In this sermon, the speaker divides the chapter into three sections. The first section focuses on an individual praising God for his mercy. The second section highlights the nation praising God, and the third section shows the whole universe praising him. The speaker shares a personal story of a man who was severely injured by a drunk driver and questioned why it happened. The sermon emphasizes that even in trials and oppression, God is like a king who protects his people and executes righteousness and judgment. The praise expands from the individual to others, and the word of God gives strength to overcome difficulties and bring us closer to the Lord.

Shall we turn again, please, to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, please. I think we'll read some of the opening verses once more. Psalm 103. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercy, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, he is slow to anger, he is plenteous in mercy, and he will not always chide or rebuke, neither will he keep his anger forever. And he hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. But as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like the father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass as the flower of the field, so he flourishes. The wind passeth over it, and it is gone. The place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heaven, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, arching unto the voice of his word. And bless the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works, and all places of his dominion, and bless the Lord, O my soul. Let's just report a prayer once more, please. Our Father, we thank thee for thy word once again. We thank thee for the challenge and the encouragement we receive as we look into the word of God, and we pray this evening as we meditate together. The Holy Spirit will direct our thoughts, our attention to those things that we have need of, that we might have receptive ears, we might have understanding hearts. We might not only hear thy word, but be doers of it. Lord, make us a thankful people. Help us to understand and appreciate more all that thou hast done for us, and may we respond in like manner to all that thou hast bestowed upon us. We pray these things in our Savior's precious name. Amen. Mr. G. Campbell Morgan made some reference to this particular psalm on one occasion, and he wrote these words about the psalm. He said, This is the most perfect psalm of pure praise in the Bible, sung by glad hearts down through the centuries, and remaining still as fresh and full of beauty as ever. Indeed, it is a psalm of praise. Remember, the choir of the season was reminding us that singing we go along life's road, praising the Lord. I hope that is true of us as we go along life's road, and praising him from our heart, bringing honor and glory to his name. The sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips. Have you noticed, as you've read through this psalm, and I'm sure you've read through it a number of times, most of you, have you noticed that the Lord Jehovah is very prominent here? In fact, if you were to circle every time the Lord is mentioned, that is, the Lord Jehovah, you would find that eleven times in the psalm he is brought before us. The Lord, bless the Lord, O my soul, right to the end, bless the Lord, O my soul. The heart is occupied with the Lord, and of course that is where praise comes, is it not? Occupation with himself. Another thing to keep in mind in relation to this idea of praise, praise and mercy are linked constantly together, all the way through the scripture. In fact, perhaps you'll recall that the psalm that apparently is the central verse, or the central chapter of the Bible, is Psalm 117. And the interesting thing, when you go to Psalm 117, that it is linked with praise and mercy as well. Right in the center of the word of God that is emphasized. It's a very, very short psalm, you recall, and it begins by saying, O praise the Lord, all ye nations, praise him, all ye people, for his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endureth forever, praise ye the Lord. That is the very theme of Psalm 103. And there it is, tucked right in, in the midst and the center of the word of God. It's interesting also to notice, and we didn't point this out this morning, that this psalm is very closely linked with Psalm 102. In fact, you will find, as you go through the psalms, that they come in groups, and often the psalm prior to the one that you're reading has some lesson that helps you to understand the psalm that you're entering into. And that seems to be true here, because when you go to Psalm 102, you have tribulation. You have the cry of the heart in trouble. Whereas when you come to Psalm 103, you have the praise of the one who's trusting in the Lord. If you go back to Psalm 102, you notice it says in verse 1, Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee. Verse 2, I'm in trouble. Verse 3, my days are consumed, my bones are burned on the heart. Verse 4, my heart is smitten. Verse 5, the voice of my groaning. In verse 6, he's in the wilderness and in the desert. In verse 7, he's alone. In verse 8, he is bearing reproach. In verse 9, he's eaten ashes, and he's weeping. There's indignation and wrath, and he's cast down. In verse 10, I am withered like grass. In verse 11, you go on to verse 20, To hear the groaning of the prisoner to loose those that are appointed to death. And the whole psalm is centered around groaning, trials, difficulty, and the cry is going up to the Lord. Now, David went through all those experiences. No doubt while he was composing this psalm, he was in the midst of such experiences as that. And yet his heart was overflowing with praise and thanksgiving to his God. It's interesting, is it not, to remind our hearts that the lack of thanksgiving seems to be at the core of so many difficulties. If you go over to Romans chapter 1, you will find that the people in the early days of humanity, they would glorify God, not his God. They came vain in their imagination and were unthankful. They were unthankful. You