Endless Praise, The Joy, Infinitely Glorious, 10,000 Reasons, Worthy of It All

What are the top three issues facing you and your family today?

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
³ Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
⁴ Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
⁵ Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

⁶ The Lord performs righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed.

Psalm 103 was written by king David in his older years, as he was about to pass on the throne to his son, Solomon. David had experienced so many things in his life, from murder, adultery, fighting a giant, chased down by king Saul, battling his enemies until being able to unite Israel under his rule, etc. The main point of David in this psalm is to “Bless the Lord, always!”  as echoed in another psalm, “every day I will bless You…”, and praise Him forever (Psalm 145:1-2). There are three ways we can do this:

1. INWARD: Recall what God has done (v.1-5)

The word “bless” here is “baruch”, it’s not the same idea as asking God to bless us, because God doesn’t need anything from us (v.1). Instead, it is to silence all distractions around us and simply focus on who God is, worshipping Him on our knees. As he comes into God’s presence, David remembers what God has done for him (v.2). Like David recalling how God has pardoned all his sins (adultery, murder, etc.), you and I need to remember that God has forgiven our sins (v.3). David also reminds himself how God has healed “all…diseases”, perhaps

recalling even the time he prayed for his infant son to be healed. Born out of his adultery with Bathsheba, David pleaded with God to spare his son from dying. Yet David responded in worship to God when the child died. Even in that situation, David was looking to eternity (2 Samuel 12:20-23).

Wherever you are, start remembering what God has done in your life. David remembers God’s rescuing his life, His lovingkindness and compassion, etc. (v. 4-5). Corrie ten Boom, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, set her mind to “Never forget what God has done”. Despite the horrific experience, she was able to focus on the good things that God did. She wrote down every blessing: a smuggled Bible, Bible studies with her sister, prison guards avoiding their cell because it was infested with bugs! Years after, Corrie even extended forgiveness to the prison guard who abused her, when he asked for her forgiveness.

2. UPWARD: Reflect on who God is (v. 6-19)

Are you dwelling on your problems, and not on who God is and your relationship with Him? How’s your spiritual disciplines? As we worship, God may not remove our problems right away, but He changes our perspective on things as we see Him for who He is. The answer to our problems is a bonus, but the greatest gift of focusing upward is God himself.

It may be easy for us to say that yes, God will judge the wicked. But if God is our righteous Judge, do we take sin in our lives seriously as He does (v.6-7)? David goes on to declare that God is compassionate and gracious (merciful), “slow to anger” and “abounds in lovingkindness” (v.8). This is the section of the psalm where David talks about God’s mercy where He withholds the punishment we deserve (v.9-10). Are we merciful to others? If not, then we have we forgotten God’s mercy towards us!

In Hebrew, “hesed” is the covenant love of someone so much greater than us and that is God’s lovingkindness towards us even when we have broken His heart (when we sin), He does not break His covenant of love towards us. How does David describe God’s love? As high as the heavens! Even just a tiny space of our known universe contains so many galaxies and the light from the newer galaxies hasn’t even reached us because of how far they are from us. God created those galaxies (400 billion trillion lightyears away), a small picture of God’s love for us. God is so much holier than us, so we have a reverential fear towards Him (v.11). Do the sunrise and sunset ever touch? Never, and that’s how far God has removed our sins from us (v.12). We can hold on to that promise because of Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). That’s how great God’s lovingkindness is, and David goes to it three times in the psalm (v.8, 11, 17); the quantity of God’s love is abounding, the distance is to the heavens and is boundless in time (everlasting) to those who fear Him. Paul prays for believers to be able to comprehend His love (Ephesians 3:14-19)!

The LORD’s compassion is Him reaching down from heaven, and knows that we are so frail, and He sees our problems (v.13-18). We can ask God to help us with our needs, praise Him for His compassion towards us. David reminds us in this psalm that no matter what’s going on in our lives, God is sovereign, He rules over everything including things outside our control (v.19). David has a very intentional way in arranging the Lord’s attributes in this section of the psalm. The LORD’s justice and mercy (v.6-10) and the LORD’s compassion and rule (v.13-19) point towards His lovingkindness (v.11-12). This is ultimately demonstrated in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:8). What attributes of God do you need to focus on? How have you experienced God’s love?

3. OUTWARD: Radiate worship (v. 20-22)

David turned outward in the closing part of the psalm, exhorting all creation to worship! This is a natural by-product of recalling what God has done (inward) and reflecting on who God is (upward). As you’re seeing this, are you able to tell people about this same God? When was the last time you shared Jesus to someone, or posted about Him in your social media? Do people see God in the way you live your life? If you have not, could it be that you have not yet fully experienced the love of God? God’s ultimate will for us is that all of us will worship Jesus; we will do it willingly or not, but we shall all bow down before Him one day soon (Revelation 5:13). So great is His lovingkindness; bless the Lord always!

Pray for more people to experience God’s lovingkindness and all His attributes that makes Him worthy of all our worship.

Let your worship of Jesus radiate outward to impact others.

Share the gospel every day in some way as you bless the Lord always!

• Worship God for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do in our lives.

• Upright and moral governance of public servants; repentance and salvation for government leaders and citizens for a Christ-centered Philippines.

• For legislators to promote and support bills and laws aligned with God’s Word.

• War in Ukraine to end, loss of lives prevented.

• For the rest of the Israeli hostages to be restored to their families safely. For Israel’s war with terrorists to end according to God’s purpose and for His glory.

• For the civil war in Syria to end peacefully, protection for Christians and other minorities; that there will be freedom from oppression for Syrians. Pray for the gospel to spread rapidly throughout the country.

• Pray for Nigeria and persecuted Christians there; earnestly seek God’s intervention to stop the bloodshed. Pray for freedom from oppression, that God’s word and His people bring them comfort and hope.

• That CCF Members would honor and love God and make disciples.

• Elders, pastors, dleaders, and families (holy, humble, harmonious, happy, heart-working).

• Ministries and churches expand worldwide.

• Worship and Training Center

• Prayer Mountain

• Deeper intimate relationship with God.

• Righteous living.

• Salvation of family and friends.

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.