Tonight, turn with me to Psalm 103, if you would. I know a number of years ago, we preached through every one of the 150 Psalms, and that was a huge delight for us that we're here and a part of that. But we're going to go back through some of the Psalms and just gaze upon the bigness of God and the glory of God and the splendor of God all summer long. We're going to transfix our hearts. upon the gospel of God and the gospel of His grace, as for the next three months or so, we will look at the hymnal of ancient Israel, the book of Psalms. Psalm 103, I want to bring to you a sermon that I've entitled, How You Can Be Gloriously Occupied With the Greatness and the Majesty of God. Psalm 103, follow with me as I read God's inspired word, a 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 none of His benefits. who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always thrive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame. He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass as a flower of the field. So he flourishes when the wind is passed over it. It is no more. and its place acknowledges it no longer. But the loving kindness 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 his precepts to do them. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you as angels, mighty in strength, who perform his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you his hosts, you who serve him doing his will. Bless the Lord, all you works of his in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. He would be totally unknown to us and he would be totally unknown to the records of history if it were not for the man, Jonathan Edwards. In fact, this man that we're going to talk about for just a brief moment was no, he was a no name man. He was a missionary. He was a preacher. He was pretty inconsequential in his day. He went to the Indians to preach to them, to preach the gospel of grace to them. He was a weak man. He was a very frail man. He was a very incompetent man. He only lived to be 29. And then God took his life. And the only reason we know of this man is because Jonathan Edwards took his private, personal, really his his heart gushing journals and Jonathan Edwards published them. His name was David Brainerd. He was a weak man and yet he was mighty because of his God. He was mighty in his God. He was occupied with God. He was preoccupied with God. He had a focus upon the glory and majesty and power of God. Here's just one of the journals of David Brainerd. He said, when I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of Him the more insatiable, and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. He said, oh, for holiness, oh, for more of God in my soul, oh, this pleasing pain, it makes my soul press after God. So full of God was weak David Brainerd and so consumed with God was this man, David Brainerd, that he wrote this. My soul was this day sweetly set upon God. I longed to be with God that I might behold God's glory. Oh, that God's kingdom might come and that all might love and glorify God for what he is in himself. on his birthday. four year old man on April 20th. Here's what Brainerd journaled. This day, I am 24 years of age. Oh, how much mercy I have received the year past. How often God has caused his goodness to pass before me. I have so longed to live to God and to be altogether devoted to God. I just want to wear out my life in his service and for his glory. It was February 21st, 1746 that David Brainerd said this, Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God. What a life. 29 years, a short life, a brief life only converted for eight of those years. And yet a life completely occupied with God. Maurice Roberts said, to think about God a right is the most exciting occupation possible for any human being. To think about God rightly is the most exciting and thrilling occupation that you could ever give yourself to as a creature. Matthew Henry said it like this. Don't be afraid of saying too much in the praise of God. All the danger is of saying too little in the praise of God. Friends, consider your life, consider your thoughts, your speech, your leisure time, your mornings, your afternoons, your evenings. Are you someone that you could say, I am totally occupied with God? I am totally preoccupied with God. Like, to take the words of Brainerd, I love to thirst after God. I love to spend myself for God. I want to wear out my life for the service of God. Does that describe you in your thoughts, in your time, in your words, in your conduct? Maybe somebody might say, well, how do you get to that point? What do I have to know? What do I have to do? What does it look like to live this kind of way where I'm occupied with God, where I'm preoccupied with God? What do I think about? Where do I begin to make Psalm 103 my own? How do I get there? What do I do? How do I live that kind of life? We're going to talk about that tonight in our time together. This is perhaps one of the brightest stars in the whole galaxy of the Psalms. It's bright, it's large, it's awesome. And if you look in the Psalm, there are 22 verses in the Psalm, which Spurgeon brought out. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So as if to say right here, we have a psalm that covers the beginning to the end, the A to the Z. It's like a comprehensive summary of a life of worship. What does it look like for a child of God to go through life occupied with God? in love with God, living for the glory of God, preoccupied with the grandeur of God. Maybe you say, I'm not there, but I want to be there. Psalm 103 is going to help. This psalm is an amazing psalm. It is marked and laden with word plays in the original language. There are word plays even in the sounds of words. There are word plays in the repetition of words. There are word plays even on the endings of words. There are word plays on the divine name Jehovah all through the psalm. It's an amazing psalm. David clearly devotes much care. to the elegant and skillful crafting of this excellent hymn. Really, in Psalm 103, here's what we have. We have a man who has to counsel his own heart daily to worship God. We come to a psalm where there's a man who is utterly occupied with the attributes of God. We come to a hymn that uses scriptural language from previous revelation in God's word. Psalm 103 is actually a universal call for all creatures to come and worship and praise the one true and living God. Quite honestly, today, I want you to come with me to a movie theater, and I want to put you on the front row. so that right in front of you, this magnificent and huge and massive screen, God will present himself to you in all of his glory, in his attributes, in his fullness, in his grace. May you be occupied with the greatness of God as he would show himself to you and to your heart through his word today. Psalm 103 is going to exhort us to be occupied with God, and it's going to show us how to be occupied with God. So here's the outline. How do you occupy yourself with God? I want to give you five ways tonight. How do you occupy yourself with God? How do you live a life utterly preoccupied, given over to the worship of our great God? five ways that we can be occupied with and preoccupied with our great God. Let's just begin with the first way. Number one, by praising God for his blessings. The first way to begin is where the psalm begins in verses one to five. How do we occupy ourselves with God? Notice this. The thoughts are off of self and they are occupied with God praising God for his blessings. Do you self-talk? Self-talk may get you some weird looks from people in our culture, I suppose. But self-talk is actually very important. No, no, no. It's critically essential. For the life of health and happiness is a child of God. To walk with God in the ways of God. Psalm 103 is a hymn of self-talk. What do you mean? It's counseling your own heart every single day to bless and to worship God with every fiber of my being. Sunday is not enough. Wednesday night is not enough. Once in the morning for a Bible study is not enough. David would say, all that is within me, bless God. Bless him for he is worthy. to soar in the galaxies of God's attributes, to reflect on Holy Scripture, to count all of our blessings and to give thanks to God for opening the treasuries of heaven and then dumping all of them upon us. That's what God has done. So, let's just begin with verses 1 and 2. Look at the resolve to praise God. Verse 1, bless the Lord, O my soul. Verse 2, bless the Lord, O my soul. Verse 20, bless the Lord, you His angels. Verse 21, bless the Lord, all you His hosts. And verse 22, bless the Lord, all you works of His. And at the very end, bless the Lord, O my soul. We talk about blessing God. What does it mean to bless God? You know, if we do a study on the Hebrew word for blessing God, it's fascinating. I've got to tell you about it because to bless God, means this, it means to acknowledge someone in a position of power. That's the first part to acknowledge someone in a position of power and to recognize that high dignity. Listen to this with all reverence and formality. So there's two things that the Hebrew idea of blessing God brings out. Number one, it shows us that we are to reflect on the position of God. Number two, we are to respect the power of our God. We need that in our day. We need to be reminded of this yet again. To acknowledge God's power and then to revere His position. What is he saying? Soul. Soul. You need to remember how powerful God is. You need to remember that God is mighty, that God is majestic, that God is grand, and that you need to worship Him with reverence and with awe and with formality because God is worthy of worship. All like a verse one, all that is within me. Do you hear that? It's like, it's like from my mind to my thoughts, to my words, to my life, to my motivations, to my attitude, to my purposes, everything that I do, all that is within me, bless God's. Holy name, all of his attributes. Verse two, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and soul. Don't forget any of God's benefits. It's like the psalmist is saying, count your blessings, name them one by one. Right here, he's going to mention five of the blessings, right here in our text. Now, in verse 3 and 4 and 5, maybe you have each phrase that begins with the word, who. God has done this. God has done this. These are five benefits that David is going to bring out, and there are five verbal actions. They signify ongoing, durative action. Ongoing. Not just a one-time thing, but a way of life. An