Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On May 22, 2022: Psalm 103 Stir Up Praise To The Lord
Transcript
- Well, this morning as we look at Psalm 103, I've titled the Message, Stir Up Praise to the Lord because once again, David is really stirring up himself, but recording it so that you and I can be stood up as well that that we would be encouraged that we would be motivated. That we would be reminded of how important it is to praise. Is the lawyer this Psalm 103rd or three, is a classic Psalm. It's one of those psalms that is often studied and highlighted as one of the the Hallmark songs. One of the features of the Book of Psalms, it's a Psalm of David. Where he calls us to 1st calling himself, but by extension calling us to praise the Lord or to bless the Lord. And this idea of praising the Lord or blessing the Lord, it really means to literally, to speak well. Love and a praising the Lord means to have this kind of dialogue. This kind of declaration that comes from us that says good things about God. One dictionary defines the word bless or praise meaning to always have a strong affection. And the sense of gratitude towards God, a strong affection and a sense of gratitude towards God. It's a it's a blessing. It's a praising. It's a rejoicing, it's a celebration. It's a gratitude. And an appreciation for all that God has done. And so as David stirs up himself to praise the Lord, I pray that you and I also would be stirred up, that we would be encouraged and motivated, that that we would be transformed, especially if we came in here, not with the. Attitude and the mindset of praising the Lord. Not with you know that that stage of of being full of gratitude and appreciation in our lives. David wants to remind us and encourage us this morning that our lives that our hearts that our mind would be filled and consumed. With good thoughts about God, with thankfulness unto God, with just appreciation and glory for what he has done for us. And so we're going to look at four sets of reasons to praise the Lord this morning as we work our way through Psalm 103, starting in verses one through 5. Here's point number one. My life is filled with reasons to praise God. My life is filled with reasons to praise. God check out verse 5 again. It says he fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the Eagles. We don't know at what point in David's life he wrote or sing this song. But it could have been written at any part. Of his life. That God fills his life with good things. David is reflecting on the Lord, the Lord's work in his life and as he looks at his own experience and the things that are happening in his life, he recognizes my life is filled with. Good things and for you and I today like David we we can look at our lives now. We don't always look at our lives and have this same thought. Sometimes we look at our lives and we focus on the wrong things. We focus on our problems, we magnify issues. Perhaps we sometimes can get distracted. By things of life and forget. How much of our life is filled with good things from God and and that's? Why we need the reminder? That's why we need these kinds of songs that stir us up that call us back to and give us a, uh, a better perspective on the things that God has done for us. So going back to verse one and two, David is encouraging himself. He says, let all that I am praise the Lord. Let all that I am he's talking to himself at this point. He's saying. So you need to bless the Lord and praise the Lord. So you need to be reminded again this morning to don't just praise God when you feel like it. But but that you need to kind of put yourself in a position of praising the Lord, regardless of whether you feel like it or not. Let all that I am praise the Lord completely and wholly. Entirely, he says with my whole hearts I will praise his holy name, and so he wants this condition. He wants to be in the state. Of praising the Lord with all that he is and he. Aims to get there with the determination there at the end of verse one I will praise his holy name. He's he's making a decision here. I'm deciding to praise the Lord. I'm deciding to bless the Lord because where I need to be is in that place where my whole being is praising God. In verse two he repeats the 1st. Part let all that. I am praise the Lord. That's where I need to be. That's the condition and the state that I need to be in. But notice what he says at the end of verse 2. May I never forget the good things he does for me. And so David starts this song by stirring himself up. I I like what Charles Spurgeon had to say about this these first couple verses. He says these first verses are a tuning of the harp. Certainly he uses no vain repetitions for the Holy Spirit guides his pen and thus he shows us that we have need again and again to byster ourselves. When we are about to worship God, for it would be shameful to offer him anything less than the utmost. Our souls can render. The way Spurgeon describes it, these first two verses, he's tuning the instrument, which is his own heart. He's preparing himself to worship God to praise God, and so he says, let all that. I am praise the Lord. If you come early before service, you might hear the. Worship team whoever is leading worship that day, tuning their instruments, instruments, and it's a really exciting thing to experience. If you've never experienced it, it goes like. This bong Bong, Bong Bong bong bong. You know there's they're tuning the guitar or the worship team might be saying bumblebee bumblebee because? I'm not doing it right, but. Tuning the voices. Tuning the instruments. It's it's all that preparation that goes in advance. We want to come together. We want to worship the Lord. We want things to be in tune. We want to