Bless the Lord

All right, kids, time for super church. I love it when they sprint out of here. Look, let me out. Well, I'm glad you're here this morning. I got it so good to us. I turned to Psalm 103 this morning, if you will. You know, we've almost made it through the end of another year. You might as well say we have made it through the end of another year. And I'm super thankful for that. But, you know, as I was praying this week in preparation of another year, I'd really kind of spent the week looking at a totally different passage. But yesterday, I was pretty clear that the Lord was like, let's do something different and led me to this psalm.

And, you know, it's such a great reminder to me because You know, all of us have had difficult times this year. I mean, I don't know how somebody probably hasn't had at least some sort of trial over the past year, and I've shared with you, it's been a pretty tough year and the church has been fairly tough year on me and just stuff, right? Most of us also have probably had some great things this year. And sometimes it's easy to look on the difficult things and the trials and not really pay attention to the good things. And quite honestly, God is good. That's just that simple.

I'm sure there's some of you sitting here today going, I don't know that he is good, but you're wrong. God is good. He's really good. He's good in ways that we take for granted in so many different situations that it's good to think about. I mean, God is good to believers and unbelievers alike. We don't realize that all the time either, but God has what he calls general graces, general blessings that he gives to everyone, general blessings such as snow,

Sunshine, I mean, I don't know some of you're like, well, I don't think snow is a blessing. Well, you know it is. You live in the West. You know, we need moisture. You know, snow is one of the great ways, the primary ways that we get moisture. We should be thankful for snow, even if you're not thankful for the cold. And you should be thankful for the cold, because who sent it? God, just like he sent the warm. So anyway, I don't want to get too far into that, but general blessings like health, I mean, there's people here today that don't believe in Jesus, but they have good health. Hallelujah, God's giving you good health.

I mean, blessings that we have as people in general, we have food eat. Most of us aren't going hungry. We are warm on cold days, right? We have coats to wear on cold days. We have blessings and blessings and blessings from God that we take for granted every single day. And yet God blesses us. But those of us that know Christ, We have even deeper blessings. Blessings that may not be tangible blessings, but they still impact our lives in profound ways.

Like comfort that comes from God when we lose loved ones or go through difficult times. Second Corinthians chapter one tells us that God is the God of all comfort. and comforts those who have been through trials. Then we have comfort. We have peace. I mean, the peace the Bible says that surpasses all comprehension. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Be anxious for nothing but in everything through prayer and

Supplications with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. I've known that verse for 40 years.

And the peace of God. That surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Isn't that amazing? I mean, those of have Christ have peace available to them as they come to God. We have strength. God gives us strength. You know, it's interesting to me sometimes because it seems like today we like to live in the trauma stage of life. We like to lament. We like to complain. We like to be broken. You know, anybody likes to be broken? They're just always broken. They complain about being broken. They never get better. You tell them to pray. You tell them to read the Bible. Tell them to trust the Lord. They're still broken.

They'll get mad at me because I'm like, get up. Get up. Stop being broken. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. And they go like, you're just so insensitive. Yep. Yep. I want you to wallow in your self-pity for the rest of your life. Or you could find out that God has strength and he's good and you could get up and find out you can walk with him and have life. So yep. A heartless guy, right? except God's good. He's really good. And those of us that know Him, we have all kinds of reasons to worship Him.

But the problem is, is that we don't always do that. Because we don't always even think about Him. How many of us find it hard to spend time thinking about God? We don't find it hard to scroll through our phones for an hour, or play games for two, three hours. We don't find that hard, that's easy.

But that's nothing. That doesn't benefit us at any level. That doesn't help us when it hard times come. That doesn't help us when the blessings come. That doesn't help us have a relationship with God. That stuff is just nothing. And yet we do that. And I'm not saying this horrible all the time, but how often do we take time to think about God?

I mean, do we think about Him? was the last time you spent one hour and all you did for that hour was thought about God, who he is, what he's promised, what he's done, how he's working, how faithful he is, how deep is his love, how merciful and compassionate and gracious has he been. How often do we think about that? Because quite honestly, I know the answer. Most of the time we think about us, we don't think much about God. I hope that this morning God will remind us how good it is to think about him. Psalm 103, beginning in verse 1.

