MO 33
5/17/2026
Kindling For Praise
Psalm 103
Michael Otazu

Well, good morning, Church. It’s a pleasure to come here, gather here in this building. To scatter off across the first hour in our various Sunday School classes. Open up the Word in various parts. Then come over here into the main auditorium and fellowship with wonderful praise songs and an opportunity to open up God’s Word and understand exactly what God wants us to know. Isn’t that wonderful?

I very much appreciate the opportunity that I get to come up here and preach the Word whenever the schedule allows. I really love preaching God’s Word. It’s one of my favorite things to do, when I get to spend many hours a week just in my study, mining this Book and consulting various other folks who have mined this Book before me . . . so that I can come up here and share it with you. Hopefully, I try to get out of the way enough, so that you can understand God on His terms, and be able to apply it to your hearts. Usually, I’m over in the Chapel during the first hour, before this service. Preaching verse by verse through a book of the Bible, consecutively. That’s great, because we get to slow it down in that context and we get to take our time working through the logic that’s embedded in the text. Parsing the grammar, understanding the depths of what is encoded within God’s Word, in plain view for us to see. If we just do the hard work to see it. It’s a lot of fun. I know it’s beneficial to us to make a practice of doing it that particular way . . . verse by verse through books of the Bible. Systematically marching our way through it. But when I get the chance to come up here during this hour, the 10 O’clock hour, I’m really eager for the temporary break in our usual pattern of systematic exposition. You know, when I see a date like this approaching in our pulpit calendar that we share amongst our pastors, I get excited, not really because of a change of venue for me personally, or because I’m tired in any way of the books that we’ve been going through that Pastor Jesse is leading us through. Luke in the morning and Revelation in the evening, wonderful series. I’m very grateful for his ministry in those books. But really, I get excited because I see this as an opportunity for us all, as a family, to take advantage of parachuting into a different part of the Bible, and to consider that particular topic in that particular part of the Bible with fresh eyes. With a sense of clarity that’s unique to these sorts of Sundays. 

When I was considering which mountain peak, I wanted us to parachute down this morning. I pretty quickly identified Psalm 103 as our target and probably the major reason for this is the fact that it’s a call to worship. Psalm 103 is a call to worship. It’s a call for us to renew our fervor in praising our God. Sometimes it’s helpful to just take a step back from the rhythm of life in the church and consider the “why” behind the fact that we do all these things that we do. Right? Why is it that we begin services with 30 whole minutes of music and singing? Why is it that we sing the particular songs that we sing? Why is it that we make a point to set aside a minute or two early on in this gathering, to read a passage directly from Scripture together? What drives all of this praise? What motivates us to even come here on a Sunday, when we could be working in the garden? Or we could be sitting on the couch watching the game? Or sleeping in? Why is it so important for us to do this with each other? To gather on the Lord’s Day, in this building, and worship our God in song and in study. 

Well, we might each answer that question slightly differently. But the best answer, and the answer I hope all of us have, is a fundamental motivating factor behind why we’re doing what we do. Why we’re even here this morning, is that we’re motivated to come and worship because we can’t help but be compelled to do so, by the greatness of God. That’s it. That should be the base-level propellant that our souls need in order to worship. Our God is big. He is mighty. He is loving. He is gracious. He is awesome. In other words, He’s worthy of our praise. Perhaps we should even say that His character and works aren’t just worthy of our praise . . . but they demand our praise. I know you know this. It probably isn’t a new concept for us. Well, let’s just be real with ourselves for a minute. Sometimes, in the daily, weekly, monthly rhythm of life, as a group of Believers, we can lose sight of that big picture, can’t we? This fundamental motivation can become a bit less clear in our minds or can be shuffled into the back of the deck. Or to the bottom of the stack of reasons why we ought to worship and praise God. I know that we all have busy lives in this fast-paced world and we’re sometimes just going through the motions. Not just here at church, but also in our own personal spiritual disciplines of prayer, Bible reading and meditation. When the pressures of this life increase and push our limits to bear them, we can often just resort to rote muscle memory. Making sure that we’re just getting the things done that we need to get done. Sometimes, our worship of God can be treated this same way. It’s just basic human tendency. We often lose our passion for worship in the thicket of distractions and duties. Just because it’s a common thing, though, and just because all of us can tend to do this at one point or another. And just because we might see those around us falling into this. It doesn’t mean that it’s ok. 

The passage of scripture that we’re going to consider together this morning, is a passage that serves as a stimulating correction for us. It’s a passage that helps us to see the big picture again. It’s a passage that gives us breather from the busyness of our lives of hustle and takes us to the mountain peak from which we can see the landscape of reality. We’re going to be shown a new – Who it is, who demands our praise. And we’re going to be shown how it looks to actually praise this God of the universe, with a fervor and a passion that matches His deservedness of our praise. 