bless the Lord with our sound and and so here David is tuning his. Right? And he's saying, OK, it's A need that I have to praise the Lord. I need to kind of not just. Rush into the praise of God without first preparing myself and tuning my heart. Let me let me remind myself that I need to praise the Lord completely and entirely with all that I am with my whole heart I I need to make that deliberate decision to praise his holy name. And so I will praise the Lord. And so David is stirring up himself. Let all that I am. Praise the Lord, reminding himself my life is full of reasons to praise God. And so as I enter into this time of praise and worship that it's. Really motivated by and empowered by my real appreciation and praise of God that is happening within that that the time of singing is not just. Well, that's the time of phrase. It's limited to, you know this 30 minutes or this 15 minute portion of time, but. But that it is representative of how my whole life. Is lived, it's representative of how my heart is at all times. Like the time that we sing is just the tip of the iceberg, and they're below the surface. Is a heart. That praises God wholly and completely. Let all that I am praise. But I think it's interesting to consider that idea all that I am. Think about what Jesus shared in Mark Chapter 12 in giving the answer of what is the greatest commandment the most important commandment? Jesus said it is to love the Lord your God and he broke it out. With all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. Not just love the Lord your God, that's not the command by itself that that it is to every part of your being heart, soul, mind and stuff. And you could wrestle with you, know well what exactly is represented as part of our being by each of these, and which parts of the heart at which parts the soul? Which parts of the mind, and we can we can wrestle with those things a little bit, but we don't need to figure all that out for this morning. The the idea here is that there's there's. All these different aspects of who you are of your being. And David is saying, let all that, I am all these different parts of me, my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength needs to be in a position of a posture of praise. My emotions, my pursuits and desires and goals, my thoughts, my actions, and my energy. Every aspect of my being and who I am and every part of my life needs to. Come from a position of praise. That praise is not just what we do in church service or when there's a worship track playing. But that all of my being. That in. My emotions and in my pursuits and my thoughts into my actions and my heart and my soul in my mind and my strength. We're making the decision. I will praise the Lord. I will speak well of him and glorify his name. I will honor him and lift his name on high. My life is filled with reasons to praise God. As you think about the heart, soul, mind and strength. God is at work in our lives. In each of those areas, and each of those components of of us. Then who we are filled with reasons to praise God in our hearts and soul and mind and strength. There's another aspect of this I would think is worth considering as well. Let all that. I am praise the Lord and I was thinking about what? What are all the things that I am all the parts of me, heart, soul, mind and strength we can think about each of those and and explore those for quite a long time, but. Also, considering the different roles and responsibilities that I have in this life, let all that I am. Including, well, me as a man that's part of who I am. Me as a husband that's part of. Who I am. That's one of my roles and responsibilities me as a pastor. Me as a board member me as a son or a grandson, a brother, uncle cousin friend. I'm an employee as well as a coworker as. Well as a manager. I'm a web developer, a homeowner, a dog owner. Perhaps there's more that I could consider tree owner and grass mower, and actually I don't know the grass, but. Thinking about all the different aspects of my life, the different roles that I have and interactions that I have. I think it's appropriate for us to think through. All of these. Different aspects of our life and ways that we interact with other people and responsibilities that we have. And the psalmist. Here David is saying, I want all of these aspects of my life. To be filled with. And to be fulfilling a praise. To the Lord. It's really important because sometimes we can kind of compartmentalize our relationship to God so that it's. You know, we kind of like have a trigger. We get to church and that's where we relate to God. That's where we seek the Lord. That's where life is about God. But then we get back to work on Monday morning and and now the things of the Lord are in the back of our mind in the history. And we'll come back to that next Sunday. And and we'll revisit the things of God and. You know, try to to praise God, but. The reality is that God wants me as a husband to, well be a husband that is praising the Lord that that is honoring the Lord in the time in the efforts and the energy in the way that I interact with my wife. And you can walk through all of these right as a pastor, as a board member. As a coworker, as a family member that that there is to be a position of and a posture of praise, not just in this one particular segment of our life. As if you know, we just have this little you know time slot in our schedule, that that's where we praise the Lord. That's where we are relating to God. From walking with God and conscious of God. But then our whole heart. Everything that we're involved in, and everything that we're engaged in, all the things that we pursue and all the interactions that we have, that that every aspect of our life