Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 103 | Date: June 8, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Psalm 103

Psalm 103. This is a Psalm of David. 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 forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it’s gone, and its place knows it no more. The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to the children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O ye his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

The superscript tells us this is a psalm of David. In this particular psalm, there is no enemy that David faces. There’s no lament that David complains about anything. There’s no petition that he gives. There’s no expression of individual thanksgiving that he gives, like we see in so many of the psalms. In this psalm, it is just praise. And that’s all. Often have seen in our studies through the psalms that David will tell us or one of the other psalmists will tell us to praise the Lord. That’s what this psalm does. Often some of those psalms will tell us how to praise the Lord. This psalm shows us how. Often those psalms will tell us what kind of content should inform our praise of God. This psalm does that. Sometimes, we’ve seen this many times through the Psalter, the psalmist will exhort us as to praising God with all of our being. This psalm tells us that too, but it also shows us what that looks like.

A Call To Praise

Typical of what we’ve seen in the psalms of praise, these hymns, we have a call to praise, verses one and two. And here the psalmist addresses himself: “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me.” And then verses three through 19, we have the cause or the reason for praise: “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases.” And then we have the renewed call to praise. We have the call to praise, verses one to two. The cause for praise, verses 3 through 19, and then the renewed call to praise, verses 20 and following: “Bless the Lord, O ye his angels.”

We find that the psalm then is framed by this call to praise, verses 1 and 2, and then verses 20 through 22. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. We have in the psalm, just by way of overview, expanding circles of praise. In verses 1 and 2, David addresses himself. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” In verses 20 through 22, he addresses everything. “Bless the Lord, O ye his angels. Bless the Lord, O ye his hosts, and all his works.” Verse 10 tells us pretty clearly that his audience particularly is Israel, the people of God, because he says there, “He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities.” So his reason for praise pertains not only to him but, verse 11, to all of those who fear the Lord.

This call to praise then frames the entire psalm, verses 1 and 2, and then verses 20 through 22. But the purview of the praise expands. In verses 1 to 5, he addresses himself. Verses 6 to 19, he addresses the people of God. And then verses 20 through 22, he addresses all of creation and calls everything to praise God, our creator. This is widely recognized as one of the loveliest of the Psalms in the Psalter. It’s certainly one of the most familiar. It’s pure praise with a long itemization of the reasons for praise throughout the middle of the psalm. And it’s the basis of that wonderful hymn that we’ll sing afterwards: “Praise my soul, the king of heaven, to his feet your tribute brings. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, evermore his praises sing.” And we’ll see that after this message when we sing that song that every stanza of the psalm is taken right here out of Psalm 103.

All right, let’s work our way through verses one and two. We have a call to praise. Hymns, praise psalms, typically begin with a call to praise. What’s interesting here is that David calls himself to praise. That’s how he begins. “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.” You may not have ever exhorted yourself to praise God; that’s what David is doing here. And he does it in both verses. Verse one: “Bless the Lord, bless his holy name.” Verse two: “Bless the Lord.”

Bless means to speak well of. It’s one of the languages of praise, to praise the Lord. In verse one, at the end of the verse, he says—it’s a familiar note that we’ve seen in the Psalms—”Bless the Lord and all that is within me. Bless his holy name.” That is my inmost being. This is a familiar note. We’ve seen this often in the Psalms. Half-hearted praise is unworthy of God. And David recognizes that if he enters into praise as a mere routine, as a mere formality, then it’s really inappropriate. And so he calls his whole heart and his whole being to be engaged in giving God praise. And then in the last part of verse 2, he adds the negative command: “And forget not all his benefits. Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” That’s the content of his praise.

The Cause Or The Reason For Praise

And the last part of verse two then transitions us into verse three and following. Verses three to 19 then give us the reason for praise. And here he’ll outline the content of his praise. Verse three, notice the word “who.” That’s often how this section of the praise psalms begins. There’ll be a call to praise. And often you’ll see the little conjunction “for.” For he this and for he that and the other. Often you’ll see it—here in Psalm 104, we have it a little bit different. Just “he.” Verse three: “He lays the beams of his chambers on the water,” itemizing what God does and reasons for praise.

