life, you're kind of like, is this a physical rescuing from death? Yes. But are there also overtones to something greater? Yes. So we see forgiveness, healing from illness, and what's the ultimate result of sin? Death. David's imagining this road down from sin to sickness to death. And he's saying God is the God who forgives and heals and ultimately rescues even from the grave, from death. And if you're a Christian here today, you say, oh, I think something's coming up in the Bible later on that speaks to that ultimate rescue from death. Fourth, David, God is the one who exalts and honors. Look at verse four, second half, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy. David was chosen as a king. What was he before he was chosen? A nobody. And yet God exalted him to a place of honor and glory as God's chosen servant and his descendants. David was quite literally crowned with mercy by God. God's mercy. He was crowned as king. He received God's gracious exaltation. God exalts and honors. And number five, God graciously provides. Look at verse five. Who satisfies your mouth with good things that your youth is renewed like the eagles. God provides more than his children need, renewing their strength so that they can rise up like the eagles. So these are the five things that David imagines as the redemption of God, how he summarizes it. God forgives, God heals, God rescues, God exalts and honors, and God graciously provides. We can know, we see how those were fulfilled in David's life, but for you today, there is something even greater being fulfilled. David here is responding to what God, as he knows him, and what God has done. One of the key identifying features of Christian worship, though, is that we worship through Jesus. We worship through Jesus. David has these truths that are true, but if we were to stop there, I think they'd be incomplete. Say God forgives, that's true, but how does he forgive? God forgives you and us today through Jesus Christ. As John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God also heals through Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do during his ministry? Heal. the blind, the sick, the lame, the mute, the demon-possessed. When Jesus comes and is healing, he's proving, I have the power of God with me. Because just like David says, who is it that forgives? God and Jesus. Who is it that heals? God through Christ. And as I mentioned earlier, do we expect and hope, well, I should say this, do we have faith that God heals in this life still? Yes. But the ultimate healing that we look for is not in this life, it is for something greater. You know Lazarus? Remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus died, because what's the third one? Sorry, I should not have jumped in. God rescues from death through Jesus Christ. And again, this points that we need something beyond just this life. I love the story of Lazarus. In the story of Lazarus, Jesus' friend Lazarus has died, and Jesus shows up, and his friends are sad, the family is torn apart emotionally by this, and Jesus says in verse 25 and 26 of John 11, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? And they say yes. Mary says yes. And what does Jesus do? Lazarus, come forth. Wow, that's amazing. I mean, that's the kind of miracle healing that we would hope for today. And that's real, and that's important. But what happened later in Lazarus's life? He still ended up dying. The ultimate healing and resurrection is not even in this life, it is in the life to come. It is in the life to come. As it says in Isaiah 53, surely he, Jesus, has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. So God forgives, heals, and rescues through Christ. He also exalts and honors us in Christ. Where is Jesus now? The right hand of God, the Father. And what does Paul say in Colossians 3? When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Who are we before God saves us? No one. Nobody. And David was crowned king, which is amazing. We will share in the inheritance of the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. What did Jesus say? The least in the kingdom of God is greater than John, who was the greatest Old Testament prophet. That is the exaltation that we receive. When David says, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, that is true for us in Christ. We are crowned with mercy and kindness and an inheritance that will expand to the whole world. All of creation will be remade. That is where our exaltation is, in Christ, ascended to the right hand of God. It says in 1 Peter, blessed be God and the Father, that's the word blessed, blessed be the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. This is the redemption of God. It is forgiveness, it is healing, it is rescuing from death, it's exaltation and honor, and fifthly, it is gracious provision. David says he is satisfied by the good things that God gives. Does not God grant us gracious gifts today to satisfy us? Even more than the physical gifts God gives, but the spiritual gifts by His Spirit. It says in 2 Peter, Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord, as his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his glory and virtue. This is the redemption which David speaks and which is true for us today. And what is the response that we are to have when we understand and meditate on these things? Worship. Humble adoration and submission to God and thankful praise because we understand who God is and what he has done. Two things, two main things that we are to do to help us in that worship. So that's the redemption. It's kind of the summary of redemption. First, remember God's acts of love. Remember God's acts of love. Look at verse 7. Verse 6, apologies. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel. The Lord is gracious, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. What does David go to right away? What are we going to remember about what God has done? One of the most important things in all the Old Testament, the Exodus. God saw the oppression of Israel in the land of Egypt as slaves. God remembered them and He acted to save them and bring them out to be His people. Remember what God has done for you in the past, just like David is remembering what God had done for them, so also we must remember. And what has God seen? God has seen us. slaves to sin, oppressed, beaten down, captured, and he sent Jesus Christ to what? To rescue us from that oppression. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Look at verse eight, though. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. That's a quote, pretty much, from Psalm 34. Do you remember in Exodus 34? In Exodus 34, Moses is at Mount Sinai with the people of Israel, having been brought out of Egypt, and he goes up on the mountain to meet with God, and he says, God, show me your glory. And God says, if I showed you who I was fully, you would be dead. So I will show you a part of me. an example of my glory. And it says, the Lord passed before him and the Lord proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. David is remembering what God has done and who he showed himself to be. So remember God's acts of love. God showed himself to his people in order to be known by them and to dwell with them. Why did God bring them out of Egypt? So they could be his people. so that he could dwell with them and live with them and they could know him. And again, what has Jesus accomplished for us? To bring us out of slavery and death and to buy us as a people for his name. That we would know God and that we would dwell with God for eternity. Remember God's acts of love how he showed himself remember was the beginning who God is and what he has done and ultimately How do we know God fully? truly in Christ as it says in John 1 14 and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. God dwelt patiently with the rebellious people, mercifully forgiving their sins. Look at verses 9 and 10. He will not always strive with us. I mean, how long did God strive with the people of Israel in the wilderness wandering? A long time, okay? They were like the most disobedient, rebellious children, and God said, I will continue to deal with you over and over and over and over again. And David says he's not going to always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever, but He has not dealt with us according to our sins. He has not punished us according to our iniquities. How often did the Israelites sin? How many times did they reject God? Over and over and over again. How many times did they complain and doubt and fear that God graciously remained with them? How often do we sin? How often do we doubt and we complain and we fear How often do we turn away from God for the pleasures of the world, because of the fear of the unknown around us, or because of pursuit of our own selfish glory? Yet God remains faithful because He has forgiven our sin through Jesus Christ. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, and God's grace continues even after we have been saved. to remember God's acts of love. Sometimes we fail to worship because we have forgotten what God has done for us already. Not that we don't know it, but we've forgotten it in our hearts. And that is one aspect of a church worship that is very important to understand. We do not primarily come to church to learn new things that we've never heard before. Maybe if you're a new believer, maybe if you're here for the first time, yes. But if we have been in church a long time, if we know the truth, we do learn new things, but learning new things is not really what we primarily need. It's not novelty that we need. It is reminder of the things that we already know. We come to worship God and we are reminded of what God has done for us. You may feel sometimes here that we talk about Jesus a lot. We talk about the gospel a lot. Yeah, that's what we're doing here. We are remembering the gospel so that we can be renewed in our worship of God and draw closer to him again, because we tend to drift. So remember God's acts of love. Remember what he has done. But secondly, remember God's attitude of love. Sometimes we fail to worship because we've forgotten what God has done for us. We have neglected it. It is passed out of our immediate memory, out of our mind, and we need reminding. But sometimes we also forget who God is and how he feels toward us. Verse 11, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. How great is God's mercy? As David puts it, it is higher than the heavens are from the earth. To David, the heavens, the sky, space, were infinitely far away from him, impossible to reach. He was able to only see them. You know, modern science has illumined much of that for us, has opened up our minds to those truths, but it has not diminished the grandeur of the heavens. In fact, it's probably emphasized it more. You know, light travels at 186,000 miles per second. Space is measured in light years, the amount of distance it would take for light to go a year's worth of time. Our sun itself is 93 million miles away and takes light over eight minutes to reach us. It's traveling 186,000 miles a second and it still is over eight and a half minutes. But there are things that are even much further away that even we can see with the naked eye. Alpha Centauri, or with instruments, the Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to us, is over four light years away. Sirius, which is the brightest star in our night sky, is actually, it's actually a binary star system, two stars together, and it's over eight and a half light years away from Earth. Another star named Ross 248, very exciting name, Ross 248, it's in the Andromeda Galaxy, and it lies 10.3 light years away from Earth. By the way, the space probe Voyager 2, which was launched in August of 1977, the probe passed by Jupiter, Neptune, and Uranus, and it left the solar system traveling approximately 34,000 miles an hour. That probe, Voyager 2, may pass relatively close to this star, Ross 248, oh, in say 400,000 years. Okay. Seems pretty big. Our solar system consists of our star, the sun, and its orbiting planets, including Earth, along with numerous moons and asteroids, comet material, rocks, and dust. Our sun is just one star among the numbers, hundreds of billions of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. If we shrunk our sun down to