I’ve titled this sermon “Kindling for Praise.” Because I think that is what we have here in Psalm 103. A pile of flammable pieces of kindling, which when a match is taken to them . . . will spark fire of fervent worship. So, what I’d like for us to do, as we work through this Psalm passage.  I would like us to list out the attributes of God, represented here in Psalm 103. It’s pretty long, so I’m not going to read the whole Psalm on the front end here. We’ll read it together as we go through it, every single word of it. I’ll explain it as we go. But I’m a guy who likes lists; so, it helps me keep track of the different things going on in a Bible text. And so, if you’re with me, or if you’re not . . . try to get with me here and let us build a list together, of seven attributes of God, taught here in this Psalm. Seven elements of exultation. Seven reminders to ourselves of the greatness of God. Or, if you will, seven pieces of kindling for our praise. We’ll work through them one-by-one as we read our way through this Psalm. 

The first one I want to add to our list is found in the first two verses here. And it really serves as an introductory call to personal worship. 
If you want to follow along in building this list, you can put the first point down like this:

First,  God is blessed. God is, or if you want to be old school and KJB with it, God is blessed – verses 1 & 2. The Psalmist here opens up the hymn with the lines; get your eyes on it with me, if you would. “Bless Yahweh, O my soul, in all that is within me, Bless His holy name, bless Yahweh O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.” In these initial lines for us, form what I like to call an internally directed call to worship. Notice whom is being addressed here. It’s not God, right? It’s not even others around the hymn leader. Who is it who is supposed to receive the exhortation in these first two verses? It’s the singer himself. It’s each of us who are to be exhorting ourselves, as we sing this song. We are to be the ones to take action here. If you look closely, it’s not just each individual who is self-addressing himself here, it’s even more specifically our own souls which we’re encouraging here. See it there for yourselves and let your hearts sing along with the Psalmist. 
“Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and all that is within me, Bless His holy name, bless Yahweh O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.” As we sing this hymn, we’re imploring our very souls to rise up and do something. That’s what’s happening here. We’re pointing at ourselves, deep down within ourselves, to the very core of our spiritual beings, which is our souls, and we’re saying, emphatically, Wake Up! Arise, O my soul there is something for you to do at this moment. O my soul, there’s a need for your agency. There’s an important thing to be done, and you’re the one, O my soul who is the one to do it. It’s an introspective call to worship. A self-directed exhortation to realize the need of the moment. 

Now, I’m no cowboy. Sometimes I wish I could be. Try to dress like it. Maybe someday if I can save up enough money to get a horse or two; then maybe I’ll be a real cowboy. I don’t know, maybe the real cowboys in the room are scoffing at me. I’m not an experienced horse-rider, but when I read these verses here, what comes to my mind is the image of a rider on a horse, taking the sharp spurs on the backs of his boots, and forcefully pushing them inward into the sensitive belly of the horse beneath him; to literally spur the horse to action. He uses the strategic sharpness of those little metal spikes attached to the back of his boots, and he plunges them into the spot where he knows they’ll be felt. So that what needs to be done will be done. The desired action will be achieved by the powerful animal beneath him. The thousand pounds of fast-twitch muscle fibers and the tight-tendons of the animal, full horsepower, literally being put into motion by the use of tiny, small, sharp things, attached to the heel of the rider, being put into the proper spot with the proper pressure. That’s the image of what’s happening here in this self-directed all to worship. The soul has the capacity and the ability to sing out blessings upon the Lord. The soul is able to praise God with magnificent fervor. It’s made to do such a thing just like a horse is made to run. But sometimes, it takes a bit of prodding to get it to spring into action. Doesn’t it? Our souls were made to worship. They were. But they don’t perpetually exist in a constant state of worship. Rather, our souls, our hearts, are fickle. They’re like a horse that has a mind of its own. Just like the old hymn reminds us “our hearts are prone to wandering”, are they not? We tend to lose some of our passion as the pressures of this life increase. You know, Monday morning hits like a pile of bricks and temporal urgencies vie for the limited amount of space in our minds. Our hearts are burdened with the pains of this world. With sickness, with relational strains, financial troubles, workplace anxieties, the death of loved ones. Maybe our own looming death is on the horizon. Our hearts are constantly under the strain of living in this world while being called to think about the next. It’s not an easy task to cultivate and maintain a healthy heavenly mindedness. If we all do that perfectly, we wouldn’t need to encourage each other or encourage ourselves to do it. Our hearts and souls tend to slump back into their worldly forms, consumed by worldly concerns unless we do something to re-spark that devotion to other-worldly worship. 