go on into the last days of the professing church history, and you go on to 1 Timothy chapter 3, and you read there one of the marks of the professing church in the last days is unthankful. So we're trying to zero in on this thought this evening of thankfulness and praise. The mercies of the Lord and of people who are thankful and praising for those mercies. You recall that praise in the New Testament is very strong. You remember in Luke's gospel, for example, you have the angels coming at the Savior's birth, and were told there and they were praising God. Shepherds heard them, they went off to the manger. Having left the manger, seeing the Savior, they went forth praising God. Later on, at the end of Luke's gospel, chapter 24, you recall the Savior rose from the dead. He ascends up on the Mount of Olives, he gathers disciples around him, and he ascends to glory, and they go forth back to Jerusalem praising God. Beginning with praise and ending with praise, you go on to the book of Acts, chapter 2, and the early church is gathered together, and what are they doing? They continue daily praising God. So you have the angels praising God, you have the shepherds praising God, you have the disciples praising God, then you have the church of God praising Him, and when you come to the book of Revelation, chapter 5, you find that all the redeemed are praising God. There's just a buildup all the way through the word of God, and we noticed this morning there was a buildup of praise in this particular chapter. We divided the chapter into three simple sections. You remember the individual praising God for His mercy, verse 1 to 5, which leads to the many people praising God, or the fact that we have the nations basically praising God, and then finally in the latter part, we see the whole universe praising Him. Let's go on, shall we, and notice what we have here, and where we left off this morning. We close at the end of verse 4. Isn't it interesting to notice the development here? Notice it carefully. Verse 2 or verse 3 says, First of all, he gives thanks, he praises the Lord for the fact that he's forgiven. Then the next thing he praises the Lord for is that he is healed. Not only is he forgiven, but he's healed. In other words, as the good Samaritan went to the one who was bruised and half-dead and poured in the oil and wine, and then took care of him, so the Lord not only forgives us, He heals us. So that we are fit, by His grace, to be useful for Him. So having been healed, he goes on to speak about who redeems thy life from destruction, and that suggests restoration. Not only healed and fitted, but now he's restored into a place of usefulness. And then we have being supplied, because we're told here, who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. And so he begins to supply it. You remember. I'm sure you do. At the moment you were born again, the Holy Spirit of God came into your life. After that you believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of God. How delightful. And so how he provides the Holy Spirit of God for you. The Word of God becomes a new book for you. And you sense that the crowning of His grace and of His mercies and of His love begins to multiply day after day after day. Not only temporal blessings, but you start to enter into the understanding of some of those spiritual blessings of which we are blessed in Christ. And then the fifth thing that he mentions here is to satisfy thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. Now the word thy mouth, if you have another translation there, you'll find that translators seem to have a difficulty deciding what to put there. And there are all sorts of little words that are put in. Most of them seem to put in the idea, satisfy thy desire with good things. Some say thy body, and some say other things. But desire seems possibly the idea, whether it's the mouth. It certainly, he satisfies the soul, he satisfies the desires of the heart. But notice this, it says, he satisfies thy mouth with good things. And to me, when I think upon that verse, and I think of my own experience and the experience of others, I'm reminded of this, that when one is brought into salvation, into the blessings of that salvation, you find that the word of God is something that begins to satisfy. He begins to unfold the scriptures to you. The word becomes the milk to grow. The word becomes the honey, sweet to your taste. The word becomes the meat to give you strength. And you begin to feed upon the word. I remember many years ago in Newfoundland, a certain man who came to know the Lord, and without going into details as to the interesting story surrounding his salvation, one of the unique things about him was this, that he had been for three or four years reading through the scriptures. He never went to bed at night without reading four, five, six, seven, sometimes ten chapters from the Bible, and he'd been doing that for three or four years. He'd gone through the Bible a number of times, and yet not born again. The night that he put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, again he turned to the scriptures. And I remember him coming to me just three or four days afterward with such surprise on his face, really, and excitement as well, saying, I've been reading the scriptures. I've been reading it over and over. He said, for years. He said, it's not until three nights ago I began to understand it. Oh, what a difference. It's beginning to open up to me. You see, you shall be empathized with those good things. And that's why it's so important to meditate upon the Word of God. That's why it's so important to enjoy and to desire the milk of the Word, to grow, because there's satisfaction, beloved, in the Word. And I trust that your Bible study is a satisfying experience. Not always that way with God's people, unfortunately. Many of God's people read very faithfully the Word of God, but are never satisfied with it. I remember a young counselor at our camp who was an excellent counselor, an excellent student of the Word. I remember her coming to me one time, having been counseling for a number of years, and she said, I