Every Day is a Gift Part 1 - Bless the Lord While Opening - Psalm 103 (Psalms 103)

1:14But every day is a gift from the Lord. And so I liken this to some of our Christmases. I'll tell you a little bit about how I grew up opening Christmas presents, and then for the radical. Shock that I was in after I got married and learned how Nancy's family opened presents. Christmas morning, gift exchange, celebrating the incarnation of our Lord, giving an exchange of gifts. And when I was growing up, we would have all these presents, and we had a pretty large family, had five kids, and we'd always have mounds and mounds of presents. And it went about like this: we'd all gather in there, presents would be handed out, and people just started ripping them open. And probably within 15 minutes, boom, we were done. That's it. Anyone familiar with that process? Okay, you guys have been down that road. I mean, boom, it's over. And sometimes you don't know now, who gave me this? Who did that? And what was this? And I thank my parents, very thankful for all that growing up and just the kindness. But I reflect upon that, and sometimes I wonder if we can make Christmas all about the gift and not the gift giver. So then I got married, went up to Minneapolis and spent a Christmas up there.

3:01Nancy's family. Again, great number of presents under the tree. And Christmas morning comes around, and her mother, matriarch, would love to give out the presents. And so she would hand out a present to one of the kids, and the present would be opened. Now, that was, well, let me say this: it would be unwrapped. That's not opened yet. That's just unwrapped. Then, if it was a game, it was opened, it was taken out, and then it was explained how to play. And then sometimes you'd even sit down and play the game.

3:42You can see where this is going. And so, this, and so by, and we'd break for lunch. I mean, after, after, and I'm not kidding, we would break for lunch and then come back, and it would be an all-afternoon affair. Am I telling the I mean, it would go, it could go on and on. And I even have a memory that on occasion we didn't get through them all in one day. And but what I remember about that is just the gift, opening it up and experiencing the gift, and then the relationship between the gift giver and the one who received the gift, and it was. It was very different, both families of love and all that, and not putting anything down. But I use that as an illustration because every day is a gift. And sometimes we could rush out in haste and we can go through our day without really giving any thought to what the Lord is giving us and how He would how we could open that or bless the Lord as we are going through our day, which we know is a gift from Him. And so, as I thought about this new year and just many of the things going on in our body and church family, and just the fragileness of life and the limited amount of time we have together, that I thought it'd be good for us to just stop and turn our thoughts to this psalm and slow down a little bit and just think about the year ahead and just think about each day and how God wants us to open each one of those gifts. And so, let me read to you Psalms. Psalm 103, or let me tell you a little bit about what you have before you, and we're not going to get through it all tonight. Like I said, I want to take a little bit of time. We should get through it next week, though. But Psalm 103, you have a handout. And if you know much about Hebrew, and those of you familiar with Hebrew, will realize that the Hebrew, and especially Psalms, Hebrew poetry is often put in what they call a chiastic structure, with the center being the emphasis. It's not the beginning and not the end, but the emphasis is oftentimes put right in the center. And so, just to give you an overview of this real quickly, let me just go ahead and read it, and then we will look at these parts. Beginning in verse 1, 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 yeast. 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 strive 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 has 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 has 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. Heavens, and his sovereignty rules over all. Bless the Lord, you his angels, mighty in strength who perform his word, obeying the voice of the Lord. Bless the Lord, all you, his host, you who serve him, doing his will. Bless the Lord, all you works of his, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

9:26So, if you look at this psalm, the way David moves throughout it, in the first couple of verses, you see the emphasis of him blessing the Lord. He speaks to his own soul. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord. You see that in verses one and two. And then you see, skip down a few verses, and you can see this more clearly on the handout, as I've given you a little bit of the structure here. Verse 6, the Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed. And then in verse 11, you really have the center point, the emphasis.

10:08For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving-kindness towards those who fear him. So you see the emphasis there on his great loving-kindness. Great it is for those who fear him. And then coming back to verse 17, you kind of step down. Back down, 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, so you see, there's a connection between verse 6: the Lord performs righteous deeds and judgments for all who are oppressed, dropping down to verse 17, but the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him.

10:58And then he drops back down, going back to speak to his soul, bless the Lord, O my soul. So he starts speaking and he ends at the same point, bless the Lord, O my soul, bless the Lord. And in the high point of it all is his great lovingkindness. And so fear him, respect him, love him, and respond. So that's kind of the overview of what this psalm is doing. And you can see it there on your handout. Now, today, I want to just look at the first five verses. And that's that portion up in the top. You can see the first five verses. And I've written off to the side these five verses. If there's a key word in all this, that I would just summarize it. Remember, what are we to do? We are to remember. Remember, and specifically, what are we to remember? Verse 2, we are to remember his benefits. So that's what I want to do this morning: I mean, this evening is look at these first five verses and let our minds just take in what's here and let it speak to us, give us an insight into how we are to relate to each day.