But here in Psalm 103, he uses the pronoun “who.” “Bless the Lord, O my soul, who…” And here he starts to outline what God does. “Who forgives all your iniquity.” So verse 2b, “forget not all his benefits,” that transitions us now to this cause or reason for praise, and he begins specifically itemizing the reasons for praise. And at the top of the list, verse 3: “Who forgives all your iniquity.” And here he’s speaking to himself. It implies a recognition of sin. It implies repentance. He has received forgiveness. And so he calls on himself to praise God, who forgives all our iniquity.

This is where praise begins. My earliest memory was age two. It was moving day from Chicago, where my dad had planted a church there, to Bartonville, Illinois. I remember moving day because I remember someone putting me in the big moving boxes and pushing me around the floor, and I thought it was great fun. My earliest memory: went to the church there and my dad tells me that when we drove up to it—I don’t remember this myself of course—but drove up to the building that Sunday morning and it was in such disrepair and awful. Dad says, “I’m not going there.” He started to drive away and my mom says, “You’ve got to go there. You told them you’d be there to preach today.” “I’m not going there.” And well, he drove around the block. Maybe it’ll look better from the other direction. “No, it doesn’t look any better that way. And I’m not going there.” “You gotta go. You told them you’d preach for them today.”

So he went in, he preached. Found out later that the church was in as much disrepair on the inside as it was on the outside. There was a, in the church minutes, there was a church business meeting where they haggled for I don’t know how many hours it was—two, three hours—over the remaining two, three dollars and sixty-five cents or something left in the budget. “What are we going to do with this?” That was the kind of situation there. It was a difficult place to go. They asked Dad to come as pastor. He didn’t want to go, so he upped the ante, said, “I won’t go unless this, this, this, and this.” And they said, “Okay.” And then he felt honor bound, and he had to go.

They were there 11 years. It was my memory, a time of blessing. Wonderful memories there. The church grew in the 11 years from about 30 to 500 people. Many people coming to Christ. The majority of the deacon board men within the—Dad had led to Christ himself. It was routine to see people coming to Christ. And one of my outstanding memories of the church there and church life was Sunday evening service. And Dad would often open the floor and say, “Let’s have some testimonies. Anybody want to praise God for anything?” And we had testimonies for various things and various people would pop up to praise the Lord.

But what stands out in my mind at the beginning of those testimonies routinely—I can’t say it was everyone, but routinely—the first item of praise: “I want to thank God for saving me.” And then they might go on and say, “God blessed us this week with something else” or whatever. But routinely, the first thing: “I want to say, thank God for saving me.” Sometimes people would elaborate on it. “I want to thank God for saving me. I’m the only one in my family. I don’t know why he did it.” Or someone else might get up and say, “I want to thank God for saving me. He brought me into a Christian home. I heard the gospel from the time I was a baby. He spared me from many things. I want to thank God for that.” Sometimes we’d have people just stand up and say, “I want to thank God for saving me.” And that’s it. That’s all they would say, and they would sit back down.

On this psalm, David wants to enumerate all of his benefits. That’s verse two. “Forget not all of his benefits.” But this is where he begins. This is basic: “Who forgives all our iniquity.” So he begins here with, “who forgives all our iniquity.” This is basic. If we don’t have God’s forgiveness, nothing else matters. No Christian can read this, “who forgives all our iniquity,” no Christian can read this with any carefulness at all without thinking in terms of the cross of Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.” This is the nature of the cross work of Christ. He took the debt of our sin and paid it in full. In Paul’s language, he took that IOU, that certificate of what we owed, the debt that was accumulated to God for our sin, and he nailed it to his cross. And we’re forgiven. We get off scot-free. Not because God has just decided to let bygones be bygones. Not because he’s lowered the bar. Not because he’s pretended sin wasn’t there. But he’s forgiven our debt of sin because that debt of sin was paid for us in full by the Lord Jesus.

And with forgiveness, he tells us, verse 2, we have all benefits. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” That is to say, with the forgiveness comes everything else. That’s similar to what Paul says in Romans chapter 8 verse 32. “He that spared not his son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” That is, if God has given us his son and through him the forgiveness of sins, how would he ever withhold anything else? If God has given us Christ and the forgiveness of sins in him, then do you think he would withhold reconciliation? Acceptance? Sonship? Assurance? The blessed hope? All of these things are a given if we have God’s forgiveness.