have a confession to make. She said, I'm not enjoying the Word of God. I read the Word of God every day, but I'm not enjoying it. I'm not getting anything out of it. So it's possible, it's possible to go through that experience. What the Lord desires is that we might come to the place where we're satisfied with the Word of God daily. Notice, it says, so that by youth he is renewed like the eagle. Now, I suppose there are at least two thoughts that one could bring out in connection with this. For example, in some cases, the eagle would be laid aside, unable to soar up into the heavens because of some infirmity, and then it went through a healing process and got its strength back. Then there would be a day when it would spread its wings again and once more soar into the heavens, which it longed to do. When it was grounded, very discouraged. I understand there was a certain breed of eagle. Not all eagles do this, but a certain breed of eagles that go through that molting process where they lose their feathers. And you can imagine that great eagle having come to this place where it's lost its feathers, it's lost its strength, lost its ability to soar up into the heavens. It's grounded. And if it has any feelings at all, it's not only grounded, it's discouraged. And then those feathers grow in. One day those wings spread out and once again he senses that exuberance of being able to soar into the starry heavens out of sight. Ever had that experience? You go through a grounding process. You go through a triumph. You go through a difficulty. You just feel grounded down here. You say, I don't know what to do. You turn to the Word of God and you begin to pour over God's Word and it just seems that your youth is renewed like the eagle. And you begin to soar. And the things of earth begin to go strangely dim in the light of His glory and His grace. That's what the Word of God can do for us. Just give us that strength to allow us to mount up above the difficulties and trials of life and bring us closer to the Lord Himself. Now notice as we go on, please, in verses 6 through to 18, we suggested that now the praise is expanding. Now the praise is going out to others. And that is suggested for us because if you look at the first section, you will find that he's talking about, bless the Lord, my soul, all that is within me. He speaks about my soul in verse 2. He speaks about His iniquity. He speaks about His diseases. He speaks about His life in destruction. And so He's speaking as an individual. But when you get to the next section, you'll find that He's expanding and He's talking about we and us. He talks about Moses. He talks about the people of Israel. Now He's expanding the experiences and we find that the experiences are going out to others. And others are sharing this delight of praising the Lord. Notice again, as you go into this section, please, that you find in verse 6, the Lord is like a king to His people, protecting them. The divine king protecting people. We're told the Lord executed righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. You go through trial. You go through oppression. Perhaps you come into salvation. Or maybe you've had that experience. You come into salvation and then you sense the pressures. Maybe at work. Opposition sets in. Maybe you're falsely accused. Maybe they're taking advantage of your commitment to Christ and they're seeking to override things in your life. Many go through that experience. Maybe your family, who are not believers, take advantage of the situation. And you sense that you're being oppressed because of your position in Christ and you want to sort of step in and straighten the whole thing out and get things straight in your own strength. You know, the Lord executed righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. You remember Joseph. My, how he was oppressed! In his faithfulness, he ends up, you recall, in prison. Falsely accused. I wonder what he thought as he was there in the prison, wondering, Lord, why has this happened to me? And yet it seems as though Joseph leaves the matter in the hands of the Lord and the Lord steps in and he executes righteousness and judgment for him. Or justice, as the word means. He is the one who's able to step in. You remember Daniel? As he prayed, the men who were very envious of him saw him pray and said, this is an opportunity. And they falsely accused him and sought to bring pressure upon him through the king. But the Lord stepped in. I wonder what Daniel thought when he was first put into the lion's den. Lord, I've been falsely accused and here I'm put here. But the Lord executed righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. You remember Saul of Tarsus as he persecuted the saints and as he killed many of them and put others in prison? I'm sure the saints must have thought, Lord, what should we do with this man? How should we handle this situation? But the Lord was going to handle it, you remember, and he executed righteousness and justice for all that are oppressed. And so you remember when he revealed himself to Saul on the road to Damascus, he said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He said, you touch my saints, you're touching me. And so our Lord is very protective of his people. We have to keep that in mind and we can praise him for that. Then notice verse 7, please. He's not only a king protecting his subjects, he is a close friend sharing his secrets with his companions. Now this verse has been a tremendous challenge to me as a believer. Notice what it says, please. It says, he made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. Notice how carefully the words are placed. He made known his ways, not his acts, to Moses. And his acts, not his ways, to the children of Israel. Do you get the picture? Moses spent so much time in the presence of the Lord. You remember, he was up on the mountain, many days up there, many nights, and when he came down, he didn't wish not that his face was shining. He'd been in touch with the Lord, he'd been talking to him, and the Lord had been talking in return, and what a time of nearness there was between Moses and the