Psalm 103- Thanksgiving Message 2008

PRAISE THE LORD, O MY SOUL

Psalm 103:1-22 NIU UBF Thanksgiving message 2008
Key Verse: 103:2 Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 11/23/08
“ Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- .”
We’ve heard the term, praise the Lord! Christmas is coming and there will be lots of Christmas cards depicting angels praising God for the birth of Jesus. We’ve seen people in worship with their hands held up towards heaven. We’ve had people exhort us to praise the Lord. They look us in the eye and say in a loud voice, “Praise the Lord, brother!” In this world that seems to be filled with bad news, why should we praise the Lord? What does it mean to praise the Lord? How do we praise the Lord? What do we praise the Lord for? May Psalm 103 give us some insight into praising the Lord? So, let us praise God for more reasons other than just our daily bread.
First, we need to define who we are praising. Look at verse 1a, ““Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” When I was driving to Chicago there was a billboard about brothers. It had a picture of two boys walking hand in hand. It read, “Brothers…a gift from nature.” The billboard’s creators did not want to state the truth that brothers are a gift from God. In order to not offend, they implied that it is more proper to thank nature rather God. But we know the truth. This thanksgiving we are not praising nature, or good fortune, or being thankful to nobody or nothing in particular. We praise Jesus, the God of the Bible. Jesus is the only one worthy of our praise.

Second, praise the Lord with your inmost being. Look at verse 1a, ““Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being,…” What is our inmost being…literally? Your heart? Your intestines? Your liver and kidneys? Our praise of God could emanate from the very core of our being. It can be guttural. But the psalmist is referring to our souls. Mark 12:30 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'” To command your soul praise God means to praise God with every fiber of your being. It means to praise God with all that we have and all that we are. It involves having an open heart and being ready to respond to God’s love. We can not be superficial in our praising of God, it must be deep and sincere, from our soul, from our inmost being.

There are so many reasons to praise God. First, there are personal reasons. Look at verses 2, “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-“ Let’s think about the benefits of living our life in God. We are going to list many of them today. But some of the greatest benefits of our life in Christ are found in verses 3-5. “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” He forgives our sins; he heals our diseases; he redeems our lives from the pit. He crowns us with love and compassion and satisfies us with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's. We receive all of these benefits without deserving any of them. It is all by God’s grace. It is interesting to note the definite progression here. The subject here goes from being sick, to being healed, to being crowned, to flying like an eagle. God’s grace to us is that we are lifted up from the pit, revived and strengthened to do good work for the glory of God. God makes us to soar like an eagle. Do you know the characteristics of an eagle? Isaiah 40:31, “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Those who belong to Jesus will always have a youthful spirit. They will run and not grow weary. They will not be faint. It is like having strength like that of a twenty year old person.

God’s benefits are not just personal benefits for just you and your family. They are also international in scope, for God is the Lord of the whole world. Verses 6-18 read, “The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” When we look at the world and all of its suffering we can doubt God’s righteousness and justice. Sure, there may be many terrible things happening, but we can have faith that God is working out his perfect justice through it all. From our point of view we can not understand everything, but from God’s point of view, his perfect love and justice is maintained from generation to generation. Many of our young people suffer unjust treatment at the hands of evil persons. Some suffer because of others’ selfishness. They seem to be abandoned. What should they do? They need to come to Jesus. His perfect love and perfect justice are revealed on the cross. Jesus brings his perfect justice into our lives and frees us from oppression, especially the oppression nurtured and fertilized by our own sin. Do you have any doubt about God’s righteous justice? We may not understand everything, but we must trust God. God is just and righteous. He is ruling over all the world with righteousness and justice.

God’s grace is revealed in his treatment of the people of Israel. Look at verse 7, “He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel:8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” God’s law was given first to Moses and the people of Israel. It was God’s training manual to prepare his people to serve him and to follow his ways. God blessed His people so much. He lead provided for them in the desert. He gave them victory over their enemies. But in response to God’s blessings they only became very unthankful to God. God should have wiped them out. But he did not. Look at verses 9-10, “ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” He did not treat them as their sins deserved. He forgave them. He raised them us as his chosen, holy people.