12:35So we'll just walk through this. First of all, Psalm 1, or verse 1, a Psalm of David. Don't have any history or much history there to really tie it to. So it's just take the words on the page and recognize that this is just a condition for all time, all people. Just bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. So it starts out on this note of blessing. Bless. Now, what is blessing? When I say the Lord, when we ask the Lord to bless us, what are we basically, what are we asking him to do?

13:26Anybody? Give us good things. Think through with that. Help us. Protect. Yeah, so when we ask the Lord to bless us, it's like we're asking Him, we're saying, Lord, look upon us, look upon our situation, survey our need, and respond accordingly. Bless us, Lord. Bless us. Please look upon our situation. Look upon our need. Look upon who we and respond accordingly. Now, think about it in reverse. How do we bless? How do we bless the Lord? Well, it's the same thing. It's just kind of in reverse.

14:23We look upon him. When we say that when we bless him, we look upon him, survey him, survey his goodness, and respond appropriately. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord. Literally, he's speaking to himself. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Here's David talking to himself, talking to the core of his being. And it's a command. Bless the Lord. Lord. You bless the Lord, my soul, my inner being. Put the word or put the Lord in the state position of blessing in your life.

15:18Think words of excellence about the Lord. Kneel, bless, survey, respond appropriately, O my soul, to the Lord. What a good way to begin, right? Any day, right? Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And look, and not just, I mean, he goes, and all that is in me, all of my inward being, all of who I am. Bless the Lord. Bless his holy name. Interesting, right? Bless his name. Now, what is his name? What is a name?

16:16Think about a name. What is a name? When I say Nancy, Nancy Baber, I'm calling her by name, and that is that is. The linguistic utterance by which she is known, right? If we can say it like that, bless his name. What is that linguistic utterance by which God is known? And so it's bless his name, bless him, bless his person, bless his name. Bless that utterance by which he is known. And if you're in Exodus 3, what is the name that he gave?

17:06I am. Now, if you're in Acts 2:38 or Philippians 2:10, what is the name? Acts 2:38. Let me just read it to you. Remember in Acts chapter 2, Peter is told a great big sermon, and he comes to the end of it. He's talking about a very important name, very important name. And he said, Men of Israel. What did I say? Acts 2, speaking about, yeah, 2.38. Yeah, who's he's speaking about? Men of 37. Hearers are pierced to the heart, and they said, What should we do? Peter said, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? No, which is what they were commanded, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It's interesting that also, when you look at, say, just to flip over to what, Philippians, did I say Philippians? Yes. Philippians 2:10. Sorry, I don't have my speed drill down.

18:41For by this reason, God also highly exalted him, verse 9, and bestowed on him the name, which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now, I want you to see something. You can keep your, just mark Philippians 2:10, but go back to Isaiah now.

19:16Isaiah 45. I want to read you another verse. Isaiah 45, verse 22. The Lord says this, turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, and will not turn back, that to me every knee will bow, and every tongue will swear allegiance. So here's God saying, I am God, there is no other. Every knee will bow, and you come to Philippians 2:10. So at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, citing this verse. What is the name of the Lord? Well, his name is Jesus by the time you get to the New Testament, right? He's been revealed all along. Same name. It's the name. But the idea, bless the Lord. So obviously, Psalm 103, the name Jesus hasn't specifically been revealed, and yet we know the person. Bless his name. Bless all that is associated with his name.

20:47You know, if I, but if you see a flag burning, somebody takes a flag and they're burning it, what are they saying? Disrespect, they don't like the flag. But what is that saying about what the flag represents? It's saying something about their country, right? And that's exactly. But if you honor the flag, and you can tell who honors the country by honoring that which it represents. And so, this is what, when we think about the name of God, we think about where He has established His name at the name of Jesus. Every knee is going to bow.

21:38That's how He's known. So, bless the Lord and all that is with Me, bless His holy name, put it in a position, lift it high, lift it, put it on the supreme place, and bless His name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, verse 2, and forget none of His benefits. So, here the Psalmist is again blessed. It says it bless the Lord. And He says this: Do not let yourself be forgetting any of His benefits. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and make sure, O my soul, that you are not forgetting, that you're not letting any of his benefits, any of his blessings, any of his benefits slip by out of your mind. Don't let a single one. Remember, remember, remember his benefits.

22:58We have a tendency to forget, right? And so, as you open each day, remember what God has given. This is a gift that He has given you. Bless His name, be in relationship with the Giver and be remembering His benefits. Do not let yourself be forgetting. And then He goes right in. You can see if you're looking on that sheet that I gave you, you can see the benefits listed out very clearly in verses 3, 4, and 5. They all begin with who? Who pardons? Who heals? Who redeems? Who crowns? Who satisfies?

