Psalms 103:1-19. 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 benefit?
Three times the psalmist says, «Bless, bless, bless.» Come, my heart, wake up, awake every faculty, but especially my memory: «Forget not all his benefits.» Here is a list of some of them; as we read each one, let our hearts say, «Bless the Lord for that.»
Psalms 103:3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Hallelujah, bless the Lord for that! He who has felt the weight of his sin will leap for joy at the thought of the forgiveness of all his iniquities.
Psalms 103:3. Who healeth all thy diseases;
He has restored some of us from the bed of sickness and extreme pain, and he is even now healing our spiritual diseases. Sometimes, it may be that he giveth the bitter medicine, but it is thus that «he healeth all thy diseases.» The process of sanctification is a healing process to the soul, so bless the Lord for it.
Psalms 103:4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Can you ever praise God enough for your redemption from a doom so great as to be the destruction of every hope, and of everything worth having? «Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;»
Psalms 103:4. Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
There is about your head, even now, a halo of love, invisible to all but the eyes of grace and gratitude, a bright, shining crown of lovingkindness and tender mercies. Have I not often told you that kindness is the gold of the crown, but that lovingkindness is the velvet to line the crown to make it sit softly on the brow? Mercies these are the jewels; but the tenderness of the mercies is the ermine that makes the crown such that it cannot truly be said, «Uneasy lies the head that wears this crown.» No; but happy, happy, happy are all they who are thus crowned; bless the Lord if you are among them.
Psalms 103:5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
There is an inward satisfaction that God gives to his people. They are not satisfied with themselves, but they are satisfied from themselves, from that «well of water» which springs up within them «unto life eternal.» What a mercy it is to be so satisfied as to get young again, to feel your spiritual youth coming back to you, to be young in heart even if you are old in body: «Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.» Let me again pause here, and say, «Let us bless the Lord for this.» Do not let one of these mercies be passed over as if they made up a dry and uninteresting list, like the lots in an auctioneer's catalogue; but let us bedew every one of these lines with a tear of heartfelt thankfulness.
Psalms 103:6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Bless his name for this. In every age, he has broken the oppressor's rod.
For a while, his people may be made to smart; but, by-and-by, he hears their cries, and he avenges their wrongs.
Psalms 103:7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his act unto the children of Israel.
Bless him for this. He does not hide himself from his people, so that they do not know «his ways» and «his acts.» Revelation is a constant source of thanksgiving to those who understand it through the teaching of the Spirit who inspired it. God might never have spoken to us, or we might not have lived in a world wherein God had deigned to reveal his will. But that is not the case: «He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.»
Psalms 103:8. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Surely, dear friends, we can all bless God for this truth; for, if he had been quick to be angry, where should we have been? If his mercy has been scanty, we should long ago have been destroyed, but he is «slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.»
Psalms 103:9. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
Are you, just now, hearing the stern voice of his chiding? Does his anger, like a black cloud, seem to rest upon you, and hide from you his reconciled face? Then, bless the Lord that «he will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever» against his own chosen ones.
Psalms 103:10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Bless the Lord for that. Sweep your hand over the harp strings so as to fetch the sweetest music from them. How true it is of me and of you? «He hath not dealt with us after our sins!»
Psalms 103:11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Immeasurable mercy, illimitable grace, blessed be his holy name!
Psalms 103:12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Here again I cannot tell how much we ought to bless him. It is not merely pardon of a temporary character that is given to us, but our sin is carried right away into a land of forgetfulness, so that it will never come back again to us. «Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.»
Psalms 103:13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Let us praise him for his tender pity over our weakness, his forbearance with our infirmity and waywardness.
Psalms 103:14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
Some people do not remember that, they try to work us as if we were made of iron. But the Lord is very pitiful. He knows that we are nothing but a mass of animated dust, which the wind can soon carry away.
Psalms 103:15-16. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
In a very little time, unless Christ should first come in his glory, this is what will happen to all of us. A breath of fever-bearing wind, or some other disease, borne on the wings of the wind, will sweep over us, and the strongest of us will wither in an hour.
Psalms 103:17. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
Oh, bless him for that! He does not die; he does not change; he does not fail any who trust to him.
Psalms 103:17-18. And his righteousness unto children's children: to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Let us bless God for his love to our sons and our daughters. Some of us have great joy in our children, I pray that all of you may have the same joy, that you may see that the Lord, who is your God, is also the God of your descendants, as the God of Abraham was the God of Isaac, and of Jacob, and of Joseph, and of Ephraim and Manasseh, from generation to generation. Grace does not run in the blood, but it often runs side by side with it. It is often the way with God, when he has blessed the father, to bless the son for the father's sake, so you, who are yourselves believers may pray with great confidence for your sons and daughters. Bless the Lord for this.
Psalms 103:19. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
For this also we bless him. If there was any part of the world that he did not rule over, if there were any circumstances which he could not control, if there were any events which happened without his permission, if he were not King everywhere, this would be an intolerable world to live in; but now we bless him because «his kingdom ruleth over all.»
Psalms 103:20. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
David calls in the angels to help him to praise the Lord; he wants to do it well, but feels that he is weak and feeble, so he calls in the best of help.
We also sing,
«Angels, assist our mighty joys,
Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you raise your highest notes,
His love can ne'er be told.»
Psalms 103:21. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
All who wait upon him, whether angels or men, or the lower creatures are called upon to glorify his great name; and they do so.
Psalms 103:22. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
Do you notice that there is not a single petition in the whole of this psalm? It is all praise; and herein it is like heaven, where they cease to pray, but where they praise God without ceasing. We cannot rise to that height here, but let us both praise and pray when we can.