Let’s Bless God!
Psalm 103
Third in the series: "Glorify God!"
(My thanks to Wm. Darryl Scott Sr. for some of this material)
Introduction: Some people habitually talk to themselves. Listen as King David did it: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.” Psalm 103 is a pure song of praise. There is not a single petition in it. Instead, its joy progresses to a crescendo with the command that everything with life and breath in it must bless God!
Proposition: To excite and inspire Godliness in the hearts of others, we must first stir it up in ourselves.
1. Praise begins within
David begins his psalm by talking to himself. In examining his own life, he has discovered a need for genuine introspection.
To his dismay, it appears he discovers that the beauty of praise and thanksgiving are missing from the garden of his heart.
So he addresses himself: “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless his holy name” (v1). The soul is our total personality; it is a unique entity that makes us who we are. It is the whole person.
But David doesn’t stop at the soul. He adds, “All that is within me.” He is saying, "Everything inside me that makes up my soul needs to praise the lord!" He lifts up his whole being in gratitude to God.
In verse 2, David reminds himself to “forget not all his benefits.” While he was praising God from the innermost recesses of his being, he was not overlooking the specifics of God’s unmerited grace and mercy. Even though David knew he could not remember all of God’s blessings, he knew he must not forget them. In other words, he was not to take for granted God’s expressions of goodness. Do we?
2. Praise comes from every aspect of our lives
Look at the verse-by-verse progression in Psalm 103!
Praise him because:
A. He is a pardoner,verse 3. He forgives all my iniquities
B. He is a physician, verse 3. He heals all my diseases
C. He is a redeemer, verse 4. He redeems my life from destruction
D. He is a benefactor, verse 5. He satisfies my mouth with good
E. He is a judge, verse 6. He executes righteousness for oppressed
F. He is a chastiser, verse 9. He won’t stay angry forever
G. Praise him for blessing of his height, verse 11. "As high as the heaven is above the earth" speaks of his mercy that cannot be comprehended
H. Praise him for blessing of his breadth, verse 12. "As far as the east is from the west" tells us His forgiveness cannot be rescinded.
I. Praise him for his depth, verse 13. As a father he pities those who fear him. His compassion cannot be estimated.
J. Praise him as creator, verse 14. He knows our frame
K. Praise him because he keeps his covenants and promises, verses 17-18. His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting.
L. Praise him because he is our king, verse 19. His kingdom rules over all
Praise him--all that is within me
Praise him--for all his benefits.
Praise him--for all that I am for God
Praise him--all that I have comes from God
Praise him--because we are his people
Praise him--this is his pasture
Praise him--when we enter into his gates and his courts
Praise him--for his name is above every name
Praise him--for his mercy
Praise him--for his truth to all generations.
Praise him--that he brought us up out of the miry pit
Praise him--because it is by his grace that I am what I am...
Praise him--that he sent his son to die for our sins, and to give us a right to the tree of life.
Praise him--that I got up this morning
Praise him--that he brought me to the house of praise
Praise him--for the gift of his dear son, Jesus Christ, who suffered, bled, died and brought the promise of resurrection into our lives, that we all might have eternal life!
No matter what is going on, praising him opens the door for us to enter into his presence.
3. The qualities of praise
Can you find something to praise God for this day? There are many words of encouragement in the Psalms. This one Old Testament book contains:
150 divisions
2461 verses
43,743 words
2027 verses of history
164 questions are asked and answered
413 commands are given
338 acts of god
124 vows
174 statements of praise
118 complaints, but all of them have remedy
865 facts about who god is
235 statements about god’s word
182 testimonies
97 promises
128 facts about the messiah.
Above all things we need to praise God! We were created to praise him. What should praise mean to a child of God? Praise is:
--The life blood of the saints
--The experience of being in tune with God
Praise brings us closer to tearing down the stronghold called ‘self’ and building up our souls in the spirit
Praise brings us into intimate fellowship with God (Refer to Psalm 100)
We’ve taught our kids that when the “prayers” go up, the “blessings” come down! Our praise creates a spiritually charged environment of intimacy.
Praise will change our demeanor, and God gets the glory
Praise drives away demonic forces that would destroy us
Praise brings a church into one accord world of thanksgiving and joy
Our praises bring us into the light of God’s presence without delay because when you praise him our minds are “stayed on him”... (There’s something about praising God that lifts our hopes).
Our praises provide substance to our hope as we look to the hills from which cometh our help.
Some Christians find it difficult to think about the privilege of prayer without doing so in terms of asking for something or complaining to God about some life threatening situation. Of course, petitionary praying is a part of our communication with God. We are exhorted in numerous places in scripture to bring our needs to god in prayer. In fact, James says that "you have not, because you ask not" James 4:2.
At the same time, however, the word of God also enjoins us to praise the Lord, to express our gratitude, more often than it tells us to ask god for things. Why, indeed, should we express praise and thanksgiving to God? When we cultivate the habit of praising G od, we enlarge our capacity to appreciate the greatness and glory of God, and we diminish our own self-centeredness.
In short we "grow up" spiritually. One of the manifestations of this is the ability to focus our faith in praise!
Conclusion: Some here today cannot bless God at all. Why? Because they are dead. Dead in their sin. And until we live that new life in Christ (see Romans 6:4), we cannot honestly proclaim, “blessed be the name of the Lord!”