And we should note that in verse 3, “who forgives all your iniquity.” Aren’t you glad God doesn’t forgive just some of your iniquity? Aren’t you glad it doesn’t say something like, “who forgives most of our sins”? Aren’t you glad God doesn’t come to us and say, “Well, I’ll forgive you for this many, but no more. At some point, you’re on your own. You have to make up for it yourself. Or maybe in purgatory, you can make amends for it yourself.” The whole glory of the cross is that all of our sin was placed on Jesus. And he paid the penalty in full. God’s forgiveness then is basic. Without it we have nothing. But with it, we have everything.

And he picks up on that in verse 3 at the end. “Who heals all your diseases.” Now I suppose on one level you could read that and say, “Well, he’s so far he’s healed all my diseases.” And I suspect that’s entailed in this somehow. But you’ve got to know that David was not under some mistaken notion that God would always heal every disease and his health would never fail and he would never die. And yet the verse seems to imply that forgiveness entails healing. You might be aware of our charismatic brothers and sisters who like to proclaim that there’s healing in the atonement. And I like to respond: they are exactly right. Their timing’s a little off. They think that because Christ died for us, we can have the gift of healing and pronounce healing every time and expect God, if we live sinlessly, God will heal all of our diseases here and now. Timing’s off. And that’s all. Ultimately, though, our healing will be total. There’s the resurrection hope of every forgiven soul.

We’ve had, I think it’s fair to say, more than our share of death around here lately. In our own congregation, extended family of our congregation, friends, myself on the outside—seen too much death lately. One of the older men in the congregation said to me, after Dan passed away, he says, “I’m next.” Well, he wasn’t next. But he’ll take his turn, you’ll take your turn, I’ll take my turn. And the great thing about knowing that we are in Christ, knowing that sins are forgiven, is that that grave does not have the last say. And if you think in that, that maybe I’m reading too much into this verse, look at the next verse. “Who redeems your life from the pit.” He redeems. This is the kinsman redeemer language. This is the nature of the work of Christ, the meaning of his death, that he has paid the ransom price of our sin and redeemed us from sin and all of its ill effects. And it says he’s redeemed your life from the pit.

Now again, on one level, that might be a metaphor. There are Psalms that talk about it that way. He redeems us from the pit of some disease or for some danger that has come our way. But David often takes the longer look—rescued from the pit of death. We find that in Psalm 49. We find it most famously in Psalm 16, where David says, “Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices, for my flesh dwells secure. You will not abandon your Holy One, my soul, to see corruption.” You might remember that that verse Peter picks up in this Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2 and says, “Now David, his body remains in the grave.” David wasn’t talking about David. David was talking about Messiah, his greater son. He rose from the dead, but precisely because the Lord Jesus has risen from the dead, then necessarily all who belong to him will be raised from the dead as well. And I think David is taking that long look here to see it. Whatever degree of knowledge he may have had, he saw that there was this hope of the resurrection of the righteous. And he’s saying here, in effect, there’s forgiveness of sin now. There’s hope for eternity, and there’s everything in between. God has given us all benefits.

In fact, where do you go from there? So the last part of verse four: “Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Crowns us. Wonderful metaphor. Crowns us not like with a diadem, a royal crown, but crowns us like with a wreath bestowing public honor. And what he crowns us with speaks of the lavishness of God’s giving. He crowns us with this. And what he crowns us with is steadfast love and mercy. “Crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Steadfast love—we’ve come across that a hundred times already in the Psalms. Speaking of God’s affection, God’s kindness, God’s loyal, covenant loyalty to his people and his determination and resolve to do them good. And he couples that here with his compassion, his tender mercies. That’s the yearning affections of love. This is probably the key verse of the entire psalm. It ties the benefits that we receive from God to his benevolent attributes. He crowns us with steadfast love and mercy. What is his steadfast love and mercy with which he’s crowned us? He’s forgiven all of our iniquity. He’s healing all our diseases. He redeems our life from the pit.

Takes it a step further in verse five: “Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” Again, he’s stressing the lavishness of God’s provisions. He satisfies fully. He satisfies us to the full measure of our capacity. So much so that it’s invigorating, “so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.” This is very close to what we find in the New Testament, particularly in Paul, the language of joy and rejoice. That our joy in Christ is such that it is not tied to any external circumstance. This is what explains what I’ve often called the Christian enigma. That in whatever kind of circumstance, facing whatever kind of disappointment, there’s a joy that shores us up. Or in the language here, it renews our youth like that of the eagles. It’s been said that salvation is not a feeling, but it sure feels good. And I think that’s what he’s getting at here.

