Sunday 07 • 15 • 18

This morning's scripture is Psalm 103.

Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and 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 his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, oh you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the lord, oh my soul. — Psalm 103

Thank you, Lee. Well, good morning everyone. For those of you who do not know me, I'm David Spickard. My family and I are long time members of Christ the King, and I've been an elder for a long time as well. It's great to be with you guys. I was encouraged in light of worship to preach this morning in Spanish, but I don't know Spanish. I wish I could, because as we sing like that in worship, even if you don't know what you're singing, the way the words capture our heart is just incredible. It's a real honor for us.

Those of us who are preaching in the summer get to walk through the book of Psalms, and it's because we get the opportunity to give Jeff Bradford, our pastor, a break as he and his family are enjoying their sabbatical. But it's also just an incredible honor and privilege because of the book of Psalms and how we're looking at Jesus through the book of Psalms. In this book, this chapter, Psalm 103 is just amazing. So I'm really excited to preach this morning.

Please join me as we pray and ask God for his presence. Jesus, we praise you and we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that you are here with us and that you are the object of our worship. We ask, Father, that you would speak to us in ways that would draw us deeper in love with you and deeper in love with one another. Amen.

Four years ago, half the world's population stopped what they were doing. Do you have any idea what they were doing? Four years ago to this day almost. Who said it? World Cup? Yes. It was the World Cup. They were watching the World Cup final between Germany and Argentina. Three billion, two hundred million people—almost half of the world's population—watched the World Cup final. It was the most people that have ever watched a live event on television.

Now, I told the 9:00 service—you guys came to the 9:00 service—you probably believe you're the half of the world that's going home today at 11:00 right now and watch the World Cup final between France and Croatia. So if you're here today at eleven, you're probably the half of the world's population that didn't know what's going on, didn't have any idea. Or you're like me—you might be taping it and hope nobody tells you the score, and you're going to go watch it this afternoon.

I'm not somebody who played soccer. I played a lot of sports, but I just did not get soccer. Not a whole lot of scoring, didn't seem that exciting. When you watch the game, it was like watching paint dry. But as our kids—we have four children and they all played soccer—as I watched them play, I began to understand and appreciate just the art and the skill of the game. I realized that every single thing that happens in a soccer game matters, and that's why you have to watch the whole thing. Because if there's a touch here, a pass there, a foul, a penalty, a corner kick—all of it matters. All of it leads up to the moment, the crescendo, when finally there's a goal scored. And there's an absolute wild celebration. And if you watch the World Cup, any of it over the last month, you've seen some incredible goals and some crazy celebrations.

In fact, if you watch the Mexico game against Germany, when Mexico scored their game winning goal, do you know what happened? People in Mexico City who were watching it on the screen jumped up so much when that goal was scored that earthquake detectors could feel their jumping, and they created an artificial earthquake.

Now, when my son scored a game winning goal in the state playoffs, he ran around like an airplane when the goal went in. And he did a front flip. I didn't even know he could do that, before he got mobbed by his teammates.

These moments of absolute celebration where you just can't contain yourself—have you ever been that excited? Can you think of a time where you've been that excited, where you're just undone? You just can't believe what's happening. You got the job. You scored. You graduated. You accomplished your goal. You reached your destination. You won the game or your team won the game.

Well, that was me in 1993 when I ran with reckless abandon from Carmichael Auditorium to Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. Sorry, State fans. When UNC won against Michigan for the National Basketball Championship, I was so caught up. All my inmost being. Everything in me was caught up in the joy and the wonder of what had just happened.

Now, that's what David is trying to do in Psalm 103. He's trying to capture that moment—this sense of pure, spontaneous, uninhibited joy that comes when all of who we are, all our inmost being, is led to worship. David knows that the object of his worship, the God of Moses, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, is worthy of that response.

And yet, when he begins Psalm 103, he's not feeling it. He's flat. He feels distant from God. He feels even depressed. He wants to know God more fully because he feels God is so far away, and so he writes this Psalm.

Now, imagine most, if not all of us, can relate to that. Not only this morning but maybe all the time. We come to worship on Sunday or go about our days and we know in our minds we should live our lives worshiping and praising God, but our heart's not in it. We're just not feeling it. We're flat. We feel distant. We almost feel like God is out for us. And many times, we wonder if our faith is even real.

