In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the book of Psalms and its division into five sections. Each section is marked by a doxology at the end. The speaker mentions a Scottish lad who used to read Psalms and how it impacted their worship. The sermon then highlights five great benefits that God has bestowed upon us, including knowing Him personally, His forgiveness of our sins, His protection, His satisfaction, and His provision. The speaker also mentions their background as an engineer and how they approach measuring things, relating it to the measurements found in the Bible.

Before we turn to the Book of Psalms, I'd like for you please to turn to a passage in the Epistle to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, I should say, Ephesians, Chapter 5. Whenever I have a microphone like this before me, I tend to count on it, but if you don't hear me, I'll try to raise my voice a little up higher. Everybody hear me now? Thank you. So, the fifth chapter of Ephesians, in verse 18. Be not drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melodies in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this morning, I want to take a psalm which I believe fulfills the very thing that we're exhorted to do here. So we'll turn please to Psalm 103. Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and here we find the psalmist doing exactly that. So, I can notice here in Psalm 103, he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, in talking to himself, in speaking to himself in this psalm, and all that is within me, and bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, redeemeth all my diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies thy mouth, O Father, thine own age, with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the evening's. This lovely psalm divides up into four parts, and we've just read the first of these four parts. There's something about this book of the psalms which I'd like to mention before we go into meditation itself, and that is the fact that the book of the psalms is divided up into five sections, and these five sections are clearly indicated because, at the close of each one of them, we have an ontology. I know some people say that it was Dr. Spokane that made this division, because that's the only place I've ever noticed it, but the fact of the matter is that the Holy Spirit made these divisions for us. And, if you look carefully, we find at the close of Psalm 41, there's an ontology, then Psalm 72, Psalm 89, and again Psalm 106, and then, of course, the closing psalms in itself are a great ontology. And, we believe that these five books, these five sections, answer to the first five books in the Bible. In other words, this is referred to sometimes as the Pentateuchal structure of the psalms. The word Pentateuchal being taken from the name which is usually assigned to the first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch. And, in a sense, these sections resemble the first five books of the Bible. In those first 41 psalms, we get things that answer quite nicely to the book of Genesis, and certainly in the second book, that which answers to the book of Exodus. The third section, again, answers to the book of Zedekiah. The psalm that we're going to look at this morning is found in the fourth section, which answers to the book of Numbers. Now, as one reads the book of Numbers, we may painfully aware of the fact that God's people do not always praise. There seems to be a great deal of murmuring, complaining, and so on. But, here is a psalm which comes in the fourth book, and there's not one word of complaining. There's not even a word of praising. This is a psalm which is praised from the start to the end. And, this expression with which the psalm opens up, "'Bless the Lord' is simply a way of saying, "'Worship the Lord, O my soul.'" And, this tells us immediately where true worship has to come from. It has to come from the devil. Worship is not something that we make up in our brains, but it's the overflow of a heart, as it has been defined, the overflow of a heart that has no request to make. That's real worship. We're going to see the reasons for this worship here. Very briefly, we're going to call attention to at least five great reasons to make the soul sing like this, making melody in our hearts to the Lord. These are the five great benefits that he has bestowed upon us. And, actually, you'll notice that the first benefit is where we all began when we got to know him as our personal Lord and Savior, for it says here in verse three, "'Who forgiveth all thine iniquity.'" And, you'll notice that in this word, iniquity, you have perhaps the strongest word in the language for our sins. I know sometimes we fight at home in town, as though the sins which we commit were nothing more than mistakes. I remember when I was on my way to the mission field for the first time, early or late in 1911, early 1912, before the steamer arrived in Central America, and I had been witnessing on the ship, and a lady came to me, she said, "'I understand you're going to the mission field,' I said, "'Yes,' she said, "'Oh,' she said, "'I'm so interested,' I said, "'Thank you, I hope you'll pray for us,' she said, "'You know, my father was a minister,' I said, "'That's nice,' she said, "'but your father had some rather interesting definitions of biblical terms,' and I began to get suspicious. "'I wonder what this is going on here,' she said, "'You know, Father never mentioned the term sin in his sermons. "'He would always have referred to them as errors or mistakes,' "'and she said, I rather like that, it didn't hurt