smaller than a grain of sand, sun down to smaller than a grain of sand, our solar system would fit approximately in the palm of our hand. Pluto would orbit. about an inch from the middle of your palm. On that scale, if our sun is smaller than a grain of sand, the Milky Way galaxy would span North America. Galaxies come in many sizes. And the current consensus, the scientific consensus, is that our universe is somewhere in the neighborhood of 93 billion light years across. And I doubt that they're super accurate on that. But when God says and David says, For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. This is what he's talking about. Do you believe that God's mercy is so great towards you? Oh, maybe that's how God feels about other people. Not me, though. Not me. Do you believe that God's mercy is limited? Do you think your sin is greater than his grace? Do you think that you can out-sin God's mercy or exhaust it? And again, one of our problems is we take God's great, immense, infinite, perfect mercy and we seriously shortchange it. Say, God, yeah, God loves me, but that love could run out someday. Maybe when I sin. Remember, God's mercy is so great, as it says in Lamentations, though through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. How great do you believe God's mercy is toward you? But secondly, remember the perfection of God's forgiveness. Look at verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. If we head west, how long do we have to go west before we start, all of a sudden we're heading east? How far will you go west before you get to the east? How far east can you go before you get to the west? And of course, we know it's a metaphorical use here, that it's impossible. You just go around in circles. Notice, he didn't say north and south because that actually does work. You go north and eventually you start going south again. But you head west, around the earth, you never reach the east. They never meet. This is how far God has removed our sins from us in Christ. This is the perfection, the completion of God's forgiveness. Do you really believe that? Perhaps you have experienced in your life someone who holds your faults against you, even after stating that they forgive you. I don't know if you have had this experience where somebody will tell you, yes, I forgive you. But you know that they are still holding on to those faults and sins. And even though they say, oh yeah, I forgive you, I forgive you, any time you mess up, they're ready to bring those out. Often we think God is this way. See, yeah, God forgives me, but he's probably like ready at a moment's notice to bring those back up. You know, when I mess up again, God says, I don't want to forgive you for those last other times, but really, you're going to do that again? This is not the forgiveness of God in Scripture, though. Perhaps you yourself struggled to let go of sin against you. Perhaps you are somebody who really struggles to forget the wrongs that have been committed against you. Perhaps you think God forgives, but begrudgingly. I suppose I'll forgive you this time. But maybe not next time. This is not how God acts or thinks toward those who fear Him. His children, as far as the East is from the West, God has removed our sins from us. They are gone. No, God does not forget them, okay? We may have heard this, you may have heard this in Sunday school. God forgive and forget. It's impossible to forget sometimes. And I'm not telling you to forget. And God, though He knows our sins, will never hold them against us. God is omniscient. He does not forget them in the literal sense of the term. But they are never held to your account. When we come to God, God never looks at us and thinks, oh yes, but I remember those other times. I'm going to take a cautious approach with this one. God forgives completely. When Jesus is on the cross, hanging, about to die, and cries out, it is finished. We must believe that. Do you hold on to your own sin when God has forgiven you? Some people will say things like, I know God has forgiven me, but I haven't forgiven myself. Sounds kind of pious. Sounds like we're being tough on ourselves. No, you're just being unlike God. You don't need to forgive yourself. It's not your job to forgive yourself. That's God's job. What you are doing is in your pride holding on to these things as part of your identity. Saying, I can't let my own failures go because then I'm letting go a part of who I am. No, your identity is in Christ. It's in God. Now, don't be foolish. Don't say, well, I used to have this great sin, and it's not a struggle with me anymore. I can do whatever I want. Be smart. But believe God when he says, your sin has been forgiven. Remember God's compassion for your weakness. Perhaps you only see your weaknesses, your failures. Perhaps you wonder how God could ever really love you because you sin again and again and again. Perhaps you struggle with doubt and fear, and you wonder, how could God truly love me? Look at verse 13. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Perhaps you are sitting here and you're thinking, I want to honor God, I want to follow God, I know God loves me, but you don't know the things I struggle with. You don't know the failures I have in my heart. You don't know the weaknesses I have. My inabilities to obey God. You don't know how weak I am. God does. God does. You know, when I look at my kids, and they're not that old, but I'm sure it continues as they get older, Sometimes you see a picture and you remember, wow, these kids were really tiny once. And my kid's not even that old, only like four and a half. But I remember when I see a picture, I say, wow, that is incredible how small that child was. You remember holding them in your hands and you remember how helpless they were. And what does that make you feel? Oh man, I just love my kids, just love them. God is the one who took dirt and formed it into Adam. You think he forgets what we are made of? You think he forgets how he created us? And yeah, he knows about our sin. He knows about the sin that's corrupted us, but he also knows the weakness of our own very created nature. There are times with my own children where