This is a song of exulting thanksgiving, of overflowing joy and praise. Let each one of us read it as speaking for himself. Let it, here and now, be our own personal tribute of peculiar mercy received by each.
Psalms 103:1. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
If things without are not joyous, let all that is within wake itself up to praise my God. He will hear me, even though I speak not. If I keep the praise within myself, he will hear the music of my soul. «Bless his holy name.»
Psalms 103:2. Bless the LORD, O my soul,
Do it again. If thou hast blest him once, bless him again. Doth he not multiply to bless thee? Bless him repeatedly, continually, then. Never weary of the work. Repeat thyself in grateful praise.
Psalms 103:2. And forget not all his benefits:
Thy poor memory has often been the grave of his mercy; but now call for a resurrection, and let his mercies rise before thine eyes, and let thy praises rise with them. «Forget not all his benefits.»
Psalms 103:3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities:--
Yes, that is done. Thou art a forgiven sinner tonight. «All thine iniquities,» and they were very many, have gone from thee once for all. Wilt thou not sing about that?
Psalms 103:3. Who healeth all thy diseases;
Thou art raised up from the bed of pain. What is better still, the Lord is at work with thy sinful nature, purging and cleansing thee of thy corruption healing thee of thy pride, thy sloth, thy unbelief. Wilt thou not praise him for this? «Who healeth» goes on to heal continues to heal «all thy diseases.»
Psalms 103:4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Who has redeemed thee with his own precious blood, and given thee a life above all life the life of God within thee-a redeemed life. Oh! by the precious blood that bought thee, wilt thou be silent? Wilt thou not sing about redemption? Is it not the sweetest theme to sing about that ever can be imagined?
Psalms 103:4. Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Treats thee like a king. As a king giveth to a king, so gives he his mercies unto thee crowns thee. What! shall a crowned head refuse to praise him who crowned it? No. «Bless the lord, O my soul!»
Psalms 103:5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
He might have left thee to pine in spiritual hunger; instead whereof he has fed thee made thee to know what is good, and to love what is good, and to feed upon that which is good, and to rejoice in that which is good. Will thou not praise him for this?
Psalms 103:5. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Oh! thou art strengthened. Thou growest young again; thy faith is revived; thy hope is brightened; thy love has been stirred up, and the smouldering flame begins to burn anew with vigor. Wilt thou not bless him who restoreth thee after this fashion? Surely, thou canst not refuse to praise.
Psalms 103:6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Let the poor of the earth praise him for this. Let the despised those who are trampled on exult in the fact that God is the executioner of the proud, and the executor of the poor. «He executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.»
Psalms 103:7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
He is a God who makes himself known. He might have hidden himself behind his works, instead of which he has given us a revelation a revelation in the Old Testament which made David sing. But you and I have a revelation in the New Testament not made to Moses this time, but to great David's greater son. Shall we not praise him for making known his ways and his acts to us in the person of his son, in a bright and lustrous manner unknown before? «My soul, bless thou the Lord.»
Psalms 103:8. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
And should not this make us plenteous in song? So good a God to such great sinners! Mercy-full full of mercy, and gracious, full of grace, and love, and kindness! So slow to anger, and so quick to forgive! O my soul, be thou slow to murmur: be thou quick to praise!
Psalms 103:9. He will not always chide:
So that even you who feel his chidings tonight ought to bless him, because they last such a little while. Such are our faults that if he were always chiding, we could not find any fault with him. But he will not always chide. He will sometimes. He makes us know the folly of our hearts when we wander from him, but «he will not always chide.»
Psalms 103:9. Neither will he kept his anger for ever.
It is very short-lived towards his people. In fact, it is not anger of that sort which he lets loose against rebels; for he has said, «I will not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.»
Psalms 103:10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Come: will you not praise him for this? If he had dealt with us according to our sins, we certainly should not have been in the house of prayer. We should have been now in the house of punishment. We should have been driven from his presence, instead of being invited to seek his face. «He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.»
Psalms 103:11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Sing loud, then, and praise him greatly, for his mercy is so great!
«Loud as his thunders shout his praise,
And sound it lofty as his throne!»
What music can be equal to such mercy as this «as high as the heaven is above the earth»: Surely, the best music our lips can give, and better than that, should be offered to him.
Psalms 103:12. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Oh! what a mercy this is! In the third verse, you see, he gave us the note upon which here, in the twelfth verse, he enlarges: «Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.» How doth he forgive them? Why, «as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.» They were ours: we could not deny them; but he has removed them taken them right away from us, and laid them on a scape-goat. That scape-goat has carried them away: they will never be found again. «As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.» Now comes in the next note. The third verse was, «Who healeth all thy diseases.» This is what he says of it:
Psalms 103:13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
While they are sick in body, and while he looks at them with great tenderness, feeling for them, suffering with them.
Psalms 103:14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
He knows that our sickness is but a premonition of that death which will dissolve this mortal frame, which is only kept together by a continuous miracle. It is strange that such a heap of dust as our body is does not dissolve much sooner. That it should return to the dust from whence it came is no wonder. The wonder is that it returneth not at once: and it would, were it not for that next mercy mentioned in the fourth verse, «Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.» He is singing about that now. «He knoweth our frame: he remembereth that we are dust.»
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.
Shall we sorrow about this? No: for we remember that we have another note yet in the fourth verse, «Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.» So he chants that over in the seventeenth verse.
Psalms 103:17-18. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children. To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Mercy for ourselves: mercy for our children. What a blessing this is that our father's friend is our friend, and is the friend of our children, too! As David loved Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake, so doth God still look upon the children of his children, and keeps his covenant to them.
Psalms 103:19. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens;
Blessed be his name, he crowns us, and we are glad that he should be crowned, too: «Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.» And here we see him who it is that crowns us. «The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens.»
Psalms 103:19-20. And his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the LORD, ye his angels,
As if he could not do it well enough himself, and so he called in the angels to help him. Ye bright spirits that behold him day and night, and circle his throne, rejoicing with your never-ceasing symphonies, lend me your harps end tongues. «Bless the Lord, ye his angels.»
Psalms 103:20-21. That excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto this voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts;
Sun, moon, and stars, the hosts of heaven, and all creatures that dwell in this lower sphere of whatever form ye be, burst forth into song and extol him; and oh! men the beasts that should be the hosts of God when ye are made willing in the day of his power, go forth to praise him. «Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts.»
Psalms 103:21. Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
Ye servants of his, whether ye be, wind, and rain, and snow, or whether ye be intelligent agents, so long as you are doing his pleasure, praise him as you do it.
Psalms 103:22. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
In the spirit of that, I think, we must ever sing our hymns of praise unto God. Nay, more, our whole life be a psalm of joyous thanksgiving and thanks-living.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 103:1; 1 Corinthians 1:25-31.