Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Our passage this evening will be from
Psalm one hundred and three. Psalm one
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hundred and three, listen, for
this is the word of the Lord.
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Bless the Lord O my soul and
all that is within me. Bless his
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holy name. Bless the Lord O
my soul and forget not all his benefits,
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who forgives all your iniquity, who
heals all your diseases, who redeems
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your life from the pit, who
crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
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who satisfies you with good so that
your youth is renewed like the eagles.
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The Lord Works Righteousness and justice for
all who are oppressed. He made known
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his ways to Moses, his acts
to the people of Israel. The Lord
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Is Merciful and Gracious, slow to
anger and abounding in steadfast love. He
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will not always chide, nor will
he keep his anger forever. He does
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not deal with US according to our
sins, nor repay us according to our
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iniquities. For As high as the
heavens are above the earth, so great
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is his steadfast love toward those who
fear him. As far as the East
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is from the West, so far
dos he remove our transgressions from us.
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As a father shows compassion and to
his children, so the Lord shows compassion
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to those who fear him, for
he knows our frame. He remembers that
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we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He
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flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and
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it is gone and it's places knows
it not no more. But the steadfast
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love of the Lord is from everlasting
to everlasting on those who fear Him and
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his righteousness, to children's children,
to those who keep his covenant and remember
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to do his commandments. The Lord
has established His throne in the heavens and
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his kingdom rules over all. Bless
the Lord, Ohe you, his angels,
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you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word.
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Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will.
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Bless the Lord, all his works
in all places of his dominion.
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Bless the Lord, Oh my soul. This one hundred and third psalm is
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quite an amazing him right, it's
a song, it's a prayer of David.
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But before I get to this psalm, can I just take a couple
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minutes and give us something of an
overview to the book of Psalms. Did
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you know there's a structure to the
book as a whole? In fact,
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it's broken up not as one book
but as five books. The PSALTER has
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five books running throughout it, which
gives an overall structure to the Book of
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Psalms. This isn't just a random
collection of songs and prayers and and and
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hymns. Right. There's a structure. There's a flow, for this flow
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largely follows the history of Israel.
If you look at Book One, Psalms
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One through forty one, they are
largely written by King David and they focus
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on his kingship. Book too,
which goes through psalm seventy two, begins
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to look away from David, as
that book ends with David's last Psalm,
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the last Psalm he ever wrote,
Psalms Seventy two, which is a prayer
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for his son and the reign of
his son. Book three ends on a
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much less hopeful context. It concludes
with much less hope. As book three
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comes to an end, God's promises
to David seemed to have fallen short.
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Psalm eighty nine ends with this confusion
crying out. Where has your steadfast love
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gone, Oh God? The confusion
which concludes book three is ultimately answered then
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by book four and into book five. Psalm one hundred three comes here in
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book for, then, as an
answer to this confusion. Where is the
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steadfast love of God? And therefore
this Fourth Book of the Psalms Form something
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of a core to the entire psalter
as its answering these questions raised at the
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end of book three in the context
of Israel's failure in her obedience to the
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Lord, in light of Israel's exile
from the Promised Land, book for answers
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the questions of Psalm Eighty nine,
which ask has God failed? Has God
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failed to keep his promise to David? Has God lied to David? What
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is become of his promise to give
King David a son who will rule forever?
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And so book for begins with Psalm
Ninety. Psalm Ninety, which which
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answers this question by looking back.
It's a psalm of Moses. Psalm Ninety
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looks back beyond the days of David
to the days of Moses and it declares
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that God has been faithful, God
has been a dwelling place for his people
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for all generations, so that even
when Israel's removed from the promised land.
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Even then, like Israel wandering in
the Wilderness, God has not abandoned his
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people. God will return, God
will look upon his people in favor once
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again. So if books one through
three look at David and look at his
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kingship and look at, ultimately,
the failure of this human king to provide
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a permanent rest for his people,
then books four and five answer the failure
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of King David and his sons by
looking instead to the Lord's reign, the
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Lord's rule, the Lord's kingship.
This is the Lord who anointed David in
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the first place. So that over
and over again throughout book for you find
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the refrain our God reigns, it's
our God who rules, it's our God
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who is on the throne. So
the book four points our eyes beyond the
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appearance of chaos. Look what Israel's
going through in her history at this point,
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being removed from the land, being
in exile. Yet they can call
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out to God with these kinds of
refrains, our God is on the throne.
