Psalm 103:1
What Kind of God Do You Serve?
That may sound like a strange question, but it is not. Because we serve God by
faith and not by sight, the image we have of God will be one of the most
important factors in determining our relationship with God. That is, we will not
do more for God than we figure He is worth.
Much of the book of Psalms presents God to us, not so much in facts that we can
calculate, but in images with which we can associate. After all, what does it
matter to a finite mind to be told that God is everywhere. We can’t comprehend
what everywhere means. But we are told that God is as near as a father who loves
and pities his child, that we can comprehend.
Let me introduce to you the God David saw in Psalm 103.
I. \\#Psalm 103:1-8\\ This is the God who works in your everyday life.
A. \\#2\\ Describes God as the One who gives us "all his benefits."
1.That is not the way we often think of God in the Old Testament but
there is only one God!
2. This Psalm and the New Testament reminds us that God gives to us
all the good things that we will ever have.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning.
3. Our problem is that we do what \\#2\\ tells us not to do. We
forgot all the benefits our God gives to us.
B. What are these benefits?
1. \\#3\\ God has healed you - You would have died from
a hang nail and cold if God had not intervened.
2. \\#4\\ God has kept you from destruction.
3. \\#4\\ God has blessed you with lovingkindness and tender mercy.
4. \\#5\\ God has satisfied you with the good things.
C. \\#8\\ And all of this is not counting the spiritual blessings He
has given to us.
1. He has been merciful to you. Mercy is what keeps the judgment of
God from falling upon you.
2. He has been gracious toward you. Grace is what causes God to give
to us all these other things that we do not deserve.
3. He has been very slow to anger when we did wrong.
D. \\#5\\ Here is the image of God that the Psalmist is portraying in
these verses.
1. Like an eagle who feeds the eaglets only the good things they
need, so God gives to us those good things.
2. Like the eagle, God gives until the eaglets are satisfied.
3. And like the eaglets, what God gives renews the strength of the
child of God so that he can soar to the heavens.
E. \\#1\\ Thinking upon these things, David challenges his own soul to
cry out and bless, praise, exalt the Lord with all that is within him.
1. The soul is the real us.
2. It is the eternal part of us that does the thinking, the wanting
the remembering, the feeling, and the loving.
3. It is that part of us that makes decisions and carries them out.
4. It is that part of us that gets happy, excited, sad, and glad.
5. David is looking within himself and challenging the very core of
his existence to bless and praise the Lord for all he is worth.
F. This is the God that meets us where we live, gives us what we need,
protects us in ways that we will never understand. Do you see this
God as being your God?
II. \\#Psalm 103:9-12\\ This is the God that deals with sin.
A. This Psalm is not a Psalm of judgment.
1. There are some times when we must focus and preach on the judgment
of God.
1. Hell is real.
2. Damnation is real.
3. Death is real.
4. Both earthly and eternal trouble is real.
2. People need to be warned of these things and directed on how to
avoid them.
3. However, that is not the purpose of this Psalm.
4. This Psalm mentioned judgment in these verses only to tell us
that it exists and can be avoided.
B. The picture in this Psalm is of a God who forgives!
1. \\#3\\ He is a God who forgives all of our iniquities.
2. \\#8\\ He is full of mercy and plenteous in mercy.
3.\\#10\\ He has never dealt with us as our sins require.
4. \\#10\\ He has never given to us what our iniquities deserve.
5. \\#12\\ No! Indeed, if asked, He has removed our sins as far as
the east is from the west.
C. \\#11\\ Here is the image of God that the Psalmist is portraying in
these verses.
1. \\#11\\ God’s mercy surrounds us, envelopes us, protects us,
like the heaven protects the earth.
a. The earth is surrounded by an electrically charged atmosphere
that protects us not only from the solid objects which fall
through space but also from the invisible cosmic rays of the
sun, which if it were not there, would fry us in no time.
b. So God in His mercy protect us.
c. The heavens of this planet surround us, giving us oxygen and
warmth, an environment in which we can live.
d. So God in His mercy surrounds us.
2. No, friend, this Psalm is not about the judgment of God.
D. \\#9\\ HOWEVER, thought this is not a judgment psalm, the psalmist
feels compelled to tell his readers that God’s mercy does have limits.