I get really frustrated with them. And then I remember, they're only kids. Maybe my son is disobeying because he's being disobedient and rebellious, and maybe he's disobeying because he's just a child and he's immature and he lacks the ability to obey right now. And I'm not excusing any of our sin, but I think we must believe that God loves us like a father loves his child. He knows our weakness. He knows what we are made of. He's the one who made us. And sometimes we look at ourselves and think, God must love us because of my strength, because of my ability to obey. And really, God loves us in our weakness, not because of our strength. As a father pities his children, as a father has compassion on his children, so also does God have compassion on those who fear him. Perhaps you had a difficult father. or no father at all to speak of, or your relationship's complicated, be careful not to project that onto God. God is a good father. He's loving, he's kind, he's compassionate, he knows our weakness. He also does discipline us at times. It's kind of a different sermon. He loves us enough to care for us, to have compassion on us, God is eternally faithful despite our mortality. Think about verse 15. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. As the wind passes over, it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. You ever seen the weeds out here? Sometimes we have more than others. It rains, and what happens? Man, they grow up fast. All of a sudden, you come back one week later, and it's like three, four, five feet high. You're like, wow, that weed grew up fast. And then as soon as the water's off, and the sun comes out, and the heat happens, the heat is beating on it, what happens to that plant? Burns up, withers, and dies. And just like that, it's forgotten, and nobody cared. That's how our lives are. They may feel significant now, but think of the thousands and millions of people who have lived and died and nobody remembers them. Just like that blink of an eye. And even us, we face that same fate, yet God is everlasting. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children. You may be soon dead and gone, and yet God will remain the same faithful, merciful God to your children and to your children's children if they believe in him, and to all who come to the Lord. And he is the same God who has been faithful since the beginning of creation. Your life might not account for much. That's kind of sad. We might have to accept our lives might not mean that much in the big scheme of eternity. We may not have incredible achievements or a great legacy. And even though you may feel like your life matters, remember, God is the one who remains faithful through all of our lives, from generation to generation. And ultimately, the incarnation proves God's grace despite our frailty and weakness. What is the biblical proof that God knows our weakness, has compassion on us, and cares for us despite our failures? that he sent his own son to take on that same weak, frail human nature. Does God know our weakness? Your weakness? Yes. Does God know your struggles? Yes. Does God know your doubts and your fears? Yes. Jesus is the proof. And not only is Christ proof of God's understanding and compassion, He is the victor for us. You say, I don't, how can I be strong for the Lord? Good news, you don't have to be. Jesus is, look to Him. You say, how can I obey God when I have these struggles and weaknesses? Your salvation does not depend on you, it depends on Christ, who is the victor for us. One of my favorite passages, Hebrews 4. Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Remember God's acts of love. Remember God's attitude of love. And finally, remember God's sovereign rule. Verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. God is in control. One of the themes of the Psalms, and especially book four, the Lord Almighty reigns. Nothing is outside his rule. His kingdom is forever. His throne is established in heaven. And who sits on that throne in heaven? Jesus. the Son of David, the Messiah, the Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God. So don't fear. Hope in the God who reigns. So what is keeping you from worshiping God today? If you're here today and you do not know Christ, then that would keep you from worshiping God. If you say, remember God's acts of love toward you, and you say in your heart, I don't know if I've had acts of love from God in my life. Know Christ. Believe in Jesus, trust in him, pursue him, and you will receive grace. Perhaps you have forgotten, Christian, of God's acts of love for you today. We can consider the spiritual realities and the physical realities. How has God shown himself gracious to you? You can think of the physical things that God has done for you in this life, but also ultimately in the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ. Have you forgotten God's attitude of love? Perhaps you are someone who thinks, God can't truly love me that much. Or you worry that you will lose God's love if you mess up. Do you doubt God's mercy? Remember God's infinite mercy to you. Do you doubt God's forgiveness? Remember God's perfect, complete forgiveness bought by Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrificial lamb of God. Do not let your guilt or your fear drive you from him, but to him. Do you doubt God's compassionate love? Remember God's wise, fatherly love towards you. Do not let your weakness, your fears, your failures draw you away from God. God knows you, and he still loves you. Do you doubt God's control over your life? There are things that are happening that make you wonder, is God really in control? Remember God's sovereign rule as the king of kings. Ultimately, what is the command today? Worship God, for he is a loving and gracious redeemer. And then the very last verses. Bless the Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, he and the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, the armies of heaven, you ministers of his, the angels, who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works, all of creation. David says everything in creation blesses and worships God. So bless the Lord, O my soul, as well.