We all realize that it takes effort to praise God, even when we don’t feel like it. No matter how put-together some of us in this room, on Sunday mornings might look, not one of us lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with praise and worship springing from our hearts, with full unfettered genuineness. That’s just not true. It just doesn’t happen. We’re still fallen. We’re still broken. We’re saved by grace, the grace of God, where we’re given new hearts. We’re given hearts of flesh to replace our hearts of stone yes, but we’re not always perfectly postured for praise at any given moment. That’s why this Psalm begins with this squeezing of the spurs, to go on and do the thing which the soul ought to do. But then, the question is, what exactly is it that we’re spurring our souls to do, right? Ok, I get it. I’ve got to kick it into gear. I’ve got to spur my soul to praise. The answer is right here to what is it we ought to do, is in the first words of the Psalm, “Bless the Lord” or “Bless Yahweh.” We’re to bless our God. That’s what we’re supposed to do. The second line tells us that we’re supposed to “tell our souls, and all that’s within us to bless His holy name.”  This idea of “blessing the Lord” brings into view the idea of highlighting or magnifying that’s what’s wrapped up in the word “Bless”. We’re to highlight or to magnify the Lord. It’s the concept of expressing favor upon somebody. Commending them such that they would benefit from your commendation, from your blessing. So, when it’s applied to the Lord, like it is here, the idea is that we’re to “bless the Lord” by joyfully and exuberantly highlighting Him. That’s what it means to “bless” Him. This is what we do here every Sunday morning. But it shouldn’t be limited to Sunday mornings, of course. What the Psalmist is calling upon his soul to do, and what we’re calling upon our souls to do, as we echo these verses, is to bless the Lord at all times, and throughout our lives. David committed himself to this, in Psalm 34:1, saying, “I will bless Yahweh as all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” I love that phrasing, “I’ll bless Him at all times.” Those blessings, those praises will be in my mouth continually. We’re to do the same as Believers, today. We’re to have praise on our tongues at all times, continually. Also, that our good God would see His children seeking to bolster His holy name, His holy reputation among His creatures. That’s what we do. That’s what we’ve been made to do. In the New Testament, we’re exhorted to do the same thing, of course. Hebrews 13:15, “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to the God, that is the fruit of lips that confess His name.”

The point is that praising the Lord, blessing Yahweh, isn’t something that we should do only when we feel like it. It’s not something that we should do just when our emotions are in line with this activity. It’s something that we should do despite how we feel about it. You see that? The Psalmist here knew this. He knew a truth that all of us need to be reminded of now and then. That truth is this: our emotions ought not rule our posture of praise. You’re not to be emotionally driven in your praise. Emotions are certainly a part of it, but emotions are not the thing that calls you into praise, necessarily all the time. And when they don’t, they fail, when you fail to feel like it, what ought we to do? Direct this verse to your souls. Our emotions, they’re malleable, they are fickle. They ought not be the arbiters of worship. Emotions must be deprioritized when it comes to the way in which we approach the God of the universe, in worship. Rather, and this is what verse 2 helps us to see. Our emotions could be good, but they must be influenced by truth. Verse 2 shows us this, “Bless Yahweh O my soul”, a repetition of verse one, “and forget none of His benefits.” Forget none of His benefits. Do you see how it all connects here? First, we identify our souls as the target of our call to worship, verse 1 and then we double-down on that call to worship, by supplying the instructions on how to do it, verse 2. We tell ourselves, “O my soul”, O my heart, shake off the distractions that come with life on this earth, and bless the Lord. And if you don’t feel like it, “O my soul”, too bad. Correct your own emotions, O my soul, with the truth of all that God has done for you “forget none of His benefits.” See, a heart that’s not in a posture of praise, is a heart that’s forgotten the blessings it’s been given. 

When we fail to remember His benefits, we fail to be blessers of God. This isn’t mere passivity. This isn’t just innocent apathy that we’re talking about here. When we don’t feel like worshiping God and blessing His holy name, we don’t get to blame the fact that we just don’t feel like it. The reality is that we don’t feel like it, because we allow ourselves to not feel like it. We allowed ourselves to not feel like it, by failing to consistently remind ourselves of the benefits we’ve been given by God. Emotions are downstream of truth. This is a fundamental reality, and if this is the first time you’re thinking about this, this is good. Your emotions are downstream of reality. They are downstream of truth. The truth you put in your mind affects the emotions you experience in your heart. That which you feed your heart, is that which determines the fruit which comes forth from your heart. Truth is the soil, the fertilizer, the nutrients which produce the fruit of worshipful emotion. So, the Psalmist whips his soul into shape. He says, “Bless Yahweh, O my soul”, he jams the spurs into the belly of his soul, “All that’s within me, bless His holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits.” Those benefits, of course, are numerous are they not? 

