Psalm 103 - Praise the Lord

Thank you, Jerry. It's a great joy to worship God, isn't it, to know that he is our Lord, to come into his presence, to really worship him. That's a great thing. But you know, in our worship and in our singing, in our talking, in our praying, sometimes we use expressions that because we use them so much, they have become like cliches to us. They've lost their meaning. They've really lost their punch, if you will. Words like, well, just trust the Lord, or I'm praying for you, or amen. Words like that have become so overused in our cultural Christianity, if you will, that sometimes we don't even really understand what we're saying, and we don't really mean what we're saying. It's almost like saying, well, how are you? Just fine. Nobody means that. Nobody wants to know how you're doing. And if you actually told them the truth about how you're doing, nobody would stay around to listen. So it's just kind of a cultural way of saying, hi. And sometimes I'm praying for you, has kind of become a Christian cultural way of saying, well, goodbye. We only mean we're praying for them. We're just saying, well, we're only in the conversation now. Goodbye. So we use these expressions over and over again, so often that we don't really mean what those expressions are supposed to mean. Here's another one. Praise the Lord. That's one that we use a lot, isn't it? And sometimes I think we use it just kind of as a catch-all phrase. We're not really sure what it means. We don't really mean what it means. Well, Psalm 103 begins with those three words. Praise the Lord. It's our favorite Psalm for today, and I've been looking forward to this one because it's certainly one of my favorites. This has long been one of my favorite passages of Scripture, Psalm 103. Begins with those words. Praise the Lord. But then it adds some punch to them by telling us what that means. Why we should praise the Lord. What praising the Lord is all about. In this Psalm, David, by the way, this is one of his Psalms, one of the 72 or so that David wrote of the book of Psalms. This is less personal than most of his Psalms. He's not being chased by an enemy here. He's not being hounded by guilt here. This is just a hymn of praise. Anderson invitation for us to come alongside David and praise the Lord with him. So this is much different than most of David's Psalms. It's kind of a break from the typical thing we think of, and we think of a Davidic Psalm. This is just a hymn of worship, just a catalog of the benefits and blessings of the Lord for which we should praise him. Look at how it begins in verses one and two, the introduction to the Psalm. Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. David is saying that others may murmur and complain, but I will praise the Lord, and I invite you to do so with me. Others may just praise him with their lips. I will praise him with my soul, with all that is within me. I invite you to do that with me, David says. Others may forget the blessings of God. Don't forget his blessings. I will remember them. I will not forget all his benefits, David says. By the way, we've got a good forgetter, don't we? I think it's a part of our fallen nature, our sinful nature, that we have a tendency to cherish our hardships and forget our benefits, our blessings. And so David is calling us to go counter the sinful nature that drags all of us into a complaining type of murmuring spirit and remember his benefits, remember his blessings. And for that reason, praise the Lord. Now David in this Psalm enumerates about five blessings that we can praise God for. So let's see what he says. First of all, he says, praise the Lord for our salvation. Praise the Lord for our salvation. Verses three through five, describe our salvation in glowing terms, in the full richness of what salvation really means. In fact, there are six benefits or blessings of salvation that David mentions in these verses, two of them in each verse. Let's see what the benefits, the blessings of salvation really are. Verse three. Let's start back in verse two. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your sins. So the first blessing of salvation is that he forgives. And that's really at the core of salvation. What's at the essence of what salvation means is that God forgives us all our sins. That means that he cancels the punishment for our sins. And it also means that he will never bring them up again. Our sins will never be used against us, never be condemned for them. They are completely wiped off of the record of God in heaven. These record books contain no more record of our sin. It has been forgiven, it's been canceled, it's been punnit, it's been the punishment has been taken care of through Christ. And there is no more record of our sin in heaven. It's been forgiven. And thank God it will never be held against us. It will never be repeated. That's forgiveness. That's something to praise the Lord for, isn't it? Heard about three preachers who decided to take a few days and just go fishing and hunting. Get away from it all and do some fishing and hunting. Get out in nature. They didn't shave, they didn't shower, nothing for three, four days. Just live out in the wild. Great. And these three preachers decided they were going to fellowship together and get closer to one another. On the very last night they