All right, let us read together Psalm 103.
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:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from the pit;
Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy old age with good things,
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.The Lord executeth righteous acts,
And judgments for all that are oppressed.
He made known His ways unto Moses,
His doings unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness.
He will not always chide;
Neither will He keep His anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins,
Nor rewarded us after our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward them that fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath He removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children,
So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
For He knoweth our frame;
He remembereth that we are dust.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.
But the lovingkindness 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 precepts to do them.
The Lord hath established His throne in the heavens;
And His kingdom ruleth over all.
Bless the Lord, ye His angels,
That are mighty in strength, that fulfil His word,
Hearkening unto the voice of His word.
Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts,
Ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure.
Bless the Lord, all ye His works,
In all places of His dominion:
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
May we look to the Lord.
Our heavenly Father, how we praise and thank Thee that we can come together to remember Thy Son. We thank Thee for giving Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, to us. We thank Thee for what He has done on Calvary’s cross. We are what we are today; it is all because of Thy lovingkindness and tender mercy that Thou hast shown us in Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our Father, we do ask Thee to touch the very cords of our hearts this morning, that from the very depths of our being there may be worship, adoration, praise, and thanksgiving rising unto Thee, because Thou alone art worthy. We commit this time into Thy hands, and may Thy Holy Spirit move among us. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We are approaching the end of the year 1981, and I think it is very appropriate that at this time we should recollect, count the blessings that God has given us through the year, and learn to praise and worship Him.
Psalm 103 was written by David, the man after God’s own heart, the sweet singer of Israel. He was touched by the lovingkindness and tender mercies of God. He expressed his heart through this psalm, and by this psalm he intends to teach us how to sing praises unto God.
This psalm can be divided into three parts:
This psalm starts with, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Now, when we come to this word bless, ordinarily it is the greater who blesses the inferior. In Hebrews we are told that this is something very plain and certain: the inferior is blessed by the greater.
In other words, God is the One who blesses us. He is the God of all blessings. He is the source of all good gifts. Every good gift and every good thing comes from God. He gives everything. He blesses us with everything. He is the One who can bless.
Now, who are we that we should bless God? That is to say, how can we bless God? Is there anything we can give to God? Is there anything that God is lacking, that He needs us to give to Him in order to bless Him?
So, in one sense, only God can bless. We cannot bless God. But there is another sense of the word bless, and it is in that other sense that we are able to bless the Lord.
By blessing the Lord, it simply means that with ardent affection we acknowledge His worth. We come to render to Him the praise and worship that are His due. That is the way to bless the Lord.
To bless the Lord does not mean that we are able to give something to Him. To bless the Lord simply means that we acknowledge Who He is. We realize His worth, and with heartfelt love and adoration we come to pour out before Him our gratitude and thanksgiving. That is blessing the Lord.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul.” It is as if David is calling his soul to bless the Lord. Deep down in David’s spirit, he senses the lovingkindness of God. In his spirit he is stirred by God’s love, so he calls his soul to join with him to bless the Lord. His spirit wants to find expression through his soul.
Now, brothers and sisters, in blessing the Lord, it has to begin with our spirit. It is not something merely external. It is not just a form or a ritual. It has to begin in our spirit.
There in our spirit, we are constrained by the love of God. God is Spirit, and we must worship Him in spirit and truth. It has to begin deep down in our spirit. In our spirit we see Him; in our spirit we sense His goodness to us.
Because our spirit is so filled with Him, we call our soul to join with us and to be the means of expressing what is within our spirit: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”
Sometimes our soul is slow and down. Sometimes our soul is slow in joining with our spirit, and that is the reason why sometimes we have to call our soul to rise up, to awake, and to join with our spirit to praise the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
“All that is within me” literally means all my inward parts. Now, what are my inward parts? What are the functions of my soul?
The functions of my soul include my will: O, that my will will rise up to will to bless the Lord. The function of my soul includes my mind, that I may think of what He has done for me, that I may recall and remember.
The function of our soul includes our emotion, that my love may rise within me to love the Lord. In other words, David is calling all his inward parts—everything that is within him—to join together to bless the Lord.