them.' "'Well now, let's see, if that's a good translation, "'it ought to fit in some of the text in which we find the word sin.' "'So I quoted a few of the well-known texts in the New Testament, "'but Christ dies for our mistakes,' according to the Scriptures. "'Well, it doesn't really sound quite complete,' I said, "'no, it doesn't. "'If Christ died only for my mistakes, will I help you for the rest?' "'You see, the word of God is very plain, outspoken, "'but it doesn't go any further than that issue, "'and this word iniquity is a strong word, "'but it hits the nail right on the head. "'It means out of equity. "'The things that you know are not right, "'the things that you do in spite of the fact "'that you know that they're wrong, "'that's an iniquity. "'And here the psalmist is using the strong word in the language "'when he wants to talk about God's wonderful, forgiving grace, "'and notice that he doesn't leave out anything. "'He says, who forgives all my iniquities, "'and I take it that this enables me, allows me to say, "'all my iniquities have presence.' "'Yes, and even Jesus, all. "'I thank God that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, "'He died for all of my sins, all of my iniquities. "'It's made a complete job of it. "'When he said, it is finished, "'I meant exactly what he said. "'Is there a soul in the house this morning, "'and I thought you'd forgive an old man "'for coming back again and again to this, "'but I have learned this, "'that even in the naughtiest places "'where we can almost assume that we have 100% victims, "'occasionally, like last year here in the morning meeting "'for the commandments of our Lord, "'we had someone present "'who until that moment had never yet confessed "'the Lord Jesus Christ as a person saint. "'It may be that you're here this morning, my friend, "'a child of Christian parents, "'maybe a parent yourself, "'who the Christian wife or husband of the age may be. "'I wonder if the Holy Spirit of God "'would speak to you this morning "'and ask you, have you had this blessing? "'Would you praise the Lord for this benefit, "'who forgives all my iniquities?' "'Then again, what do we mean by the word forgiving? "'What does this word mean? "'Does it simply mean that God does over-let us forget it? "'Oh no, that isn't what it means. "'The word forgiving, "'both the original languages of the scripture, "'means to take away and to put someone else. "'This is exactly what the Lord has done "'with your sins and mine. "'He laid on Him the iniquity of us all. "'Yes, that's the doctrine of substitution, "'as we sometimes say. "'He suffered what I deserve. "'This is the way God forgives. "'No wonder the psalmist first thought "'of the praise and praise. "'Bless the Lord, oh my souls, "'who forgives all my iniquities. "'Blessing number one. "'Sometimes I'm asked by well-meaning persons, "'Brother, have you had the second blessing? "'I feel like saying, have you had the first? "'Do you know what it means "'to have all your sins forgiven? "'Father, clearly, so far as God is concerned, "'the precious blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, "'slimps in from all sins.'" But now we come to benefit number two here. He says in the end of verse three, "'Who healeth all my diseases.'" Somebody says, "'Now, I go along with you on that first one, "'but I don't know that I could on this second one, "'because I know that a good many fine, "'precious people are still suffering a whole lot. "'Are you telling me, Mr. Insight, "'I know something about this from experience. "'The dear one who has gone home to glory "'from my home, "'for the last 23 years of her life, "'suffered with an incurable disease. "'The doctors said when they discovered it "'that she wouldn't live for two years, "'but she lived 23 years. "'And when I faced the doctor with it, "'he said, well, there's only one way to explain it. "'She has the will to live. "'But she suffered just the same. "'And very often the question was raised, "'Why, oh, why? "'I believe I have some personal answers "'to that question which I shall not disclose. "'I believe God was speaking to me "'through these very things. "'But does this scripture speak of that kind of disease? "'Let us see the opening of this psalm again. "'The psalmist is not addressing his body, "'he's addressing his soul. "'Bless the Lord, O my soul! "'It's the soul's iniquity to give up all time, "'and the soul's iniquity to heal it all, "'by the soul's disease. "'Oh, yes, I didn't know the soul had diseases. "'You sometimes think about them, don't you? "'There's not a friend like the Lord Jesus, "'no, not one. "'None like him could heal all our soul's diseases. "'I dare say when I mention a few of the symptoms, "'you'll recognize them. "'You know, friends, when you and I "'lose our desire to pray, "'we lose our desire to read the Word of God, "'we lose our desire to fellowship with the people of God, "'we're sick. "'There's something wrong. "'These are symptoms that we need to watch. "'And the moment we discover them, "'let's go to him of whom it is said in this psalm, "'who'll heal us all by, that is, the soul's disease. "'You see, grammatically, this is so. "'You know, you and I learned when we went to school "'that pronouns were nouns that stand for another noun, "'and so the pronoun vine stands for another noun, "'and that noun is found earlier in this psalm. "'That noun is the word soul. "'Who'll heal us all by the soul's disease. "'And I might be speaking to some here this morning "'who perhaps came to this conference up here to this school "'in just that state of soul. "'Perhaps for some time back now, "'you