were sitting around the campfire to go back the next day to their respective homes and ministries and they decided, well on this last night as we sit around this campfire, let's really be open, transparent with each other. Let's talk about our weaknesses and our failings so that we can remember how to pray for each other, really hold each other up, be accountable to each other, that kind of guy thing. And so one of them said, well, okay, I'll be the first. I just want you guys to know that I really have trouble with telling the truth. I really have trouble lying. It's one of my sinful tendencies and I've even, you know, withheld information on my income tax forms before and lied to the government about my income and I just really want you to prove me about that. And the second guy said, well, my besetting sin, if you will, is greed. I just have a lot of trouble with greed. In fact, I've never told anybody this, but I want you men to know so you can help me make this right. I have actually taken funds from the church before. I just really struggle with the sin of greed. The third guy calls for a moment and he said, well, said, my problem that I have trouble with, the sin I have trouble with is gossip. And I can't wait to get back to town. Well, you know, I'm thankful that God is not a gossiper when it comes to our sin. He does not tell on us. He does not remember our sin against us. He does not hold it against us. He forgives. He's the Lord for our salvation because he forgives. Second benefit of our salvation is that he heals. Notice it there in verse three who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. You say, whoa, okay, our new salvation had to do with forgiveness of sin. You mean it also heals our diseases? Yes. All of the effects of the curse are dealt with at the cross. It's just that the timing is a little different in how they're put into effect in some cases. For instance, with forgiveness, that's immediate. The moment you trust Christ as your sin is all forgiven. Now all the other effects of the curse and the fall of man are also covered at the cross. But when it comes to the healing of diseases, the timing of it is not as the same as the forgiveness of sin. It doesn't always happen immediately. In fact, sometimes God's healing does not come until the ultimate healing of being in his presence. But mark it down because Jesus died on the cross to reverse all of the effects of the curse of sin. Someday, all who trust him will be perfectly whole and healthy in heaven. And so yes, the healing of all of our diseases is included in the work at the cross. It just doesn't always take place at the same time. In fact, while we are waiting here for that to take place, God has some work to do in us to make us more like him through our suffering. And so it's not like, well, I've got to put up with all this suffering and disease and so forth. And there's no use for it. I just got to wait till I get to heaven. No, God says, while you're waiting for the redemption of your body, I'll use this to glorify myself in your life. That's a wonderful thing. Paul talks about that in Romans chapter 8 where he says, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. That hasn't stopped. And he goes on to say, not only so, not only creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit. That's the promise of everything that's involved in salvation. We have the first fruits of it. We ourselves groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Now, when you trusted Christ as your Savior, immediately all your sins were forgiven. But that's not the same timing with all of your diseases and all physical ailments. Those are covered and lifted in the cross of Christ, but the timing of when they are lifted is when we get to heaven. In most cases, some cases God sovereignly intervenes and lifts disease and heals disease. He's still able to do that and does that in some cases. But even this passage tells us that the run of the mill experience of Christians is that we groan inwardly in our bodies. Just like the rest of creation, curse hasn't been lifted yet from it either, although it's been covered in the cross of Christ. So we groan inwardly waiting for the redemption of our bodies. That's when we get to heaven and our body catches up with our soul in a sense. Where our body is relieved of all physical ailments and disease and illnesses as well. And we are waiting for that. We are eagerly anticipating that. But it all happens and will be made possible someday in heaven because of our salvation, because of what Christ did on the cross. So he forgives, he heals, notice the third benefit and blessing of salvation. He redeems, verse 4, who redeems your life from the pit. The word redeems from a Hebrew word which means to rescue. And the word pit literally means death. He rescues us from the pit of death. The Hebrew word for pit is sometimes used in the Old Testament for the grave. And it simply signifies death. And the New Testament concept of death, the idea is God rescues us from eternal death. That's what happens in salvation. One of the blessings of salvation is that God rescues us from eternal death. Now there are two or three kinds of death in the Bible. The word death simply means separation. When you die physically, you're immaterial part of you, the real you inside your body, your