Sometimes we find that we are divided; we are not united. Sometimes our spirit wants to praise the Lord, and yet our soul seems to be asleep. Sometimes our will wants to praise the Lord, but our memory does not work. Sometimes we may remember, but our emotion does not join in.
We find that we are torn apart in our inner being. That is the reason why we need to unite all that is within us to praise the Lord. Our whole being must go out to bless the Lord—not one part left behind.
Whether it is my emotion, my mind, my intellect, my volition, my will, or my conscience, my whole being must join as one to bless the Lord, because He is worthy.
“All that is within thee, bless His holy name.” Bless His name. Why? Because His name reveals Him. We do not know Him except by His name.
You remember Moses. When God appeared to him in the burning bush, Moses said, “What is Thy name, that I may tell the people?” It is through the name of our God that we know Him. A name represents the person; a name reveals the character.
In the Bible, you will find that God has many names. As a matter of fact, God’s names are innumerable. He is not only El Elyon, the Most High God; He is the Lord, the covenant God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is a Rock upon which we stand and are built. He is everything.
His name reveals His love to us. His name reveals His righteousness. His name reveals that He is light. He is mighty, almighty. He is heavenly.
But above all, David says, “All that is within me, bless His holy name.” In other words, it is His holiness that seems to sum up what He is.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is holy? What is the opposite of holy? Sometimes we do not know something except by its opposite. We do not know what righteousness is except by its opposite, sin.
What is holy? The opposite of holy is common. Our God is not common. Our God is different. Our God is unique. Our God is the only One. There is no one like Him.
Whether you think of love, there is no one who loves like God. His love is holy love. If you think of righteousness, there is no one as righteous as God. His righteousness is holy; it is unique.
Everything about our God is holy; He is separated from all. He is the only One. There is no one else like Him. Because He is such a God, how can we refrain from blessing Him?
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Notice that David begins his blessing by blessing the Lord Himself. It is only in the next verse that we find, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.”
In blessing the Lord, it is the Lord Himself whom we bless. Of course, we bless the Lord for all His benefits; that is true. But remember that His benefits are not the ultimate. These benefits may bring us to Him, but it is He Himself upon whom we must focus.
Blessing the Lord is more than thanking Him for what He has done for us. It is blessing Him for what He is in Himself. That is the highest praise that we can give to Him.
When we thank Him for all that He has done for us, that is good. But when we praise Him for what He is, that is even better. Oftentimes we are so degenerated that it seems we cannot rise above what we receive.
Even in blessing the Lord, our blessing may reach only the low level of what we have received. We cannot rise above ourselves and bless the Lord for what He is.
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the highest praise that we must learn. We must rise above ourselves. We must ascend to heaven. We must see Him, and in seeing Him, we will bless Him—bless Him for what He is. This is the highest praise.
But of course, it does not mean that we do not experience all His benefits. Here in the second verse we find:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits.
You know, brothers and sisters, our memory often plays tricks on us. We remember what we should not remember, and we forget what we should remember. Because of this, we are exhorted not to forget all His benefits.
The strange thing is that we always remember something bad that is done to us, but we forget everything good that is done toward us. This is not only true in our relationship with human beings.
Probably our parents, throughout their lives, have given us innumerable benefits, unaccountable blessings, and probably we do not remember any of them. But we remember one day when our father or mother did something to us, or spanked us, or something like that. We cannot forget that.
All the good that was done is forgotten, but only the bad we remember. How true this is in our relationship with God. We forget all His goodness, but remember only when we are disciplined by Him.
Forget not all His benefits. Do remember them. Do not forget.
The word benefits in the original is not exactly the word benefit as we understand it today. We understand benefits as anything that advantages us or gives us something. But actually, the word in the original means dealings or treatment.
Forget not all His treatments. Forget not all His dealings with you. Sometimes His dealings may be painful, and at times His dealings may be joyful. But whatever they may be, they are God’s dealings with us. It is God who treats us. He treats us like His own children.
Do not forget all His treatments. Do not forget all His dealings with you. Why? Because if we remember all His dealings, we will be wise. When we forget His dealings, then we become foolish.
In other words, He has to deal with us on the same point again and again and again because we do not remember and we do not learn. But if we do not forget His dealings, dear brothers and sisters, probably many lessons need only to be learned once.
