God is Merciful and Gracious--Psalm 103 (August 25, 2024)

Psalm 103 as a Call to Remember God’s Benefits

We can turn in your Bibles to Psalm 103, Psalm 103. So when I mapped out this August series on local church ministry and mission, I was planning on preaching a different sermon today. I planned on preaching a pretty practical sermon, casting something of a vision for certain emphases for our teaching ministry and our church programming.

But after three weeks of rather practical, topical sermons about church life, this past week I felt compelled to just step back and preach today, instead, a sermon on a topic at the very center of church ministry and mission, and that is I want to preach a sermon about God.

Love for God is at the blazing center of why our church, and any faithful church, exists. And the Bible tells us that we love God because He first loved us, and so what I want to do today in this sermon is from Psalm 103 to help us see and hear and meditate on and marvel at the love of God and at God Himself.

I never want us to lose sight of God, to never get over how great and good and kind and merciful and loving and awesome, in the most literal sense of that word, full of all that God is. There's going to be very little application in this sermon.

I'll just go ahead and tell you that up front. You're not going to be given five steps to do anything, I'm not going to tell you how to make your marriage better, or your job more efficient, or how to raise your kids, or talk about larger cultural issues.

Though, if we take this message to heart, I believe it will help all of those things. The only application in today's sermon is to praise God for who He is. The application is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Bless the Lord and Forget Not All His Benefits

And so let's begin Psalm 103, verses 1 and 2. Let me read these first two verses. God's word says this, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.

This psalm begins with an exhortation to oneself, to one's own soul, to praise God. That's what it means to bless God, is to praise Him. And then the rest of the psalm, verses 3 down to 19, then explicates the reasons that we are to praise God.

But it begins with this exhortation to worship and praise, to bless God, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. That's an important instruction or exhortation to oneself, is forget not. You see, we're a people prone to forget.

It's so easy to move on to the next thing that catches our attention. And we forget the fundamental things. Yet the psalmist here calls us to remembrance. That's why I'm preaching this sermon and not the sermon that I had originally planned.

Because I want us to remember God and all His benefits. This is the reason we do the Lord's Supper. We do it in remembrance of Christ. This is why we sing. We rehearse the glories of God and remember all of His good gifts through song.

To remember all His benefits. And what are God's benefits? Well, we lack time to list them all this morning. But I want to try to give us a good start. Broadly speaking, we could say that God's benefits are the forgiveness of sins and His constant care for us.

But we might also think about a clean conscience. Spiritual vitality in life. For we were once dead in our trespasses and sins. We might think about eternal life that we have with God.

Peace with God.

Restored relationships with others. We might think about the fact that we are remade to live with wisdom. So that we live in a way that cuts with the grain of reality of how God made the world. We might think about strength to fight against sin and withstand the attacks of the evil one.

We might think about daily provision. These are all the benefits of God. Verses 3 and 4 then specify the things that God has done for you as we take this exhortation to our own selves to not forget what God has done for us.

So let's read verses 3 and 4.

It says,.

Who forgives all your iniquities. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from destruction. Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. I want to invite you to reflect on your life for just a moment.

I want you to think about for just a moment. Don't dwell here, but think about just for a moment your most heinous sins. The ones that cause you the most shame. The ones you dare not speak of except in the most confidential of settings.

And then on the other end, think about your most run-of-the-mill sins. The ones you forget about. And then everything in between. And think for just a moment about God's holiness and how those sins offend a righteous and holy God.

And then think about how you react when someone offends you. And you're not as righteous and holy as God. None of us are. And then taking all that, remember God forgives all your iniquities. From the most heinous to the most run-of-the-mill and everything in between.

God forgives all. Not some. Not just the white lies. Not just maybe the laziness or the time that you stole bubble gum from the drugstore when you were a kid.

But all.

The porn addiction.

The adultery. The abortion. The fits of rage. The drug addiction. The homosexuality. The sleeping around. The armed robbery. The, you insert fill-in-the-blank sin here. He forgives all of our iniquity.

Now to be sure, this is not a license to sin or not care about sin. In this I am presuming repentance in a contrite and humble heart. Though hear this, if you refuse to repent and you are not contrite and you are still in your sins.

But to those who are repentant, those who are broken by their sin. Remember a bruised reed he will not break. He forgives all of your iniquity. Then he goes on to say he heals all your diseases. See God's saving benefits are for body as well as soul.

Both are in view here. God according to his wisdom and by his power sometimes grants physical healing. He cares for us and answers our prayers for health. He sometimes does this in the present. Though sometimes according to God's wisdom the righteous suffer with illness.