soul, your spirit, is separated from your body. And that is what death means. James 226 says, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. The Bible sees death, theologically, as the separation of the soul and spirit from the body. Separation of your immaterial part from the material part, the body. That's death. Eternal death, or what the Bible calls the second death, is eternal separation from God in a place of punishment called the lake of fire. It's described in Revelation chapter 20. And that's what we are rescued from. Because of our salvation, we are rescued from eternal separation from God in a place of punishment called the lake of fire. Jesus talks about this in John chapter 11 when he promises, talking to Martha, you know, when Lazarus or brother had died and Jesus shows up and he says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies. Okay? Now did you get that part? There are two parts to this. He will live even when he dies. Okay? You die. You don't stop existing. You live if you believe in Christ. You live on. Your spirit, your soul live on in his presence. But then he goes on to tack on a second blessing to this, second blessing in a biblical sense. Okay? The blessing is whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? Now what he means by that second promise is that if you believe in me, if you trust in me as your savior, you will never die. Now talking about physical death, he's already talked about that in the first part of the verse. Here he's talking about that spiritual death, second death, eternal death. You will never experience that. You've been rescued from the pit of eternal separation from God. You've been rescued from that because of your salvation. You will never experience the second death, eternal separation from God. When you die, you go immediately into his presence to be with him. To be absent from the body, Paul said is to be present with the Lord. Paul said, for I am an astrate betwixt to, Philippians 1. I'm astrate betwixt to, caught between a rock and a hard place is the way we'd say it. I'm an astrate betwixt to having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, but to abide here in the flesh, remain here in the flesh is more needful for you. Paul came to the conclusion God was going to leave him here a while longer to do some ministry. But he knew that if he were to die, he would be in the presence of Christ. So you see, God has delivered us through our salvation from the pit of destruction, the pit of eternal separation from God. That's a wonderful blessing of salvation. He forgives, he heals, he redeems. Notice the fourth one. He crowns, verse four, redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. He crowns us. That's a part of our salvation too. You know how he crowns us? Not like some of you were thinking, you know, some of you were thinking, my mom crowned me the other day, but my dad crowned me when I did something. So we're not talking about that kind of crowning. We're talking about literally being in a king's family. You are children of the king of the universe. And there is a coronation ceremony at your salvation where he literally places a crown on your head, if you will. Now the crown is, has composed of two parts. He says he crowns you with love and compassion. The first word for love here is the word for covenant love. That promise of God, that covenant he makes with you when he saves you, that he will never abandon you, that he will be with you forever, that is covenant love. He promises you that. That's a love of his will, of his action. He will never abandon you. The second word, translated here in the NIV, compassion is a word which means tender love. It's a heartfelt, tender kind of love. So the Lord crowns you as his child, child of the king. He crowns you with a covenant love that says, I will never abandon you and with a tender heartfelt love that says, I care about you. That's how he crowns us. That's part of our salvation. So he forgives, he heals, he redeems, he crowns. Then number five, he satisfies, look at verse five, who satisfies your desires with good things. Oh, it's a wonderful promise and it's a part of our salvation. He satisfies our desires. Now all of us have desires. We're built by God. We are made by God to have legitimate desires in life. And you know, the problem is that sometimes we seek to satisfy those desires in ways that are outside the foul line. They're outside the boundary lines of God's purpose and will. And what happens when we do that is the sinful nature leads us into areas that ultimately are destructive to us and ultimately end up not satisfying us. And so we try to satisfy the desires of our heart and soul with entertainment and pleasure and all kinds of other things and we find ourselves kind of empty after that. It just doesn't satisfy. And when we are walking with God, when we are walking as his child and his family, we're right and related to God. He satisfies our desires with good things. You see, the only genuine fulfillment, satisfaction, whatever word you want to use, you will have in life is if you are a Christian. If you know Jesus is your Savior and you are walking in his will within the context of his word. If you're obedient to him, he will satisfy your desires with good things. He knows what's best and he always gives his best. To