haven't found you had a real desire to pray, "'a real desire to read the word of God, "'a real desire to be found in your place "'the Lord's Day morning with a remembrance of the Lord. "'That's a fact, sir. "'But let the moment you discover it, "'as I said a little while ago, "'let's go right to him who can heal all our soul's disease. "'Let's get down in his holy presence. "'I'm so glad that I was brought up "'in a home where Saturday night was still observed "'as part of the preparatory time for the Lord's Day. "'In fact, my dear father, it was so strict "'that no shoes were shined Sunday morning. "'That had to be done Saturday night "'so that when you put your shined shoes on "'before the meeting on Sunday morning, "'there was no work to be done there. "'Nothing unnecessary was done on the Lord's Day. "'And that wasn't because my father was a legalist. "'He wasn't. "'But he observed rigidly the Lord's Day. "'We were brought up to it. "'That was a sort of a preparatory search. "'And then, in my early boyhood days, "'observing the way the Lord's Father was served "'and observed it in the communion "'where I was attending at that time, "'as a boy, perhaps two years earlier, "'they had a preparatory service. "'Getting ready for this service on the Lord's Day. "'It's a wonderful thing. "'I would suggest it to you, my dear friend, "'if you have not done so, "'to sit aside sometime Saturday evening "'to really get ready for the return to the Lord "'on the Lord's Day morning. "'I found this a wonderful thing. "'It enables one to get things cleared out of his life "'and memory and his conscience "'on this Saturday night to come to the mind "'that is perfectly clean "'to commune with the Lord and with his people "'on the Lord's Day morning. "'Yes, he heals all our souls to do.'" We learned in Psalm 107 how he does this. Just keep your bookmark here in Psalm 103 and turn over for a moment to Psalm 107. And here you will see how he does this. He says here in verse 20, Psalm 107, verse 20, he sent his word and he heals them. This is the way of the Lord. This is his medicine for healing us. And so we find that not only do we come into the presence of the Lord to confess, to own up to all of these things which have disturbed our communion, but to read his word, because this is the medicine that heals me and prepares me for the next day. So coming back now to Psalm 103, let's look at benefit number three. We find this in verse four, who redeems us by life from destruction. Just before the meeting this morning, Father Phillips and I were having a little bit of a conversation over here. I referred to a young Scottish lad who we had at the seminary in Dallas when I was a teacher there years ago. Dr. Chaser, who founded the seminary, would get some of us together largely morning at seven o'clock for the remembrance of the Lord. Father Ryan and I had a wonderful influence in those early days, and as a result we were using a little hymn book called The Little Flop Hymn Book, and we had no musical influence. Dr. Chaser was a good musician. He always, as we say here in the Southland, he hoisted the tune and we all sang a cappella. Occasionally this Scottish lad would get up and in his baroque he would say, Reverend, let me read you the Father's praise. And he'd read us a paraphrase and songs, and they were wonderful. Well, I want to give you a homemade paraphrase of this great and dear verse four. Instead of reading, who redeems us by life from destruction, let's look this way. Who saves your life from going to waste. You know, a lot of people whose souls are saved and whose lives are lost. Although I've stood by so many bedsides, I suppose I've seen more people die than most of you. Because for ten years I was honorary captain of the Spanish Herry in the city of Albuquerque in New Mexico, and it seemed scarcely a week and sometimes more than once a week we were called to sit by the bedsides of those who were passing from this life into the next. It's interesting to hear some of the things they said in those last moments. And I can't tell you how many of them said something like this, oh brother, if I only had a city over there. How I wish now I had lived in the kind of life that I would like to live right now. Dream. Don't let that be your experience. You don't have to come to the end of life like that. You can come to the end of life like a hospital kid when you say, I have had it good. I've finished my goal. I've kept the faith. Yes, you were sure of it. And you can be just as sure of it. But let me just point out to you that this requires some surrender on your part. Who redeems thy life? He buys it back and saves it from going to waste. And he tells you, I mean, the epistle of Romans, how it is done. In the twelfth chapter of Romans we read, and how sweetly the apostle puts it, he doesn't say, I command you, he doesn't say, he says, I beseech you by the mercies or the compassions of God that you present your body. Present your body in acceptable sacrifice, a holy sacrifice, to the Lord. Your body, which is your intelligent or reasonable servant. God wants you to do that. This is something which you do in addition to putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You just surrender this to him. I remember when that verse first struck me, I went to a young fellow who was baptized the same night I was, received into fellowship the same day I was received into fellowship. And I said to him, Sam, I said, have you ever read Romans 12 and 1? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies in a sacrificed, holy, acceptable, under God, which is your reasonable or intelligent servant. He said, I've read it a lot of times. I said, have you ever done it? He said, no, I don't think I have. I said, do you know how it's done? No, he said, I don't think I do. I went to another fellow who likewise was baptized in that same group that night. I said, Archie, have you ever read Romans 12 and 1? I said, have you ever done it? No, he said, I don't think I have. I said, do you know how it's done? No, he said, I don't think I do. I said, you're no brother. So, I went to his father, dear old brother Archie Baldwin Calvin. I said, listen Calvin, I've been reading in Romans 12, 1 and 2, and I'm going to present my father, a sackcloth, to the Lord. I said, did he tell me how this is done? Then he said, I don't know that there's any particular way in which it is done, but I think I know any way in which it is done. I was all ears listening. He said, I would suggest to you that you go to your room with your Bible, close the door, lock it if necessary, so you can change the subject. Open your Bible to that verse, turn on the image, put your finger on it, and say to the Lord, Lord Jesus, I'd like to be healed. I was a teenager, 17, and I had been saved for two years. And I thought, my, this is simple. And I did it exactly as Mr. Calvin told me. But you know what? When I put my finger on that text and said to the Lord, Lord, I'd like to do this, cold sweat came out of me. But I began to realize that in the presentation of my body, this meant my brain. That with which I think, and sometimes think things that I wish I could forget. These eyes with which I looked at things which I wish I had never seen. These ears that took in things which I wish I'd never heard. This tongue which says things which I wish I'd never said. These hands which do things that I wish I'd never done. And these feet that took me to places I wish I'd never gone. Oh, the cold sweat came out on me as I went into this transaction with the Lord. And all the stupid matters. But I realized this was a crucial time in my life. And now I ask the Lord that I might be able to carry this through, realizing that in my own strength I'd never be able to do it. Oh, how wonderful to have the privilege of presenting this body as sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or intelligent service. My dear friends, many years have passed since then. More than sixty years have passed since that wonderful transaction that day in my little room. I have never regretted it. I've had many times to confess that I haven't regretted it. But I've never regretted it. Oh, who could regret giving to him who gave himself up to give to him his spirit, soul, and body? Who redeemed my life from destruction and who saved it from going to waste? My dear friends, it is my earnest hope that the Lord carries through me. I have to transfer the article of death, as so many of my go-bears have, that I too will be able to say to the Apostle Paul, I apologize, I finish him for this. Oh, let's come to a triumphant end. And then this brings us to blessing number four, which we have right here in this fourth verse, the latter part of the verse, who crown him with faith, with loving kindness and tender mercy. And notice how all of these verse are in the present tense. Who forgive us, present tense. Heal us, present tense. Redeem us, present tense. Crown us, present tense. This isn't something that waits till you get over yonder. This is something you wear now. A kind of a crown that doesn't weigh heavy on your head. A crown of tender mercy. Look at that, isn't it lovely? Loving kindness and tender mercy. Say, well, I don't know that I've ever seen anybody wear a crown like that. Well, maybe I dare to use my beloved mother as an example here. Mother was a mother of ten children. Prostitute. Not able to afford servants in the home. A lot of work to be done. Dressed to be faithful. Sewed to be washed, ironed, amended, and all the chores of it. Yet, trying to help the neighbors. One day, news came to us that a little one was expected next door and that Dr. Cuddy had broken down with another plea from us. We see Mother gathering a few things together in a bag and going over there and helping to bring this little one into the world. As she came back, my dear brother Henry, up to whom I made records last night, we were watching her as she came back from this home and having performed this errand of mercy, Henry said to me, Carl, isn't Mom a queen? And she was. She was a queen wearing a crown as we have described here, loving, kind, and tender. And she told us to wear a crown like that. This kind of a crown, as I said before, doesn't weigh heavy on me. I've never had a headache from wearing this. And I'll tell you, this figure, you wouldn't get a swell day from wearing this one. This is the kind of a crown which I pray God may adorn the heads of most of us, if not all of us. And then this brings me to the final thing here. And that is satisfaction, verse 5. This seems to be the climax of this section here, who's satisfied. And you notice that I altered the reading to conform to other translations. Mr. Darby tells us in his footnotes that it could be either old age, or mouth, or even another translation. But one of those words is very versatile in the original. So we're going to use the old age this morning to crown it, to satisfy it by an old age, we could say. You know, when I was a boy, I heard this statement that the devil has no happy old men. And I've been looking at old men ever since. And I know that statement is absolutely true. The devil has no happy old men. But the Lord does. It's a wonderful thing to grow old in the grace of God, and to have a joy which