My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. My soul bless the Lord and do not forget all his benefits. He forgives all your iniquity. He heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from the pit. He crowns you with faithful love and compassion. He satisfies you with good things. Your youth is renewed like the eagle. The Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He revealed his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever. He is not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He blooms like a flower of the field when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and it places, and its place is no longer known. But for eternity to eternity, the Lord's faithful love is toward those who fear Him, and His righteousness toward the grandchildren of those who keep His covenant, who are a member to observe His precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, all his angels of great strength who do his word obedient to his command. Bless the Lord, all his armies, his servants who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works in all the places where he rules. My soul, bless the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, it is good to be here today. I'm so grateful for these men and women. I'm so grateful for the boys and girls that headed over to Super Church. I'm so grateful for the chance Lord got to look into your word. And I pray that you would speak. Lord, we have some discouraged people here.

We have some broken and hurting people here. And Lord, I pray for you to be merciful to them and administer to them and encourage them. We also have some angry people here. Lord, resentful people toward you. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help them see that you love them. You care deeply for them. And if they'd turned to you, Lord, you would bless them. We also have some people here that have never trusted Christ as their Savior. And I pray that today would be that day for them, that they'd come and find life in you. Please speak. I pray through your spirit. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen. And this Psalm is just sweet.

I mean, it's just sweet. It calls us back to some things that you and I, especially as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we have to return to over and over and over again. And Psalmist David says, my soul bless the Lord. I mean, basically what he's saying is, man, I need to bless the Lord. And the reason he knows he needs to bless the Lord is because he has been thinking about God. I mean, it's easy sometimes when we start thinking about other things, especially when we think about ourselves. We spend all our time thinking about ourselves, thinking about what we're going through, thinking about what we've been through, thinking about what we need, thinking about people that have heard us, thinking about all the things that we go through.

Man, it's really easy when we start thinking about only ourselves to begin to get super discouraged or angry or resentful or spiteful or bitter or hopeless or depressed I mean, I know there's some stuff that people deal with that's not just about thinking about God. There's some physical things that people deal with that they have to have help with from medications or stuff like that. I'm not discounting any of that, but many, many, many times the real battles in our life are the fact that we can either choose to come to God and know Him and understand Him and experience Him and walk with Him and have life in Him. or we can just focus on Him or on us.

If focus on us, why wouldn't we be depressed? Why wouldn't we be angry? What do we have even for ourselves? The answer's not much. But David says, my soul bless the Lord. because he's good. And then he says, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. And so he's talking about blessing the Lord because we realize his goodness, but then he's talking about, how should we bless the Lord? And he says, with all that it was in me, everything that is in me, bless his holy name. I love this because quite honestly, man, in order to to take ourselves and give glory to God, to bless him, to honor him, to lift him up, to please him, if you will, in order for us to do that, with all that is in us,

We have to see him. We have to see him, because we don't give glory to much. Amen, anybody with us? Anybody give glory to other people easily? Not many of us give glory to other people. We like to give glory to ourselves. We like to take glory for ourselves. We're not quick with compliments sometimes. We're not quick with building each other up sometimes. We should be better at it, but we're really not. But man, when it comes to blessing God, that's a whole other level of difficulty, because we don't always understand God. Anybody not understand God?

When God does things, ways that we wouldn't do them, we got asked us to walk through trials that we didn't want to walk through. When God places in front of us or the world places in front of us, sufferings that we didn't have anything to do with. We get mistreated by people. You name it. Go on and on and on. There's not a person in this room that hasn't had those trials. Not one. I know sometimes we think we're the only one suffering. Sometimes we think that we're the only persons ever been betrayed. We're the only ones that's ever been let down. We're the only ones that's ever been oppressed. I mean, the world's unfair.