23:42And that's where we'll look. First, He is the one who pardons all of your iniquities. He is the one who pardons all your iniquities. The one who is forgiving, the one who is letting go all of your perversity, all of your crookedness. It's a word for iniquity. He's the one that's not holding your perversity, your crookedness, your iniquity. He's not the one holding it against you. He is the one that lets it go, forgives. Now, that's a benefit, right? So keep in mind, no matter what your day holds, who he is, because we often can, things don't quite go our way, right? We can start getting frustrated pretty quickly about the day, about the, we can very quickly, and yet, even the frustrating times, be careful that you don't lose sight of who's giving you this day.

24:59And as you look down in verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his sovereignty rules over all. He is in charge of the day. So respond to him. And he is good. And that's what this psalm is about. He is good. He is sovereign. He is good. And so remember, this is the person who pardons. Second. He is the one who heals all of your diseases, who heals all of your diseases.

25:41He's the one who heals. The word there is for one who's mending, like he's constantly mending, he's like sewing together, he's providing the cure for all of your diseases. This is who he is. Now, this verse is obviously challenged by a number. What does it say? Like, okay, obviously, he doesn't heal all of our diseases, right? Because we still die, and Scripture is very clear that the Lord is the one who controls life and death, and he gives life and he puts to death. He is the one who is sovereign over all that. No one else is. And that disease and sickness and death are still very much part of this. So, how do we relate to this? Well, and so many will go down the road, will say, Well, that's what he does, but he doesn't always do it.

26:51And I'm pretty simple, as you know, I believe what it says: who heals. All of your diseases. That's what he does, and that's what he is doing. But that does not mean that that healing is all going to be realized in this world. There is an ultimate sense. This is what he is doing. In fact, this is who he is. In fact, I believe very much that death, the reason death comes, and the reason he heals, that the whole inserting, in fact, let me just show you what I mean.

27:37Genesis chapter 3. You remember after Adam and Eve had fallen, did what they weren't supposed to do, then he cursed the serpent, God cursed humanity and the earth, and he cursed the ground, he cursed all living under a curse. Let's say. In verse 22, then the Lord said, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden. To cultivate the ground from which he was taken, so he drove the man out, and at the east of the garden of Eden, he stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword, which turned every different direction to guard the way to the tree of life. He obviously didn't want man eating that, right?

28:50But was that because he wants to see man die? No, he just made garments, just covered them. No, he is saying it's not good for man to go on living in this state. Man is separated from me. Man isn't to be an autocrat. Man is to be dependent upon me. He is to reflect my image. Him being separated from my image is not good. And so it's not good for man to go on in this state forever. And so when you get, you can look at Revelation 22, the very end.

29:30I'll just start reading in verse 1, chapter 22. Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life. There it is again, at the end, the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There is no longer will be any curse.

30:00Lord God and the Lamb will be in it. And he will dwell with them. He is the one who heals all of their diseases. The tree is for the healing of the nations. But man, something spiritually had to change within him. And so I believe that he very much is the one. This is what he does. He heals all diseases. And certainly, this psalmist is saying, yeah, he is good and his judgments are for all. But verse 17 says, but the loving kindness of the Lord is from everlasting, on everlasting, on those who fear him to those who keep his covenant, verse 18, and remember, and his precepts, and remember his precepts to do them.

30:47So there's a covenant relationship, and so responding to him, and that's what the psalmist is saying: responding to him. Oh, my soul, bless him. Respond, this is the one who pardons all of your iniquities, he heals all of your diseases. By the way, I just think that when Jesus showed up on the scene, now obviously, the psalmist is talking about God as God had been revealed at the time of the writing. He is not mindful so much of the name Jesus. But when Jesus shows up on the scene, listen to what some of the Things he does. Listen to Mark. Let me just look at Mark chapter 1. Remember, we spent a lot of time in Mark.

31:38And remember, in chapter 1, and I love this scene. In chapter 1, Jesus goes over to Peter's mother-in-law's house. Verse 30. Now, Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke to Jesus about her, and he came and he raised her, and the fever left her. And then in verse 32, when evening came after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were ill and all who were demon-possessed, and the whole city had gathered at the door, and he healed many who were ill with various diseases and cast out many demons. In other words, if you could picture this scene, the sun going down, this huge swarm of people in line going through, and here is Jesus healing all of their diseases. Now, think about it.

32:37If you're living that day, what does Yahweh do? What does the Lord do? He heals all of our diseases. That should be a statement right there. And then I love just while we're here in Mark chapter 2. You remember in verse 12? Verse 5, you remember there were so many people around the house that the paralytic and his friends couldn't get in, so what did they do? They went up on top of a roof, right? And they opened up the roof, and what did they do? They dropped him down, right? And then verse 5, and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

33:29Of course, this causes quite a stir. Who in the world forgives iniquity? Except for God Himself. Jesus said, I know what you're thinking over there. What's easier to say? Your sins are forgiven, or get up and walk, but so you know that I have the power to forgive sins or the authority to forgive sins. I say, You get up and walk. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of his benefits. He who pardons all your iniquities, who heals all of your diseases. This is who he is, who redeems your life from the pit.