from start to finish. From sunup to sundown, from wake up to falling asleep that that we would be filled with praise to God. Because all throughout that time. God has filled my life with reasons to praise God. Again, looking at all of these things there. There is the possibility of walking through all of these and reflecting on the good things that God has done in each of these aspects in my life. There's good things that God has done. In every part that has impacted every part. Of our family. Of our workplace. Of our soul, of our hearts, our mind, our strength. My life is filled with reasons to praise God. And so. My whole being my whole life and every aspect of that life. Ought to be filled with praise to God. In verse two, he ends by saying, May I never forget the good things he does for me. This is one of the problems that we face. Again, with that idea of compartmentalization, sometimes we move on to the next subject in our mind. And we kind of lose focus on. We forget the good things that God does for us. David goes on here to list some of the good things and verses 3 through. Five here's what it says. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the Eagles. There's a lot of. Reasons to praise God. Because he forgives all my sins. How many sins does he forgive all of them, but how many is that? I don't encourage you to try to keep track of sins in your life. In that way, don't try to keep accounts because he doesn't. He forgives them all. As we. Trust the Lord. And what he accomplished for us at the cross, as we receive his forgiveness that he accomplished for us. Well, he'll go on in a few minutes to talk about our sins being cast as far as. The east is from the West. Our sins break our fellowship with God and we having a sinful nature, our lives are filled with sin. We have thoughts that are sinful. We behave in sinful ways. We have attitudes that are sinful. Throughout the day. We will be breaking God's law over and over and over again. Although my life Is filled with sin. He forgives all my sins. He washes this leak clean. And even when we have. Behaved inappropriately knowingly. God's promise to us is that as we come to him, confessing our sin, agreeing with him as we repent and turn from sin, that he forgives all my sins, that there's no sin so terrible, so great, that God cannot forgive. There's no amount of sin where he said, OK, you've done it now 1001 times, and so that was the limit 1000. If you had just kept it to 1000 you would have been OK, but you did 1001 times game over you you know are not able to be forgiven. At this point. God, God never gets to that point. He forgives all my sins. And heals all my diseases. God Forgives and he heals. Now ultimately the healing of all diseases will take place in eternity as we experience the glorified body that he has prepared for us. And so we can rest assured that whatever we face physically in this life will not be with us for eternity, but his promises that he will heal all diseases. And yes, that is eternity that we look forward to the fulfillment of that. But we also can look to God in the temporary and invites him to. And many times he does. Is heal and he does work in our lives physically from all of our diseases. He is able to. He is the great physician and he can heal. Sometimes it's his will, sometimes it's his. It's not his will, that's up to him but but we can ask and we can look forward to his miraculous work at many points in our life. We can expect God to work miraculously in our lives, not in the sense that we demand it on every occasion. But we ask on every occasion and we look forward to his answer many times in this life and all the time in the life to come. He redeems me from death. Here's one of the reasons why my life is filled with occasion to praise God because. He has redeemed me from death. It is appointed unto all of us, once to die. Death is part of this life that we face. But the promise and the guarantee from God for his children, for his people is a redemption from death. That yes, though physically, this body will cease to breathe and cease to live. Your soul. Will go beyond what your body experiences. He has redeemed. Me from death. So we have the promise of life, the promise of everlasting life. Whether we get 70 or 80 years in this life or whether we get 15 or 20 years in this life. We've been redeemed from death, and so our life is not really limited by our time here on this earth. Our life is unlimited because of his redemption for us. He has crowned me with love and tender mercies. He's crowned me. He set this crown upon my head. Now a crown was something that was in ornaments, right? It was decorative and it declared a position, a status and what God is saying. Here is I have declared to you and declared to the world that I love you and I. I am going to be and I am merciful towards you. He's decorated you with his love and mercy. David here is reflecting on all the things that God has done in his life. I shouldn't say all of them. He's reflecting on some of them right. There's more and more and more that we could pursue and consider, but. As he thinks about these examples, he's recognizing my life is filled. With good things, my life is filled with God's work. In my life. And therefore my life is filled with reasons. To praise God. As you think about David, reasons that he is walking through here, I would encourage you to consider is is your life filled with reasons to praise God. You know not everybody has the experience that David is describing here. Not everybody is able to look at their life and say, man, my life is filled with reasons to praise God. Sometimes that's because of a bad perspective that we might have. But sometimes it's because we are not in the position that