Verse six. He takes it further: “The Lord works in righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” Now this is fascinating language here. We find it often in the Psalter, elsewhere in the Old Testament as well, and then it comes to a full blossom in the New Testament—the doctrine of justification. But this language of God working in righteousness as describing his deliverance, his works of salvation, his justice for all who are oppressed. What’s interesting about it is that we would not normally think of God’s righteousness as something to point to in order to describe his saving work. But that’s what he’s talking about. His justice for all who are oppressed. That’s Egypt. The exodus from Egypt. The deliverance of God’s people. That’s verse 7. “He made his ways known to Moses. His acts to the people of Israel.” They were in a bondage, in slavery, in Egypt. He brought them out and he says it’s a work of righteousness. And all of that sets up a model for God’s work of righteousness in saving his people. You would think that it is his righteousness that will condemn us. Of course, this comes to full blossom in the New Testament when we find that God saves us on the ground of a full satisfaction of righteousness in Jesus Christ.

Well, we get to verse eight. David turns his attention now and he recounts not only the benefits that we enjoy from the Lord, but the Lord’s benevolent attributes come into focus here. Verse eight: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” Does that ring a bell? Have you read those words before? Exodus chapter 34. You remember the background to all of that. Moses received the law from God on Mount Sinai. He comes down and the people are already in rebellion and idolatry against God. And there’s this conversation between God and Moses. They ought to be destroyed. He shouldn’t go with them. And Moses pleads with God to go with them. Remember at the climax of that, Moses asked God, “Show me your glory.” Quite a request. You remember the incident in Exodus chapter 34. Moses hides under the cleft of a rock. He’s allowed to see what we might call the trailing edge of God’s glory as he passes by. And the Lord proclaimed his name. “Show me your glory,” Moses says. And the Lord passes by, and he proclaims his name to Moses. And as he passes by, he says, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” And those lines are repeated often throughout the Old Testament. This is who God is. He is a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And here David is recognizing that himself in his own personal experience. Despite my continued sin, what I have found is that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We found that, haven’t we?

Well, that’s the theme of verses 9 and following then. Verses 9 and 10, his anger is held back. “He will not always chide.” He won’t strive against us always. He won’t be angry always. “He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquity.” That is the whole essence of salvation. The whole glory of it is that God doesn’t treat us according to our sins. He doesn’t repay us for what we deserve.

Verse 11 and 12, he expands and says his grace is just impossible to measure. Verse 11: “As high as the heavens are above the earth.” Now wait a minute. Just how high are the heavens above the earth? It’s not like there’s some ceiling up there. You can measure it up in so many feet, so many miles, whatever. It just keeps going. And that’s what David has in mind here. “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love to those who fear him.” Or if you like, on the horizontal plane, verse 12: “As far as the east is from the west.” How far is that? Can you go east far enough to where finally you’ll be going west? Or can you go west far enough to that finally you’ll be going east? “Far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” That is to say, we will never be made to face our sins. Removed from us.

Verses 13 and 14, he speaks of the tenderness and the intimacy of God’s mercies. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.” Why? “For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust.” Our creator knows what we’re made of. And in this context, it’s something like what Don Carson commented once in reference to this verse. It’s almost like God is looking for reasons to forgive. A wise father, a good father will never be harsh with his children. And even when they misbehave, he won’t be overly harsh with them. He’s saying God is like that. He knows our frame. He remembers we’re just dust. And he shows his compassion and his patience accordingly.