me, this half of this verse is a summary of the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon says, I want you to know this, my personal testimony. I tried it all. I tried everything to try to find satisfaction and fulfillment in life. I tried fun. I tried pleasure. I tried education learning as much as I could learn. I tried projects. I tried wealth and materialism. I tried building a name for myself. I mean, I was able to do it all and I did it all. And he said, when I got done, read the first two chapters where he talks about all that stuff. When I got done, what I found out was it was like chasing the wind. I was empty. And there are five times in the book of Ecclesiastes. He ends a section with something like, then I discovered that the only true way to be satisfied was to have a personal relationship with God and then see all the rest of life through that lens. And that's really the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. Satisfaction in life, fulfillment, blessing, peace, joy, whatever in life comes through a relationship with God. And that's what the Psalmist is saying. He satisfies your desires with good things. And the sixth blessing of salvation is he renews. He renews us. The end of verse five, so that your youth is renewed like the Eccles. Sorry, this is not a biblical fountain of youth. This is not a reversal of the aging process. What he's saying here is that your energy, your strength, can be renewed. And you can draw on divine power for whatever challenges you face in your life. It's kind of like Isaiah said, you know, when things are going tough, those that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as Eccles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. You see, it's the ability to draw on unseen spiritual resources for strength and power when you have nothing left to go on. That's how your strength is renewed. Your youth, if you will, is renewed. The bigger the strength of youth is renewed like the Eccles. Isn't that great? Those are six rich blessings of salvation, starting with the essence of salvation, our sins being forgiven and then kind of adding five more layers of icing on the cake, if you will. That this is wonderful blessing that God gives us because of our salvation. He heals, He redeems, He crowns, He satisfies, He renews. And that is all because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. All of this, this description of salvation, beginning with the forgiveness of our sin, is all because of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, paying the penalty, the punishment for our sin. And when we receive Him as our Savior, we get the whole package. We not only get forgiveness of sins, we get all the rest of this richness of salvation. My Cobb was one of the greatest baseball players who ever lived, played almost a hundred years ago in the early part of the 20th century. But he set some records that have never been broken, a couple of them have been broken, but most of them haven't been. He still holds a record for the most games played, the most runs scored, highest career batting average. His career batting average was 367, rarely does a baseball player today, hit that for one year. That was his career average. He played about 25 years. In fact, he hit over 300 for 23 consecutive years, hit over 403 times. Last time that was done was by Ted Williams back in the early 40s. I mean, this guy was a tremendous baseball player. In 1961, he lay on his deathbed, and a pastor went to see him in the hospital. And the pastor explained to him the way of salvation, explained the gospel to him. And Ty Cobb looked at him and said, do you mean that a whole lifestyle, a whole lifetime of sin and wild living can be undone with one deathbed repentance? And the pastor said very wisely, no, that's not what I'm telling you, Mr. Cobb. I am not telling you that a whole lifetime of sin and rebellion against God can be undone by a deathbed repentance. I'm telling you, it can be undone by the blood of Christ. My friend is only through the blood of Jesus Christ that you can receive the forgiveness of your sin and all of these other blessings of salvation. Ty Cobb did trust the Lord as He saved you that day. And as the preacher left, he told him, he said, I just want you to tell my friends, I'm sorry, I waited till the bottom of the ninth inning to do this. We should have done it at the top of the first. When you know the fact is, none of us know how long we're going to live. You may be in the third or fourth inning of your life. You may be in the first inning still. You don't know how long you've got. None of us are promised nine innings. You need to make sure that you know Jesus is your savior. Praise the Lord for his salvation. But secondly, praise him for his mercy. His mercy is described in verses 6 through 10, where first of all in verse 6, we have the evidence of mercy. Notice what he says. This whole passage is talking about mercy. In fact, a couple of words that are translated compassion or love are actually the word for mercy in this passage. Verse 6, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Here's the evidence of mercy. Here's how you know when mercy is active. Mercy is composed of two things. God's righteousness on behalf of his people and God's judgment or justice on those who oppress them. That's