David was in now. Throughout the rest of the song, David is going to talk about more reasons and more things that God has done. But but he's also identifying who these things belong to, and a couple of other parts in the Psalm jump down to verse 11 for a moment. It says for his unfailing love toward those who fear him. Is as great as the height of the heavens. Above the earth. Some of the things that God has done and is doing and will do. Is not for everybody universally, but it is for those who fear God. He says it again in verse 17, but the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. Those who fear God are the recipients of these benefits and blessings that merit the praise of God. In our lives. But those who do not fear God do not experience the same benefits they do. They are not recipients of the same good works, and so that forgiveness, that redemption, that promise of everlasting life, all of these things that God does for his people. They're not universal. There are some good things that God does. To all people universally. The scriptures talk about, you know the Lord raises the sun for the just and the unjust, and he brings rain and refreshment as a as a good thing as a a blessing to believers and unbelievers. But there are some things that are only. For those who fear him. And it's important for us to consider that what does it mean to fear God? If these things are for those who. Fear God then. Am I one who fears God? Are you one who fears God? The fear of the Lord? Oftentimes we would refer to this as respect and reverence, and that's absolutely true. But I would say maybe picture the fear of the Lord. This way the fear of the Lord is an acknowledgement that God is God and the judge of all humanity. The fear of the Lord means that we acknowledge one day I'm going to stand before God and give account. For my life and my behavior. And I'm going to be evaluated based on what God has declared to be the standard in Jesus Christ and in his word. And so the fear of the Lord is that acknowledgement of God's position as the judge of all humanity. It's the acknowledgement of. There are standards of right and wrong. And I will be subjected to those standards as I stand before him one day. To fear the Lord means to accept. Those things as true. And to live our lives in response to that. Paul the Apostle talks about this in Second Corinthians Chapter 5 that. We live our lives aiming to please God because we know we will stand before him one day. To fear the Lord means that we behave ourselves, that we conduct our whole lives with the anticipation of standing before God to give account and to be held to the standard that God has provided for us. Now we know that we won't meet that standard perfectly, right? But but that's where the gift of Jesus Christ and the cross comes into play. And so we are forgiven and we're washed and we're cleanse. But that doesn't mean that then we go about living. However, we want to that that's not the fear of the Lord. You know, there are a lot of people who will declare their love for God while persisting in a lifestyle of sin. And I, you know, I know God wants this or I know God doesn't like that. But I'm I love God and God knows I love him. But you know, this is just the the best thing for me. This makes me happy. This is what I want to do, and all of those reasons that we explain. And so they will. Be this declaration of I love God. But a true love for God includes a fear of God, not a fear that causes us to run away from God. But a fear that recognizes. He is my God. He is the judge. Of my life and my actions, and I will stand before him to give account. And so going back to the point, my life is filled with reasons. To praise God. If your life is not filled with reasons to praise God. Here might be one. Of the issues. You might not fear God. You might know about God. You might acknowledge the existence of God. You might believe that there is a, you know, a a Jesus who died upon the cross for our sins. You you can have all of those things in place but. But do you fear God? Do you live your life in anticipation of standing before him to give account that that you make it your aim to please him in all? That you do and. There is that need for us. To be consumed in our lives to be filled. With the pursuit of God. In response to all that he has done for us. Our life is filled with the things of God. And filled with reasons to praise. God, and so these things are for those who fear God and for his children in verse 13. It says the Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. There is this relationship that we have as God's children. When we fear the Lord, there is the sense that we are all God's children in the sense that we are all God's creation. But there is a special unique relationship that we have as the children of God. When we learn to fear God. To live our lives to. Orchestrate our lives to structure our lives around the pursuit of pleasing God and honoring his name. My life is filled with reasons to praise God and so stir up praise to the Lord. As you reflect on God goodness as you reflect on. All that God. Has done for you and if you don't have an abundance of reasons to praise God, then I would encourage you fear the Lord and structure your life in a way that you would respond to what he has done for you and that you would live to please him and to honor him that you would look forward to standing. Before him that day. Stir up praise to the Lord. Well, moving on to point #2 is we move on to verses 6 through 12. God deserves as much praise. As the height of heaven. Stewart praise to the Lord because God deserves as much praise as the heavens are above the earth. Checking out verses 6 through 12. What it says. The Lord gives