Lord. But the people of Israel were so in touch with the Lord. So when it came to the parting of the sea or standing before the sea, they said, what are we going to do? And Moses, who was in touch with the Lord, got his instructions. The Lord said, put the rod out there. Put the rod over the sea and it parted. And the people of Israel saw the Lord action. They said, did you see what the Lord did? He opened up the way. But somehow or other they didn't know why. They didn't know the ways of the Lord. They could understand that something was happening. They wanted water. Moses cried to the Lord and said, Lord, they want water. The Lord said, all right, Moses, I'll give them water. I'll explain to you how to get the water. And he gave the instructions to Moses, and Moses smoked the rock and outgushed the water. And the people of Israel said, wonderful! Look what the Lord is doing! But they didn't know why He was doing it. And so the manna and so many other things throughout the life of the history of Israel, these things continued on and they understood the Lord was acting. But they didn't know why. But Moses knew why. And that's a challenge in my life. Is it a challenge yours? Have you gone through experiences when you say to yourself, I just do not know why. Why has this happened? Why has that happened? Lord, why? You say, well, I know what the Lord's doing. The Lord has allowed it. I don't know why. I believe it's possible for us to be drawn close to the Lord so that He can reveal His ways as well as showing His actions. You remember John, the Volunteer. They were gathered around in the upper room and the Lord startled all the disciples by saying, one of you shall betray Me. They all began to say, is it I? Is it I? No one even thought of Judas Iscariot. And suddenly someone turned to John who was leading on Jesus' bosom and said, you ask Him. You ask Him. See, John seemed to have a very close, near place to the Lord and the Lord revealed. He revealed things to the disciples, other disciples, but there was something even more intimate with John and the Lord. John had revealed to Him on the Isle of Patmos that wonderful revelation. You remember Abraham. Here was Abraham. Here was Lot. The city of Sodom was going to be destroyed. Lot was not given all the information about it. He saw the Lord acting. He saw the Lord's doing. But he was out of touch with the Lord. Here was Abraham and the Lord turns to Abraham before He destroys Sodom and He says, shall I hide from Abraham the things that I'm going to do? He said, I know Him. And this friend of God, Abraham, God's friend, the Lord said, I want to reveal to you just why I'm going to do this. I remember in the Ottawa Valley a few years ago, there was a dear Christian coming home from a prayer meeting in one of the little towns in the valley and he was there with his 12-year-old daughter and they were walking down the street having enjoyed a prayer meeting and the time there of fellowship and then suddenly a drunk driver came zooming down the road and went right off the road onto the sidewalk, struck them, drove them 30 or 40 feet into the air and he was unconscious for three or four weeks and he was just badly battered. I went in to see him and there he was lying in the hospital with concussion, a broken jaw, broken shoulder, broken hip, broken rib, internal injuries and just wrapped there almost like a mummy and I remember as I looked at him, he just said one word, Why? Why? And I didn't have an answer. We prayed. A couple of days later, I went in to see him and he looked at me and he said, He said, You remember when you were here two days ago? I said, Yeah. He said, You remember me asking why? I said, I do. I've been thinking a lot about it. He said, Well, now I know why. He said, The Lord has revealed things to me, he said, in the last 24 hours. He said, The Lord has just showed himself to me in such a way, he said, it is just that revelation of the Lord and His nearness and His strength. If that was all that he wanted me to understand through this experience, he said, It's been well worth it. Sometimes we don't get the answer that quickly. I saw him not so long ago and he's just still going on for the Lord and it was the turning point in his whole life. And now he's so fearless in speaking about his Lord and he had to go through that difficult experience. He made known his ways to Him. His acts for the children of Israel. Let's hurry on. Notice it says here, The Lord is merciful, he's gracious, he's slow to anger, he's plenteous in mercy. May I very quickly remind you here that he is not only a king protecting his people and a friend sharing in the secrets with his companions, but here he is like a loving, caring mother looking after the children. Notice, beloved, he's long in patience. We're told that in verse 8. The Lord is merciful, he's gracious, he's slow to anger. He's slow to anger. He's long in patience. Notice in verse 9, he's very slow in punishment. You notice in verse 10 and 11, he's very great in his mercy. And you notice in verse 12, he's just unmatching in his cleansing power. What a God we have. What a God of grace and love. So slow to anger. So slow. The many times we have failed him, the many times, beloved, that we have gone out of the way and yet he's so slow to anger. He's long in patience. I was just reading this afternoon some verses in Psalm 78 and it's just so challenging. I'm not going to get into it because that will just not cause us to finish off the other psalm, but here in this particular psalm, may I just put it, two or three verses to you here. Just read this psalm over if you want to know something about the long suffering and the long patience of the Lord. These people in verse 36, they flattered him with their mouth, they lied unto him with their tongues. Their heart was not right with him neither where they steadfast in his covenant, but he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many times turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath. For he remembered that they were but flesh and a wind that passeth away and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and they grieved him in the desert. Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. Then when you go to the end of the chapter, you'll find that God is richly blessed. My, what a God who's full of anger. They limited him. He wanted to do so much for those people that because of their rebellious attitude, he was limited in what he longed to do through them. He longs to do things through your light and through mine. May we not limit him with our rebellion and our willfulness. May we know something of yieldedness to his love and to his grace. Have you noticed as you've gone on in this particular psalm, and I'm just going to pick out one or two things as we draw to a close. The as and the so. Four times here, as and so. You remember in the Gospels, we have as Moses is lifted up from the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. You remember as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. So here we have in verse 11, as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear him. As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. As and so. As and so. You find the Lord's mercy here. You find the height of the Lord's mercy as high as the heavens are above the earth. Oh, the height of his mercy. How high are the heavens? How high are the heavens of heaven? How far away is it? The astronomers keep looking and looking and they see more galaxies and more galaxies. They keep expanding and expanding in the eyes of man as they enlarge their instruments. But they can't even get to heaven. As high as the heaven. Oh, so high above the earth. So great. So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. That boggles the mind, doesn't it? As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. How wise our God is. Not only the height of his mercy, here's the breadth of his mercy. Here's the breadth of it. As far as the east is from the west. It's been so often pointed out, not as far as the north from the south. Why, we go north and we come to the north pole and then we go south and we get to the south pole and we go north, but the east and west never meet. If he had said north and south, we might have thought to ourselves, well, there might be a time when we'll meet up with our sins. But he says, no, as far as the east is from the west. So you keep going west, beloved, as long as you keep going west, you'll never meet the east and vice versa. Oh, the breadth of his mercy. Eternal forgiveness and cleansing. And like as a father pitieth children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame. He remembereth that we are dust. Here's the depth of his mercy. He understands our frame. He understands how much we can bear. He knows when to release the pressure for our good. He understands. And then drawing just on to a close here, notice in the last few verses, in verse 19, the Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens. His kingdom ruleth over all. I want you to notice the little word all again. We had it at the beginning of the psalm. Now we have it here at the end. We have he rules over all. We have the fact that all his hosts are involved and there are all his works and there are all places of his dominion involved in praising him. Here now the praise is expanding and we're looking on to the future. We're looking on to that time when all will praise him. Every knee shall bow to him. He shall receive the glory and the honor that is worthy to his name. He says his kingdom ruleth over all, all space and all time and all mankind, all things. And it seems to me as we look at this particular psalm, we have in this latter few verses almost like a large balcony up here. And in that balcony, we see all the angels. And what are they doing? They're praising him. Praise the Lord, all ye his angels of excellent strength that do his commandments, hearken unto the voice of his word. And then we look down to the next balcony below and we see another group, all his hosts, all his ministry and spirit, whoever they might be. And what are they doing? They're praising the Lord. Ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. And then we come down again a little farther and we find in verse 22, bless the Lord, all the works in all places of his dominion. This earth is going to bring praise to him. The sea and the sky and all creation will bring glory and honor to his name. This whole creation groans, prevails waiting for that moment when the redeemed shall enter into the glories that are before us. And then the earth will know something of the redeeming power of the Lord and the earth will give forth its praise. So not only the angels, beloved, and the hosts, but all things relating to the dominion. And then delightfully, he comes right back to himself and he says, bless the Lord, O my soul. He said, I'm in there. He said, I'm right in there. Not only the angels and not only the ministering spirits and this whole earth. He said, me, I'm going to be praising him. Bless the Lord, O my soul. It seems to me that this psalm is like a spiritual sandwich where you have that lovely slice of bread at the bottom. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And there's one at the top. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And right in between verse 1 and verse 22, you have all these wonderful slices of spiritual blessings and it's so big, beloved, you can't get your teeth into it. You just can't do it. But, beloved, we need to be reminded as I close that He desires the praise from our hearts. Sincere praise. And He's worthy of it. May we indeed give Him the glory for His name's sake. Our Father, we do thank Thee for the Lord Jesus and praise Thee for all His glories, His grace, His goodness. We sometimes sing, Our Father, for all the Lord hath done for me, I never shall cease to praise Him. And yet we confess there are many times when we become so involved with our own little world of problems that we turn our eyes from the Giver of all good. May we indeed this evening turn our eyes upon the Lord of glory and may from our redeemed hearts there be true praise and adoration ascend to Thy very throne. For this we pray in our Savior's name. Amen.