With an illness that is not healed. But even then in that situation we look forward to the day of resurrection. When the dead in Christ shall receive new bodies. And be fully and finally healed. He heals all of our diseases.

Our souls are also in view here. For every last person is sin sick. Sin wreaks havoc on us. It sickens our souls. And often that is made manifest in our bodies. But God heals our diseases. In Christ he has healed our sin sickness.

He has made us well. He has restored us morally. And he has renewed our souls. Verse 4 he redeems our life from destruction. So I want you to think about now. Think about your foolish decisions that you have made throughout life.

That could have ended in destruction. So I think about my older sister had a jeep when we were in high school. And I can't remember if it was my older brother Matt. Or my sister driving that. But sometimes we would be going down the road.

Top was down. And I am cutting flips over that roll bar. While we are going down the road. Just a foolish decision in hindsight. Could have easily fallen off. Could have easily ended in a bad place. I have sins that are just as foolish.

That could have led to destruction. Yet God was merciful. And he redeemed me from that destruction. You see God in Christ took the destruction. He took the death. He took the wrath. In my place. In our place.

Your place. And he has redeemed us. And instead of death. He has crowned us with loving kindness. And tender mercies. Loving kindness there refers to God's steadfast love. His pledge to love faithfully.

Within covenant with you. His loving kindness.

His pledge of love.

You see what was meant for evil God turned for good. He redeemed us from the destruction. Just think how kind is God. Let's move on to verse 5. God who satisfies your mouth with good things. So that your youth is renewed like the eagles.

Here we read that God satisfies. So much of life is marked by dissatisfaction. We are easily discontent and dissatisfied. We always crave more. But I want you to know you can find satisfaction in God.

He is the one. In fact he is the only one who can truly satisfy you. Because he is the only one who is in himself all sufficient. He is the one who is all in all. Therefore he can satisfy you. And we are satisfied because he gives us himself.

He unites us with Christ by faith. And gives us himself. I want to read from Charles Spurgeon here. I'm going to read from Spurgeon for Ms. Martha because I know she loves Spurgeon.

Spurgeon says,.

For if we have Christ we have all things. For first Christ is all and next. He that spared not his own son but freely gave him up for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things. For all things are yours whether things present or things to come.

All are yours and ye are Christ's. And Christ is God's. You have enough then. For you have all things. You have all things and so you are satisfied. You are satisfied in God. You have all things. You have the forgiveness of sins.

You have peace with God. You have a new heart. You have the ability to obey God and to please God. You have a home in heaven awaiting you. You have the promise of a resurrected body. You have all things.

And if that were not enough. God just stacks up the blessings on top of those spiritual blessings and foundational blessings. And he stacks up all sorts of small earthly pleasures as well that satisfy us.

Think about the laughter of your children. The satisfaction of a hard job well done. Emphasis on done. Sweet tea on a hot summer day. Sitting by the fire pit on a crisp fall evening. A long conversation with an old friend.

Thinking of my wife's cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. That's what he's talking about when he says he satisfies your mouth with good things. You see God satisfies us with all sorts of good things.

From the small earthly pleasures to the eternal realities. And he does so so that our youth is renewed like the eagles. Now what is this talking about? Are we to be young again? No, we're all getting older.

Some of you feel that more than others. But think about it. We all experience spiritual decline from time to time. And we have need of being restored to the youth of our faith. This spiritual decline is sometimes due to sin.

We backslide.

We choose other things other than walking in the way of Christ and obeying God's commandments. We backslide. Think back to moments in your walk with Christ when you felt like you had ascended the mountain of God only to soon have your feet slip and give way to sin.

Sometimes our spiritual decline is due to sin. Other times it's due to seasons of spiritual distress. When we are downtrodden, fearful, anxious, timid. We live in a world full of temptations and pressures and griefs and sorrows.

And these weights and these burdens are hard to bear. In those moments, God is there to renew your strength like the eagles. To give us new vitality and vigor to fight yet again against sin. To struggle one more day through the trials.

One more day through the pain. And to give us endurance. And to remember that He never leaves you nor forsakes you. But He renews you by His Spirit.

God’s Justice, Revelation, and Merciful Character

Verse 6.

The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Have you been wronged? Here the psalmist reminds us of God as the just judge who executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

No one ultimately gets away with it. You will be vindicated. And every sin against you will be dealt with. Either it will be dealt with at the cross where Jesus took the wrath for that sin. Bringing satisfaction for it.