1. God will not CHIDE, that is STRIVE or DEAL, with us forever.
2. God will not hold His anger for ever.
E. We need to know and have in our concept of God that He is a God that
deals with sins.
III. \\#Psalm 103:13-18\\ This is the God who is compassionate like a father.
A. This is not a typical Old Testament picture of God. In this section,
the Psalmist gives us the picture of God first.
B. \\#13\\ Here is the image of God that the Psalmist is portraying in
this section.
1. God is as a father who loves and takes pity upon his children.
2. For pity to be warranted, something bad must be happening.
3. Love can be given at all times and in all situations, but pity
is only given when distress, weakness, or suffering calls upon
it.
C. \\#14-15\\ The conditions which warrant the pity are described.
1. \\#14\\ We suffer from a weak frame.
a. We are made up only from the dirt of the ground.
b. Such a weak frame does not give us much strength to fend off
disease, sorrow, or sin and the devil.
c. When in our weakness, we fall, God is not predisposed to judge
us but to pity us as a child to weak to stand, whom a father
would scoop up in his strong arms and carry away to safety.
2. \\#15\\ We suffer from a short life.
a. Our days are like the grass of the field, here today and cut
down and forgotten tomorrow.
b. Such brevity in life means we have not much time to learn how
to live.
c. I have so many regrets in my early days and I think that if I
could go back and live them again with what I know now, I w
would so many things differently.
d. But then I am reminded that I am still making poor choices
and bad decisions.
e. If I could live a few hundred years I might finally know
enough, understand enough to make wiser choices.
f. Oh, but I shall not. For my life is too short for me to learn
those things that I need to learn to live the life I long to
life.
g. But our God has pity upon us. He is not predisposed to be
angry with us, but to gather us into His strong arms and carry
us away in His strength and love to a place where our mistakes
are forgotten and hurts are solaced in the bosom of His love!
D. I borrow from David’s Psalm and say, BLESS THE LORD, OH MY SOUL, AND
ALL THAT IS WITHIN ME, BLESS HIS HOLY NAME!
IV. \\#Psalm 103:19\\ This is the God who is Ruler of all.
A. This section is short but here is the image of God that the Psalmist
is portraying in these verses.
1. God has set His throne, not in the palace where His subjects must
come to Him, but in the heavens, the place just above us, so that
He can see all, know all, and work in all those who are a part of
His kingdom.
2. And that kingdom encompasses all
a. every man
b. every woman
c. every child
d. every creature
e. in all places
B. Is your concept of God one that abides somewhere up there?
One who you need to beg and beseech to come to your aid?
1. Adrian Rogers once said that when you think your prayers aren’t
getting past the roof, remember, God lives beneath the roof too.
2. Remember, nobody pried Jesus out of heaven to this earth. He
came of His own will.
3. Nobody drove Jesus to the cross. He went of His own will.
4. Nobody made Jesus hang on the cross. He stayed of His own will.
5. And nobody has to make Jesus take in an interest in your life. He
does so of His own will.
V. \\#Psalm 103:19-22\\ This is the God who is worthy of praise.
A. When we start to get the right concept of God, we will want to do
like the Psalmist and praise Him.
B. Here is the image of God that the Psalmist is portraying in this
section.
1. It is that of a gigantic throne room, God sits upon the throne,
and all the things He has given life and intelligence to enter.
2. As they enter, each comprehends who God is and gives praise to
Him.
a. \\#20\\ Let all the ANGELS bless Him - Angels are the
strongest and most spiritual of God creatures.
b. \\#21\\ Let all the HOSTS bless Him - Hosts are all the
unspecified inhabitants of creation.
c. \\#21\\ Let all the MINISTERS bless Him - Not preachers but
anyone who will choose to do His will.
d. \\#22\\ Let all His WORKS bless Him - Anything in which God
has an investment.
e. All of these beings come in and render to God the worship and
praise due them, but one more needs to come.
3. \\#22\\ Let my SOUL bless the Lord - David again challenges his
own soul to be in that number who enters to praise and serve God.
This is not an image that is to be understood in the sweet by-and-by, but in the
turbulent here-and-now. Will you enter into God’s throne room and bless the Lord
today?
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