God's mercy. And there's a wonderful example of it. We're going to see in a moment. But that's the evidence of mercy. God does what is right for his own. Some people think of mercy as just getting what we don't deserve or not getting what we do deserve. And that's a part of it. But mercy is always within the framework of God's righteousness. God always does mercy justly. He always takes care of whatever punishment is needed in the expression of his mercy. And for us who were saved, that punishment was taken care of by Christ. And that's how he's able to grant us mercy. So it's always composed of righteous acts of God on behalf of his people and punishment or justice on those who oppress his people. That's the evidence of mercy. The example of mercy in verses seven and eight is what the people of Israel. Notice what he says verses seven and eight about the example of mercy. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. The example that he uses of mercy is when Israel was redeemed, was saved out of the land of Egypt. And there is a great example of God's mercy in that. First of all, in God's righteousness, he brought his people out of the land and blessed his people, but he also injustice punished those who were oppressing his people, the Egyptians. But the whole Exodus, the whole wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel is a story of God's mercy. And I think what is chiefly in David's mind here is when Israel, in their rebellion against God at one point in the wilderness, decided to make a golden calf. You remember the story? Moses goes up on the mountain to get the law, stays up there 40 days, and the children of Israel think, he must have fallen off the other side of the mountain or something. He's gone. He's dead. We're going to make us a God who can take us back to Egypt. And they remember the gods of Egypt. They build a representative of those gods, a golden calf, and they fall down to worship it. Moses comes down the mountain. He's so angry that he breaks the tablets, the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. God tells him to come back up on the mountain, and when he goes back up on the mountain, God is so angry with his own people that he tells Moses he's going to destroy the whole nation and raise up a new nation from Moses, and Moses prays and claims the very promises of God about his own testimony, and God relents and does not destroy the people. And then Moses says, Lord, can I see you in your glory? God says, I'm going to hide you in a cave and let my glory pass by and you're going to see the after effects of it. And what God does when he displays who he is is he says what's in verse 8 right here, almost word for word. Verse 8 is Exodus 346. Verse 8, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. I believe David had in mind that great time when God displayed his mercy to his people. They deserve punishment. God did not punish them because he is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. And by the way, every one of us in this room deserves God's punishment as well. We deserve judgment because we are all sinners and we've all fallen short of God's glory. But God in his mercy said, I am compassionate, I love you. I don't want you to receive punishment. So I have made a way for you to be the recipient of my mercy. I will withhold my punishment if you will take my son Jesus as your Savior. I've already punished him on your behalf. And so God gives his mercy because justice has been carried out in the person of his son, the example of mercy. Look at the explanation of mercy in verses 9 and 10. Here it is in all of its glory. This is the mercy of God. He will not always accuse. That means God does not file charges against us over and over and over and over again. Once we're under the blood of Christ, all accusations are gone. Nor will he harbor his anger forever. He doesn't hold his anger against us. Verse 10, he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our inequities. Aren't you glad for that? We don't get what we deserve because of our sins. That's God's mercy. So much unlike us, don't we love to hold onto our grudges? Don't we love to keep the fires of anger going and the disputes alive so that we can milk a little more pleasure out of getting what we feel like we deserve? God is so unlike us. He tempers his wrath and his justice because he is so loving and compassionate, he does not file charges against us. He's released all those charges because they have fallen on his son, Jesus. He's merciful to us. Not at great cost to himself. You see, when God dispenses mercy, as I've already said, it is never at the expense of justice. Mercy is not God just saying, well, wasn't too bad. I just forget about that. No, no. Every sin, whether it's little or big in our sight, must be dealt with justly. God never just sweeps in under the rug. God just never says, well, I'll turn my back on that and not even notice that. Or we'll just forget about that one. No, he never does that. God never shades the truth in order to be kind and merciful. He is merciful because his justice has already been carried out in Christ. So he's merciful. Thank God. Praise the Lord for his mercy. Thirdly, praise him. Praise the Lord for his compassion. In verses 11 through 14, we have a great description of compassion. When I read these verses, I thought of a great verse about God's love and compassion in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 18. Look at this verse. Paul says, I am praying for you, Ephesians and for us to, that you may have the power together with all saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. He wants us to get the full dimensions of God's love, to understand how high it is, how deep it, how wide it is, how long it is, how deep it is. He wants us to see all the dimensions of God's love. You know as I began to think about it, those dimensions are described for us here in 103, Psalm 103. Look at it. Verse 11, this is how high his love is. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. How high is God's love? Paul said, I want you to know how high it is. The psalmist tells us how high it is. It's as high as the heavens are above the earth. You say, well, okay, that's kind of high. I mean, you know, when I've flown on a plane, seemed like we were way up there. No, no, you're missing the point. As high as the heavens are above the earth, we're talking about the universe. We're talking about the fact that our solar system, if you were to travel at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second, seven and a half times around this world in one second. If you were able to travel that fast, it would take you six hours to get the Pluto. It would take you four years to get to the nearest star outside our solar system in our galaxy. And to go across our galaxy, the Milky Way in which our solar system and our planet exists, a hundred thousand years, it would take you. A hundred thousand years traveling, 186,000 miles per second, take you a hundred thousand years to go across our galaxy. And because of the Hubble Telescope and the amazing things that's revealed about our universe, scientists have expanded their knowledge of how many galaxies there are. You know how many they say there are now? Galaxies that at least would take you a hundred million years to travel across one of them. There are fifty billion galaxies. Now, do you understand how high God's love is? It's high. As far as the heavens, the universe is above the earth. That's how high God's love is. Now, I don't know about you, but when I start thinking in those kinds of terms, I start seeing smoke come out of my ear and blowing fuses. I can't really compute that kind of distance, that kind of height. And that's the point we cannot measure God's love. It's that high. It's that high. Paul said, I want you to know how high it is. And he said, I want you to know how long it is. Well, verse 12 tells us how long it is. Look at verse 12. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. That's the length of his love. You know, that's an infinite length. As far as the east is from the west, east and west are completely separate. You cannot bring the two together. I mean, it's obvious. You travel east. You never get to a point where you're traveling west. You can just keep traveling east. Go all around the world. Start again. You're always traveling east. You can't do that with north and south. You go north. You get to the north pole. Keep going the same direction. You've started traveling south. North and south meet. There is a closing point. There's a finite distance between north and south. Not so with east and west. How long is God's love? Just keep going to east. See if you ever find west. That's how long it is. And the Bible says how far he has removed our sins from us. In other words, you think you're ever going to see your sins again somewhere, you know, where you're going to have to give account for them in heaven and be punished for them because you've trusted Christ. No, if you've trusted Christ, you will never see your sins again because they are removed from you as far as the east is from the west. That's how long his love is. Paul said, I want you to know how high, how long, how deep his love is. How deep is it, verse 13, as a father has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. The depth of love is described in a human relationship. The love of a father, and it could just as well be a mother. The love of a parent for his or her children. That's a love that's hard to describe. That's a love that brings out the depth of emotion that is difficult to describe in any other way. You would do anything for your children. You would gladly give your life for your children. That's how deep God loves us. Ah, He did give his life, didn't He? Jesus gave his life for us. He loves us that much. That's how deep it is. But Paul said, I want you to know how high it is, how long it is, but it is how wide it is, verse 14 tells us how wide it is. The width, the breadth of his love, it's this broad. He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. The breadth of his love is as broad as his understanding. And he understands us completely because he made us. He knows how we're made. He knows our weaknesses. He knows how we're formed. He remembers that we are dust. Now every good father or mother has goals, plans, dreams, ideals for their children. But they also recognize that as the children grow, there are stages of development and maturity and ability that they go through that have to be nurtured. They're not going to reach all of those ideals and fulfillments and goals until they go through those stages. And