In this Psalm, David gives us a picture of what it looks like to worship God with all of who you are, even when you feel flat, distant, bored, and even depressed. And if you're here and you have questions about God and faith is just sort of new to you, I want to give you and I want to encourage you to see the picture that David paints of who this God is and what he's done for you, so that you might be someone who blesses him with all of your heart, all of your inmost being.

The Three Big Ideas

So if you're taking notes, we're going to walk through Psalm 103 with three big ideas. First is the call to bless. Second is the reason to bless, and third is the way to bless.

The Call to Bless

Psalm 103 is an intentional effort by David to write something that will engage his heart. It's an ode. So if you're an English major, an English teacher, you know what an ode is. It is the most exalted kind of lyric poem. It has 22 verses—Psalm 103 does—and that mimics the length of the Hebrew alphabet. So what's David doing? He's creating a piece of art. And that's what we do when we try to connect to our soul. Art can connect to our soul, and he's using it to urge his soul to do what it most desperately needs, and that is to bless God.

And so when he opens the Psalm by saying, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, bless his holy name," what he's essentially doing is saying, come on soul. Wake up. If you've had the honor and the privilege of getting to wake up teenagers for school, you know how hard this is. Wake up. It's time to go. We're going to be late. He's saying, David, all of who you are—your body, mind, soul, and spirit—needs to wake up and pay attention.

He's doing this because he's afraid that his soul would not match his lips. He doesn't want to just talk about God and not believe God in his heart. I think, too, that's something we can relate to. We might talk about God, talk about faith all the time, but do we really believe it in our heart? And David doesn't want to be a hypocrite.

And this foreshadows what Jesus said to the Pharisees, the teachers of the law in Matthew chapter 15.

This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. — Matthew 15:8

That's why David is so afraid. He does not want this to be true about him. And I'm sure many of us don't want that to be true about us.

So for us to be people who bless God, it's important to understand our soul and the way our soul connects to God. Have you ever spent time thinking about your soul? What's inside of you to make you who you are? What does God say about your soul?

Well, first, he created your soul and it's eternal. It will never die. Your soul animates your body.

Your soul gives your body life. Your soul can live without your body, but your body cannot live without your soul. Therefore, your soul is the very heartbeat of who you are. It is the place where you are most known.

When I think of the word "soul," I naturally go to soul food and soul music. When you think about those terms, they are actually created to capture the identity of a people group. Soul food became popular in the sixties when millions of African Americans moved from southern cities to northern cities and found within soul food a reminder of the home and family they left behind. Soul music has the same characteristic. When you think about soul music and how it captures your heart, it elevates the experience and pride of being black in America both in its history and in the future.

When Alicia Keys was asked about soul music, she said, "Soul music is timeless."

Many of us hope to find our soulmate, right? We want someone who really knows us—not just knows us, but knows deep down to the marrow, the bone marrow of our soul. We feel like we're known and we can be all of who we are with them.

Our souls have appetites, and deep down in everyone's heart is a cry for something. Often times, they don't know quite what that is. But ultimately, we know that every soul longs for God. David knew this. In Psalm 42, which we went through a few weeks ago, David says:

My soul thirsts for God. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall praise him. — Psalm 42

Scott Sauls, who's a pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, says: "Trying to fill the human soul with anything but God is like a starving man trying to satisfy his hunger with a single grain of rice."

So, what are we trying to satisfy our souls with? Our jobs—we need a little bit more money. Entertainment. Our friends. Fortnite. Maybe even drugs, alcohol. Our marriages. Instagram likes. Our children. Trying to find a spouse or soulmate. All of the things we look for to anesthetize our pain and our loneliness. If it's anything but God, no wonder we feel so hungry and empty.

Jesus said that your soul is worth more than the whole world put together. He said:

What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? — Matthew 16:26

It is worth fighting for. Your soul—each one of you—your soul is worth fighting for. And that's why Jesus came, because he died for your soul so you could live with him forever. David knew this. He knew all of this about his soul. That's why he said, "Wake up, soul. I need you to wake up. Pay attention." And so should we.

Why We Bless God

But why should we wake up our soul? What are the reasons to bless God? The scriptures right there in your worship guide—verses three through nineteen are probably the most gospel-centered verses in all of the Psalms. David is writing this thousands of years before Christ, but he is capturing every aspect of God reflected through his Son, Jesus.