34:09Who redeems your life. You know what the redemption means? Who is your kinsman redeemer, buying back the inheritance that you lost? You know that whole kinsman, redeemer, the whole book of Ruth? It's all about an inheritance that was lost, right? And how God. Raised up someone to restore the inheritance. God's really concerned about the inheritance. Think about what man lost in the garden. Lost his inheritance, right? But he's our Redeemer. He comes and he pays the price that is necessary to buy back our inheritance. He redeems your life from the pit. That's what he does. I'm sorry, I'm not even there. You see, verse 4: who redeems your life from the pit?

35:16That's what he does. From the pit. Pit is also the word for trap. He redeems you from the trap, from the grave, place of no return, from your destruction, all that. Because he wants you to have your inheritance. And what is your inheritance? Reflecting the image of your Creator and the joy. A close relationship with your creator so that you reflect him. That is what has been given to humanity, and that is what was lost. But Jesus comes to redeem that, to pay the price, to as the kinsman redeemer, he is the one buying it back. So bless the Lord. Don't forget these benefits. Don't forget these things as you approach every single day. Don't forget these benefits, right? It's about David saying, Look, I've got a lot of things going on in my kingdom right now. I've got a lot of things. I've got enemies here. I've got things happening here. And it's very easy to get very circumstantial and start saying, God, why didn't you jump through this hoop? God, why didn't you do this right here? Why did this not happen?

36:51And David's saying, look, soul of mine, don't you be forgetting his benefits. He goes on, he pardons, he heals, he redeems, he is doing all these. And who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion? You want to wear a crown this year? Be mindful of this. Here's the crown. The crown, he crowns you with his loving kindness and with his compassion. That's what you want upon your life. Right, I hope his covenant faithfulness, his compassion is the word for compassion in the King James tender mercies. Very good translation: His favor, His grace, loving kindness is that word has said, that Hebrew word for covenant faithfulness, His loyalty, His loyal and unfailing love. That's what He crowns you with.

38:05Listen, it doesn't matter who you are in the world's eyes. This is what matters: that you wear these crowns, crowns of God's loving kindness and compassion. And it's nothing in you, it's something all in Him. And remember that as you go through each of your days, God is not going to act unfaithful to you. The problem's with you, the problem's not with Him. Who crowns you with loving kindness and compassion, verse 5, who satisfies your years with good things.

38:53This is what He does: He satisfies, He satisfies our years with good things. Why? He is the one satisfying. He is the one satisfying so that your youth is renewed like the eagle. A picture of strength, beauty, that of a soaring eagle. Remember his benefits. That is what that is who is. This is the one who is giving you this day. This is the one who has given you these moments. This is the one who has given you the companions you have around you. This is the one.

39:47And the problem is not with him. His character is very clear and good. It's loving-kindness. So remember his benefits. And as you go through each day, reflect. Open. Bless the Lord while you're going through the day by remembering that he is the one who pardons, remembering his goodness, remembering he is the one who heals. All of this stuff is aimed at your well-being. He cannot do otherwise because that's who he is. But we need to respond.

40:35We need to respond. And that's what the next section. He is so over-the-top good. His loving kindness is so over-the-top wonderful. Let us fear him and respect that. But that'll be for next time. Anybody got a comment they want to make before we close? Jeff? I'm just going to repeat again just that this is such an important psalm as a Christian to have in our arsenal, to be able to have this attitude to talk to ourselves to bless the Lord. And especially for times of tragedy, like if you lose a loved one or something, probably Dr. Tom isn't going to come and say, you know, don't forget to count your blessings for your benefit. If you know, that's not true, we can agree with you, or something like that. And instead, this should be our attitude that we're ready to do anything every day, but even in trial, to demand of our soul to bless the Lord, and we're going to remember all the good things that he's sacrificed.

41:50Good. Thank you. Yes. Anyone else? Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for your so wonderful goodness to us. Help us to speak to our souls, counsel our own souls. Father, as we go through each day, we know you are the giver of each day. And Father, let us treasure those days, but let us respond. Let us open each day with a bit of fear and joy. Because we know what you give is very good and very costly.

42:45And it reflects the heart of you and your desire to relate with us. Every gift is aimed in the direction of pardoning, healing, redeeming, crowning, and satisfying all of that, everything that comes from your hand. And we just thank you and we pause and we give you thanks. Thank you for a new year. Thank you for a new day. Help us to bless you as we live them. We can only do so if you will give us your spirit and make it happen. Help us to be. Willing.

43:33In Jesus' name, amen.