so every good parent recognizes the weaknesses, the times of immaturity and you work and build and help grow children through those times so that they can eventually reach the goals you have for them. That's the breadth of the love that God has for us. He knows how we're made, how we're formed. He knows we are but dust. He knows every weakness. He knows every immaturity. And he patiently works with us to fulfill his dream for us. That's how broad his love is. So Paul said, I want you to know how high and long and deep and wide his love is. We've got an example of it right here. And the best fleshly example of how wide and high and deep and long his love is is in the person of his son Jesus Christ who demonstrated this kind of love for us when he came and died for us. It's found when Jesus who knows our every sin, knows our every weakness, knows us inside and out, still loves us this much to come and give his life for us on the cross. That is the essence of love. It was May 6, 1969. Jeff Greenfield lay in a rice paddy in Vietnam. Both legs blown off by a landmine. He was rescued and began what would end up being one year of rehabilitation in a hospital during which time his fiance abandoned him because of his injuries. Jeff went back home began to try to put his life back together. And one day on a newscast, he heard about two orphan boys in Moscow, Russia, both of whom twin boys, both of whom born without legs. And he heard the story of how many other children have been adopted from this orphanage. Nobody wanted these two boys. He knew what that felt like. And so he began the long, arduous process of adopting those two boys. And finally he found himself one day in that orphanage in Russia, in Moscow. And as he walked into the room, the boys who had over the years become increasingly bitter and resentful because nobody wanted them, looked at him, scowled and said, you don't want us. Why are you here? Jeff Greenfield sat down, removed his artificial prosthesis from both legs, looked over at the boys and the boys broke into tears. Finally, there was someone who understood, who knew what it was like to be in their position. And Jeff said, I do want you. I will love you because I understand. I know what it's like. Jesus Christ came down here to be one of us, like us, made human flesh, like us, so that we would never question how much God loves us. He loves us because He sent His Son to be one of us, like us, to die for our sins. He understands. He knows our frame. He knows how we're formed. He knows we're just dust. And He loves us anyway. Praise the Lord for His compassion. And then quickly, a couple more. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness. In verses 15 to 18, wonderful statement of God's faithfulness. It begins this way. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. That's talking about the frailty of man. You know, life is very frail. Life is very fragile. We do not know how much time we have, but even if we have 70, 80, 90, 100 years, it is so quick in the span of human history. It really is like grass that springs up and it's gone. It's like flower that blooms and it's gone. The wind blows over it and it's gone. You know, because we're living second by second and minute by minute, life sometimes seems long to us, especially when you're a teenager. You hit 50 and thing picks up pace, doesn't it? It seems like just yesterday you were in high school or college. Life is passing you by so quickly. And you know what? Just like this passage says, One day we will not even be remembered. You say, wait a second. People will remember me. Yeah, for a while. If you want to really know the truth of this, let me ask you a question. How much do you know about your great grandparents? Probably very little. You probably know something about your grandparents. You knew them. They were alive. But how much do you know about your great grandparents? And try to trace it back any further than that. You don't even know who your ancestors. You don't, most of us, unless you really research, don't know our family tree. They're forgotten. They're forgotten. Same thing will happen with you and me. It will. That's just what life is, the frailty of man. The only thing that lasts forever is the faithfulness of God. In verses 17 and 18, from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness with their children's children. My children's children may not remember me or maybe my great-grandchildren may not even remember who I was. But the faithfulness and love of God will be with them. If they know Him, that will never change. That's forever. The faithfulness of God is forever. So praise the Lord for His faithfulness because it outlasts everything we know here. Everything we will ever experience. And then finally, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for His sovereignty. Verses 19 to 22 describe His sovereignty. And verse 19 is the best biblical description of God's sovereignty. If anywhere I know, it describes His rule. And that's what sovereignty really is. He rules. The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all. That's a great expression of God's sovereignty. His throne is established in heaven. I mean, it is firmly set in heaven. Nobody's going to overthrow His kingdom. His throne is set in heaven, it's established and His kingdom rules over all. The