righteousness and justice to all who are treated unfairly. He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. Slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He will not constantly accuse us, nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for all our sins. He does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the West. Here in verses 6 through 12, David continues to. Consider all of the good things that God does, the ways that he fills our lives with reasons to praise him. He's reflecting on the nature and character of God. There in verse 11. Focusing in on the love of God, he says his unfailing love. Toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens. Above the earth, how much does God love you? How much does God love those who fear him? David says I can't really describe it to you. I can only give you a little bit of an illustration. Think about the heavens. And how high are they above the earth? If you go back to David's day in his time, they had a lot less data about the heavens than we have today. But they could look with their eyes and they could recognize. It's farther than I can reach. They could see birds flying even at great heights through the air. But they weren't at the limit of the heaven. They could see beyond the atmosphere into the expanse of the universe and see the stars reflected throughout the universe as they didn't have, you know, the lights of the city blocking their view, right? They they were able to see clearly. To great lengths, the universe that God is created. They couldn't measure it. They couldn't add, you know, precise data about it, but they could see. We are small creatures. In a big creation. That God has established. As the height of the heavens are above the earth. One of the elements that they could see and recognize immediately in the heavens was of course, the sun. Now, having a little bit more technology and research today we have some specific data about it. The sun is 93 million miles away from us here on planet Earth. It's about that depends on where we're at in the orbit, but 93 million miles is typically how we think of. The sun, in its distance from the earth. 93 million miles. I don't know if you're familiar with this. It's a little bit farther than a trip to Arizona. A little bit farther too than a trip to Texas. Sorts of Florida a little bit farther than. Anywhere we could go on this planet, right? 93 million miles. In fact, it's such a great distance. The speed of light. Light coming from the sun to the earth. I usually think of that as being instant, but actually light hitting the earth from the sun is about 8 minutes old. So when you walk out into the sunlight, that light that's hitting your body at that time actually was that the sun, not moments ago, but 8 minutes ago that that it took that much time to travel. That distance to get from the sun to you as you enjoy the sunlight. Now this is a good distance, but of course it's just real. The one piece of our solar system, and there's much more to God creation than that, and so you can go beyond that to four. Light years away or six light years away that the closest star, the nearest star. Is a little bit over 4 light years away 4.2 light years? And that's just the beginning. I'm not going to get into all of you know details of all the different ways that we could measure and try to find the farthest point in the universe. That's not my intention here this morning, but just to get us to think about. And reflect a little bit. How far to the end of the universe? Can see lights. As far out as 45 billion light years away or 46. All of this is a little bit negotiable depending on which you know person is doing the research and study and interpretation of the the research on the study, right, but. With our telescopes and such, we. We can see. A great distance away. Now a light year is about 5.8 trillion miles, so when we're talking about 46 billion light years, 46 billion * 5.8 trillion miles, let me just do that math in my head really quick. No, I'm just kidding. I will never be able to do that math. I couldn't even do that math on paper. It's it's insane. To really understand the size and the scale of what God has created. When you think. About the distance of the earth to. The edges of the universe as the height of the heavens above. The earth. David says now that. It's not a perfect picture, but it's a pretty good picture of how much God loves you. It doesn't fully capture. How much God loves you? It doesn't perfectly, you know, show you that, but it's the closest thing that we can figure. It's the the closest thing that we can use as an illustration of how much God loves you again. Verse 11. His unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. God loves you. An incredible amount. And because of that. He deserves praise because he doesn't just love you. In the philosophical sense, you know, hypothetically, you know that he thinks to himself internally that he loves you, and then there's no manifestation. And there's no out work, and there's no action on that. No, God loves you that much and he is demonstrating that much love to you. He's doing that much good in your life. He is working out all his plans and purposes and working out all activity and all things for all eternity for your good. Because of his love for you to that degree. And so your life is filled with. Reasons to praise God as many reasons as. Or the measurement of the heights of the heavens above the earth. In verse 12 he says he has removed our sins as far as as far from us as the east is from the West, and this is something I'm sure you've heard before, but. North and South versus east and West. As we travel about this earth, there's a difference, because if you get out and