We're the only ones that's ever been treated unfair. And what a ridiculous thought. You couldn't prove to be more selfish than to have that thought. Everybody has those trials. But man, to realize that in God,

We have the only one that can walk us through, heal us, comfort us, strengthen us, give us peace. To realize that God isn't like sinful people, that God doesn't pot evil, that God doesn't bring about these devastations of sin. Like sin in this world is nasty and evil. Sin in your own life is nasty and evil. It's not just the sin of somebody else, it's all of the sin combined together. And then to begin to realize who God is and what God has done for us, the only response to that is then to bless the Lord with all that is in us. That means to bless the Lord with the purest motives and with the highest motivation.

I mean, to bless the Lord with all that is in us means to give him the greatest effort because he's worth it. But we reserve ourselves from God pretty quickly, don't we? I mean, maybe we'll have more hardships. and maybe God won't be worth our blessing. Is that true? The answer's no.

Now we're gonna see here in a minute, all that God has done for us and probably not even exhaustively, but the truth be known is that the Psalmist said, I've thought about God, really thought about God. I haven't thought about God through my limited understanding, which is where most of us come at from God. We start looking at God through our limit to understanding and through our lens of justice. Anybody got a lens of justice that then says to God, you are unfair and unjust?

Man, I've been reading through the book of Job. How many of you ever read the book of Job? It's a sweet one. So encouraging. It's just an easy read. It's tough because Job is in a legitimately tough place. In one day, He lost everything he owned and all 10 of his children in one day. If that weren't enough, then later on, Satan said to God, hey, you protected him, but if you touch his flesh, he'll deny you.

God's okay. So they developed all these nasty boils and these nasty things on his body would have to scrape them off with pot shards. He's pretty sick, he's pretty nasty, he's pretty despicable. People then wouldn't even look at him because he was so grotesque in appearance, even. It comes to a place where Job says in there, what benefit is it

To know God and to follow God? What benefit is it? You're not the only one that's ever thought, man, I followed God and it didn't help me any. You wouldn't be the only one that has been wrong.

Let me just be blunt. Looking at God through your parents, looking at God through your system of justice, It's always gonna fall short. Your system of justice is nothing compared to the justice and the goodness of God. There are some hard things to say to people when they walk through difficult times, but one of the most important things is to say, God is good and God is faithful and God loves us. Look to God. I can't tell you over the years how many times people have said me, don't do that. When somebody's hurting, don't tell them that. They don't need to hear that. Are you kidding me? It's the one thing they do need to hear.

Maybe they're angry at God. And so pointing them back to God, you say to me, is not a good thing. Well, where else do you point them? Where else do you point them? Where else do you gonna point them to the one that can heal their heart, the one that can comfort their soul, the one that can renew their life? Where else are you gonna point them? When the psalmist understood, when you look at God and you're going to bless His name, His holy name with all that is in you, you have to see God in who He is, not in who you think He is. Big difference. We are limited. He is not. He says, man, let's bless the Lord.

Let's bless the Lord with all that is within us. Let's bless this holy name. And then he says, verse two, my soul, bless the Lord and do not forget his benefits. That's huge to us. Do not forget his benefits. And so you say, well, what are his benefits? Well, let me tell you, because the word of God tells us, he forgives all your iniquity.

We could stop right there. We can stop right there. There's some of you that sit here today and you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, and He has forgiven you of all your iniquity. And you go, yeah, but He hasn't done this for me. That is called selfishness. That is called pride. And that is called arrogance.

Do you know what it means for God to forgive you of all youriquity? I know it's very fashionable today for people to say, I'm not that big a sinner. Are you one of those people? I'm not that big a sinner.

To who? To who? Are you not that big a sinner? Are you married? Can I ask your spouse if you're a sinner?

And I know some of you say, well, my spouse would not think I'm a sinner. My spouse would.

She's right there. You can ask her. I hope she doesn't give you all the details.

How about your child? It was awesome the other day. My boys and I and my grandsons were together. I don't even know what we were talking about, but something came up about maybe one of my, it was probably one of my worst moments as a father. It was not sometimes super proud of. So that my two sons were talking about a little bit and they weren't really describing it and the grandsons were like, well, tell us about it. I'm like, nope, nope. You don't need to hear my worst parenting moments.