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As the people of God are persecuted
in this world, it appears as
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though God is ultimately not ruling,
as though he's not reigning. If his
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own beloved people are filled with disease, if his people are filled with death,
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doesn't it appear as though God is
helpless to stop it? But here,
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in Psalm one hundred and three,
God announces not what appears to be
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true, but what is actually true. Here we're given a prophetic glimpse of
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the reality of the Lord's rule and
reign over his kingdom. Here and now,
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this psalm is is is deep,
it's it's rich, it's profound,
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for this psalm delves into the hearts, into the character of our Lord.
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We're told not only of his rule, of his power, but also of
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his nature. We're not only told
of his sovereignty governing all things, but
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also of his mercy. For notice
what these words are ultimately doing. What
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function are these words performing? We're
told of God's character through this Psalm,
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yes, but it's not a lecture
on the attributes of God. What is
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it? It's a song. We're
told of God's power and his rule,
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but not as students in a classroom, as a prayer, as an act
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of worship. And the depth and
scope of the Psalm is even more profound
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given where it begins. Look at
first one. How does this Psalm Begin?
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It begins as David's address to WHO, to himself. Bless the Lord,
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Oh my soul and all that is
within me, bless his holy name.
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It's a call that worship. Right, like a lot of psalms,
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begin with a call to worship,
but here David is first calling himself to
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worship, and from here the Psalm
will take an extensive journey. For David
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doesn't simply address himself in this psalm. He will also address at the end
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the angels. He will call upon
the heavenly hosts, telling them to worship
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the Lord. He will call upon
them to bless the Lord. He will
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call upon the works of the Lord
to bless the Lord. So he's not
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just talking to himself. He's calling
upon all creation, both heaven and earth,
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to bless the Lord. Ultimately,
this psalm is calling all of creation,
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from his own soul to the very
heavenly assembly, to join him in
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what he's already doing in this salng
right, he begins by blessing the Lord
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because ultimately this is a psalm to
the Lord, a psalm that we are
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being called to participate in as well, to add our amends to these words.
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So this psalm begins with a an
inward counsel, right, as he
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tells to himself, bless the Lord, Oh my soul, all that is
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within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, Oh my soul,
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and forget not all his benefits.
When I want us to get a
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sense of here, it's just how
how natural David's words are. Right,
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because they may sound strange, they
may sound a little foreign to us.
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I mean, who who really talks
to themself like this? Who addresses their
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own soul? If you overheard someone
in the McDonald's booth next to you addressing
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their soul, what would you think
of that person? But notice how natural
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it is, because this is something
that we do all the time. We
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don't verbalize it, but we're constantly
talking to ourselves. Our thoughts form a
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constant monolog conversation within our heads.
Are Our minds are never silent. They
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form this moment by moment narration of
our lives. So do you see how
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appropriate it would be that that worship
would be a part of this inner dialog
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of our hearts? For we were
created for this purpose, to worship the
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Lord, to bless, to glorify
him. There's nothing more natural to who
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we were created to be then to
bless the Lord and to worship him as
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those created in the image of God. Worship of our hearts is more natural
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to who you truly are, then
sin. Sin Is Unnatural. Right,
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death is unnatural. But in worship
we are called now to participate in heavenly
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realities. We're called to image,
here and now that worship that's already taking
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place in heaven. As he brews
twelve reminds us, you have come to
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Mount Zion, to the city of
the Living God. Not You will come,
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he says, you have come to
the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels
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in festal gathering. That's what we
don't see in our worship, but that's
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the reality of our worship. This
is what's already true of you. As
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we bless the Lord in our souls, we are participating here and now in
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that eternal in that heavenly worship.
And this on then goes on to highlight
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specifically why? Why are we to
join with David's Soul in worship? Well,
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it's because of who we are blessing. He calls us to bless the
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Lord. Forget not all his benefits
and then he lists them right. Who
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forgives all your iniquity, who heals
all your diseases, who redeems your life
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from the pit, who crowns you
with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies
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you with good so that your youth
is renewed like the Eagles? The Lord
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Works Righteousness and justice for all who
are oppressed. As the reasons for praising
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God grow and grow, blessing upon
blessing is attributed to the Lord. It's
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the attributes of God which are being
exalted here. Bless the Lord, for
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God is the gracious judge who pardons, he's the great physician who heals,
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he is the strong redeemer who rescues
from the grave. He is the benevolent
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king who sets his crown of steadfast
love upon us. Our God is loving,
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he is Gracious, he is Merciful. And as you hear our Lord
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described in this way, doesn't your
heart join with David in blessing the Lord?