you start traveling north, you will reach a point where you haven't changed direction as far as the steering wheel is concerned, but you have transitioned from going north to now going South. You've reached the top. Now you're working your way down. And and you change from north to South, but. If you set out going east. And you don't change the steering wheel or the yoke on the airplane or whatever. You might be traveling with, right? You keep going east and you're going to keep on going east. You're going to keep on going east. You're going to keep on going east and there will. Never be a point in which you're going West. Unless you turn around and start to go the other direction. And if you start out going less. And you keep on going West and you don't change the steering wheel. You don't move the yoke on the airplane that you will continue to go West and you will never. Meet east. Unless you turn around right but. But the east and the West, they are infinitely far apart. The ends of the east and the ends of the West are infinitely far apart, different than the North and South, where the North and South meet at a certain point, and you cross that point, you transition from going north to South or South to north. But the idea here the picture again, it's just a picture, it's not meant to be a. A technical. A thing but but it's a demonstration. As far as the east is from the. West as far apart. As Infinity he has removed our sins. From us That's the extent of his forgiveness and how permanent. His washing and cleansing of us is. Jumping back a few verses, diverse 7 and 8. David says he revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and merciful. Slow to get angry and fill filled with unfailing love. Here we find a good clue. A good reminder of one of the reasons why we study the Old Testament. Sometimes we wonder about that. We consider that right. We we live in the New Testament, the new covenant. Why do we spend time in the Old Testament at all well? Although the covenant has changed. We find the revelation of God's character. In the Old Testament scriptures, and so there's still so much value for us, even though we don't relate to God by a temple or by animal sacrifices. There's so much of God's character revealed in those things that he established, and in those things that he has declared to his people throughout. All of his. History and so David looks back and reflects on the character who he is that he revealed to Moses. In his words, and in his actions to the people of Israel. Probably thinking specifically since he mentioned Moses about the leading God's people out of Egypt in their ******* and into the promised land and the time of the wilderness experience as well. Throughout all that time, the children of Israel. Generally speaking. Didn't really respond to God very well, they would. Have kind of moments of good reactions and and they would be worshipping God, but there were. Many occasions where they would forget. Even though God had done a miraculous thing and providing for them, you know just a couple of days later they would forget and they'd be grumbling and complaining and. Accusing God of trying to kill them out in the wilderness. And in the revelation of himself through his word, and through his relationship with the children of Israel in that time in the wilderness. The Lord revealed himself to be compassionate. And merciful. He revealed himself to be one who. Is slow to get angry. And filled with unfailing love. The Lord said this specifically to Moses and Exodus. Chapter 34, verse six and seven. You might remember Moses asked for God to reveal himself to him. God put him in the cleft of the rock and said you can't see me directly, but you can kind of see my afterglow. You can see a little bit of the the shadow of my glory. And it came with this declaration. The Lord the God of Compassion and mercy, slow to anger and filled with unfailing love. That's who God. Declared himself to be, but it's also who God demonstrated himself to be through his interaction with his people throughout history. Verse nine he will not constantly accuse us nor remain angry forever. He does not punish us for. All our sins. He does not deal harshly with us. As we deserve. Here David acknowledges God does discipline us. He does deal with sin in our lives. He is not permanently judging us at this time. He's not constantly accusing us, even though God could constantly accuse us. He is dealing with sin. In portions bringing discipline, calling us to repentance. But he says in verse 10 he does not punish us for all our sins. For believers in Jesus Christ, the Lord is never seeking out to punish us for sin, because the full judgment of sin was received by Christ on our behalf. But he does discipline us as his children to bring us to repentance, to bring us to that place where we reflect God. In our lives and in our behavior. And so he does work in our lives, and discipline often feels like judgment from our perspective, but. Not if we understand what judgment really is. He disciplines us. He corrects us. He's never dealing with us. According to what we really deserve, he does not deal harshly with us as we deserve, he says. This is really important to remember God. God never deals with us, according. To the full penalty or judgment that we deserve. As believers again, these are truths and promises for those who fear the Lord. Mr Albert Barton says who of us can fail to stand in awe and to tremble when we think what God might have justly done to us, what sufferings he might have brought upon us. Which would have been no more than we have deserved. But this isn't necessarily the thing that you want to bring up to someone who is suffering and say, well, look. It could be much worse. You know God could. Judge us a lot more. That's that's not the. The best application of this verse usually, but. It is appropriate for us to think about in our worst. Times that we've experienced and the most suffering that we undergo, we we have never suffered as much as we deserve to suffer as a result of our sinfulness. God doesn't deal with us according to our sins. And we should shudder and kind of stand in awe. To to consider what we do deserve. Yeah, that is a terrifying thought, but. The good news is that God doesn't those. Who fear the Lord? Those who receive. His unfailing love and and love is the highest heights above the heavens and those who receive. That love and forgiveness from God. They do not experience. The discipline, the judgment. In its fullness that is deserved. But that's not because that judgment wasn't poured out. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah Chapter 53. Jesus received that penalty on our behalf. Says it was our weakness that he carried. It was our sorrows that weighed him down. We thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins, but he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have straight away. We have left God paths to follow our own that the Lord lead on him the sins. Of us all. The full penalty for sin. Causes us to shudder as we think about it. But God doesn't pour it out upon us as believers in Christ, because Jesus Christ. Received that full penalty. On our behalf judgment. If if were measured would be as. High is the heights of heaven. But God's love is were measured. Being as high as the heights of heaven. Sent his son. To receive that judgment that penalty for us. So God deserves. As much praise. He deserves as much of our worship and adoration and thankfulness. And Glorying in his name. Now think about that. It's kind of immeasurable, right? Even though we talked about 4546 billion miles or 46 billion light years. That's not the end. It's not like OK, and then we saw the finish line and so we knew. OK, that was the end of the universe, right? We haven't reached the end. It's infinite. Only God knows. It's in the span of his hand. So he could see the beginning in the end, right? We haven't seen it. And so that means we cannot. Fill our lives with praise as much as God is worthy of praise. In an hour and a half on Sunday morning, right we we just we can't. We can't praise God in a way that he is worthy of with this little time slot. We need to be stirred up to praise the Lord. Not just in our time of gathering together, but. Again, through my whole being heart, soul, mind and strength through every aspect of my life and every activity of my day. That my whole life. Would be set upon a course of praising God. And set upon that course. It's going to take me long into eternity. To begin. To praise God a fraction of how much? He is worthy to be praised. Speaking of that, that brings us to point #3 and that is God deserves as much praise as the length of eternity here in versus 13 through 18. Here's what it says. The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him, for he knows how weak we are. He remembers we are only dust. Our deeds on the earth are like grass like wildflowers we bloom in. Die the wind blows and we are gone as though we had never been here. But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him. His salvation extends to the children, children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments. God deserves. As much praise as the length of eternity. It's not that much different than considering the heights of the heavens. We're talking about measuring an infinite number and its infinite space, or an infinite time. And understanding that God deserves that much praise. Now here David is contrasting our frailty and God's permanence and verse. 15 he talks about our days being like grass. It grows, it dies. It's just a matter of moments. It feels like that it is here and then is gone. The wind blows and we are gone, as though we had never been here, although for us. From our perspective, many times life feels like it takes forever. When understood with the appropriate scale. Our life. Many times the Bible describes it is as. A vapor. Here's a quick. Attempt to give you a sense of scale. The long purple bar on the bottom there is 6000 years. That's about how much recorded history we have. Then the little bar next to it of 80 years or above it. That's hopefully you get 80 years. That's your life in comparison to. Just the history that has been recorded thus far, but of course there's much more to life than this life. There's much more to life than just what has been recorded at this point, and so you could think about, OK, well, what about 1000 or 10,000 years into eternity? Beyond this recorded history, and you can see that scale change. So 10,000 years into eternity and recorded history. It's a lot smaller and that 80 years is a lot smaller and 10,000 years into eternity is not even near the close. The close to the end of eternity and you could continue to scale out and scale out and scale out. And understand our. Our life and our time here on this earth is the smallest portion of our existence. And it doesn't feel that way when they're in the midst of it, right? Forever is such a hard concept for us. And yet it is part of the reality that we exist. Within eternity is forever. And God loves us eternally. And so he deserves as much praise as the length of eternity throughout all of eternity. God is like a father to his children in verse. 