All of this, verses eight and following, is a repeated theme in the Old Testament, echoing Exodus chapter 34, that God is compassionate and merciful. God is a God who pursues sinners in grace. He’s patient with a rebellious people. Now you will hear—I’m sure you’ve heard it before—someone will come along and say the God of the Old Testament is just a wrathful God. The God of the New Testament is different. He’s a God of love. You hear that and you know immediately these people haven’t read their Old Testament. Yes, of course, there’s plenty of judgment and there’s plenty of wrath and there’s plenty of threats in the Old Testament. There’s the famous Day of the Lord when God will come in judgment against sinners all over the earth. The New Testament, by the way, has all of that as well, only it ratchets it up even further than the Old Testament. But throughout, what we find is that God delays judgment. With open arms, He runs after, he pursues sinners in grace. And at the first sign of repentance, he’s ready to forgive. And over and again, throughout the Old Testament, God demonstrates over and over again, verse eight, that he’s merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

In fact, it’s something, if you think about it, it’s just stunning. It’s surprising to see this. This is the God who is a righteous God. This is a God whose righteousness demands punishment of sin. Sinners who rebel against him are an affront to his majesty. They’re a dare to his justice. And in fact, we find throughout the scriptures that the Lord is determined and resolved to exact justice always. But the stunning thing about what we find of God is that when he executes judgment, he does it at a cost to himself. He sends his son and bears the wrath of sin due against his people. Verse 10: “He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquity.” He doesn’t ignore, he doesn’t pretend that sin hasn’t happened. He serves justice, but he bears the cost of the justice himself. Aren’t you glad, verse 10, God does not deal with us according to our sins? Or repay us according to our iniquities? Rather, verse 12, rather than hold us accountable for our sins, he removes them as far away as the east is from the west. Or verse four, he crowns us, throws accolades on us with steadfast love and mercy. He gives us his son, and in him, he lavishly gives us every spiritual blessing.

This is the God of the Bible. It’s the whole story of the Bible. From Genesis 3 onward, the whole story of the Bible is God pursuing sinners in grace. From the very beginning, it is not more or less well-meaning people clamoring after God. But from the beginning it is, “Adam, where are you?” God pursuing sinners in grace. The whole Bible is a story of a patient and a compassionate God running after sinners in grace. And it never seems to end. That’s the topic he takes up in verses 15 to 17. And here he contrasts the steadfastness of God’s love with the brevity of mortal life. Verse 15: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place is no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to the children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.” So unlike our loves and loyalties that go in fits and starts, God’s love is steadfast. It runs uninterrupted from everlasting to everlasting. This, this is the God who pursued you in your sin and drew you to faith in Christ and a thousand times since in patience and with compassion has pursued you in your sin, wooing you back.

We get to verse 19. We have a related dimension of praise, and that is God’s sovereign rule. “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” This, of course, is the theme of the Psalter. We’ve seen this over and again. God has set out to establish his kingdom in grace. Of course, there’s another sense in which God rules over all anyway. But his objective since Genesis chapter 3 is to establish his kingdom, a kingdom of willing subjects. He’s been pursuing in grace all the way through, and to rescue for himself a people who will give him praise. Yes, there’s the judgment aspect of his kingdom as well, and in the Psalms, that’s a joyful thing too. God’s enemies won’t prosper forever, and the enemies of God’s people will not prevail. And it’s a joyful thing to know that God will come in judgment. But still, it is from among God’s enemies that he secures a people for himself. Despite their rebellion, he saves them for his own namesake.

Renewed Call To Praise

Well, verses 20 through 22, he concludes with a renewed call to praise. Verses 20 and 21, he addresses the angels. “Bless the Lord, O ye his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will.” Verse 22, he addresses everything everywhere. “Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion.” And then he concludes calling himself to praise again. “Bless the Lord, oh my soul.”

Glance through this psalm one more time, just in brief. Notice all the “alls.” Notice all the “alls” in this psalm. Twice in the opening call to praise, verse one: “Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me.” Verse two: “Forget not all his benefits.” And then we have it four times recounting the reasons for praise. Why should we praise God? Because, verse three, “he forgives all your iniquities, heals all your diseases. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. His kingdom rules over all.” And then twice more in his final call to praise. “Bless the Lord, all his hosts. Bless the Lord, all his works.” Verse 22.

A fullness of praise for the fullness of blessings received from the God who’s full of compassion and abounding in steadfast love and mercy. And so he concludes calling himself to praise once again. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Let’s bow together. Our Father, nothing moves our heart more and your praise. And with the psalmist today, with all of our hearts, for the greatness of your forgiveness, for the greatness of your compassion, for the abundance of your steadfast love, we offer you our praise for our inmost being. We thank you for what you are and for what you have done for us through Jesus Christ in his name. You