And there's more than one. So you're not a big sinner to your spouse. Are you sure? You're not a big sinner to your kids. How about you kids? Are you big sinners to your parents? But what about God? If we're that sinful to people that we love on earth, how sinful are we to God? The Bible's clear. I really couldn't care less if you tell me you're a good person because the Bible tells me you're not.

The Bible says there is none who are good, not one. Not one good person in relationship to God. All have sinned and fall short. The glory of God all. And I know that some of you are super offended, right now you're even squirming as I talk about these things because you're like, I hate it when people talk like this because I'm a good person. And you can't tell me I'm not a good person. I've had people tell me that. You can't tell me I'm not a good person. I'm not. But God is.

So then when you hear He's forgiven all of your iniquity, That means he has looked at you as you really are. He's seen you at your worst moments. He knows the thoughts you've had in your head, arrogant, proud, rebellious, wicked, sinful thoughts. He knows them all. And then he loves us and has forgiven us all. Our iniquities, one of my favorite verses is Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

None. Now, please let me say, for those who are in Christ Jesus, that's how our sins are forgiven. It was his sacrifice on the cross, his payment for our sins, his standing in our stead that enables us to be forgiven. Hallelujah. But man, all our sins are forgiven. Should we not bless the Lord with all that is in us for that?

But then he goes on, he heals all your diseases. Some of you are like, well, I don't think that's true because I'm sick right now and he hasn't healed my disease. Here's what this really means. What this really means is that if you have been healed, when you have been sick, it's because God healed you. If you had the flu, And you got better because God healed you. If you've had cancer and you've overcome cancer, it's not because you beat cancer.

That drives me crazy. People that say, I've beat cancer. How? How did you beat cancer? What did you do that would beat cancer? God used a doctor, God used a treatment, God healed your body, but you didn't beat cancer. We don't have the power to beat diseases. If we're healed, we're healed because God heals us. Quite honestly, some of you go, what about those who died? Died from cancer? How did God heal them? If they're in Christ Jesus, he really healed them. He really healed them because the Bible says that in heaven, right, he wipes away our tears from the suffering that we've been through. But in heaven, there's no sickness

And there's no dying. There's no darkness and there's no sin. There's just the light of the Lamb and life. There'll never be another sickness. And those who want Christ Jesus heals all our diseases. Again, hallelujah. He redeems your life from the pit. I kind of like this one as I was going through this. He's not just talking about hell here. You could apply it to hell if you wanted to, but he redeems your life from the pit. Anybody ever been in a pit?

You know, in David's day, they made pits to capture animals, sometimes to capture men. They'd dig a hole in the ground, and many times they'd put spikes at the bottom of that pit, then they'd cover it up. So you couldn't see, and once you walked into it, man, you'd fall in. Many times you'd land on a stake, and you'd be dead. Animals would die. It was a pit. If you didn't die, you'd be in the bottom of a pit and couldn't get out. Because somebody was coming to take your captive.

To redeem us from the pit means to redeem us from the pitfalls and the dangers and the trials and the heartaches to come into this world He's the one that redeems us. He's the one that pulls us out. He's the one that rescues us. You know how many people in this world? And maybe you're one of them. They're in a pit. They know they're in a pit.

Their lives are empty and meaningless. They can articulate all the hardships to you. They can tell you all the reasons that they're broken, but they can't get out.

They can't get out. I've shared with so many people, turned to Christ. He loves you. He'll be sufficient for you. I've actually had people after they've articulated the brokenness of their life. Look at me and go, I don't believe in Jesus. I don't need God. And I'm like, okay. See you later.

Cause I got nothing else for you. We have a redeemer. We have a Savior. He won't just save us from eternal condemnation. He will save us as we walk through this world. He's gracious and good. We should bless his name, shouldn't we? And he says, he crowns you with faithful love and compassion. That's one of my favorite ones. been a crown that we put on your head to beautify you, to show that there's some glory. How does he then beautify and give you some glory in your life? It's with faithful love and compassion. I love that thought, faithful love. God's love never changes.