Do not forget all His treatments. All His dealings are good for your soul, and if you remember them, that will make you wise.
Then the psalm begins to point out a few of the dealings, or treatments, of God toward David personally. Number one: “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.”
When David blesses the Lord for the forgiveness of all his iniquities, I can feel with him how deeply grateful he is to God. David was not perfect. Even though David was a man after God’s own heart—he did have a heart for God—yet he was not perfect.
We find that he sinned terribly, and yet God forgave all his iniquities. David could never raise his head if his iniquities were not forgiven.
From the human standpoint, time and again we would say, “David, you are finished. You are a person so close to God, and yet you have fallen so terribly. You are finished. Surely God would have nothing to do with you anymore.”
Maybe in David’s heart he felt the same thing. Yet, thank God, God forgave all his iniquities. If you read his psalms, such as Psalm 51, the penitent psalm, and the other psalms, he says, “My sins are like a heavy load that is above my head.”
He said, “I was born in sin, and shapen in iniquity.” Yet God forgave all his iniquities. Is that not something for which to bless the Lord?
“Who healeth all thy diseases.” David was under the discipline of God. If you read Psalm 32, he says, “My bones waxed old.” Because of his sin, he was disciplined, and he was in great trouble. But he says, “God healeth all my diseases.”
The word diseases here is a very special word. It means more than sickness. If you want to translate that word, probably it should be translated calamities. He heals all my calamities.
Because of his iniquities, calamities came upon him. But God forgave his iniquities and healed his calamities. He took away the cause and also removed the effect. How complete is God’s salvation!
“Who redeemeth thy life from the pit.” Now he goes even deeper. It is deeper than simply having his iniquities forgiven. David says, “Lord, Thou deliverest me out of the pit, out of destruction, that I should not perish but have everlasting life.”
In order that such deliverance is possible, what a price God has paid. To redeem us from destruction is not a cheap thing. To redeem, you have to pay a cost. To redeem a soul from destruction, God had to pay with His only begotten Son.
He spared not His Son in order to redeem us out of the curse of the law and out of destruction. What mercy that is!
“Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” Not only negatively redeeming us from destruction, but positively crowning us with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
Lovingkindness and tender mercies are like a crown put upon us. Now, brothers and sisters, remember: you do not earn that crown. You are not crowned because of your merit. You are crowned because of His grace.
He has crowned you with lovingkindness and tender mercies. I love the word lovingkindness. Kindness is good enough, but lovingkindness is better. When you show kindness, show it in love.
When a beggar is begging for money, you throw a penny to him. That is kindness. But that is not lovingkindness.
Tender mercies: when you show mercy to people, is it tender mercy? Or when you use your mercy, is it cruel? But God crowns us with tender mercies.
When He shows mercy to us, what is mercy? The difference between grace and mercy is this: in grace, the emphasis is on the giver; in mercy, the emphasis is on the recipient.
Grace shows us the graciousness of the giver, the generosity of the giver. Mercy shows the undeservedness of the recipient of grace. We are undeserving and unworthy, and yet God gives grace to us. That is mercy.
But when God does it, He does it with tender mercy, lovingkindness, and tender mercy. Even when He shows mercy, which we do not deserve, it is very tender.
He is so sympathetic. He is not arrogant, as though saying, “All right, I will show you mercy. I will forgive you.” No, He has a tenderness in receiving us into His mercy. That is tender mercy and lovingkindness.
He crowns us. He puts us in that high, elevated position with tender mercies and lovingkindness.
“Who satisfieth thy old age with good things.” There is only One who can satisfy our soul. God is the only One who can satisfy our soul. The whole world cannot satisfy your soul.
You remember that famous saying of Saint Augustine. After he was saved, in his Confessions, he said, “O God, my soul is made for Thee, and I will not find rest until I rest in Thee.”
God is the only One who can satisfy our soul. Yes, He satisfies us with many good things, but all these good things speak of Him. He is the only One who can satisfy us.
Here we find, “Who satisfieth thy old age with good things.” Probably David wrote this psalm when he was old. But the word old age can be translated in many different ways.
The word in the original can mean ornament, decoration, glory, honor, mouth, or age. It can mean different things. Sometimes it is translated, “satisfieth thy soul with good things.”