ongoing pattern. We do well to learn from King Ahasuerus. Remember him in the book of Esther? Remember one night he couldn't sleep, and remember how he brought the book of the Chronicles of what had happened, and he had it read before him, and he heard what had happened, and he was so quick to honor Mordecai, who was worthy of being honored. Well, in the same way, let us awake, as it were, with intense enthusiasm to Psalm 103. And let us hear the records and the chronicles of all the benefits that God has done. And let us be quick to honor and praise him who is worthy to receive it. Let's just go through these reasons to bless God. What are the reasons to bless God? Number one, verse three, he pardons all your iniquities. Do you hear that, Christian? Do you believe it, Christian? God has pardoned. He's forgiven. He's washed it away. He's taken the divine heavenly eraser and He's erased all of the sins that are on your account. And notice the word iniquity. If there's any Hebrew word that speaks of the gruesome, vile, rebellious nature of sin, this is it. Because the Hebrew word for iniquity means you've taken the straight line that God has given and you've deliberately bent it to your own ways. It's a, it's a willful rebellion. God has forgiven all your iniquities. Number two, in verse three, he heals all your diseases, not just spiritual disease of sin, but physical diseases. We don't preach the wrong word of faith movement or the health, wealth, prosperity. But for every true Christian, there is a very real sense that God brings full healing to those who are his children, not immediately in this life, but it will come one day in glory. For all who are his third, look at this in verse four, he redeems your life from hell is what the idea is. He redeems you from hell. He, he snatches you. He buys you. It's the kinsmen redeemer idea. He delivers you. He comes in with love and delivers you. Fourth, look at this. Not only does He do that, He crowns you, verse 4, with loving kindness and compassion. As if it weren't enough for God to just save you, He crowns you with covenant love and compassion. Oh, and that's not enough. Verse 5, here's the fifth thing that He does. He satisfies you with good things. Oh, I love that. Do you see that? He doesn't satisfy you with everything. Aren't you thankful? He doesn't satisfy you with bad things. He doesn't satisfy you with the things that you want. Here's what God says, God always satisfies you with good things. Do you believe it? Do you believe it? He satisfies us with good things. This is like a chain of grace. It reminds us of Romans chapter 6 when the Apostle Paul brings out In Roman 6 verse 22, having been freed from sin, now you're enslaved to God. You derive your benefit. Resulting in sanctification and the outcome is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life. I want you to think of Peter's mother-in-law in Mark chapter 1. Remember her? She was lying sick with a fever. Jesus came to her, healed her, raised her up. What did she do? She got up and began to serve and wait on and minister to her Lord. She received the blessing of God and she immediately continued to serve and wait on and minister to her Lord. This is the first way that we can be occupied and preoccupied with God. Notice, you and I are completely forgotten, verses 1 to 5. It's remembering God. It's praising God. It's reflecting on God. When we focus on the things of this world, so often we can grow into complaining, discouragement, worry, anxiety, fear, depression, anger. But when we lift our eyes off of the things here and put them on all of the good benefits that God has given, it changes everything. How do you occupy yourself with God? Number one, by praising God for His blessings. Number two, let's continue in verses 6 to 14. This is great. How do we occupy ourselves with God? Number two, by considering God and His gospel. David just continues. Maybe in your life you've reflected at some point on the massive amount of sin that you have. Maybe at some point you have thought about the sins of your past and the sins of your present, and you've thought to yourself, this is just crazy. It's a mountain of sin, not just of the things that I do, but lodged in my heart. And yet here we are in these verses that that far above the many mountains of our sins, the flood of God's mercy rises higher and higher and higher, and it swallows the innumerable sins that we've committed. We're forgiven, we are washed, we are cleansed, we are liberated, we are reconciled to God. Listen to John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but he will have eternal life. I think of Luke 7, 48, when Christ says to the sexually immoral woman, your sins have been forgiven. Yes, God saved us and he called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. Second Timothy one, verse nine, or just simply Titus three, five. God saved us. That's what we have here in verse six. The Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. Remember who God is. He is a just, he's a righteous, he's a good, he's a fair God. Verse seven, what does he do? He made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the sons of Israel. God discloses himself. To behold our God, you look at Christ. To know God rightly, we look at the exact imprint of God's nature in Christ. We look at the one who is the exact character, the exact imprint, the exact nature of God's being. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like David is reflecting back to the Old Testament book of Exodus when when he says in verse seven, God made known his ways to Moses and his ex to the sons of Israel. Why? Verse eight, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. I'm not asking you to agree if this is true. It's true. Do you believe it? The God is compassionate. The first word right there in Hebrew for compassionate means this. All of the inward affections and emotions of God, as it were, are kindled with hot love for his people. That's the idea of this word compassion. This isn't some stoic deity in the heaven somewhere of a pagan nation. This is a warm, tender, genuine compassion that comes from God. He's compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding, abounding. The Hebrew word means it's ongoing. It's not just a one-time big gift. It's an ongoing abounding. It is a multiplying, it is an unstopping waterfall of God's love. It's a quote from Exodus 34 in verse 6 and 7. It's actually one of the most quoted verses in the rest of the Old Testament about the character. This is the self-revelation of God. When God reveals who he really is, Moses prayed, show me your glory. Remember that? And the very next few verses, God reveals this. Here's who I am. The Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. Well, what do we have in verses 9 and 10? We have the negative, the negative example of what God does not do with us. Verse 9, He will not always strive with us, nor does He keep His anger forever. Aren't you thankful for that? Verse 10. We're going to come back to this before the Lord's Supper in just a few minutes. Let your eye read verse 10. God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor repaid us or rewarded us according to our iniquities. It's like Psalm 130 in verse 3. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquity, God in heaven, if there's a piece of paper, And you have a pen and you wrote out all of my iniquities. Who could stand, who could come before God and stand and say, hey, let me in. No, no, there's not a one of us. Verse 4, but there is forgiveness with you. I think of what the prophet Nahum says. The prophet Nahum, when he says this in Nahum chapter 1 and in verse 6, he says, Who can stand before God's indignation? Who can endure the burning of His anger? God's wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken up by Him. This is our God. Who can stand before God? Aren't we thankful? That our psalm tells us in Psalm 103 that God does not deal with us according to our sins. But if you're here tonight and you're not a believer, He will deal with you according to your sins. And you won't stand on the day of judgment. You'll be crushed by His wrath. You'll be cast into hell, the lake of fire, in the presence of the Lamb, where you will be punished for your sins forever and ever and ever. But if you come to the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, You can make verse 10 your own and you can say, God has not dealt with me according to my sin, nor has he rewarded me according to my iniquities. I'm forgiven. That's the cry of the Christian. God doesn't repay us for our sins. Christian, hear that and let your heart rejoice over verse 10. Read it again. When you fall into despair, read verse 10. When you fall into worry and fear and anxiety, and when the devil reminds you of your sin, go to verse 10 and preach this truth to your own soul. Oh, what a holy judge, what a righteous judge who pities sinners and he removes our sin by his great love. I think of Titus 3 when it says, because of God's great love for mankind, he saved us. Now that's the negative. That's what God doesn't do. What's the positive? Look at verse 11. Now, this is amazing. Verse 11, God's love is great, listen to this, in vertical terms. Verse 11, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's love toward those who fear him. What does that mean? You can't measure it. You've not reached the limit of God's love for you. Again, God's not asking, hey, do you agree with this? This is truth from God's word. Do you believe it? That his love is as high as the heavens toward those who fear him. Look at verse 12, not just in vertical terms, but now in horizontal terms. Verse 12, as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed your transgressions. God's love is high and it's wide. God has removed your sin. You go east and you're not going to go west. You go west and you'll never reach east. That's just a metaphor for how far God has removed your sin from you. That's just a figure of speech. For the reality of Christian, what God has done with your sin. Not just what you've committed in the past, not just what you've committed today, but what you'll commit in the future. He has removed it. And not only that, verse 13, not only in vertical terms and not only in horizontal terms, but now. In relational terms, verse 13, look at how great God's love is just as a father has compassion on his children. So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. That's the relational terms and the love of God. Oh, what a great God. What a great