And I love lamentations chapter three where it talks about God's mercies are new every morning. His love never fails, and His mercy is new every morning.

His compassion never fails. His loving kindness is never cease. And that great verse, I don't know why I'm struggling on a remember verse as I know really well, but can you imagine a God who crowns us with faithful love? I know sometimes when we're going through hardships, we go, Where's God at? Where's His love at?

Have you never known, truthfully known and believed in the fact that though you're hurting and though you're in need, that God's love is abundantly overflowing for you. He cares about you. He has compassion for you. I know sometimes we go, well, he must not because I'm suffering. Do you not know that it's when we suffer? They pours out his love and compassion to an even higher level.

We're not exempt from suffering. I don't know whoever told you we should be. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us people don't suffer. Matter of fact, the Bible says, for those of us who are followers of Christ in this world, you will have tribulation. You will have tribulation. But fear not, I've overcome the world. The Bible says that those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Did you know that? The Bible's not unclear about the fact that as we walk with Christ, people are gonna hate us and it was gonna be hard times. Man, I forget that sometimes. Man, when some people get mad at me for speaking or teaching or sharing or whatever, man, I'm like, boy, that hurts me some and I don't think that's really fair.

And the Lord Jesus says, are you kidding? I gave my life for that. Of all the things that were unfair, that was it. It's not when I get mistreated. But man, he pours out this faithful love and compassion, ministers to us in deep ways if we will look to him. See, that's the problem for many of us, right? We're not looking at God. We don't want to look at God. We don't want God to be God. We want God to be a genie. We want God to come out when we rub on His lamp and do what we tell Him to do. And then once He's done what we want Him to do, we want Him back in the lamp so He doesn't interrupt our lives.

That's not who God is. He's God. And we look to Him as God and we trust Him as God. And we find out He's good as God. He goes, he says, he satisfies you with good things in your youth. There's renewed like the eagle. Man, this one's almost embarrassing to talk about. He satisfies you with good things.

How many of you are winers? Look at that. There's not a one. You guys are amazing. You blessed my socks off. We as Americans might be the lead winers. And we shouldn't be. You know, I mean, good things you have in your life. Me, do you have coats to wear and cold weather? Do you have boots? Do you have cars to drive in? Do you have a home to live in? Does it got heat in it?

Me, men, we have so many blessed things, and yet, you know, we complain. Anybody complain about Christmas gifts this year? I'm sure not, right? I didn't, man, my wife gave me an awesome gift, several of them, and I didn't need them. How sweet is she?

You should come with me sometime when we travel. You should come with me, go to Zambia with me. That'd be enough, but Zambia's aren't really, they're not really hurting that bad.

You should come with me to Congo. You think you don't have much and you whine about what you have when if you came with me to Congo in your suitcase, you'd have more clothes in there than they own. And they would wear the clothes you would have in your suitcase for weeks. And they wouldn't wash them because they're so valuable to them.

You think God hasn't poured out good things into your life. How ungrateful. How arrogant. We have so much We are blessed.

You should ask my brother, sitting right down here. I'm not mean to pick on James, but he reminded me. I know what he's been through. I know where he's lived. I know what he's experienced. He knows. Don't you ever. Look at God. He's not good. He has poured out an abundance of good in your life. And I know my brothers and sisters in Congo would tell us God has poured out abundant things into their lives, too.

He has. We should worship Him. We should bless Him for the things He's blessed us with. And renewed us like eagles, given us strength many times the sore. If you're going through hard times right now, would you actually begin to look? The fact that God is working in your life to see you through day by day by day by day. Hallelujah. You'll be able to look back in a year or two. You'll find out that he has renewed you like an eagle that you might soar. He's not giving up on you. He's not failing you. He's blessing you. He loves you.

