Read Psalm 103:1-5
Brother Roger, a reformed minister, moved to Taizé, France in 1940 to re-establish a form of monastic communal living that had been a tradition in that area back in medieval times. The community became known as a place for the down and out. In the 60s, young adults began to make the pilgrimage to Taizé to experience this ministry of reconciliation and prayer. So many people from all over the world were coming that they found it difficult to worship together with the complex music they often used. They brought in a French organist to help them take some of the Psalms and turn them into songs that their international community could sing together. One of those songs starts like this:
Sing- “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
Bless the Lord. Such a strange concept, reverse of what we normally think, isn’t it? Somebody sneezes, you say, “God bless you.” Somebody says or does something incredibly stupid- “Aww, bless your heart.” When we’re saying goodbye, we often say, “God bless.” We say we’re blessed when we’re referring to something special in our lives- “My family has been blessed to have the home in which we live.” We talk about being blessed to have made it through a difficult spot in our lives. We tell someone they’re a blessing out of gratitude for something they’ve done on our behalf. Usually we think of God as the giver of blessings, rarely is He the recipient.
This psalm was written by King David- I picture him near the end of his life, possibly on the roof of his palace, looking out over the kingdom. He sees Jerusalem in all its splendor, he looks beyond to the expansive kingdom, and he begins to reflect on all the times God has taken care of him. Whether it was giving him the ability to defeat the lion or the wolf that was attacking his flock of sheep, empowering him to defeat the giant Goliath with 5 smooth stones, to protecting him from King Saul when he tried to take David’s life on multiple occasions. All the times that God protected David as Israel waged war and expanded their territory, even in those times when David failed- like the time he saw Bathsheba from that rooftop and committed adultery or when his son Absalom tried to take over the kingdom and he had to flee Jerusalem. God continually watched over David. As he reflected on all these things, I believe God gave David a glimpse of heaven. Overwhelmed with it all, I picture him falling to his knees as the emotions rush over him and he bursts out in song.
Sing- “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
David then goes on to tell us why we should bless the Lord, listing the promises God has given to all who follow Him.
1- God forgives all your iniquity. How does this happen? God created everything to perfection. Adam and Eve messed that up in the Garden of Eden, bringing sin into the world. God knew that man couldn’t fix this on his own, so he sent Jesus to pay the price for us through His death, burial, and resurrection. Peter answers the question of what we must then do to receive this forgiveness. Read Acts 2:38. Believe in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. Repent of your sins and turn to God. Confess that you are making Jesus master of your life. Be baptized to be forgiven. Live for God.
Now, a lot of teens that I minister with get all this and some of them still haven’t made their commitment yet. Why? Because they’re afraid they’ll mess up after being baptized and God will turn them away. But that’s not the case. 1 John 1:9 tells us that God continues to forgive- we confess and He’ll forgive. The only way this stops is we stop asking for it. God forgives ALL our iniquities.
2- God heals all your diseases. We’ve seen a lot of people who are part of our church be healed. Seven or eight people have come for prayer because of cancer that have brought back praise reports that the cancer is gone, be it divine intervention alone, medical treatment, or surgery. But there are also some who may be thinking, “But I haven’t been healed. How can you make this claim?” Indulge me for a minute, as I’m reminded of when my girls were little and VeggieTales were played quite often in our home. My mind goes to a segment they call, “Silly Songs with Larry” (the point where Larry comes out and sings a silly song). There is one video where Larry the Cucumber begins singing that everybody’s got a water buffalo until he’s interrupted by Archibald the Asparagus. “You can’t say everybody’s got a water buffalo, not everybody’s got a water buffalo. Little Billy’s going to be writing in asking where’s his water buffalo. You can’t say that!”
John Piper gave some good insight when asked about this line of Psalm 103.
A. First, we must remember that God has always been a God who healed. In the OT alone, there were 5 times God healed barren women; 4 times God healed plagues brought on by sin; He healed Moses, He healed Miriam, He healed Naaman the leper; three times He raised the dead; there were at least 6 other instances of healing, two of them involving 1,000s of people. All told there are 16 individual healings, 7 mass healings, 23 separate accounts.
B. Second, expecting healing is not a way to put God to the test. The gospels tell how Jesus fasted 40 days in the wilderness then Satan came to tempt Him. One of those temptations was for Jesus to jump from the roof of the temple because God would send angels to protect Him, according to the scriptures. Jesus responded that we were not to put God to the test, according to the scripture. Sometimes God is to be given glory as we endure for we know He is faithful.
C. The time will come when all will be healed forever. Revelation 21:4 promises that there will come a time when there is no more sorrow, no more pain, this includes no more disease. We can hold on to this promise that whether it be this life or the next, God will heal every disease.
3- God redeems your life from the pit. This may sound like forgiveness, but I think it has more to do with the price that has been paid on our behalf. It points to the idea of the kinsman redeemer. If you recall the story of Boaz and Ruth, when Ruth joined Naomi in Israel, she began gleaning from the fields of Boaz. Naomi instructed her how to make it known to Boaz that she was available to be wed to him and when she did, Boaz negotiated with the first in line so that he could be the kinsman redeemer. They became part of the ancestry of Jesus, the ultimate kinsman redeemer. Romans 8:22-23 tells us that Jesus paid the price so that we can be renewed. We have been redeemed from the pit.
4- God crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. When you become a Christian, you are adopted by God. Since God is king, as His child you are then a prince or a princess. How does someone recognize royalty? By their crown. The crown God has given you is formed of His steadfast love and mercy, His gifts given you at salvation. This doesn’t mean life becomes easy and there’s never any problems. James 1:12 tells us that we need to stand strong through trials and in the end, when we’ve stood strong, our crown of love and mercy will be exchanged for a crown of life that will last forever.
5- God satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. All of us are getting older and are in different stages of frailty. I may have come through falling over 14 rows of people at the Pacers game with only bruises, but that’s not something I’m going to test again. Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 that while our outward selves may be decaying, God is continually renewing our inner selves. We may need a new knee or hip or shoulder or whatever, but God is renewing our inner beings so that we will live forever.
Sing- “He has done great things. He has done great things. He has done great things, bless His holy name!”
The psalm concludes with a call out for all to join in blessing the Lord. Read Psalm 103:20-22. David calls out to the angels. The beings in heaven who are directly serving God and are promised to one day be our servants as well. He calls out to the hosts. I believe it’s the same hosts who appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem at the birth of the messiah. We often depict them to be like a choir, but it seems more like the army of God, proclaiming His praises. David calls out to all of God’s works. That’s us. Jesus said that if we don’t praise God, the rocks, the tree, birds will all ring out his praises. Bless the Lord.
Invite to sing- “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!”