Or it will be dealt with at the judgment seat. But no one escapes justice. Not the ex-spouse who wronged you. Not those in powerful institutions that conspire together to oppress large groups of people.

God judges and executes justice. I had a friend tell me one time talking about vindication and God's executing of righteousness and justice. He said when God sets all things right, when Christ sets all things right at the end of time, no one is going to look back after God tidies everything up and judges and executes righteousness.

No one is going to look back and say that was unfair. That you didn't judge rightly. No, Christ will tie up every loose end. He will set all things to rights. He executes righteousness and justice. Often, God as judge gets a bad rap as if God being judge is harsh or something.

But it's not harsh if you were the one who is systematically oppressed. If you were the one who was gravely, grossly wronged. In that case, it's refreshing. Good news to know that there is one who is perfectly righteous.

Who is all powerful. And who will hold the evildoers to account for their deeds and not let anyone get off with anything. That's good news for the oppressed. Verse 7, He made known His way to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.

He made them known to Israel and Moses. He makes them known to us. Think about that for a moment. How great is that? You see, God was not obligated to tell us anything. We have no right to demand that God tell us anything.

Yet, He does. He reveals and makes known His ways to us. He's not obligated to tell us anything. Romans 1 tells us that there's enough light in nature for us to know that God exists and that we ought to give Him thanks and worship Him.

Yet God was kind to not just leave it at that, but He gave us His Word so we would know that that God that we should know that exists, that He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that we would have a written record of His mighty acts through history.

That we would know that we must repent of our sin and trust in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, who lived a perfect life and died a perfect sacrificial death and was raised on the third day. We must trust in Him to be saved from our sins and into covenant relationship with Him.

And He tells us His ways, how we ought to live to please Him and be blessed. He doesn't leave that a mystery for us. He was kind to make His ways known to us. How gracious of an act is it that God gave us His Word.

Verse 8, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. I started just to preach this one verse this morning. The rest of the psalm was so good I wanted to do the whole thing, but this verse really is the crux of the psalm.

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. This is language from God revealing His name to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 34. If you want to go back and look at that sometime, maybe this afternoon, and you'll see this same type of language.

We see that the Lord is merciful. That is, He has pity on us. He does not give us what we deserve for our sins, but instead He deals with our sins through His Son Jesus. God is compassionate to sinners, and He spares them.

We see that the Lord is gracious. That is, God looks favorably upon us. He richly supplies all that we need, especially our greatest need which is forgiveness of sins and a restored relationship with Him through Christ and the ability to walk in obedience to Him.

He's slow to anger. That is, He is long-suffering. God doesn't have a hair trigger. He's not just waiting for you to mess up and then zap you. No, He is patient. He bears with you through many sins. How often do we think we've got our act together only to fall yet again?

And God is patient with you. He bears with you through many sins on your pilgrimage toward heaven, and He raises you up to maturity and to wisdom. We've all done things that should anger God, especially when we do that same sin again and again and again, yet God is slow to anger and abounding in mercy.

He doesn't just have a little bit of mercy. He is abounding and He's overflowing with mercy. So think of all the believers of all time. Think of all the sins of all believers throughout all the ages stacked up high like the mountains.

That's a lot of sin. Now think of mercy like water. It's a raging flood that covers that mountain peak such that no sin of any believer in Christ should be left uncovered. He's abounding in mercy. Verses 9 -14 then go into detail about God's loving kindness and His mercy and His grace and His patience.

Let's read 9 -14. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

Verse 9 tells again of God's patience. That He is slow to anger. That His anger will pass. Those of us in Christ Jesus, it's important to remember this. You are not the objects of God's wrath. And you never will be.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. Verse 10. What we have done deserves wrath. It deserves death. It deserves punishment and destruction. But see how kind God is.

He doesn't deal with us according to what we deserve. Instead, He is abounding in mercy for His people. And He has completely removed our sins from us. As high as the heavens and as far as the east is from the west.

Which if you look on a map, you keep going east or you keep going west, those two never meet. And your sins shall never meet you again either.

He has removed them.

This is the height and the width and the breadth of God's vast mercy toward His children. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. God is gentle with us. He knows our frame.

Verse 14. He remembers that we are dust. He knows that we are weak and He deals with us accordingly. He is not like Pharaoh who is a harsh taskmaster demanding more bricks with less straw. No, He is a kind father.

See, a good father knows that his toddler will be scared sometimes. And he'll whisper words of comfort in that little toddler's ear and exhort him to trust God and be strong and courageous. He doesn't chastise him for being scared.