Well then he goes on, the Lord executes acts of righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

He revealed his ways to Moses as deed to the people Israel, the Lord's compassionate and gracious, low to anger and abounding and faithful love. And I love those verses. You know how many people they today say that God is not executing righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

And I'll be honest with you, I don't always know. I don't always understand why bad things happen to good people sometimes. I don't understand that. I don't understand where God doesn't just stop every criminal, throw them all in jail, execute this justice rather than letting them go. Why my people are bullies, why people are inconsiderate. I don't understand all that other than I understand sin, right? And I understand also that

God is moving in the sin for a reason. Do you know that? There's really one easy way why we know God continues to allow this stuff to happen for sinful people to rebel. Do you know what that reason is? It's found in 2 Peter. It's because God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but that all would come to repentance.

But you think he's not executing justice because unrighteousness continues. Nothing could be further from the truth. Matter of fact, he uses Israel as an example. He executes acts of righteousness and justice for all their oppressed. He revealed his ways to Moses and his deeds to the people Israel. Do you know what happened to Israel? I got said to Abraham,

One day, your descendants are going to go into Egypt and they're going to be in slavery for 400 years. 400. It's hard for us to imagine. It's 150 years longer than we've been a country. 400 years. God said that.

And most of us go, well, that seems really unjust. What they do. and do anything. It weren't even a country yet. But God said, you're going to be enslaved for 400 years and at the end of the 400 years, I'm going to lead you out of that slavery delivery from that nation. I'm going to make you a nation of my own in this very land Abraham where you've been walking that I've promised to give you 400 years. Did God bring about justice for the oppressed? Are you better believe it? He did. Did he do it in the 30 seconds that you and I want him to do it? Did he do it in the day that you and I want him to do it?

Did he do it in the week or the month or the year that we want him to do it? No, God had a plan. His plan was to make a nation. Part of that nation was going to go through slavery. It was going to go through the need for God, the recognition that they needed God, the recognition they needed to become big enough to be a country. God has ways to, he works in that you and I would never understand because we aren't God. And if we did bring about our own justice into this world, how would it impact the person next to that person, and the person next to that person, then the person next to that person?

Do you know? Could you possibly know? Could you possibly put all things together like God does when he brings his justice to pass? It's always in the right time and it's always in the right way because God is good. He's right. He's holy. And for us to walk around arrogantly saying that he's not means that we are blind to a level that we can't even describe, blind. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that God is a God of justice and righteousness. And one of these days, it's all going to be made right. You know, it's coming. His judgment. We've been studying it through revelation in our Sunday school class and it's coming. His judgment's coming on all things.

There is a one person that's going to commit anything unrighteous that's not going to receive justice and judgment. It's coming. Can we trust him? Oh, you can trust Him. The ones we can trust is us.

We don't have a clear picture of justice, but God does. So should we bless the Lord of all that is in us, even in justice? Yeah, we should. He's faithful. He says, I love this, he revealed his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel. He says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger in a bounding and faithful love. He will not always accuse us of being angry forever. He is not dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to our iniquities. What an incredible statement. He made his ways and he made known to Moses as he led Moses to lead Israel out of slavery, hallelujah. But you know what else he did?

He showed that he was compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and faithful in love because when he led these people out, after doing 10 powerful miracles, before they'd even gotten across anywhere, they began to complain about God. They get to the red sea and oh, I can't believe you let us out. We'd have been better to stay in Egypt. God's like, ah,

How could you treat me that way? But hold on, made the way through the Red Sea. From then on the people all went, God's so good, we'll follow Him anywhere. Oh no, that's not what happened. They continue to complain, they continue to rebel. They didn't have food they wanted. So God gave them food and they complained about that. God gave them mana from heaven. They complained about that. They didn't have water. So they complained about that. They were getting ready to go on the promised land. They complained about that. He's compassionate. He's gracious.

He's slow to anger, bounding and loving kindness. We sit around sometimes and we go, well those people were crazy. What were they thinking? They were idiots. I'd never, I'd never treat God that way. I'd never rebel. I'd never be ungrateful. I'd never forget what God has done for me. Don't we, we wouldn't be those people.