gospel. What a great, what a great loving father who has had compassion upon us. Now you say, why all this? Look at verse 14, because Because God knows our frame. He's mindful that we are but dust. What's David doing? He says, do you remember Genesis chapter 2 when God created Adam out of the dust of the earth? It's an intentional wordplay. David wants you to remember back to Genesis. You're a frail person. You're a created person. You had a beginning. You're a weak, humble, transitory person. But what a great God who lavishes such grace and love. None of this is contingent upon how well you perform. None of this is dependent upon how good you are. It's not contingent upon your conduct in life. If I only perform well, then God... No, no, no, no, no. No, this is truth that cannot be changed. And God has lavished this gospel upon every one of you if you have come to him by faith alone. So how do you occupy yourself with God? Let's go to number three in verses 15 to 18. Here it is. How do you occupy yourself with God? Number three, by humbling yourself. for your frailty, by humbling yourself for your frailty. You know, this is something that Job knew quite well. Job said it in Job chapter 7, just listen to this, verse 7. Job said, remember that my life is but a breath. My eye will not again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no longer. Your eyes will be on me, but I will not be. Job says, my life is like a breath. And then in verse 16, I waste away, I will not live forever. Leave me alone for my days are but a breath. Job 8 and verse 9, he said, all of our days on earth are like a shadow. They're like a shadow. In Job chapter 14 in verse 1, man who is born of a woman is short-lived and full of turmoil. You're like a flower. You come forth and then you wither. You're like a shadow and does not remain. What's David going to do? Look at Psalm 103. He's going to take verse 14 and he's going to provide a commentary on it in verses 15 through 18. We're going to learn of the transitoryness of man, the weakness of man, the humanness of man, the frailty of man. We see that all around us. Mankind is quickly passing. Maybe you're here for a few years. Maybe you're here for a century. Then you're gone. You're like a shadow. You're like a breath. You're like a vapor. Quickly passing. Look at what the text says right here in verse 15. As for man, his days are like grass or like a flower of the field. So you flourish for 16. But when the wind is passed over it, it is no more. And its place acknowledges it no longer. We are just so quickly passing, we we are frail, we are weak, we are human, we are of the dust. Why all of that? It's so that David can reach to the climax of the mountain in verse 17. But the love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. You're weak. You're here but for a few minutes. Your life is like a shadow. You're like a breath. You're like a vapor. Verse 17, but as for the loving kindness of the Lord, it is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. Even though man is frail and man is weak, remember this, God's covenant love does not fade away. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and gave his own son to be the propitiation for our sins. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And notice how God's people are mentioned right here in verse 17. Look at this. The love and kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. If you're a Christian, here's your description on those who fear God. We know who God is. We see God rightly in all of His splendor as it's revealed in the Word, and we fear God. Look at verse 18. Again, not just to those who fear God, verse 18, to those who keep His covenant. That's how you're described as one who obeys God. Verse 18, you remember God's precepts. I love that. Precepts. What does that refer to? What God has written down for us to do them. Even though we are frail, even though we are weak, God's people are marked as those who fear God and keep God's covenant. And we remember to do God's precepts. It's like Ephesians 4. When the apostle Paul says, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling, with which you've been called. God did this work in you, so now live it out. Live out who you really are. Yes, we are weak. Yes, we are of the dust. Yes, we are like a flower of the field. We're like a shadow. We're like a vapor. But our God is mighty. Maybe. Maybe there's somebody in this room who's battling with weakness. Maybe there's somebody in this room who's battling with his own frailty in life. Maybe you look at what the Bible says and you think to yourself, I just, I can't do it. There's so much there, and I feel like I just fall short so much. How am I supposed to do this? I am humble. I see my frailty. I see my weakness. What do I do now? Well, if that's you, our next point is for you, and it's found in verse 19. How do you occupy yourself with God? I think we're on number four. By resting confidently on God's sovereignty. By resting confidently on God's sovereignty. This is like an anchor for the bruised, tossed, battered, breaking ship. This is like a lifeguard for a little boy or a little girl who's drowning at the deep end of the pool. It's like a mighty refuge in a dangerous storm that's like raging over your head. This is the pillow that you can confidently rest your head upon. That my God is absolutely sovereign over everything that happens. Look at verse 19. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules overall. So verse 19 teaches the absolute kingship of God, the unconquerable kingship of God, the global kingship of God. the mighty kingship of God, the eternal kingship of God, even the unshared kingship of God. Christian, this is the highest reason to worship God. It's the highest reason to worship God. This is not man-centered. This is not situational. Hey, I feel like going to church today. That's not this verse. This verse says God is going to be there. So you go. God is worthy of worship. He is worthy of our praise. He is the sovereign one. This is a God-centered verse, a God-driven text, a God-focused reality. It points us to God. I want to give you just four words about God's sovereignty real quick. Number one, in this verse, God's sovereignty is exclusive. Notice in verse 19, the Lord. And you see it in your Bible, it's all capitals, isn't it? Which refers to Jehovah, the God of Israel. It's this God, the God of the Bible, Jehovah, Yahweh, the God of scripture. He alone is the sovereign one. Not the president, not a prime minister, not an angry dictator, not somebody who's very arrogant in life, who thinks he has his own sovereignty in life. It is ultimately God's. Number two, the sovereignty of God is expansive. It is expansive. The Lord has established his throne where? In the heavens. Not in the White House. Not in Jerusalem. Not in Parliament in London. No, no, no. The Lord has established his throne. It's expansive. God's sovereignty rules in the heavens. Third, the sovereignty of God is established. I get that from verse 19. The Lord has established. Recently, our family was driving in Gulf Shores, Alabama. We were going on a on a large bridge across a body of water there in the Gulf. And they were doing construction and they were putting these large, massive cement pillars down into the water to build another bridge across this this large lake. God has cemented, that's the word. God has cemented his sovereignty and he's established. He's fixed it like a, like a pillar that goes deep down. You can't move this. You can't bump it. You can't, you can't shake it. It is an established sovereignty. Number four, God's sovereignty is exhaustive. Because you know what the next phrase says in verse 19? His sovereignty rules over all. There is not one maverick molecule. There's no luck. There's no chance. There's no coincidence. There's no happenstance. God has sovereignly ordained and preordained every single thing that will ever come to pass. Our God has a settled throne. God has no alarm. God, God has no disorder. He has no confusion. God never gets frustrated. God's never in a hurry. God's never surprised. He's never anxious. God is never late. And this is our security. This is our security. One writer said it like this, your faith is strengthened by contemplating the sovereignty of God. In heaven, God sits as king. His rule is unbounded over all the inhabitants of the earth. What thought can be more cheering to your own heart? What truth can give more solid support? How safe are you when you are sheltered beneath his wings? You are kept as the very apple of his eye. Who can harm you? His sheep will never perish. Who can pluck you out of God's hands. He's right. What a king you and I have. What a king you and I worship. Love and rest and hope in him. Well, what do you do? When you've surveyed all of this and you find yourself utterly preoccupied with God, utterly occupied with God, you're praising God for his blessings. You're considering God and his gospel. You're humbling yourself for your frailty. You're resting confidently on God's sovereignty. So, so what do you do now? It leads you back to blessing God, praising God, worshiping God. Do you see the beauty of God's way of biblical counseling? This isn't about you. It's not about me. It's not about situations and circumstances of life. It's about regardless of what God brings into your life, He still sits on the throne. And He is good, and He is loving, and He is mighty, and He is a Father, and He is gracious, and merciful, and compassionate, and slow to anger, and He is mindful of our frame. So what's the fifth way that you occupy yourself with God? Finally, verses 20 to 22, how do you occupy God? Number five, by worshiping God with all creation. It's almost like, it's almost like God invites us now into global worship, universal worship. The praise ends where it began with repeated calls to bless God, revere God, affirm God's glory and God's praise. You know, verse 20 is amazing. We actually, we could pull out here in this section, probably a half a dozen points regarding angelology. If I were to tell you that word angel, what do you mean angelology? Look at verse 20. Bless the Lord, you, his angels. Well, the word there means a messenger. Well, who are angels? Verse 20. They are mighty in strength. What do they do? Verse 20, they perform God's word and they obey the voice of God's word. They are worshiping God. So the psalmist is now calling upon them to worship God. And we join the worship with the angels. He's not done. Verse 21, bless the Lord, all you, his