In other words, whatever your condition may be, whatever your age may be, whatever your need may be, God is able to satisfy you. You are so satisfied that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
There is a traditional saying that an eagle renews its youth from time to time. Actually, it points to its moulting. From time to time an eagle moults; in other words, all its feathers change. In changing its feathers, it makes it look young again.
Probably that is the idea behind it. When our soul is satisfied with God, then we are renewed in youth. In other words, we are never old. No matter how aged or old you are, you are never old. You are always young—eternal youth—because you are renewed as the eagle.
How good that is. When David thinks of all the goodness that God has given him—that God forgives his iniquity, heals his diseases, redeems his soul, crowns him with lovingkindness, and satisfies him with good things so that his youth is renewed as the eagle—how can he not bless the Lord? His heart is just overflowing.
Dear brothers and sisters, oftentimes we find it very hard to bless the Lord. Why? Because we have forgotten. If only we remembered; if only we could recall; if only the Holy Spirit would touch our memory and bring all the dealings of God back to us.
Even one single dealing would open the floodgate of our soul, that we might pour forth praise and thanksgiving unto Him. How good is our God to us.
But blessing God does not stop here, and it should not. From the personal, David is carried on to the corporate. David is a king. A king cannot always be personal; a king carries with him the kingdom, his people.
When David begins to bless the Lord, of course it begins with the personal mercies that he has experienced. That is where we must begin. Whenever we come to bless the Lord, it has to begin with what we have experienced of Him, with what we know of Him. It has to be personal; it cannot be impersonal. We have to be involved.
But, brothers and sisters, David is king; therefore, he has to continue on with his people. We are members of the body of Christ. Therefore, our praises cannot be limited to the personal area. They have to be enlarged to include the whole body of Christ.
That is all I have in my heart—just one verse, the last verse of Psalm 19. But I feel I should read the whole psalm.
Psalm 19.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language;
Their voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
In them hath He set a tent for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course.
His going forth is from the end of the heavens,
And His circuit unto the ends of it;
And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul:
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart:
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever:
The ordinances of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
They are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is Thy servant warned:
In keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors?
Clear Thou me from hidden faults.
Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright,
And I shall be clear from great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Thy sight,
O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer.
As we come together to pray, we are not just coming together to say prayers. We are not coming together merely to go through a religious exercise. As we come together to pray, we expect our prayers to be acceptable in the sight of God.
In other words, prayers are offered with the expectation that they will be accepted by God. We do not want merely to pray without expecting our prayers to be acceptable to God. We do not come to pray without expecting that God will accept our prayer and answer our prayer.
But how can our prayer really be acceptable in God’s sight? I think that in prayer there are two things involved: our mouth and our heart—the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart.
Prayer does not involve only our mouth; it involves also our heart. If we pray with the words of our mouth, yet our prayer is not rooted in the meditation of our heart, then our words are merely superficial.
For our prayers to be acceptable in God’s sight, we need to be careful about two things: the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart.
On the one hand, we know that we should not be overly careful about the words of our mouth. If we are overly careful, we are composing our prayer, and prayer is not a composition.
Sometimes we dare not pray because we are afraid that the words of our mouth are not good enough, that they are not a good composition. Actually, when we have that kind of fear, we have people in view and not God in view.
God is not expecting us to compose a good prayer. If you want a composed prayer, read a prayer book, and you will find prayers that are very well composed and much better than what we can do. But God is not looking for composition.
When we think too much about composition, it is actually the fear of man. We want people to think that our prayers are beautiful, and that is really out of order. We should not be overly careful about the words of our mouth.
Yet, on the other hand, the words of our mouth are important. If you read the Scriptures, you will find that sometimes a word misused can make a prayer unacceptable.
For instance, the Syrophoenician woman: when she addressed the Lord as “Son of David,” she was not heard. But when she said, “Lord,” then she was heard. So words are important. Why? Because words represent our understanding.
Out of the fullness of the heart come our words. On the one hand, in prayer let us not be overly careful about our words, trying to compose them. But on the other hand, our words are important. We cannot be careless in what we say to the Lord.
Not only must we speak in a humble way, but we must be careful not to say the wrong thing. That is important.
