I invite you to take your copy of Scripture and turn to Psalm 103. We're continuing our series in the Psalms and coming to a fairly well-known and beloved Psalm this morning, Psalm 103. As you turn there, you'll find our passage on page 502 if you're using one of the Bibles that we provide for you. And I'm going to read the psalm in its entirety, and then I'll pray and we'll consider God's Word. So, Psalm 103, and I'll begin reading here at the beginning and read through to the end of the psalm. Of David. 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 forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with goods so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. and His righteousness to children's children, to those who keep His covenant and remember to do His commandments. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer together. Father, we're so grateful for this psalm, and we humble ourselves before you now, and we pray that you would awaken our hearts to bless your name, to give you praise, and to give you thanks. And we pray that our lives would be characterized, our church would be characterized by this joyful gratitude. So Father, come now by your spirit and help us, we pray. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask it. Amen. Well, unfortunately, cynicism seems to be much more natural to us than gratitude. And cynicism is defined as, quote, an attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others, end of quote. Cynicism can be directed in many different ways. It can be directed towards another person or institutions or government. In particular, cynicism can be directed towards God. And that's part of what we want to consider this morning. You see, a cynic's basic disposition is distrust. And a pervasive distrust and jaded negativity blind us to what is good and strangles a spirit of gratitude. For the cynic, gratitude and thankfulness are not the norm, but they are the exception. As one man has described his philosophy of life, and perhaps you've heard people describe their take on life this way, expect nothing. Then if something good happens, be thankful. Sometimes we're tempted to take that approach to life. In this way, cynicism can kill dreams, dull the senses, is content with ingratitude. We don't really realize, in fact, how deep this problem is, how significant this problem of ingratitude really is, because gratitude is not natural to us. In fact, this is quite remarkable. In Romans chapter 1, when Paul reflects on humanity's fallen condition, he sees ingratitude at the very heart of our moral failure. In Romans chapter 1 verse 21 we read, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. So you see, at the heart of our rebellion against God is that we don't acknowledge Him for who He is, and then we don't give thanks to Him for who He is and for what He has done. And the consequence, Paul says in Romans chapter 1, is a distortion of our minds. He says they became futile in their thinking. An extortion of our hearts. Their hearts were darkened. And what Paul is describing here is that since the fall, this is not abnormal for us. In fact, apart from God's grace, this is our natural disposition. This is how we roll. It is innate. It is a distortion of the heart that makes us dull to the reality of God and leads us to a pervasive ingratitude. In contrast, we see here in Psalm 103 that David was not a cynic. Rather, as we see in this psalm, David is bursting forth with gratitude and with thankfulness. Now don't get me wrong, David's joy here and David's joy in his life as we look over the scope of his life was not a naive optimism. David didn't walk around all the time with a cheesy fake grin on his face, detached from reality. David experienced real struggles, difficulties. dangers, disappointments. In fact, we know that there were times in David's life where he experienced real, deep, ongoing sorrow. And at the same time, David's life was characterized by being full of gratitude and praise. Now, how is that? How did David live this kind of life? How did David write a psalm like Psalm 103? How was David's life, in spite of all the trials and difficulties and ups and downs and sorrows he experienced, how was his life characterized by a pervasive, constant sense of gratitude before God? What had everything to do with David's knowledge of God? He was not a cynic. He was not drowning in jaded negativity. He was not a naive optimist, divorced from the reality of real suffering and sorrow. Rather, David was a joy-filled realist. Because he was grounded deeply in the God that he knew. In the God who, in fact, defines reality. I want us to listen to David here in Psalm 103 as he presents to us who God is. And as we listen, I pray that our hope is renewed, and our hearts, like David's, are filled with gratitude. We're going to look at the psalm in three parts this morning. First, praise God for His benefits, and we'll see this in verses 1-5. Secondly, praise God for His love, and we'll see this in verses 6-18. And third, praise God for His dominion, and we'll see this in verses 19-22. So first of all, praise God for His benefits. Look there in verses 1 through 5. 