There are two big reasons why we bless God with all of who we are. First, because of who he is. And second, because of what he's done for his people.

Much of what we read in these verses is captured when God appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments. Matt Hornack went through this passage last week. It's Exodus 34, verses six and seven. Let me read it for you. You'll find it's really familiar to Psalm 103.

The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin." — Exodus 34:5-7

Picture that. Moses on the top of Mount Sinai and God has appeared. In this passage, as God reveals himself to Moses, he is telling Moses who he is and letting him know his name by using words like gracious, mercy, abounding in steadfast love, and faithfulness. It's like he's saying, "Hey, Moses, I'm mercy. Hey, what's up? My name is gracious. I am steadfast love and faithfulness." These qualities are the very essence of who I am. In effect, God is revealing to Moses his soul. This is at the core of who God is.

So in Psalm 103, David not only names these qualities but he's telling himself—preaching to himself—how God has embodied these qualities with him. If you look at verses three through five, he's saying: David, he forgives your iniquity, all of it. Now, David was someone who needed to be forgiven. He was an adulterer and a murderer. But he was not too far from God's forgiveness. He's saying, David, he heals all your diseases.

He redeems your life from the pit. Your soul is guaranteed to live eternally with him. He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Love that will never end. He satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. I promise to provide for you and give you strength for all your days.

Now, David was preaching to himself but there's good news. We can do the same thing. If your faith is in Christ, these benefits are available to you. You can say to yourself, God forgives you no matter what you've done. God can heal you. He has the power to heal you. He saves you and wants you to be with him forever. His love for you never ends. He satisfies your every need and he gives you the strength you need for all your days.

Can you speak to yourself in that way? Do you? Do you speak to yourself in that way? When you're down, when you feel distant, I want to encourage you to walk through verses three through five from Psalm 103 and remind yourself of the benefits that God has given you.

Now, God doesn't just give those benefits to us as individuals. He gives them to us as a whole, as a body, his church and that's the rest of the Psalm. In verses six through 19, we see God giving his benefits to his church and David recounts the ways that he has shown these qualities to his people, Israel and again, you and I together receive these benefits.

So as we walk through this, in verse six and seven, he's made himself known to us as the one who works justice and righteousness for all who are oppressed. In verses eight and nine, we see that we experience his mercy, his grace, his patience. He's not angry with us and his love. In ten and twelve, we see again that he forgives us. In eleven and seventeen, we see his love, his steadfast love. In verse 13, compassion as a father gives compassion to his children. And then 15 and following, he saves us.

He knows our days are like grass. The wind passes over it, and we will be no more. We all will die. But his steadfast love through Jesus saves us and allows us to live forever with him and be a part of his kingdom that rules and reigns over all.

There should be no greater unity than the unity we share for those of us who have our faith in Jesus because we are all beneficiaries of God's divine benefits and all of it is summed up in one word and that word is Hesed. H-e-s-e-d. God's Hesed love for you.

The Hesed Love of God

The Hebrew word Hesed is one of the most significant Old Testament descriptions of how God relates to his people. And wherever you see the word steadfast love in this Psalm—and it's in there four different times, in verses four, eight, eleven, and seventeen—David is referring to the Hesed love of God.

We cannot comprehend this. God loves us genuinely and loyally. He loves us regardless of how you and I respond to him. His love is not dependent upon us. His Hesed love never ends and his scope is beyond our comprehension.

So, in verse 11, we get a picture of this. As David says:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is God's Hesed love, his steadfast love toward those who fear him. — Psalm 103:11

So, if you and I were to go out on a dark night and it was a starry night, and we look as far as we can. Do you know how far we can see? We can see as far as the galaxy of Andromeda. Do you have any idea how far Andromeda is? 2,000,000 light years away. So, if you traveled for two million years at the speed of light, you would reach the galaxy of Andromeda.

But what if you were to travel to the end of the known universe? Do you know how far that is? 14,000,000,000 light years. So I love this picture of what David is saying about God's Hesed love for you. You'd have to travel 14,000,000,000 light years in order to get to the edge of the universe as high as the heavens are above the earth. That's how much God loves each of you. We can't comprehend it.

That's why Paul says in Ephesians 3 that you would know the height and the depth and the width and the breadth of the love of God for you in Christ Jesus and Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's Hesed love for us.