But I think even more important than the words of our mouth is the meditation of our heart. God looks upon our heart. If our heart is not in it, no matter how many words we utter or how beautiful our words are, they will not be acceptable.
In prayer, our heart must be in it. Here we find “the meditation of my heart.” In other words, our heart meditates.
Modern life is such that meditation is a lost art. People do not meditate. People are always rushing here and there. They do not stop. They do not think. They do not ponder. They do not meditate.
For our prayers to be truly acceptable before the Lord, I believe meditation is very important. Meditation is not only important in reading the Scriptures; it is important in prayer.
Why? Because things that you have not meditated on prove that your heart is not there. If your heart is really there, you will think and think and think over it.
Like Mary in the Scriptures: when Mary heard something that she did not understand, she did not just let the words pass. She kept them in her heart and pondered over them. That is meditation.
Sometimes we may offer a prayer, but how deeply our heart is in it is measured by our meditation. We may mention a subject for prayer and pray for it, but perhaps we have never thought about it or pondered before the Lord concerning the situation.
That kind of prayer is very shallow. But things that you have really pondered before the Lord will have depth when you pray. They reveal that your heart is really in it. They give weight to your prayer; it is not merely floating around.
To have our prayers acceptable, our prayers have to be real. What makes our prayer real is the combination of these two things: the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart.
Turn it around. Sometimes we may meditate a great deal, but we never put it into words. The result is that we are always vague. Words crystallize our thoughts.
If we meditate a great deal, yet there are no words from our mouth and we do not utter them, we will find our thoughts vague and confused. But when we are able to put them into words, we crystallize, or precipitate, our thoughts.
So, if we meditate much, try to utter those meditations in words so that they become solid and substantial. That makes our prayer real too. To have a real prayer, I feel it is a combination of these two things: the meditation of our heart plus the words of our mouth.
If you are lacking in either one, you will find that something is missing. Something is missing.
As we pray, you will probably discover this yourself: things that you have really pondered before the Lord, when you take them up in prayer, you will find that your heart is really involved.
Oftentimes the difficulty is that you do not find the right word to utter the meditation of your heart. That is where we need to look to the Lord to give us the right word.
The right word is not only important when we are preaching; the right word is important when we are praying too. It does have its effect. So let us look to the Lord.
On the one hand, may He so stir our hearts that they will not be careless and insensitive. May our hearts be able to take up burdens and ponder over the things that the Lord has brought to our attention.
As we ponder over these things, let us ask the Holy Spirit to give us the right words to express them in prayer. Sometimes, when we are praying, you find that it does not hit the target.
A few prayers may be offered over the same matter, but somehow you find that they do not hit. Then someone may pray, and suddenly a word is uttered—and it hits. You know that it is the target, and you know that God has heard.
So let us learn this before the Lord. Of course, it needs practice, and we have to learn. But thank God, the Holy Spirit is with us. He will teach us how to make our prayers truly acceptable, with the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness. God was still willing to go on with His people. God was still willing to take them as His inheritance. God would still make a covenant with them. Now think of that.
Think of what happened during those thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness. They tempted Him ten times. They did not believe in Him. Yet David says, “He will not always chide.”
Sometimes He has to chide, yes. Sometimes He has to discipline. But He will not always chide; neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
If God should deal with us according to our sins, we would all have been consumed long ago. Think of the children of Israel: they would have been destroyed completely long ago. But God did not deal with them according to their sins.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His lovingkindness toward them that fear Him.
As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath He removed our transgressions from us.
There is no measurement from east to west. We can measure from north to south because there is the North Pole and the South Pole. But we are not able to measure east from west, because when you go west, you arrive at east; and when you go east, you get to west. There is no limit.
God has thrown our sins away. In other words, God has completely forgiven us. What mercy. What love. For forty years in the wilderness, this was our God. This was the way God dealt with His people.
That is the second stage. Then we enter the third stage, from verses 13-19, which speaks of how God led them into the Promised Land.
God led them in not because they kept the law. They did not enter the Promised Land under the Sinaitic covenant of law. They entered the Promised Land under a new covenant, the Moabite covenant.