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 forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The word there in verse 1, the first word of our text, bless, is the word barak in Hebrew. It contains the idea of kneeling or bowing. So to bless the Lord is, as one Hebrew dictionary has stated, to adore God with bended knees. So this act of worship is like, it's bending before God, and it's bending before God, you see here in the text, with all that we have in adoration. David goes on to write, And as we've already stated, this does not come naturally to us. In fact, David, it didn't come naturally for him. Presumably, this is the reason why David is rousing himself to praise. David here, in these first five verses, is speaking to himself. And he's saying to his own soul, do it. Don't ignore the reality of God and His goodness. Take note. Open your eyes. He's speaking to himself. Open your eyes and see what God has done. And bless Him. And praise Him. As some have stated, David here is preaching to himself. And sometimes we have to do that as well. Sometimes we have to shake ourselves. We have to grab our hearts and take control. You might say to yourself this morning, I don't really feel particularly thankful or grateful. My friends, you shouldn't be surprised. You have to fight for gratitude. You have to fight for thankfulness. You have to fight for joy. As David fights for gratitude, he calls his soul here to remember the goodness of God. Because remembrance is the friend of thankfulness. It's when we forget God, it's when we forget who He is, it's when we forget what He's done, it's when we forget His many blessings and benefits that we then descend into ingratitude. David directs his soul here in the text, forget not all His benefits. in little and in much, in sorrow and in joy, we are to not forget all His benefits. If you are struggling with discouragement or you're struggling with depression and you go to a counselor for help, it's a common practice that a counselor might ask you to keep a notebook to record the things for which you are thankful. They might encourage you to write a few things down in the morning or write a few things down in the evening so that you can cultivate a spirit of gratitude. And what we see here in this psalm, Psalm 103, is that David is a good counselor. He's a good pastor. He knows something about how the soul works, what it needs. And so he says here in the text, forget not. And then he models for us what that looks like. He goes on to list five benefits for which he and we are to be thankful. Notice the first benefit there in verse 3. God forgives. We should bless the Lord because God forgives. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, verse 3, who forgives all your iniquities. This is the first benefit, and rightfully so, because it is the greatest of all the gifts that God could give us. We know from the Scriptures that our sins deserve God's judgment and condemnation, but God in His infinite mercy forgives us for our sins. We also know from the Scriptures that forgiveness is always costly. In David's day, it cost the lives of sheep and lambs and bulls and goats. Sacrifices could be offered for sins. Someone had to pay that price, though. Someone had to offer that sacrifice. For a time, God allowed His people to offer animal sacrifices for their sin, and the animal would pay the cost. The animal would die instead of the person who had sinned against the Lord. The life of the believer who was offering the sacrifice would be spared, but it was a temporary fix. Animals could never pay the full cost for humanity's sin. And so ultimately, God sent His Son and paid the cost for our sins through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died in our place for our sins on the cross. And He paid, as the psalmist says here, as David indicates here, He paid at the cross for all our sins, for all our iniquities. Not just some, not just most, but all. It is one of the reasons why we love to sing the hymn, it is well with my soul. My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, oh my soul. David says we should bless the Lord for this benefit because He forgives our sins. The second benefit that David mentions here is in verse 3 as well. We should bless the Lord because God heals. Look there in verse 3. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases. Now David was a man who experienced various infirmities in his life, and ultimately we know that David experienced physical death. But despite these various sicknesses and infirmities he's experienced, whatever health he enjoyed, he knew was a gift from God. Implicit within this statement is the hope that one day God will take our broken bodies and He will finally restore them and make them entirely whole. This is the promise that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 8, verse 23, when he says, we ourselves grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. My friends, if you're in good health this morning, or if you've ever experienced sickness or diseased and then recovered and enjoyed good health again, That is a gift from God. It is a gift from the Lord. And it is reason to bless Him and to bless His holy name. So David mentions here the blessing, the benefit of the forgiveness of sins. The benefit, the blessing of healing. Third, the reason we should bless the Lord, the third benefit that David mentions here is that God redeems. You see it there in verse 4. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Verse 4, who redeems your life from the pit. Now we also know that David was a man of war. He was often in danger of being trapped or being killed. And so a pit was very real for David. It was a real danger. David wrote any number of the Psalms. And in Psalm 35 verse 7, which is another Psalm that David wrote, David complains, Or in Psalm 57 verse 6, another Psalm that is written by David, But to this point in Psalm 103, we see that God has preserved David's life. He has rescued him time and time again from the pit. He has redeemed him from the pit. And so David is admonishing his own soul. Bless the Lord and praise His name. The fourth benefit that David mentions here is that God crowns. So God forgives, He heals, He redeems, and He crowns. You see it there in the latter part of verse 4. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Verse 4, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Now we're going to come back to these two ideas of steadfast love and mercy in a few moments because this is a major theme in Psalm 103. In fact, one commentator writes, quote, this merciful and gracious forgiveness will receive unparalleled treatment in the ensuing statements of verses 8 to 13. God's forgiveness is the theme of Psalm 103. The fifth benefit here that David mentions for why we should praise and bless the Lord is that God satisfies. You see it there in verse 5. It's beautiful the way David writes these words. He says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, verse 5, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. So God doesn't forgive us and redeem us just so that we can go on and live lives of cynicism and joylessness, but rather God saves us in order that he might satisfy us. Perhaps you remember the song that we sometimes sing here at Crawford Avenue entitled, To Christ the Lord. I love the verses that read, He saw me plunged in deep distress and fled to my relief. For me He bore the shameful cross and carried all my grief. That is, He saved me, He redeemed me. But then it goes on to say, His hand a thousand blessings pours upon my guilty head. His presence gilds my darkest hours and guards my sleeping bed. He satisfies me with blessings, undeserved blessings, over and over and over again. And He satisfies me with His presence when He's with me, even in the darkest hours. This is the way that the Lord seeks to satisfy our souls with Himself. So God in His mercy often allows His children not only to survive, but in fact to thrive. If you were here last week, you might remember the gloomy owl and the lonely sparrow in Psalm 102. In Psalm 102, verses 6 and 7, the psalmist complained, I am like a desert owl in the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places. I lie awake. I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. And David must at times when he was in the pit felt this sense of loneliness and despair. But now we see that the desert owl and the lonely sparrow in Psalm 102 is now renewed like an eagle. And he soars with new strength and vigor. In fact, David's words here in verse 5, who satisfies us with goods that our youth is renewed like the eagles, reminds us of the words of the prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 40, verses 30 to 31, even youth shall fain and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk. and not faint. God satisfies His own with good things and He renews them with fresh strength and vigor. For all these reasons, David says, we should praise God, we should bless Him for all His many benefits because He forgives, He heals, He redeems, He crowns, He satisfies. And so we should praise Him. And it's not as easy as it seems. Not because his benefits are few, but because our hearts don't always work properly. And therefore, as David here in these opening verses, we must be intentional. We must fight for gratitude by remembering God's goodness, by preaching to ourselves, by calling our own souls to be awakened and to see the benefits of God, to rehearse the many specific blessings that he has granted to us so that we might be moved to bless him and to praise his name. So that's the first section here we see in our psalm. Praise God for God's benefits. Secondly, we see praise God for His love. Praise God for His love. And this is found in verses 6 through 18. Look there in the text. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it's gone and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. Now the thing that you need to see here in these verses, the thing that really stands out in verses 6-18, is that these verses are an extended reflection of one Old Testament passage of Scripture. The text is Exodus 34, verse 6. There we read in Exodus 34 6, the Lord passed before him, that is the Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. So these verses, verses 6 through 18, are an extended reflection on that one text. And if we look at verses 6 through 18, we can kind of divide it up into three parts. There's an introduction, the text is stated, and then there's a meditation on that text. Now notice there in verses 6-7 we read, The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. Now this is clearly a reference to the Old Testament exodus. God worked righteousness and He worked justice for the oppressed Hebrew slaves by delivering them from the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt. And