A good father knows his daughter can only handle so much and he doesn't give her more than she can bear. A good father realizes that in immaturity a son will sin, but he doesn't slap him for being so boneheaded but walks with him through repentance and correction.

He's a good father.

God is a good father. Is your prayer life lacking? Pray again.

God will accept the prayer.

Did you forget to read the Bible again?

Pray again.

Open the book. Turn the page. Read the text.

God will bless you in the reading.

He won't refuse you for forgetting to read the day before. Did you fall into temptation yet again? Turn once again to Christ asking for forgiveness. He will not withhold it. Are you lacking in zeal? Give it another go.

He will renew your strength like the eagles. Again, let me read from Spurgeon. I know that with all of us there is nothing we have done but what might weep a whole shower of tears over. But Jesus the pitiful knows our meaning.

He will not look at the flaws but at the jewel. He will cover our sins with the mantle of His love. He will accept the will for the deed. Let us try again. Let us trust in Him wholly and devote ourselves unreservedly to His service.

Let us be persuaded that as we accept from our children a poor fading nosegay on our birthday and thank them as much as if it were pearls and diamonds because it shows their love, even if our heart loves Jesus, He will receive our poor imperfect service for our love's sake.

He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. Verses 15 -18. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over and is gone, and its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him and His righteousness to children's children, to such as keep covenant and to those who remember His commandments to do them.

See, life is but a vapor. Here today, gone tomorrow. Our years on earth are like grass that blows away when the wind comes. But God's mercy is unending. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.

His mercy never dries up. His grace will never wither like the flowers. His patience will never run out. He is abounding in mercy. But I want you to notice His mercy there is everlasting from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.

That same phrase is used in verse 11 as well where we see God's mercy as great as the height of the heavens toward those who fear Him. This means that as vast and unending as God's mercy is, it is not provided for every single person or maybe a better way to say it is available to every single person.

It is available to all, but it is not applied to all. The mercy of God is for His people, those who fear Him, those who keep covenant with Him, those who are united to Christ by faith. And so, maybe you're here today and you don't know if God has been or will be merciful to you.

You are still living in the mire of your own sins and your own choices. Maybe you're even disgusted by them, but like the Proverbs say, a dog returned to its own vomit. You keep returning to your sins.

If that's you, friend, I have an invitation to you. Come to Jesus Christ. He dealt with your sin on the cross so that God the Father would not deal with you according to your sins. He took your sins to the grave and buried them so that they would be removed from you as far as the east is from the west.

He rose from the dead so that in Him you too could rise to new and everlasting life. That is on offer for you today. Now, you might say, at what price? Well, on the one hand, totally free. Grace always is.

And the Lord is gracious, verse 8 tells us. You can have all things. You can be completely satisfied in body and soul, all paid for by Jesus Christ. Available. Free. Of course, on the other hand, another answer is this.

It will cost you your life.

That is, if you repent of your sins and turn to Christ, your old man will die and you will be born again a new man. It will no longer be you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. You must repent. You must fear God.

You must submit yourself to His Lordship.

But what a trade.

You give up the sins that so easily beset you, the sins that weigh you down, the sins that crush you, the sins that lead to your destruction, and Christ gives you all things. Forgiveness of sin and constant care.

A home in heaven. A clean heart. Forgiveness of sins. So come to Christ and be saved. Come to Christ and live. Come to Christ and receive mercy. You won't find it anywhere else. And so do not delay. Make today the day of your salvation.

The Lord’s Throne, Universal Rule, and Final Praise

Very quickly, let's go through these last few verses. Verse 19 says, The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all. We see here that God is King. He rules over all through His creation in Providence.

And by faith you are a son or you are a daughter of the King. How great is that that the King of all the universe has called you to Himself.

Called you son.

Isn't God kind and gracious? And then the psalm ends with an exhortation once again to praise God. Bless the Lord, you His angels, who excel in strength, who do His word, heeding the voice of His word.

Bless the Lord, all you His hosts, you ministers of His, who do His pleasure. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. This is a call to the angels, to the host of heaven, to praise Him.

It's a call to all of creation.

And it's a call to one's own soul. Let all the earth praise the Lord. Let everyone in here praise the Lord, for He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy,.

Steadfast love.

Let's pray together.

Our Father in heaven, we thank You that You are merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Thank You for not treating us according to our sins, but according to the work of Your Son Jesus on the cross.

Thank You that You know our frame, that we are dust, and You are gentle with us. Help us to live rightly in light of these truths about who You are. Help us to bask in Your glory, and just enjoy You and Your love for us forever.

We ask all of this in the name of Christ.

Amen.