He goes on, in the next three verses to recount some of them, in the form of descriptive statements about God. Look at verses 2-5 with me, if you would. “Our God is a God [verse 3] who pardons your iniquities. Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion. Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” Here, we see our second “kindling for praise.” and it’s that God is generous. In verses 1-2, we saw that God is blessed. Now, here in verses 3-5, we see that God is generous. This is a great glimpse into the internal dialogue of a mature Believer. That’s what we’re viewing here in this poem, in this song. What we have here in verses 3-5 is a list of those attributes of God which the Psalmist considered to be the most powerful to stimulate his own soul in worship. He starts the list with what I think we can confidently say is probably the greatest benefit of being a child of God. God’s described in verse 3 as a God who, what? Pardons all your iniquities. Forgive me for being a little technical here, there’s some interesting morphology at play in this verse. I just want to point it out. The verb is in participial form. We see it in out Bibles as “who pardons all your iniquities”. The verb here is pardons. But since it’s in participial form, what it’s really doing is calling the readers to attention to the ongoing nature of the action being described. It doesn’t come quite clearly in the English; it doesn’t come through quite clearly in the English. But that’s what’s happening with that verb. We lose some of the poetic flow when we translate it more literally, so I can really see what the translators are getting at here, and why they didn’t do it. But if we really want to let that morphological construction of the word shine through in all of its theological glory, we should probably translate it something like God, of course, the one who’s being described here, is a God who is pardoning all of your sins. It’s continually pardoning all of your iniquities. The idea is ongoing. It’s an action which continues through time with consistency and without fail. In other words, when it comes to our iniquities, God is a pardoning God. It’s part of who He is at His core. It’s a part of His attributes. It’s part of His character. It’s part of His disposition toward us as those who’ve repented and believed. This is good news for us, right? This is something for which we ought to be thankful. You know, as people who’ve been redeemed out of our sin. Forgiven in the big sense of being saved from our sins and having been previously committed to sins. Having them cast out as far as the east is from the west. Are we still in need of ongoing forgiveness? You should all be nodding your heads . . . yeah. We’ve been forgiven, but I don’t know that any single one of us is sinless now. Last I checked none of us are perfect and we still occasionally offend this God by sinning. We might be sinning less, but we’re not sinless. That means we’re in desperate need of ongoing forgiveness. Thankfully, our God is a God who, it says here in verse 3, is a forgiving God. A continually forgiving God. Psalm 86:5 makes the same point with clarity. “For you, Lord, are good and by nature forgiving. And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”

This is the greatest of the benefits of the Lord. Without His forgiveness, the other benefits don’t matter, right? Without His forgiveness, we wouldn’t have access to the rest of the benefits. That’s why the hymn here lists this one as the first of the benefits that his soul ought not to forget. Not only have we been forgiven, but we’ve been forgiven by a God who continually forgives. If that’s not kindling for praise, then I don’t know what is. 

The second half of verse 3 and all the way down through verse 5, add to this list of benefits which we ought not forget. It says, “Who heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit. Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion, who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” Our God is a God who has the power to heal. That word there for “heals” is a word that can be used to describe both physical healing as well as spiritual healing. And we know that God, of course, can do both. The trouble for us comes when we want the physical kind of healing, and we don’t get it. Maybe we don’t get the healing to the degree that we want, even. Maybe we don’t get the healing for the particular issue we want healing for. Maybe we don’t even get any healing at all. The implicit question that needs to be asked here, as we sing with the Psalmist in verse 3, is this: Do we have a category for not being healed physically? Do we have a way to process our entire understanding of healing or lack thereof, without having our understanding of God break down completely? That’s a serious question. It’s a question that depends on how you answer it. It will either lead you to confusion about God and unmet expectations, or it will fill you with a greater devotion to God. It’s been the case with so many Believers, or so-called Believers that they expected God, they had no category for God not to heal them. They expected Him to heal them and when they weren’t, it eroded their entire faith. Countless people I know, a number of people who’ve walked away from the faith, really just proving they never were of the faith. Because God didn’t do what they wanted, physically for them, on the timeline that they had asked. The question for us, is our world view, is our understanding of God robust enough to handle that answer; a negative answer from God. The Bible’s answer to this question is physical healing is never guaranteed. You know, sickness and death are apart of the human experience, no matter which way you cut it. It’s the result of the fall. It’s the curse born out in our lives, often painfully so. But what I think that we need to remind ourselves, is that it ought not to be a reason for despair and questioning God. In Hebrews 12:11, we’re told that “all discipline for the moment, seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. But to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 