Many young people think that God is some angry, punishing God that they don’t want anything to do with. Do you think like that? But our God is very compassionate. Some scholars have researched how many times God was angry in the Bible. It was about 100 times. It seemed like a lot of times, but actually if you consider the time frame, it was only once every twenty years. We get angry every day. Some of us pride themselves of being very gentle who rarely get angry. But even if we get angry once a year in reality we are still 20 times more angry than God. It’s good to place everything in perspective.
God completely forgives our sins. Look at verses 11 and 12. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” God’s love is immense. How high is the heavens? Mars, the red star in the night sky, takes seven years, round trip. Beyond Mars the universe goes on for what appears to be forever. East from west are how far apart? If one runs east and the other runs west they will meet after each has run 13,000 miles, for the circumference of the earth at the equator is about 26,000 miles. Actually, this is a symbolic portrait of God’s forgiveness. East and west can never meet. When he forgives our sin, he separates or sin from us and doesn’t even remember it. That is a whole lot of forgiveness. And it is all given to those who come to Jesus by faith, repenting of their sins before God. God forgives and forgets. When we repent of our sins, coming to Jesus by faith, God wipes our record clean. If we are to follow God, we must model his forgiveness…forgiving one another, and also forgetting the sin.
God has great compassion on weak sinners like ourselves. Look at verses 13-16, “ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” We understand a parent’s love. A parent’s heart goes out to their children, especially the weakest of their children. God’s compassion is like this. Like babes, people are actually very weak. The Bible says that we are like grass. We are easily blown away by the winds trouble and change. We are fragile, but God’s care is very tender and compassionate. When God examines our lives, he is mindful of our human condition. His mercy takes everything into account. We must trust him.

We can never forget the grace of Jesus. Look at verses 17-18, “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children- 18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.” Though we are to forgive and forget others sins when they come to Jesus, there is one thing that we must never forget. That is the grace of our Lord Jesus. But the truth is that is so easy to forget. We are actually infected with the disease of forgetting. We get blessed on day and then we return the next day as if nothing has happened. Take a lesson from the parable of the ten lepers. After being healed by Jesus, nine former lepers went home and forget about Jesus, but one came back and thanked Jesus. (Luke 17) That is why celebrating Thanksgiving is so important. It is a day where we can dedicate to remembering the grace of Jesus in a very meaningful way. Ephesians 1:16, “I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.” Giving thanks to God should be part of our constitution. It should be our duty. Actually giving thanks is going to be our main activity in the Kingdom of God. Many people ask, “What am I going to do in the kingdom of God?” Giving thanks will be the main contents of our life in the kingdom of God. Revelation 7:12, “2saying: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" We need to get used to thanking God here below so we can really get into it when we are make it to heaven.

Everyone likes grace. They want love, but God’s grace comes to those who love, know and fear God and have faith in him. Look at Verses 11,13b,17a, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;… so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;… 17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him.” Fearing God does not mean being terrified of God. It is having a deep respect for God and a desire to do what is right before his eyes. Who are those who fear him? Verses 18,20b, “with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts…. you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” They are those who obey the word of God. We, who call on his name, love and obey him willingly with a thankful heart. Nowadays it is not easy to fear God. It requires an absolute attitude towards God, otherwise we become very relativistic in our relationship with him and relativistic in our obedience to his word.

There is only one sovereign Lord and his name is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only ruler over the whole universe, over the heavens as well as over all the earth. Verse 19, “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” And this sovereign Lord commands even angelic beings to praise him. Look at verses 20-22, “ Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. 21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. 22 Praise the LORD, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the LORD, O my soul.” Quite simply, everything, everywhere is to praise the Lord: all angels – mighty ones and heavenly hosts – all God’s works! God created all things for his glory. Therefore let all creatures join in praising him. How much more should we the object of his immeasurable grace.

In this world of woe and endless struggles, it is easy to complain about life, but David’s list here in Psalm 103 gives us plenty for which to praise God – he forgives our sins, heals our diseases, redeems us from death, crowns us with love and compassion, satisfies our desires, and gives us righteousness and justice. May God teach our hearts and souls to praise him every day. May we promote the praise of Jesus in the hearts of others around us by sharing the gospel of God’s grace with them. Amen!
One word: Praise the Lord, O my soul