Oh, we are. We are those people, aren't we? We're exactly those people. And yet it says, he will not always accuse us of being angry forever. It's not that God doesn't get frustrated with our sin. Don't you think he doesn't? Don't you think God doesn't get angry about sin? He does. If you don't believe so, read Revelation chapter 20. Read Hebrews chapter 10 where it says, it's a terrifying thing to follow the hands of the living God. Don't you think you don't get angry, but he

Won't always accuse us. And he won't always be angry with us. He says because he hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve or repaid us according to ouriquities. There we are back to that whole sinful thing again. We are sinners and we deserve hell. It's that simple.

If God had dealt with us as we deserve for our sins, we would deserve hell. But if that we would be there now, there'd be no reason for him to tolerate us. There'd be no reason for him to put up with us. There'd be no reason for him to be patient or compassionate or slow to anger.

But that's not who God is. God's patient, compassionate, has slowed an anger. And He has not dealt with us as we deserve. You want God to be fair. Fairness means hell for sinners. That's what it means. God is gracious. He hasn't dealt with us as we should deserve. But then he says in verse 11, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his faithful love toward those who fear him as high as the heavens are above the earth. I don't know how high they are, but they're pretty stinkin' high. We can't jump and touch them. We can't get on a ladder and touch them. We can't really even get in the rocket ship and touch them.

Because we haven't scratched the surface of the heavens in what we can do. So as high as the heavens are above the earth, that's how gracious God has been to us. Isn't that incredible? Is God good? God's really good. Shouldn't we exalt His name? Shouldn't we bless His name? Shouldn't we be thankful? Then he says, for as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. You know what that verse means? It means there's no chance our transgressions are ever gonna come back on us. You couldn't get farther away from the farthest point of the east than the farthest point of the west, it's never gonna touch.

That's how far he has removed our transgressions from us. Is God not good? Man, I love Baptists. Is God not good?

We look good. He looks gone on your face. Man, anyway, sorry. All that it was within me, bless this holy name. As a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows what we are made of remembering that we are dust. As for man, his days were like grass. He blooms like the flower of field when the wind passes over it. He vanishes in his place as no longer known.

But from eternity to eternity, the Lord's faithful love is toward those who fear him, his righteousness toward the grandchildren of those who keep his covenant. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Now that's not hard to understand. Just Christmas day, my daughter Abby calls Beth and says, Mom, I was hoping my fever would be gone, but I still have a fever from yesterday, and I don't think I'm gonna be able to make it.

And so, that's the way I'm sorry, babe, you know? But Abby says, can somebody come down and get the presents I have for the kids? And so I said, I would go down and do that, so I go down and I, you know, she got the presents sitting outside the door, because, you know, she didn't want to get me sick, and I'm like, ah, something like this works. So I knock on the door, she comes the door, she's crying.

And I'm a man. So I'm like, baby, why are you crying? Because I want to be with you. I want to be able to go. I don't want to have to stay home. And so I just take her by hand and pray with her. And of course, I pray for God to make this work, right? Why wouldn't I? I love my daughter, fall in my heart. Don't cry around me, dog on it.

So I prayed with her and she said, why don't you go back to bed? Why don't you sleep another couple hours? Why don't you see what happens? See if God won't make this work. And by the grace of God, He did. But I mean, it's not hard to have compassion for your children. It's not they're your children. I love them.

Like the better father, God has compassion on his children. His compassion when you're hurting Yeah, maybe you're struggling to figure out, man, where is God, but you need to know he hates it and hurts with you when you hurt his compassion on his children, on those who fear him. Now, that's important because if you were a bell against him, no, no, he's not got much compassion for you. You need him. He knows you need him. Don't pretend like you don't need him, but when you trust him, compassion for you.

And then he says, and I love this, adds up a little even more because he says, for he knows what we're made of remembering that we're dust. God understands he's not dealing with strong people. He's not dealing with self-reliant people. He's not dealing with people that can deal with their own problems. When we have problems and we're struggling, we're crying before the Lord. He has compassion on us because he knows we need him. Now, this is so important for us today. So many of us actually believe we're strong enough to handle our own problems. We're strong enough to handle our own lives. We're strong enough to get through things. We're strong enough. We're not. We're just dust.