You know, when the Lord allows us to experience hardships in this life, and chooses to respond to our requests for the alleviation of pain in this life, with a negative answer, or silence . . . the mature Believer doesn’t wallow in misery and point his spiteful finger at God. Rather, he understands that hardship, pain, and discipline is for his own good. Because Hebrews 12:11 tells us that it “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” It causes us to grow and be sanctified. We may not understand how this present pain will bring about goodness for us in the future. We may not even get it, get the answer this side of eternity. We may die, end this life with no answers to the questions we have about physical pains, and emotional pains that we’ve experienced in this life; that God has chosen not to heal us from. We might die with no answer, but we know, Romans 8:28, “that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” This is what sets us apart from the rest of the world, doesn’t it? This is what makes us steadfast in the face of temporal troubles. This is what’s understandable to the watching world, about how Believers endure cancer, or poverty, or persecution, or death. We long for the redemption of our bodies, don’t we? We long for the groaning that comes with the curse to cease. But it’s the knowledge that such relief is coming, and it’s not too far off, that keeps us steady, is it not? The fact that we serve a God who is sovereign over all things, including the levels of pain and suffering which He allows us to experience. That fact is what anchors us and gives us cause for praise. It’s kindling for praise. This is where the Psalmist is leading us to, back in Psalm 103 here. He wants us to see the sovereignty of God in the otherwise dark corners of this life. God is a God of generosity. He doesn’t give us more than we can handle. If you’re not back in Psalm 103, I think we’re still here in Psalm 103. Look at verses 3-5 again. Let it sink in. “God pardons all your iniquities. He heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the pit. He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion. He satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like an eagle.” God is a generous God and it’s His generosity that should fuel our praise. 

Now, as the Psalmist moves us, pulls us with him in his devoted prayer, in his devoted song to God. Into verses 6 and 7, we’re going to see that God is righteously just. This is our third piece of kindling for praise. God is righteously just. Look at verses 6 and 7. “Yahweh performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. He made known His way to Moses, His acts to the Sons of Israel.” The truth claim here in verses 6 and 7 is that God is perfectly righteous and consistently just. That’s what’s being told to us here. There’ s never been an instance in which God did something that failed to meet the standard of ultimate moral perfection. Likewise, there’s never been a situation in which God has failed to meet His standard of perfect justice. He is righteous and just without exception, period. That might be a somewhat easy pill for us to swallow here on a Sunday morning, in a sterile environment like this. But here’s the thing, it’s challenging when we encounter this question out in the real world. When we’re out in the world, doing our duties and going about our business there are times when God’s righteous justness can be a little bit suspect to us. If we’re really being honest with ourselves, there are times when you might want to take issue with the way God handles things. You know, we might not agree with His judgments on some things or someone. Why do all the sinners get rich, while I’m over here doing my absolute best to be faithful with what I’ve got? But what I’ve got barely covers my bills. Why does that dishonest salesman get rewarded for his lies, while I’m over here in honesty and integrity, missing out on clients left and right? Why does she keep getting pregnant so easily while I’ve had three miscarriages? You know, these aren’t all that uncommon objections that we might find hiding in our hearts. Do we have answers to these questions? Can we answer the unbelieving co-worker who says, “How can you believe in a God who allows so much evil and suffering in this world?” Is your world view broad enough to answer these sorts of questions? Or are these sorts of thoughts putting a damper on the fire of praise that you have within your soul? This fire that we’re trying to kindle up can be dampened by bad theology, can’t it? 

We don’t have time to get into a full discussion about each of these questions, but I think we at least need to understand here, as we work through this Psalm, that just because we see trouble and suffering and evil in this world; it does not mean that we’re worshiping a less than righteous, or less than just God. Rather, and here’s the boiled-down answer to that question. The very evil which we see in this world, is the evil which gives God the opportunity to display His justice in full color and clarity. We know that God allowed sin to enter His creation in His sovereignty. It wasn’t a mistake. We know that He could have prevented it altogether, but should He have done so, He would not have been able to show the watching masses of His creation the fullness of His entire range of His attributes. He allowed it so that He could display Himself to us from all facets. Were there no evil, God’s righteousness would mean quite little by contrast, wouldn’t it? Were there no sins, God’s justice wouldn’t be displayed. Should there have been no need for salvation, God’s mercy and grace would have no dark backdrop upon which to shine. Instead of ordaining a world of perfection, God, in His good plan, allowed for the fall of some of the angels and the fall of mankind in the garden. He allowed for the enslavement of the entire Hebrew people whom He chose out of the world, for His own. He allowed for Israel to demonstrate her stubbornness for generations upon generations upon generations. He allowed for the wickedness of this world to permeate every corner of the globe. He allowed for the suffering of every individual who’s ever suffered. Fast-forward to our lives today, He allowed us to do that which we desired to do in our waywardness. He allowed all of this, why? So that He might display the fullness of the gloriousness of His graciousness. 