Hebrew literally has the definite article in front of the word all. The Hebrew literally says His kingdom rules over the all. The idea is the whole thing, the whole universe. He rules over it all. He is in control. He knows all. He sees all. He controls all. There are no surprises or unknowns with God. He's sovereign. He rules over all. He controls all. Now, because sometimes things surprise us, we look up at God and say, God, where were you? Why didn't you? And all the time God knows exactly what's happening and he knows exactly what's going to happen. Five years down the road and 10, 12 years down the road. What God is going to make of what's happening now in your life. It's not out of His control. I read this week about a fascinating book that was written in the year 2000. A man by the name of Roger Bruns wrote a book entitled, Almost History. The subtitle is, Close Calls, Plan Bs and Twists of Fate in American history. What he's done is he's compiled a lot of information throughout our nation's history about things that might have been if historical events had turned out differently. Let me give you a couple examples. Did you know that General Dwight Eisenhower had already written out a speech to give in case D. Day was a failure in case the invasion of Europe failed on D. Day. He had already written out a speech he was going to give. Listen to what he was going to say. Our landings in the Sherbrook Hav area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold. And I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troops, the air corps and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame were fought, attaches to the attempt. It is mine alone. He never had to read that speech because it was successful. But what if? Just what if? Did you know that when John Glenn became the first man to circle the earth, first astronaut to circle the earth, technology was not far enough advanced along in that time to be able to tell him even how many times he would go around the earth. And they couldn't tell him where he was going to land. So and they couldn't even tell him when they'd be able to find him and pick him up. They told him we'll find you within 72 hours. So you know what he had on his possession? He had a written out little speech in case his, his space module came down among natives in some jungle. He actually had this true. He actually had this statement on his person in several languages and also with phonetic spellings. I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity. That's true. I'm not sure what NASA planned to give these natives an eternity. I don't know about that. But but that that's what they thought might happen. President Richard Nixon. 1969 knowing that the moon landing of Apollo 11 might be a disaster and it almost was. If you know the history of that. Knowing that it might be a disaster already had a speech plan to give to the nation in case something bad happened here it was fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace. But he never had to give that speech. You know why all of those men did not know what was going to happen. God always knows what's going to happen. There are no what-ifs with God. God rules over the all everything the whole creation. That's his rule quickly his subjects. Verses 20 to 22 just mentioned them. Verse 20 the angels those are some of his subjects of his rule. Verse 21 the universe the heavenly host probably refers to the stars universe some people think it's angels but probably the universe. Verse 22 all his works all of his creation. So here you've got the angels the star universe all of his works plants animals everything on planet earth everything else. All of this praises him and and yes and yes me too. Look at out ends verse 22 praise the Lord. Oh my soul. Yes the angels are singing your praises in heaven all of the star universes obeying your will moving as you ordained that it should. Giving you glory all of your works shine forth your glory and praise you and Lord I don't want to be left out of that choir. I want to praise you too. So praise the Lord all my soul. I want to add my voice that's how he ends just like he started. Same words praise the Lord all my soul he ends the same way praise the Lord all my soul and why not? Why not? What a great salvation. What a tremendous mercy of God. What wonderful compassion. Hide long deep and wide. What unbelievable faithfulness. What great sovereignty. In other words. What a God. What a God. Yes. I will say with the Psalmist praise the Lord. Oh my soul all my inmost being praises holy name praise the Lord. Oh my soul and forget not all his benefits. That's not forget. Shall we pray? Father. Thank you for all of your benefits. Thank you for all that you are all that you do all of your blessings. We do praise you. We praise your holy name. Lord help us in times when we are so grumpy and complaining and murmur. Help us not to forget your benefits. Lord I pray that there's anyone here this morning who's never trusted Christ and never entered into that salvation which gives reason to be thankful. I pray for today they might be saved. I pray for Christians who are really under stress and difficulty that they might see through the cloud of this earthy existence. Into your very throne room. And realize the reasons why they can praise you. In Jesus name. Amen.