And it's a reference back to God forming Adam from the dust of the earth. We're just dust. We're here as it says a little while in the next verse. We're just here like a flower of the field. It's here one day and then it's gone the next and nobody even knows where it's at. We're just temporary. We're small. We're short. We're weak. We're needy. I know we hate that message as Americans because quite honestly people are like, I am not weak. I am not needy. I can handle my own life.

No. No, you can't. No, you can't. You can't control one thing. You may have right now whatever you consider to be a big kingdom but tomorrow it can be gone.

And worse than that tomorrow you can be gone. And what then? You've handled nothing.

Just this week, man, a good dear friend of mine, Marty Rostad, some of you guys have met him. is a pastor and a faithful man, a guy that calls me and says, will you pray, Mike? My daughter has a brain bleed. I don't know if she's going to live, take her to the big hospital. As soon as they can, will you pray? So I pray for my friend Marty. He prays God his daughter is kind of okay. Their brain is stopped bleeding, but her left side of her body is not working at all. She can't move her left arm, can't move her left leg. She's a fairly young lady as a child and a husband.

Did she know she was going to get up that day and be paralyzed? No. Don't pretend that you're something you're not. Know who God is and know that He's compassionate. toward all of us because we need that.

He says, but from eternity to eternity, the Lord's faithful love is toward those who fear Him and His righteousness is toward the grandchildren of those who keep His covenant and remember to observe His precepts. From eternity to eternity, it never stops. His faithfulness never stops. His love never stops towards those who love Him. How amazing is that? How amazing is that? What a glorious God that is, never stops.

And then he finishes and I'll finish it hopefully quickly. Verse 19 says, Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

God's throne is in heaven. His kingdom is over all kingdoms. He's in control. So it says, bless the Lord, all his angels of great strength, who do his word, obedient to his command. All you angels who aren't like men who have great strength and are faithful to God, bless the Lord. and he says, bless the Lord, all his armies, his servants who do his will, again, heavenly, heavenly beings. Bless the Lord. He's made you, he's your God, bless the Lord. And then he says, bless the Lord, all his works in all the places where he rules. Where does God rule everywhere? So it doesn't matter man, beast,

Plant, bird, fish, All things to bless the Lord, he's their maker. You and I, especially if Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, we should be blessed in the Lord. We are the most blessed people alive, the most blessed people in the world. No one can take us from him, no one can snatch us out of his hand. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, our Lord, nothing. We have his constant attention where his children were sealed in his spirit. We're kept for the day of our salvation. We have blessing upon blessing upon blessing upon blessing. Why wouldn't we be blessing the Lord? And David ends this song with a reminder to himself, my soul, bless the Lord.

And we made it through this last year because God is gracious. And God is good and he is faithful. And if you're sitting there today going, I don't think so, you're wrong. He's shown his love for you over and over and over again. If you really want to know how God shows his love for us, we got to look at Jesus Christ. The Bible says, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. You really want to know if God loves you, know that Jesus went to the cross and died for your sins that you might have life and that you might be his. Man, if you haven't spent some time blessing the Lord

Lately, how about you take some time today? How about you take some time tomorrow and the day after, and the day after, and the day after. If you're going through difficult times right now, why not take some time and bless the Lord? Because you know he loves you, you know he cares about you, you know he has a plan for you and he's gonna keep you. How about blessing the Lord? And after your ears are Christian. You have zero reasons. Not to bless the Lord. I don't care what you're going through. Bless the Lord. If you're here as an unbeliever, you should bless the Lord as well. Because he's made a way of eternal life for you just like he's made a way for me.

That's in Christ. And you should tell him, thank you. And I pray that you'll turn to Christ and trust him as your Lord and Savior. And then walk with him. He's so good. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We need you. We're thankful for you. I'm thankful for your Word. I'm thankful for the Psalm. And Lord God, I

Have not always blessed you. I've certainly not always done it with the purest motives. or every ounce of my being, the Lord, you were worthy of it. So help me bless you. Bless your holy name. Help us be a church of blesses your holy name. Help us be a church that looks to you and not to ourselves, Lord God. Help us take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on you day by day. And we want to give you praise for all that you're going to do. Thanks for loving us and Jesus' name, amen.