Psalms 103

Psalms 103THEME: A great psalm of praise for the tender mercies of GodWhen Gustavus Adolphus entered Augsburg after his victory at Leipzig, he had this psalm read. It looks forward to a new day; in fact, it looks beyond the Millennium into eternity where it will find the fullness of fulfillment. In the past the nation of Israel turned to this psalm, today the godly Israelite turns to this psalm, and in the future he will also turn to this psalm. Individual believers today find it a real source of strength and light. It is a psalm of thanksgiving for things, and a psalm of praise for a Personthat Person is Christ. I suppose it was sung antiphonally.

The psalm begins as a solo and ends in a symphony of universal praise. I have divided the psalm like this: (1) Admonition for the present; (2) Declaration concerning Jehovah; (3) Declaration concerning man; and (4) Proclamation for the future.

Psalms 103:1

ADMONITION FOR THE PRESENTPsalm 103 begins with an admonition for the present, and notice how personal it is. Twice we are told to bless the Lord, twice in the first two verses. This is a psalm that gets way down where we live; it reveals something to our hearts. The Polychrome Bible translates the first verse, “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is deepest within me, bless his holy name.” We are told to praise and glorify the Lord; yet when I read this psalm I recognize that the best I can do just doesn’t quite make it. My soul goes out to Him but not like it should. My friend, I want to put up a warning signal. There is a real danger today of going to church, observing the ritual, and parroting pious platitudes.

This is the thing God warned His people about in Isa_29:13, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” It is nothing more than lip service. There is no submission to God’s Word and His demands. They just follow the precepts of men. We see this in Judaism and Romanism; and it is pretty easy for Protestants to point a finger at them and say, “Look how dead their religion is!” My friend, how dead is your church and your personal worship? Oh, if only my praise could be pure and from the depths of my heart! That is what I long for and what we should all long for.

There is a lot of chanting and ritualism today in church. It is easy to say that liberalism rejects all of the great truths of God’s Word, but if we simply go to church and mouth these truths, it can also be said of us, “Men worship Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” This psalm says, “All that is within me, bless his holy name.” The flesh cannot do this. I am going to make a confession to you: I can’t worship the Lord like I want to. Do you know why? This old flesh of mine can’t rise to that level. It is only by the Holy Spirit that you and I can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. Let’s not forget “all His benefits.” He has been so good to ushow evident this is as we look back over the years.

Psalms 103:3

DECLARATION CONCERNING JEHOVAHI am of the opinion that this verse speaks of the Kingdom age (there are many people who disagree with me), and I am very frank to say that this refers to physical as well as spiritual diseases. God has made it quite clear what He is going to do during the Kingdom age. Isa_33:24 says, “And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” I have been told that many of these “faith healers” emphasize salvation. I don’t think they emphasize salvation at all. Instead they put it on the end of their services like a caboose. My friend, there can be no healing until the sins are forgiven.

Disease is the result of sin; and, before healing can take place, the sin question must be settled. Christ was delivered for our offenses. He was raised for our justification. Not until we are justified by faith in Christ can we be forgiven. In 1Pe_2:24 (a quote from Isa_53:5) we read, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” Healed of what? Healed of your sins, my friend.

That is the important thing.

Psalms 103:4

We ought to recognize the fact that many of God’s choicest servants have been ill and afflicted and have never been healed in this life. The apostle Paul was one of these. He had a thorn in his flesh. It may have been eye trouble. If anyone should have claimed healing, it seems to me he should have. Fanny Crosby was blind to her dying day. John Milton was blind. What about these people? Do you have the audacity to say that something was wrong with these people because they were not healed? It is wonderful to be healed, but that is not always God’s plan. Understand one thing: some of God’s choicest servants never experienced healing at all.

Psalms 103:5

I was very amused one day when I saw a “faith healer” on television. In fact, I was shocked because the picture I had seen of her looked very much like that of a high school girl. What I saw on television was not a high school girlGod had not renewed her youth. That will take place during the Millennium. In fact, I have a new body coming to me. I don’t have it yet, but one day in the future it will be mine.

Psalms 103:6

God made known His ways to Moses, but all that the children of Israel saw were the miracles. They did not have much understanding. There are many people like them today who recognize certain truths, but they don’t enter into the way of God. Oh, how important that is.

Psalms 103:8

What we need above everything else today is God’s mercy.

Psalms 103:9

DECLARATION CONCERNING MANMy friend, if God would deal with us according to our sins and according to our iniquities, none of us would be saved.

Psalms 103:11

Oh, how we need his mercy!

Psalms 103:12

The psalmist does not say, “As far as the north is from the south.” That is quite a distance; but when you start moving from the east to the west, there is no end. When you start going west, you keep going west. When you go north, you eventually reach a point where you start going south, but when you go west, you never stop going west. That is how far God has removed our transgressions from us!

Psalms 103:13

God is so good to us, and we do not seem to recognize it.

Psalms 103:14

Dr. George Gill used to put it like this: “God remembers that we are dust. We forget it, and when dust gets stuck on itself, it is mud.” That is a picture of man.

Psalms 103:15

We won’t be here on earth very long, friend. Someone said to me the other day, “I notice you are getting a little gray.” I replied, “I notice that you are, too.” Do you know what God is trying to tell us? When God puts gray in your hair, He is saying, “You are not going to be here much longer.” When you get arthritis and you have trouble getting up in the morning, that is a warning from God. He is saying, “You won’t be around much longer. You need to get straightened out.”

Psalms 103:17

PROCLAMATION FOR THE FUTUREIt is a wonderful thing to look into the future and know that God will always be merciful to us.

Psalms 103:22

How glorious it will be when all creatures in His dominion will bless Him. This is universal worship when, as Dr. Gaebelein expresses it, “the mighty Hallelujahs will sweep the earth, will sweep the heavens, will come downward and upward, when all creation will join in, when everything which has breath will shout ‘Hallelujah.’” But in the meantime, let’s not forget to “bless the LORD, O my soul.”