Were there no sin, God the Father would not have had the occasion to send His only Son, God Himself. Were there no sin, this incarnated God, Jesus Himself, would not have suffered, would not have died a sacrificial death on the cross, for the sins of the world; and to thereby pave a way for salvation for all those whom God has chosen to repent and believe in Him. Were there no sin and suffering, the Gospel would be no Gospel. The good news would have no goodness to it. Because it would not have the context of badness to display its goodness. God’s justice does not compromise by the existence and the prevalence of sin in His creation. Rather, in a sort of ironic and beautiful way, the existence and prevalence of sin in His creation provides the perfect opportunity for His justness to be displayed. Can God do anything? Sunday school question for you. No. God can’t act outside of His own perfect and consistent character. God cannot do anything, there are a lot of things God can’t do, actually. Sin being one of them. But in the context of the truth put before us here in Psalm 103:6-7, one of the greatest things which God cannot do is act unjustly. That’s why Jesus had to die. The Father required the payment of the debt of sin for those who would be saved. He couldn’t just allow them to have their account satisfied without the payment of their debts. The payment had to come from somewhere. That somewhere, as it turns out, according to the Gospel plan of the Father; is from His Son, the incarnated Jesus, the Christ. Who lived a perfect life, died an atoning death, and rose victorious over the grave. Now, those of us who believe this, will all be saved, while God retains His perfect and consistent and righteous justness. 

By the way, it’s not lost on me, that some people in this room have not fully believed what I just said. Some people in this room, have not looked upon Christ for salvation. Maybe there’s something in there that you disagree with. Maybe there’s something in there that you just haven’t seen clearly in the Bible and therefore, you don’t believe it yet. If that’s you, what are you waiting for? Do you really want to find out what it’s like to die? Stand before this righteously just God? He is righteous and He is just. Do you really want to stand before Him and then be condemned to the just punishment of which you deserve on account of your sins? Let this reminder of the uncompromising justness of God be the moment in which you are shaken out of your stupor. There is not a better time to turn away from your sins, and believe in Him, then the moment when you realize that He is righteous, you are sinful, and He is just. That’s a bad equation. You’re going to come to the wrong end of it, without repentance and faith. Believe in the Son. God is perfectly just in looking upon you and applying the death of Christ to your account. 

It’s fitting that the next few verses here highlight the very truth that we’ve just considered. If you’re keeping up with our list of the various pieces of kindling for praise, you can put this one next. God is gracious. Verses 8-12, “Yahweh is compassionate and gracious [it says in verse 8] slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness, He will not always contend with us. He will not keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. And He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” You know, these verses are some of the most encouraging verses in the Bible, I think. Just think of the profundity of these truths here. Verse 8, “The Lord, the God of the universe, who is righteous and just, and cannot stand for sin, is compassionate and gracious also.” He’s not all quick to anger, though He very well could be, and has the right to be. Verse 9, “He’s not a God who will contend with His people forever.” He won’t hold His anger over His people and threaten them with it, without end. Verse 10, “He’s chosen, in His graciousness, to deal with us, not according to our sins. And He has not rewarded us with the full weight of the consequences of our iniquities.” Verse 11, “His lovingkindness,” His hesed, in the original Hebrew, that’s the word hesed, its lovingkindness, its loyal love, this unfailing love. His lovingkindness is so real and so full and so big, and so strong, that it should be compared to the distance between the crust of the earth and the heavens. In verse 12, perhaps the sweetest words which could possibly be uttered to someone who is acutely self-aware of his sins. Think of all the sins you’ve committed, the ones you thought were small at the time, which turned out to be horrific. The ones you were blinded to at the time and turned out to be life-sucking. The ones you knew were bad at the time, but you did them anyway, and they turned out to be the biggest regrets of your life. Think about those sins and then, let the sweetness of these words in verse 12 wash over your heart. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” I John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Proverbs 20:13, “He who confesses and forsakes his transgressions will receive compassion.” David, in Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledge my sin to You, O Lord. And my iniquity I did not cover up. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” And here in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” 

Brothers and sisters, could there be any sweeter words to our ears, as we contemplate the gravity of our sins, and the consequences which we deserve to bear for them? Could there be any greater kindling for praise? Do our hearts not leap within us? Do our knees not simultaneously fall to the floor when we read this? I don’t know about you, but when I think of my sins being as far as the east is from the west, I don’t know how to respond in any way other than in worship and praise. We don’t deserve such a blessing. And yet, He’s given it to us anyway. We should know of no other reaction to forgiveness and blessing, then to bless Him back. To praise Him. To worship Him, the One who’s granted that forgiveness to us. 