13 tender and compassionate to those who fear him. Again, this is not for everybody, but to those who fear. Then God is tender and compassionate. Because he knows how weak we are, and he remembers that we are only dust. It's interesting God. Is eternal, but he never forgets how frail we are. You know, sometimes computer geeks. Don't remember that computers are stressful and perplexing to other people, right? And they laugh and mock and joke about how terrible you are at your technology. Imagine if God was that way. He's eternal. Straight like. That is, you know, not able to be measured. It would be easy for him to. Just kind of forget how frail we are. That's not the way he works. He's always mindful. He knows how strong he is. And he knows how weak. You are. So Charles Spurgeon says our Heavenly Father never overloads us and never fails to give us strength equal to our day because he always takes our frailty into account when he is apportioning to us our lot. Bless it, be his holy name. For his this gentleness toward his frail creatures. God always remembers how weak we are now. Sometimes we forget how weak we are. Jesus gave the account in Luke Chapter 12 of the rich man who had a really abundant crop, and so he said, I know what I'm going to do. And you know, I'm so wealthy now with. All of this. I'm going to build bigger barns and I'm going to scale up my business and I'm going to get even more returns. And God said to him, you fool, you don't know how weak you are. You think you're so incredible because of all that you have right now, but you're going to die this very night. But it doesn't. Who will get? Everything that you worked for at that point. Jesus said in. Luke chapter 12 verse 21. Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth, but not have a rich relationship with God. It's foolish. Sometimes we forget how weak we are and our lives are filled with ourselves. We're consumed with ourselves. We're about our business instead of our father's business. And we are pursuing our goals and our will and what we want. Because we forget how much we need God and how much God is done for us. God deserves as much praise as the length of eternity. And so that can't be fulfilled in an hour and. 1/2 of church service a week. It has to be. A lifestyle a lifetime and on into eternity of praising God with all that I am. I mean, what if I could earn for a lifetime with one day of work, like that'd be awesome. Right? And I would totally do that, and if even if it was a really hard day, it's like I'll do a hard day's work for a lifetime. You know, amounts of salary that that's definitely worth it. But you can't, and So what do you have to do? You have to set yourself on a course to earn a lifetime's worth of wages over a lifetime, right? And So what do you do for a? God who deserves. For an eternity of praise. Well hour and a half a week you praise him. No, you have to set yourself on a course. You have to. Set yourself up in a way that you will. What if I could stay fit for a lifetime with one workout? No matter how hard that workout. Was I would do it? But that's not the way that it works. You can't do that. So what do you have to do? You have to set yourself on a course of working out consistently and regularly over a schedule like. What do you do God deserves? An eternal length of praise. So set your life on a course of praise. Finishing it up verses 19 through 22 gives us point #4 God deserves praise from every created thing. Here's what it says. The Lord has made the heavens his throne. From there he rules over everything. Praise the Lord, you angels, you mighty ones who carry out his plans, listening for each of his commands. Yes, praise the Lord you armies of angels who serve him. And do his will praise the Lord. Everything he has created everything in all his Kingdom. Let all that I am praise the Lord here. David Cole. All of creation, all created things that angels, the armies of angels. Everything that God has brought into existence and everything that is under his rule and in his Kingdom to to praise God. He calls it all. To praise God and then he involves himself again at the end. Let all that I am praise. The Lord again, stirring up praise. To God because he is worthy because he deserves it because of his goodness. Because he is the creator. He is the one who rules over all and he has an infinite amount of love and mercy and grace and goodness. Toward us, and so I thought it would be appropriate for us to end the service with a little bit of praise. Now it's not an infinite amount of praise. We'll let you go at some point, but we. Want to just? Take some time to praise the Lord to allow ourselves to reflect on these things and put them into practice a little bit and understand that it's not the fullness of what God calls us to in stirring up praise to the Lord, but. For the next few moments, we can get started. We can take the first step on that path, perhaps of praising the Lord. The fear of. The Lord and his goodness towards us. Reflecting on a life that is filled with reasons to praise God. Let's worship him. Let's pretend and let's allow the Lord to minister to our hearts about our lives. That they would be. Organized and orchestrated and put. In a way that we'd. Be set on a path. To praise God with our whole being, with all that we are with our full schedule, every component, every aspect of who we are and all that we do, may we be about the father, business and living our lives in praise to the Lord. We thank you God, for goodness to us and Lord, we recognize that our praise. Our singing and our behavior Lord is. Ode to you. And so it would help. Us to give it we're weak. And we're frail and we fall short. But to the best of our ability, we want to respond appropriately to your goodness towards us. We want to praise you and so enable us. We pray by your spirit. As you wash us and cleanse us from all of our sin, may we glorify you and all that we do. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.