God made His ways known to Moses by revealing His character and His laws to Moses. In addition, God made known His acts to the people of Israel by miraculously delivering them from Egypt and sustaining them through the wilderness. Now, in Exodus chapter 33, Moses offers a prayer to the Lord. And Moses prays that God would show him His ways. In fact, in Exodus chapter 33, verse 13, we read, Now therefore, this is Moses speaking to the Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. And then if you look here in Psalm 103, verse 7, it says, he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. So Moses in Exodus 33 is praying, Lord, make known to me your ways. And David says here, he made known his ways to Moses. Now, how did God make known his ways to Moses? Well, that prayer in Exodus 33 is then answered in Exodus 34, where God tells Moses that He will allow Moses to see a glimpse of His glory. And some of you know this story. As God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, and He passes by him, and in passing by him, He pronounces His name, and He reveals to Moses something of His character and His ways. And as he passes before Moses, he declares, the Lord, the Lord, Yahweh, Yahweh. That is His name. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And this is what we see in Psalm 103 verse 8, right? So in verse 7, He made known His ways to Moses. How did He do that? Verse 8, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Here the psalmist cites the pronouncement of the Lord from Exodus 34. And it is this revelation of God's character that God made known to Moses that David now focuses on and highlights as he is arousing himself and the people of God to worship God. In other words, as David arouses himself to worship the Lord and is seeking to arouse the community of God to worship the Lord, he focuses his attention and their attention on who God is. On God's character. And this statement of God's character given to Moses in Exodus 34 really becomes a creedal statement throughout the Old Testament. A definitive statement that accurately reflects the character of God. We read it several times this morning in the scripture readings that we did. We see it in Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 17. They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return them to slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them." Or Psalm 86 verse 5, But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Or Psalm 145 verse 8, The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Or Joel chapter 2 verse 13, Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster. This is who God is. This is who God has revealed Himself to be. He revealed it to Moses. And David is now taking up the mantle. And he is placing it before his own eyes, before his own heart and soul. And he's placing it before the people of God. And he's saying, bless the Lord. And praise Him. Give Him thanks for His character and for His ways. Now as David lays before us the character of God in verse 8, notice then that in the following verses, the following verses are a reflection on God's character. A reflection on, or a meditation on, that statement of who God is. So in verses 9 and 10, we see that David goes on to meditate on God's mercy. The Lord is merciful and gracious. In 9 and 10, David reflects, meditates on God's mercy. Look there in verse 9. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. It's withholding punishment. And here, what a beautiful statement. He does not repay us according to our iniquities. That is mercy. In fact, the revelation of God's character comes to Moses in Exodus chapter 34. It doesn't just come to Moses in a vacuum, like nothing else is going on and God reveals His character to Moses. No! There's a very specific context in which this revelation of God's character comes to Moses. God reveals his character to Moses in Exodus 34 after the people complain against Moses, after they doubt God's provision, after they build and worship a golden calf. They deserve God's judgment. They deserve God's wrath. God is threatening to wipe them out completely. And yet he reveals to them his character and then shows them mercy. Charles Spurgeon writes on this point, quote, he bears no grudges. When the Lord has chastened his child, he is done with his anger. He is not punishing as a judge, else might his wrath burn on, but he is acting as a father. And therefore, after a few blows, he ends the matter and presses his beloved one to his bosom as if nothing had happened. Or if the offense lies too deep in the offender's nature to be thus overcome, he continues to correct, but he never ceases to love. And he does not suffer his anger with his people to pass into the next world, but receives his erring child into his glory." So here in these verses, David is meditating upon the mercy of the Lord. But then he goes on to meditate upon the grace of the Lord. The Lord is merciful and gracious. You see it there in verses 11-12. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. So as I stated before, mercy is not getting what we deserve. It's withholding punishment. Grace is getting what we don't deserve. It's unmerited favor. And here we see in our text that God gifts us with what we don't deserve. He gifts us with steadfast love, with covenant love. He's committed to us with eternal love. And He gifts to us forgiveness. Forgiveness of our sins, a clean record, a pardon. And notice the extravagance of God's love and forgiveness. Here, David speaks of God's love and forgiveness in spatial terms, right? As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for us. And horizontal, as far as east is from west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. Both are immeasurable because God's grace and His love for us are immeasurable. Stephen Story, our executive pastor, several years ago preached Psalm 103. And Stephen loves space stuff and space travel. And so he gave an illustration here I thought was really helpful. And I'm going to rip it off and use it again. So in 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 space probe. And its purpose was to study the outer edges of our solar system. Since its launch, Voyager 1 has been traveling at 11 miles per second. Let me say that again. It's been traveling at 11 miles per second. So three months after it was launched, it entered into the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. In 1979, so this was two years after it had been launched, it was moving 11 miles per second. Two years after it was launched, it passed Jupiter. In 1980, it passed Saturn. In 1990, February of 1990, it was 3.7 billion miles from the Earth. and was able to look behind itself and take a picture that showed six planets and the sun all at the same time. In 2012, it entered interstellar space, which I don't even know what that is, but that sounds really cool. And as of January 2024, which I looked up this week, as of January 2024, it was 24.4 billion miles from Earth and it's still going, traveling 11 miles per second. And so even far more than David could have ever comprehend, comprehended, We see here something of the immeasurable infinitude of God's great love and forgiveness and grace for His people. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for us. And as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As Spurgeon writes, quote, If sin be removed so far, then we may be sure that the scent The trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone. End of quote. Then David goes on to meditate not only on God's mercy, not only on His grace, but also on His compassion, on His slowness to anger in verses 13 and 14. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him, for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. So having read verses 11 and 12 and thinking about the extensiveness of the universe and the expanse of east to west and the height of the heavens, we might think, how can this God who is so transcendent, how can this God who is so other, how can He relate to me? How can He relate to us? But here, isn't this beautiful? In the very next verses we see that just as transcendent as God is, He is just as imminent. He is just as close. He is just as near. And not only has He come close to us in proximity so that He is present, He has come to us close relationally so that He is our Father. So that He is a Father full of compassion and tender concern for His child. He sympathizes with us. He sympathizes with our frailty and our weakness. Spurgeon goes on to write, quote, We do not adore a God of stone, but the living God who is tenderness itself, end of quote. So the Lord is gracious, he's merciful, he's slow to anger, he has compassion for us like a child, he's not like a raging father that's ready to explode, but he's tender with us. He's gracious, he's merciful, he's slow to anger, and he's abounding in steadfast love. And then we see here in verses 15 to 18 that David meditates, he reflects on this steadfast love of the Lord. Look at verse 15, as for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field for the wind passes over and it's gone and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. So here David begins by reminding us of the mortality of man, that we will all die, that our lives here on this earth will come to an end. We're frail and weak. Life is short. We are here one moment and gone the next. But then David contrasts the mortality of man with the everlasting love of God. And here's the point, that generations will come and they will go, and we've seen that happen so many times throughout human history. One generation comes, another goes, but God's love for His chosen people will never wax, it will never wane, it will never diminish, it will never grow dull or cold. Rather, His love for His people will remain constant and sure and steady and certain throughout all generations, forever and ever, for all eternity. Isn't that beautiful there in verse 17 when David declares the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting, that is eternity past when God chose a people for himself, to everlasting, that is eternal security where God has committed himself to keeping his people forever. In love, God will keep His own from eternity past to eternity future so that they are safe in His steadfast love from everlasting to everlasting. This, David is telling us, is the character of God. The Old Testament saints could look back at the Exodus and they could remember and reflect on God's love revealed to them in the Exodus. Essentially, that's what David is doing here. He's reading his Old Testament, right? He's reading the story