Psalm 103 - 7/31/16 PM
Funny: A woman fell out of a second-floor window and landed in a slow-moving garbage truck. Half-buried in the litter, she tried without success to get the truck-driver’s attention. A foreign diplomat standing on the sidewalk saw her and quipped, “another example of how wasteful Americans are. That woman looks like she’s good for at least another 10 years.”
? How often do you talk to yourself? Do you answer back?
This morning we looked at a psalm of David, and tonight we will look at another one. This is a psalm of praise. We talked this morning about the importance of praising God, even in difficult times. That’s what David focuses on in this psalm.
The first thing we see in the psalm:
1. The Psalmist Talks To Himself. We often want to tell others what to do, but fail to instruct ourselves. Your soul is the first audience to which you should speak. Your soul is your best audience, your most honest audience and the most important audience in life. What you say to yourself determines what you are and do. You cannot lie to yourself, you only tell yourself the truth. When you say “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” you know if your heart means what your words say you are doing.
What does it mean to bless the Lord? We are telling ourselves to make an intentional choice.
• First, it means to praise and acknowledge His Word, His Character, His Deeds. It means to give praise to Him. You can’t bless the Lord until you know how and where God has blessed you. So we need to take time to consider how we have been blessed by God.
• Second, it means to adore, being affectionate, to love
• Third, it means to exalt, to yield in submission to Him
This is how we bless our God – by praising, adoring, and exalting! Or worded another way, we praise God for who He is and what He does; we express our love for Him; and we declare how great He is.
David reminds us to not forget all the benefits God has given us. In the OT godly King Hezekiah is so sick, he was going to die. And then Hezekiah wept and prayed to God. God answered his prayer, gave 15 years of life, and protected him from his enemies and what did Hezekiah do with those blessings…
2 Chronicles 32:25 - But Hezekiah’s heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem.
Did Israel later forget their God! Indeed they did, and judgment and heartache followed. And that’s why verse 2 is here, so we would not forget to take time to consider what God has done for us.
When vs 2 talks about “benefits” - what it really is saying is “here are the benefits of following God.”
So why bless God?
• He forgives our sins - Lest we ever forget, apart from the work of God there is absolutely NO way we can get out from under the penalty of our sin. This is one of the most basic blessings of the Christian life, yet one of the most under-appreciated blessings.
• He heals all our diseases - We know that Christians still get sick. So does it mean that God CAN heal our diseases, even though he might not. Or what in the world is Psalmist talking about?
One thing we see about diseases in the OT is that often they were given as a result of sin, as a result of disobeying God.
Deuteronomy 29:22 - Our children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulphur--nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
David is an Israelite, and he is reflecting on the history of his people and the promises of God in regards to the covenant. The diseases he is referring to are likely the consequences for failing to obey the covenant. For example, in Deuteronomy 28:58–60 - If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name--the LORD your God— the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you.
Therefore these diseases, in this passage are not a reference to colds, flu, and cancers that are so prevalent in this fallen world. They are diseases caused by God to punish Israel for breaking His covenant.
So how should we today respond to diseases today?
1) Know that some disease can be a punishment for our sin and some diseases, like Job, can be no fault of our own.
2) Some diseases are a result of living in a fallen world. Therefore, know that God is a healer.
Know that we should continue to pray to him and ask for healing.
We also should take advantage of honorable doctors, true medicines, and effective surgical procedures that God has raised up to ease the effects of this cursed world.
And for those who are currently suffering and have yet to be healed. Keep praying, keep persevering
• He protects us from harm. The pit is a reference to the reality that this body will one day be laid in the grave. But for the believer this is not our end. Even in the OT we see the hope of eternal life. Job 19 says, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes--I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!
• He watches over us - vs 4 says, and crowns you with love and compassion- we saw those ideas this morning, that God has a compassionate love like a mother for us, and he has bound Himself to us. We are never outside of His care.
• He satisfies us with good things -
We are so greatly blessed, but we often fail to appreciate all we have. Consider this poem:
Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair;
I envied her -- she seemed so happy, and how, I wished I were so fair;
When suddenly she rose to leave, I saw her hobble down the aisle;
she had one foot and had a crutch, but as she passed, a smile.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two feet -- the world is mine.
And when I stopped to buy some sweets, the lad who served me had such charm;
he seemed to radiate good cheer, his manner was so kind and warm;
I said, "It's nice to deal with you, such courtesy I seldom find";
he turned and said, "Oh, thank you sir." And then I saw that he was blind.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine, I have two eyes, the world is mine.
Then, when walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue;
he stood and watched the others play, it seemed he knew not what to do;
I stopped a moment, then I said, "Why don't you join the others, dear?"
He looked ahead without a word, and then I knew he could not hear.
Oh God, forgive me when I whine, I have two ears, the world is mine.
With feet to take me where I'd go; with eyes to see the sunsets glow, with ears to hear what I would know. I am blessed indeed. The world is mine; oh, God, forgive me when I whine
?? What are some things you use to help you remember God’s blessings?
We also see in this psalm, God’s Justice
By saying "the Lord works righteousness" in v. 6 the psalmist confesses his conviction that God is just. We may see justice miscarried in our own court system, but no one slips through the cracks in God’s courtroom. God works to accomplish righteousness.
God also protects the rights of the oppressed. The "oppressed" are the people in every society who have no one to look out for their welfare and protect their rights. In ancient Israel it was the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner who were usually oppressed. God protects the rights of people who the rest of society turns a deaf ear and a blind eye to.
God cares about you by treating you with fairness. God doesn’t play favorites with people, as if he somehow loves Billy Graham more than he loves Fidel Castro. God is no respecter of persons, but he treats everyone with equity.
The psalm continues on with many more reasons to praise God. Read down through the rest of the verses and let’s pull out some other things we praise God for:
Give chance to enumerate
This psalm ends with a reminder that not only man needs to praise our God, but we join with all of creation in giving Him our praise. Let’s do a better job of that this week!
