DUNCAN/The great love of God

I’d invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 103. Derek Kidner says of Psalm 103 that “admiring gratitude shines through every line of this hymn to the God of all grace.” Psalm 103 is a high point among the praise Psalms in the Psalter, and it’s so exalted in its scope and language that it qualifies for being an ode, which is the most exalted kind of lyric poem. Let’s walk through this Psalm in three parts. In verses 1 – 5, we are called to bless God for His benefits. In verses 6 – 14, we are called to bless God for who He is and what He has done. Lastly, in verses 15 – 22, we are exhorted to bless God for His steadfast love and sovereignty.

I. Bless God for His Benefits 

In verses 1 – 5, the psalmist basically tells us this: we are to bless God with all that we have and are, and we are to bless Him and remember Him for all His benefits. He lists six benefits: forgiveness, help, redemption, covenant love, satisfaction, and renewal of strength. In other words, the psalmist says, “I want to bless God because I have experienced His benefits. I know God, and I know Him in His benefits to me; and, therefore, it would be ungrateful for me not to bless Him for those benefits.” And so he begins to rattle them off.

Verse 3 — “who forgives all your iniquity.” There’s God’s pardon. God pardons you, forgives you. There is remission of sin with God. He “heals your diseases.” This speaks of God’s healing hand. The help we have comes from God. God “redeems us.” This passage looks forward to the resurrection. It’s not just that He spares you from harrowing circumstances, but when you’re laid in the grave, by the work of Jesus Christ He will give you resurrection from the dead. He praises God and blesses His name because of His covenant love. And not only that, because God provides your heart the deepest satisfaction that a human being can experience, “Who satisfies you with good.” And he praises God for God’s strengthening, “so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” For all these blessings that come from without, the psalmist issues a call within to bless the Lord with all we have and are. That’s the first part of the Psalm.

II. Bless God for Who He is and What He Has Done

Secondly, the reasons for this blessing of the Lord are further explored in verses 6 – 14. The point of this section is that we bless God because of who He is and because of what He’s done for us. I love the way that Derek Kidner describes this portion of the Psalm — two little phrases: “Wayward Family, Gentle Father.” Wayward family; gentle, compassionate, forgiving Father.

And notice the things that are said as we walk through verses 6 – 14 together: “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” What’s David thinking about? Well, who was oppressing the children of Israel? The Egyptians. He’s thinking about God’s having dealt with the Egyptians, and he’s remembering and he’s blessing the Lord. Now what’s interesting about that is having rehearsed God’s benefits to him, he now begins to think about God’s benefits to all God’s people. This hymn invokes individuals to praise God, but it’s not individualistic. The individual doesn’t forget that he’s part of a larger community — the people of God — and his story is their story, and their story is his story. So here he goes back to the greatest picture of redemption in the Old Testament, the exodus, and he thanks God for taking care of the oppression of His people.

And then comes this glorious declaration in verse 11: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” I was out at an observatory late at night with our church to gaze at the stars and we were told that the furthest thing that you can see from planet earth with the naked eye is the galaxy of Andromeda, and it is two million light years from earth. That is, if you traveled for two million years at the speed of light, you’d reach it. That’s a long way away. But if we were to travel to the edge of the known universe it would take us fourteen billion light years. “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the Lord’s steadfast love” for you. You cannot even comprehend it, and yet what does Paul pray for you? He says in Ephesians 3, “that you would know the height and depth and width and breadth of the love of God for you in Christ Jesus.” We’re to bless God because of who He is and what He does.

III. Bless God for His Steadfast Love and Sovereignty 

And then in verses 15 – 22, the psalmist tells us that we bless God even in this fallen world filled with sickness and sorrow and death. Why? Because His love is eternal, and He is sovereign. Listen to the language of verses 15 – 17: “As for man, his days are like grass; He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; And its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” And so what’s contrasted? The ephemeral nature of man and the permanent nature of God’s love. Again, I love the way that Derek Kidner titles this section of this Psalm. He calls it, “Fading Life, Eternal Love.” And so our transience is contrasted with the permanence of God’s covenant love for us. But there’s another reason that’s given for us to bless God in this fallen world filled with sickness and sorrow and death. Not only because of His eternal love, but that, “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.” So His love is eternal and He is sovereign. His love lasts forever, and He can do something about it because He’s in control of everything.

And this evokes the final doxology, but it’s not one doxology, it’s four doxologies! The end of this Psalm (verses 20 – 22) calls for everything that God has made to bless Him. You remember when Jesus said as He went into the City of David to the cries of “Hosanna” and met the resistance of those who had hard hearts toward Him? Do you remember what He said? “If these children don’t praise Me, I want to tell you that even these rocks will cry out.” All His works, bless His holy name. When the uttermost is bringing praise to God, it’s the least we can do who have tasted His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ to, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”