hosts. It's a way of saying all you heavenly armies, all the heavenly armies, all the angelic hosts, bring the millions and the tens of millions of angels that God has made. And you are to bless God. What do they do? Verse 21, they serve God and they do God's will. Angels are mighty. Angels serve God. Angels do God's will. Angels are part of his creation. In verse 22, bless the Lord. All you works of his. I was going for one of my prayer walks this week. I had my text of Psalm 103, and I was doing laps around the park and praying, and I found myself a little bit shocked at how loud the birds were in the morning. And I thought to myself, verse 22 is a call. Bless the Lord all you works of his. All creation bless God. He's worthy of it. Consider this. God, you are so worthy of praise. There are thousands, innumerable, innumerable birds praising God. Oh, that we had more voices to praise and exclaim and proclaim the worth of our great God. It all ends where he began. Look at the last phrase of verse 22. You remind yourself, hey, this is what heaven is doing. This is what the angels are doing. So bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. You say, Jeff, what have we seen in Psalm 103? We've seen the sovereignty of God and we've seen the nearness of God. We've seen the transcendence of God and we've seen the eminence of God. We've seen the forgiveness of God, the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the pardoning of God, of all of our sin. We've seen the justice of God and the righteousness of God and the praise worthiness of our exclusive God. We've seen the angelic realm worshiping God, and we've seen how constant and how perfect it ought to be that all creation would be joining that chorus of worshiping God. We've seen how transient and how passing and how frail we are, and yet how constant and secure the faithful, loving kindness of God really is. And we've seen that the Lord has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. We have seen that God satisfies us with ever flowing blessings. Verse two says, forget none of his benefits. If you're a Christian. You and I are called to meditate upon what God has done for us. We have so many benefits. God has opened the treasury of heaven and he has dumped it out upon us in love. He has smothered us with all of the choicest gifts that he could possibly give us in his son. But again, if you are here tonight and you're outside of Christ, If you have not been reconciled with God through faith, if you have not been justified by faith, if God still looks at you and plastered upon your mind and upon your heart are these words guilty. There are no benefits that you receive from God right now, except for some common grace for a time. Now is the time for you to see what God will do to the nonbeliever and for you to run to Christ and to believe upon him and to cast all of your faith upon the one who is the refuge for your soul. I think of Mary, who in Luke chapter 10 said at the at the feet of her Lord and she listened to the word of her Lord, she she worshiped him. She loved her great savior. I think of the women in Luke eight and verse one, who the women who followed Christ and they ministered to him and they supported him in his ministry and they loved their savior. How do you get there? This psalm reminds us of who our God is. And this psalm reminds us that we need to be those that say over and over and over, bless the Lord, oh my soul. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. To be occupied and preoccupied with God, that's our desire. I think of a story of a missionary named Robert Kennedy on one occasion visited the Amazon. And while he was there, he entered into a conversation with a Brazilian Indian who had recently come to faith and he was talking through a translator. And that Brazilian Indian had recently come to faith in Jesus Christ, but the missionary didn't know it yet in their conversation. And so the missionary asked the Brazilian man, he says, what do you most like to do in your spare time? What do you enjoy doing in life? Well, the Brazilian Indian responded, and the translator said, I enjoy being occupied with God. Missionary said, Maybe you misunderstood what I was saying. Maybe it's hunting with bows and arrows or canoeing or working the fields or something like that. But ask him again, translator, what is the Brazilian Indian most like to do? And again, he replied, being occupied. With God. That's what we want, that's what we need. God, occupy us with more of yourself, preoccupy our hearts. A.W. Tozer said, We are called as Christians to an everlasting contemplation and preoccupation with God. Consider God, bless God, and don't forget his benefits. Father, we thank you for your word. Oh, we thank you for your great character that has come to us in this precious perfect, sufficient God given him. Oh, may it be, oh God, that we would take these words of David and just plaster them upon our eyeballs, that we would bless you every single day. When the clouds are over our head and we feel like it's thundering over us and we feel like all the trials of life are bursting upon us. or whether the sun is shining, may we still not forget to say, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul. And all that is within me bless his Holy name.