of Moses, and he's reading the story of how God delivered the people of Israel from bondage and Egyptian slavery. And he's reveling and rejoicing in God's faithfulness and goodness in his character. But nowhere, my friends, is God's character more clearly displayed than on the cross. And we also can read our Bibles and look back and reflect on the character of God, and we can bless the name of the Lord. For the cross is the greater exodus, it is the greater deliverance, it is the greater salvation. Because God is merciful and gracious, because He's slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, God sent His own Son to die in our place. So that we would be saved and delivered from sin, and judgment, and death, and hell, and condemnation forever. The God of the Bible, the God of the Gospel, you see, cuts at the root of cynicism. Because this God is too good, and this news is too spectacular to live jaded and cynical lives. The Gospel awakens our heart to hope and to gratitude. What David is telling us here in these verses is that God can pull us out of the deepest, darkest pit. Even a pit that is of our own making. And He can give us hope. He can forgive us of our iniquities. He can heal us of our diseases. He can redeem us. He can crown us with steadfast love and mercy. He can satisfy us with good so that our youth is renewed like the eagles because of who God is. because He's merciful and gracious, because He's slow to anger, because He's abounding in steadfast love. And so we should bless Him and praise Him for His love. Third and finally, we see, praise God for His dominion. So praise God for His benefits. Praise God for His love. And then third and finally, praise God for His benefits. Or I'm sorry, for His dominion. Look there in verses 19 to 22. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. At this point, the question is not should I praise or how can I praise, but how can this God be praised enough? And so you see here as this psalm has been building, as David has admonished himself to praise the Lord, and then he's admonished the community to praise the Lord, David now determines that the sphere of those who praise God must be widened. And so in verses 19 through 22, David elicits the praise of the angelic host. Do you see this widening circle of praise through the psalm? Verses 1-5, David's speaking to himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul. That's the key pronoun there in the verses 1-5. My soul, David's speaking to himself. In verses 6-18, the key pronouns there are us and our. So David is speaking to the community of God as a whole and he's reminding them of the character of God and calling them to bless the Lord. But now in verses 19-22, the key word here is all. Bless the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Now, David is summoning all creation to bless the Lord. It might make you wonder if at this point, at the end of the psalm, if the psalmist's voice would be lost in all of this praise. You've got the angels praising the Lord. You've got God's host praising the Lord. You've got all of God's works praising the Lord. All of creation now is taking up this psalm to bless and praise the Lord. But notice how the psalm ends. The very last line, verse 22. Bless the Lord, O my soul. It ends the same way it began. David still has a part to sing in this grand chorus of creation. And you and I do as well. You can only join in this song though, understand, if you know His love and grace through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so it begs the question, do you? Have you turned from your sins and trusted in the Lord Jesus? Have you received this grace, this mercy, this compassion, this steadfast love that God extends to you now through His Son, Jesus? If you have, then are you singing your part? Is your life marked by cynicism and a jaded negativity? Or like David, are you a joyful realist? Grounded in the knowledge of God and His character. Grounded in the knowledge of God and His character that is supremely revealed in the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ. So that even in the ups and downs and joys and sorrows and trials and hardships of life, there's still a steady sense of who God is. and a steady willingness to bend the knee and to adore God for all His benefits and to bless His name. That's what David is calling us to in Psalm 103. A life of joyful gratitude, rooted not just in circumstances, but rooted in the character of God, which will not change. He is gracious. He is merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. So let us bless His name. Let's pray together. Father, we thank You and praise You for Your Word. And God, we are so thankful that You have revealed to us Your character, that You have made known to us who You are, Lord, we thank you that through your Son, the Lord Jesus, we have experienced and known you, that we have known your love. We have known your grace. We have known your mercy. We have known your compassion. We have known your steadfast love. Lord, may we not forget it. May we not lose hope in it. Father, give us eyes to see your faithfulness, your character, your goodness. And we pray that our lives would be blessed by gratitude. May our hearts be filled with joy, and may we bless Your name. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we ask it. Amen.