increases with the days. Friends, if there's one text I love in the Bible, it's the one which says in Philippians 4, Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice. The joy of the Lord is a strength. This is the way we give evidence that what he needs for us, that he really satisfies us, really does. Satisfied to the point where the things of time and sense have little or no appeal, we don't need them. I've been asked very frequently, why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? Remember we moved into a home some years ago in Dallas, and a neighbor lady came over. The moving men were moving stuff in. I said to my wife, she said, y'all don't have your stove set up? Come on over to my house. Get your lunch ready. In fact, she said, I've got stuff in the refrigerator. Please come on in. We use stuff in the hospitality. You know what I mean? And so we accepted it, and went in. I noticed after a while she got into a conversation with Mrs. Arnolding, and she said, did y'all stay there? I said, yes. Mrs. Arnolding said, no. Did y'all cook the dinner? Mrs. Arnolding said, no. Did y'all play cards? Mrs. Arnolding said, no. Did you play golf? No. Well, y'all do have a good time. And then my wife had to tell us that we found out a story, and it isn't great. She said, you know, we go down a little meeting down here on Fifth Street Avenue, where a group of Christians meet to remember the Lord and the Lord's Remembrance, where they meet for the preaching of the gospel Sunday night, and where they meet for prayer and Bible study. Mrs. Arnolding said, you need to tell me, did you get played on then? My wife, I was listening to the conversation, she said, not only did I play golf, but she said, it was a real pleasure. A real pleasure. Oh, the satisfaction of being with the Lord's people and enjoying the Lord. Well, now, we're going to take a minute or two more this morning, I hope to time it up. I would like to apply a few measurements to this, and these measurements I've given us right in this time itself. I was trained to be an engineer. I wasn't trained to be a preacher. My profession was to do mechanical engineering, and so I'm still in the habit of making measurements. I come into a room like this, and I wonder how wide it is, and how long it is, and how high the ceiling is, and whether this beam above me is going to break down on me. Take some measurements. Now, we've got some measurements right here in this time. Look at verse 10. He has not dealt with this after or according to our sins, nor have wrought reward as a supporting for our iniquities, for as the heaven is high above the earth. There's a measurement for you. How high is that? Our astronauts have been going up. Yes, they've been going up into the, beyond the stratosphere, way up there, they've been going, but they still haven't reached the earth. As high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them, the criminals. What a measurement that is. There's only one word that fits this, and what is it? It's the word infinity. As high as the heaven is above the earth. I remember when they were planning that big telescope at Palomar, and my student Dave, and I remember saying to my professor of chemistry, I said, Dr. Clark, I said, what do you think they'll discover when they get that big telescope in place down at Palomar? He looked at me with a merry smile in his eyes. He said, they'll discover how little they know. How high is it? Nobody can tell. This is infinite. There's only another measurement given us in verse 12. For as far as the east is from the west, so far have we removed our transgression from it. How far is that? Well, you say, that can be measured. Can it? If it is from north to south, you might be right, because there is a place in this old globe where you couldn't go any further north, and there's a place in this old globe where you couldn't go any further south. But if you're traveling from east to west, or west to east, you can keep on going even though you reach the same point, you still go on. Again, it's infinite, isn't it? And here we have two lines of measurement. One is perpendicular, the other is horizontal, and you put the two of them together, and what do you have? You have a cross. This is the measurement of all these blessings we've been talking about. This is the measure. Measured by that darkness. Measured by those sufferings that he endured from that cross. Oh, how deep God's love must be. Then one more measurement, and this is found in the 17th verse, it's the time measurement. You know, the philosophers are very fond of talking about the space-time continuum. But here's the time measurement in verse 17, and mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. So you see, so wherever you apply these measurements, you have them in infinity. There they are. And whom do we find only? We find only one blessed person in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our Lord Jesus Christ. So, beloved friends, I thought that having looked again at this wonderful inventory of blessings, of Genesis, that we should go away from this conference not any richer than we came, but more aware of the riches which are ours in Christ Jesus. Although he was rich, and for our sakes he became poor, that we, with his poverty, might be rich. I'm satisfied that Frank Crosby must have been thinking about this Psalm, and she wrote this lovely hymn number six in our hymnal. And she said, Praise him, praise him, Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, his wonderful love proclaim. Hail him, hail him, heart of high gardens and glory. Strength and honor give to his holy name.