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Does this activity of the Lord describe
the work of the Lord in Your
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Life? Well, yes and no. Right, yes, we know what
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it is for the Lord to forgive
our iniquity. Of course we know that.
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Right this is the heart of the
Gospel Message that in Christ our sins
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are forgiven. But does the Lord
really heal all your diseases? Can we
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really say that our youth is renewed
like the Eagles? Does God really redeem
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our lives from the pit? Well, is David just exaggerating here? We
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know that people still get sick,
that even God's people get struck with with
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terminal diseases. We know what it's
like to get old, for our bodies
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to deteriorate. We know what it
is to bury a loved one in the
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grave. So we still get sick, we still get old and frail and
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we still die. How can we
bless the Lord then, for these specific
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things? Well, is this psalm
suggesting that our walk with the Lord in
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this life is to be free from
trouble, that for those who rest in
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God, life is a paradise and
a vacation? Well, no, because
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look at what this praise is highlighting. What it's high like is how the
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Lord answers our most fundamental problems.
This praise highlights the full view of the
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adversity we face in this life.
If we praise God for pardoning our iniquity,
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it's because we're confessing that we are
guilty before him. If we praise
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God for healing, then we praise
him for healing us from disease, not
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the absence of all sickness. We
wouldn't need healing if we weren't sick.
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We wouldn't need renewal if we didn't
know what it was to grow weak and
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frail. We wouldn't praise God for
redeeming us from the pit if we didn't
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first have to put on our own
grave clothes and enter into the pit.
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Here we're being called to praise God
for for who he is, for his
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attributes, because they are in stark
contrast to our own. God Is Gracious,
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Right, merciful, healing, renewing
and redeeming. Which means what about
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us? It means that we are
full of sin. It means that we
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are full of disease, that we
are aging and weak and that our lives
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are on a bullet train to the
grave. Our condition is not flattering.
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As sons and daughters of Adam,
we are reminded of our status, as
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verse fourteen tells us, he knows
our frame. He remembers that we are
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dust. This was the judgment for
Sim which which God pronounced on Adam and
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his descendants. You are dust,
and too dust. You shall return back
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in Genesis three, and verses fifteen
and sixteen here give us a proper perspective
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of this unnatural state. As for
man, his days are like grass.
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He flourishes like a flower of the
field, for the wind passes over it
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and it's gone. Its place knows
it no more. It's because of the
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curse that we die. It's not
natural. It's the result of Adam's sin
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and the point of knowing who we
are so that we would know who our
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God is. The frailty of man
is what's contrasted with the the Everlasting Love,
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the everlasting faithfulness of God, where
we wither and die. Verse Seventeen
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picks right up, but the steadfast
love of the Lord is from everlasting to
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everlasting. So then, this is
still a psalm of God's grace and God's
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mercy. God knows of our weak
and sinful condition, and it's our condition
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is told to us in light of
his mercy, of his abundant and steadfast
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love, for he made known his
ways to Moses verse seven, his acts
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to the people of Israel. The
Lord Is Merciful and Gracious, slow to
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anger and abounding in steadfast love,
and these two verses should sound, sorry,
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sort of familiar to us. Moses
is mentioned in verse seven, and
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Verse Eight is a quote that appears
twice during the lifetime of Moses. Here
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we are shown that the compassion of
the Lord, his patience and steadfast love
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has an actual context for these words. When Israel fashioned a golden calf for
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herself, when Israel refused to enter
the promised land and and turned back towards
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Egypt. So serious were these sins
that both times the Lord threatened to to
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just wipe out Israel and start anew
with Moses. But both times Moses interceded
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for the people, and both times
the Lord declared himself to be Merciful,
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Gracious, slow to anger and abounding
in steadfast love. But that graciousness only
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makes sense a light of what Israel
deserved for her sin. Likewise, our
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gratitude and our praise of God,
God has depend upon us knowing what we
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deserve and therefore how gracious God has
been to us. So we are to
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rejoice because we have not received what
we deserve. He will not always Chid,
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nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with US
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according to our sins, nor repay
us according to our iniquities. As high
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as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward
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those who fear him. As far
as the East is from the West,
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so far does he remove our transgressions
from us. As a father shows compassion
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to his children, so the Lord
shows compassion to those who fear him.