By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us. — 1 John 3:16

So, because of who he is and what he's done for his people, we have every reason to bless God.

How to Bless God

So then finally, what's the way to bless God? How do we bless God with all of who we are particularly when we are just not feeling it? David tells us just with one word and that's remember. He uses only one verb in the entire Psalm that directs us. It's in verse two: Do not forget.

He doesn't say try harder. He doesn't say be more committed. He simply says, do not forget. See, David knew that the path to blessing the Lord, oh my soul, was centered on his simply remembering the many ways God had demonstrated who he is and what he has done for him and his people.

Like Leo, David was prone to forget. In order to capture his spirit—to remember the evidence of God's hesed love—he recounted it all in this Psalm. I want to encourage you to find a way to consistently capture what God has done for you.

In fact, I want to ask you to take out your phones. This is okay. It's okay to take out your phones in church. Open up your notes app if you have it. And if you don't do this, it's okay. If you want to do this on your phone later, take out your notes app and type with me a new note. At the top, simply type "What God has done for me / us." Hit done and save. Every time you see God do something, think about taking your phone out and just writing it down. Over time, you'd have a long list of the ways that God has demonstrated His blessing to you.

I do this another way with our family. About ten years ago, when we stopped taking all video of our kids and they were starting to grow up, I wanted a way to capture some of who they are and what they're about. Every time in our family someone says something funny, just hysterical, I write it down. I have these quotes, and our kids Alice will look at me and say, "See Dad pulling his phone out and he writes it down." They get mad at me. But after ten years, I have over 300 quotes of our kids saying hilarious things, and Alice and me and what we say. It's funny because we love remembering that, and we can remember many of the scenarios that caused that quote to happen. We actually put it in our Christmas card. Every year, we're sending out quotes to our friends and our family that happened the past year, and we always get feedback. They love hearing these quotes because they're so funny.

As I was praying, preparing for the sermon, I was like, "And you don't do that for what God has done for you? Really?" I don't miss a moment when my kids say something funny or when Alice says something. But what would it look like if I did the same thing when I saw God demonstrate His benefits to me? In ten years, I'd have 300 things on my notes of what God has done.

David was flat at the very beginning. He was distant from God, and he spent 16 verses recounting simply who God is and what He's done for him. He just remembered. The good news is we don't have to be faithful in remembering. God is clear that He remembers His covenant with His people. But as we remember what God has done for us, our souls would be lifted up.

Celebrating God's Goodness

When David did this, it was an all-out celebration. We see this in Second Samuel 6, where David shows us a picture of a pure, spontaneous, uninhibited response to the presence and goodness of God. The ark of the covenant was being brought into Jerusalem, and the ark of the covenant represented God's very presence. Because David was so overwhelmed with standing right beside it, the scripture says David danced before the Lord with all of his might. He danced so demonstratively that his wife, Michal, was upset. She was embarrassed. The scripture says that she despised him because he was leaping and dancing before the Lord.

When she confronted him about why the king, the one who should keep himself together, danced so wildly before the Lord, David said to Michal:

It was before the Lord who chose me above your father and above all his house to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord. And I will celebrate before the Lord.

David was so consumed with who God is and the benefits he had received and experienced from the Lord that he could not contain himself. When I picture that, I think about us. I think about me. What does it look like for me to have a pure, spontaneous, uninhibited reaction of worship here on a Sunday morning, or as I'm living my daily life and beginning to recognize God's goodness to me and His benefits? Could I not care about what people think of me, but be so captured by God's goodness that I dance wildly before the Lord? Could you?

We would not only be people who celebrate ourselves, but we would call everyone and everything around us to praise God. And that's what David does at the end of this Psalm. He is so captured by God's goodness that he calls everything in creation to praise God. This is the scoring of the goal. This is the wild celebration. He ends the song by calling all of creation to bless the Lord:

Bless the Lord, O you His angels. Bless the Lord, all His hosts and His ministers. Bless the Lord, all His works, all of creation.

Bless the Lord. You see, when we awaken our souls to remember who God is and what he has done for us, we will respond with pure, spontaneous, uninhibited joy and jubilation with no care in the world, calling everyone around us and all of creation, even those in the heavenly realms to bless his name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. — Psalm 103

Amen.