Now, as we continue singing along here with the Psalmist to verses 13-16, we see the lyrics take a turn for another topic that should fuel our praise. If you are taking notes, and making this list with me, you’ll see here that God is understanding, it is our 5th kindling for praise. Verse 13, “As a father has compassion on his children, so Yahweh has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our form. He remembers that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass, as a flower of the fields so he flowers. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more. And its place acknowledges it no longer.” You know, if you’re a parent, try to think back to that first time when you held one of your children. Maybe it was just a few seconds after they were born. Their little lungs gasping for their first little breaths. Their cries were so feeble and weak. They can’t live on their own without milk. They can’t be comforted on their own, without your touch. They’re helpless on their own. The responsibility for carrying for them rests on you now. You’re the one they look to for sustenance and survival. How could you not have compassion? Or maybe, likewise, your child is sick, dangerously sick. You see their face which used to be so bright and smiley and funny. Those legs, which used to run around all the time, not doing that. Rather, you’re in a hospital room with machines connected to your child. They’re so feeble, so weak, so fleeting. How could you not have compassion? That’s what we’re told right here in this Psalm, is how God relates to us. That’s how He sees us. His disposition toward His helpless creatures is compassion. He knows our frailty. He knows our feebleness. He knows that we’re weak on our own, and that we are, verse 14, “but dust” formed in the shape of a body. God knows thverse 15, “like grass” we’re like the “flowers of the fields” spreading out our petals on a fleeting moment of sunshine and then being broken and wiped from existence by the wind in a storm. God understands this about us. Maybe we don’t even fully understand it about ourselves. There’s a lesson for us, right? We are feeble, news flash. If you didn’t know that, well, now you know. The way God sees us is accurate. Often more accurate than we see ourselves. He knows well the fragility of our frames. So, how does He relate to us? With compassion like a father tenderly holds his new-born baby. There is a softness and warmth. There’s a gentleness about Him, as He interacts with us, His children, His very feeble children. 

Then, closely related to this understanding, is compassion of God is what we see here in verses 17 and 18, which is His steadfast love. You’re welcome to add to your list of kindling for praise, God is steadfastly loving. Look at verse 17 and 18, “But the lovingkindness of Yahweh 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.” Here, we see God’s hesed again, His lovingkindness. His loyal love that won’t fade or cease. It’s poetically described here as being from everlasting to everlasting. Which is just forever. All the attributes of God are attributes which we can count on. They’re stable and consistent no matter what. But there’s just something about this loving kindness that’s intended for us to appreciate the steadfastness of it. It’s like built-in to the very attribute of God. The fact that this love is not just love, but it’s a steadfast sort of love. God wants us to know that we can call upon His enduring loyal love in any situation, and His love will be there. The same way it’s always been there. In fact, we see David do just this, back in Psalm 25. In fact, it’s not too far, let’s look over there. Psalm 25. David here, calls upon the Lord’s lovingkindness. Because he knows it’ll be there when he needs it. Psalm 25, this is a prayer of supplication from David to the Lord. That He would lead him in truth and treat him favorably. Psalm 25, look at verse 26, “Remember, O Yahweh, O Lord, Your compassion and Your lovingkindness, for they have been from of old.” You notice how David identifies correctly, the enduring nature of God’s compassion and lovingkindness, right? He tells God Himself, that His compassion and lovingkindness are from of old. Meaning, they’ve been around for a long time, eternally in fact. Then he goes on in verse 7, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, or my transgressions according to Your lovingkindness. Remember me for the sake of Your lovingkindness, O Yahweh.”

David knows that God’s lovingkindness is so sure and so steady that he can count on it to dominate God’s view of him, as a forgiven sinner. He knows that he has sinned. He knows that the sins of his youth are numerous and damning. But he also has an accurate theology of forgiveness. He knows the truths which we’re studying here in Psalm 103. He knows that God’s lovingkindness endures forever, and that for those who fear Him, His lovingkindness applies to them, from everlasting to everlasting. And this undying loving kindness is such that they can call upon the Lord to act on it, at any moment. We can call upon the Lord to act according to it. Because it’s always there. It’s never changing. Back to Psalm 103 now. What was true of David, millennia ago, is true for us today. God remains steadfast in His lovingkindness. We can, and we should, call upon Him to deal with us according to that. We should realize that’s a great privilege to be recipients of this loving kindness. You know, this isn’t just a general sort of love. Notice to whom it says this love applies. Look at verse 17, “those who fear Him.” Verse 18 adds, “to those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them.” 

In our terminology today, we would just say that God’s lovingkindness is reserved for those who are saved. You know, so often I see and hear it emphasized that God loves everyone. It’s on wristbands, it’s on T-shirts, it’s on church social media posts without end. It will even be a major tagline in evangelistic materials. Now sure, is there a way in which God loves every single person? Yes, of course, John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world”, that’s everybody. II Peter 3:9 tells us that He does not have a specific desire that any individual should parish, but that all would come to repentance. 