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Praise God, then, that he
doesn't deal with US according to our sins.
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As we reflect on our sins and
how offensive our sins are to our
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holy God, if even our own
righteous deeds are still filthy rags before him,
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do you see how much greater,
how much better, your God is?
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The more we see how sinful and
greedy and prideful we are, the
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greater we see the grace and the
love and the mercy of our heavenly father.
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As those under the bondage of sin, to hear this message of forgiveness,
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to hear this message of deliverance and
and freedom, is the greatest news
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we could imagine. As far as
the East is from the West, so
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far does he remove our transgressions from
us. Even in this psalm even in
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this worship. Here we are directed
to Christ, to the grace and the
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forgiveness that's found in him, for
it's in Christ that the Lord removes our
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transgressions from us, because the Psalm
reminds us that God is still righteous right.
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His grace, His mercy does not
make him any less holy or any
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less righteous. As verse Seventeen says, the steadfast love of the Lord is
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from everlasting to everlasting, on those
who fear Him and his righteousness, to
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children's children, to those who keep
his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
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This Psalm affirms both God's holiness and
His grace and his mercy. For
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the righteousness of God to deal with
us in a gracious manner, both God's
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righteousness, his Justice and His mercy
have to be upheld, and it's in
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the perfect righteousness of Christ, then, that our sin is forgiven, as
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Christ took the perfect penalty for sin, as Christ remembered all the commandments of
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the Lord and obeyed him perfectly.
Then we are to find our righteousness in
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him, because it's only in Christ
that we can stand before our heavenly father.
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It's only in Christ that we stand
in the grace and mercy and steadfast
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love of our Lord. It's only
in Christ that our sins and transgressions can
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be removed from us, as far
as the East is from the West.
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And don't you see, then,
this is what brings God ultimate glory and
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worship and praise, not only from
us but, as David Calls, the
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heavens, even among the hosts of
Heaven to praise God for this kind of
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steadfast love. Therefore, this is
a psalm which looks forward to Christ and
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it also looks upward to heaven,
as David Calls The heavenly hosts, as
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well as all of creation to bless
the Lord with him. When we praise
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the Lord, then we are participating
in that kind of heavenly worship, as
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he rewswelve reminds us. You have
come to Bounce Zion, to the city
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of the Living God, they heavenly
Jerusalem, to innumerable angels and festal gathering,
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to the assembly of the firstborn who
are enrolled in heaven, and to
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God, the judge of all,
and to the spirits of the righteous made
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perfect, and to Jesus, the
mediator of a new covenant into the sprinkled
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blood. That speaks a better word
than the blood of Abel. Let us
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therefore bless the Lord, along with
David, with our souls, with our
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whole being. Let us do so
in all circumstances and be encouraged. Be
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encouraged that even David, even David
who wrote this song, has to remind
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himself, he has to exhort his
own soul to worship the Lord, as
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natural as worship is to who we
truly are, to what we were created
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to be as image bearers of God, as natural as worship is to that
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relationship, we still need to be
encouraged to worship the Lord. We still
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need to be reminded to worship him, we still need to be called and
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drawn to him in worship, for
we so easily set our minds on earthly
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things and away from Christ. We
need this kind of exhortation because it's not
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only when times are good that the
Lord is blessing us. It's not only
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when we have youth and health that
the Lord is being faithful. It's more
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often than the removal of these things
which truly directs our eyes to heaven.
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It's at the law loss of our
wealth, at the loss of our health,
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that the loss of our happiness that
our eyes are directed forward and upward,
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forward to Christ's return, upward to
the heavenly reality of our eternal citizenship.
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For what good things in this world
can compare to the eternal, imperishable
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inheritance we have in the Kingdom of
Heaven? Truly, the love of the
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Lord is immeasurable, so that even
on our darkest day, even as our
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eyes close in death, even in
this we are compelled to praise and to
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bless the Lord, because this is
what he will do. He is a
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restorer from the pit itself, which
means that we first have to to die.
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It means that we first have to
suffer, it means that we first
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have to get sick and Keel over
for the Lord to truly bless us as
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he's blessed Christ in his resurrection.
Since he is the first fruits of the
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resurrection, you can be sure that
you will be with him by faith and
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by trusting in your Lord. Where
he is, you will be as well,
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for your salvation is secure. Your
Life is hidden with Christ in God.
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Amen.