Before they entered into the Promised Land, as you read Deuteronomy, you find that Moses spoke to the children of Israel in the plains of Moab, and God made a covenant with them there, in addition to the covenant He made with them at Mount Sinai.
It was a covenant of mercy. God made a covenant of mercy with them, but that mercy was coupled with obedience.
In other words, God would lead them in under mercy. As a father hath compassion upon his children, though they were not worthy, He would lead them into the Promised Land and give them the land.
He knows their frame; they are but dust. He knows them. They are just like grass, like flowers: they are here, and then gone. But God’s lovingkindness is toward them, and His lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting.
If they obey, if they fear God, if they keep His covenant, if they do His precepts, then they will remain in the land forever, and the blessing of the Lord will be upon them forever.
God would establish the kingdom in their midst, and through them God would rule over all. During the time of David, this was partially fulfilled.
That is the tender mercies of God. Dear brothers and sisters, as we think of the church of God, as we think of God’s people today, is it not a repetition of what we find here?
Out of the bondage of sin, God has delivered us. He has done so much for us. But do we know His ways? Are we so ignorant that we only know His acts? Does He have to show His hand again and again, while we never understand His mind?
Are we so ignorant that we do not know where His heart is? Because we are so ignorant, how we rebel against Him, how we fail Him, how we fail His testimony again and again.
But God does not deal with us according to our sins. We are here today because He does not deal with us according to our sins.
Yes, sometimes He has to discipline us as a father chastens his children. But the purpose is to mature us, that we may become partakers of His divine nature.
If only we fear Him. In the New Testament, the word fear has a deeper connotation: godly fear. Godly fear means loving fear. We fear Him because we love Him; we love Him, so we fear Him.
If only we love Him, we will fear Him. If only we keep His covenant. It is not the old covenant of law; it is the new covenant of grace.
The yoke is easy. The burden is light. It is grace. If only we keep His commandments. His commandments are not burdensome: “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”
Brothers and sisters, if we only, by His grace, will respond, fear Him, love Him, keep His commandments, and keep His covenant, then His tender mercies will be from everlasting to everlasting.
He will establish His kingdom in the midst of His people, and His rule shall be over all. This is what God is doing today.
He knows how weak we are. We are but dust. Today we are here; tomorrow we are gone. But thank God, what His lovingkindness has done in us lasts forever.
We have received a kingdom that is indestructible. This is the tender mercies and lovingkindness of our God—not only to you personally, but to us as a people.
If this is the case, what should we do? We have to continue on. David continues on, and in the third part, verses 20-22, he calls the whole universe to join him in blessing the Lord. That is what it should be.
First David, then the children of Israel, then the whole universe.
Bless the Lord, ye His angels,
That are mighty in strength, that fulfil His word,
Hearkening unto the voice of His word.
He calls upon the celestial angels, the celestial beings, to bless the Lord. These celestial beings are mighty in strength. They are mighty in strength for what purpose? To execute the word of God. That is the work of the angels.
The angels are to carry out the word of God. They are mighty in carrying God’s work out, carrying God’s word. They should bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts,
Ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure.
I think that “His hosts” here means all the created beings. The whole creation is created for His good pleasure, for His will. The whole creation is created to do His will.
Even though today the whole creation is groaning and under bondage to corruption, yet it is the will of God that the whole creation, all the hosts, will do His will. One day it will.
So David calls the whole creation, all the creatures, celestial and terrestrial, to praise the Lord.
Bless the Lord, all ye His works,
In all places of His dominion.
The works of God, in all His dominion, will praise Him—not only living beings, but even the mountains, the hills, the birds, and everything will bless the Lord.
He concludes with, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” That is the way to bless the Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, may we end this year with a right spirit of thanksgiving unto the Lord. Shall we pray?
Our heavenly Father, our hearts are warmed with the lovingkindness and tender mercies that Thou hast shown us individually and corporately.
We do want to bless Thy name, Thy holy name. Thou art unique. Thou art the only One. There is none else. Every good thing and every good gift comes from Thee.
There is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, with Thee. Thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever.
O, how we praise and thank Thee that we are Thy people, the sheep of Thy pasture. It is only right for us to come to Thee to bless Thy name.
O, may the whole universe break forth in praising Thee. Praises belong to Thee. Amen.