So, does God love everyone? Yes, sure. But His love for those who reject Him and hate Him is a different sort of love than the love He reserves for those who fear Him. The sort of love we get to enjoy, as Believers, is a sort of love that comes with being in His family. There’s an intimacy about it. It’s a love of loyalty, hesed, lovingkindness. It’s just for us. Isn’t that wonderful? I mean, just let that sink in. The way that He loved the world is different than the way He loves you right now, as a Believer. It’s more particular, it’s more focused. It’s like love would be the sun, and then the magnifying glass magnifies it right into your heart and makes it even more powerful. Everybody else gets a little bit of sun. You’re getting His lovingkindness. Are we grateful for that? We ought to realize the gravity of this lovingkindness being reserved for us, in the same way that God’s wrath is reserved for those sons of disobedience among whom we formerly walked. Makes it all the greater when we realize we were like them. God’s wrath is reserved for the sons of disobedience, but His lovingkindness is reserved for us. It’s something that’s unique. It’s underserved, and yet it’s ours. It’s ours, and we can call upon God to act according to it. Just like David does. What a blessing. What a cause for praise.  

Now, finally, as we close out this Psalm here, with the last few verses. We see our final piece of kindling for praise and it’s this, that God is the ultimate ruler. God is the ultimate ruler. Look at verse 19 and see the transition that’s taking place here in the poetry. The emphasis is on who the Lord’s authority, or His rulership is played out. Verse 19, “Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules overall.” The imagery of a throne having been established in the heavens is imagery which should bring to our minds the highest of all possible authority. That’s the idea here. Notice that even the little things in this text point to His authority. Yahweh is so authoritative, that He does not even need the help of others to establish His throne. You see that? On earth, among humans, thrones are never established by the ruler himself, on his own. Rather, it takes armies. It takes assassins. It takes political favors. In order for humans to establish a throne, there must be a coordinated effort among non-sovereign people. But with the Lord, with our God, there is no need for help. “He has established His throne in the heavens. And His kingdom rules overall.” The authority of God is undeniable here. He doesn’t need help establishing it. He did it Himself. He did it in the heavens, such that His authority rules over all things. What a mighty God! What a praiseworthy God! 

Now, we see the final response that’s called for by the Psalmist here at the end. Verses 19 and following here. “Yahweh has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules overall.” But what are we to do with this information? What’s the purpose of this inclusion in the Psalm? Or, for that matter, what’s the purpose of every truth that we’ve seen so far in this Psalm? The answer comes here in verses 20 - 22. What do we do? 
“Bless Yahweh, you his angles mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless Yahweh all you His hosts, who serve Him, doing His will. Bless Yahweh all you works of His. In all places of His rule. Bless Yahweh O my soul.” 

We’ve come full circle here. The way in which we started this Psalm, is the way in which we finish this Psalm. With a call to bless the Lord. Back up in verse 1, we sang a call to our own souls to rise up and bless the Lord. Now, at the end of the song, we sing a call to all of God’s creatures, everyone, every angel, every person, all His hosts, all who serve Him, everyone who’s a work of His, Bless the Lord! There’s a coming day when this won’t be a call that’s ignored by some people. There’s a coming day when this call to worship will be met with universal obedience. Right now, it’s not. Right now, those of us who’ve been redeemed, who see this clearly can respond to this with obedience and praise the Lord, bless the Lord O our souls. But not everyone does that right now. You see it every time you leave the building. You might even see it in this building. We don’t have the time to turn there right now, but Revelation 5:10, tells us that there’s a coming day when every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them will praise the Lord, saying, [this is a quote] “to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing and honor and glory and the might forever and ever.”

At the end of the chapter, Revelation 4:11, we’re brought into the future throne room scene, which by the way, is established here in Psalm 103, and we come we see these 24 elders who represent the church. Then they cast down their crowns before the throne in an act of humility, and worship. They will shout what might be the greatest recorded line of worship in all of eternity. “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power. For You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and they were created.” The 24 elders will say it best when that day comes. But Psalm 150:6 set in a context long before this heavenly throne room scene calls for this sort of praise to be on the lips of even our tongues. There the Psalmist calls out, “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.” Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. It’s my prayer, just by straight up application, that we would be counted, even now, among those who use our breath to praise the Lord. There’s no better use of breath, than to do just that. There’s no better reason to gather here on Sunday’s, than to do just that. There’s no better motivation when we stand up and we sing. When we stand up and we read the Word. When we sit down and we get our noses into the text, and we try to understand what God has for us. There’s no better use of breath, than to praise the Lord. I’m convinced that there’s no better kindling for praise, than what’s right here in Psalm 103. May we live in light of it.