DAY FORTY-THREE: 

Praise the Lord! 

Psalm 103:1-22 

Today we look at one of the Psalms that teaches how to worship even as we engage in worshipping the Lord. The introduction is simply "Of David." No specification of what kind of Psalm it is, and no liturgical or musical directions. Just dive in!

Let's spend some time on the very first word. The Hebrew word for bless is barak. If that sounds like our president's first name, it should, because his name comes from Arabic, which is quite similar to Hebrew. A man named Baruch (from the same word) served as the Prophet Jeremiah's secretary. The word occurs 289 times in the Old Testament. It's the same word God used when He blessed Adam and Eve and told them to multiply and take dominion over the earth. It's the same word God used when He promised to bless Abraham. People bless one another as well. Isaac blessed Jacob. We read in Numbers 6:22-27, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.”

This word is in the piel, or intensive, mood. Piel intensifies a word. To break becomes to smash, and to step on becomes to grind under foot. What this means is don't just bless the lord, BLESS THE LORD!!!!!! Put everything you are and everything you have into blessing the Lord. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is in me bless his holy name."

Why bless the Lord? Because of what He has done for you. Don't forget His benefits:

• He forgives your iniquity. We saw that yesterday with David. The Lord forgave him for his terrible sins, and He does the same for us through Jesus;
• He heals all your diseases. We thank and praise Him for healing not just our bodies but also our souls and minds;
• He redeems our lives from the pit. The Lord saves us from our addictions that carry us and our families into hell;
• He crowns you with steadfast love (hesed, or grace) and mercy (compassion). As we saw in the 23rd Psalm, these things will follow us all the days of our lives;
• He satisfies you with good things. He blesses you so richly you can never really count your blessings!
• He restores your youth like the eagle. I'm wondering about this one this morning, as I was dead tired after a late night at a presbytery meeting. But I think that promise applies not just to our bodies. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." My body may be slowly breaking down with age, but my soul grows stronger each and every day that I walk with the Lord!

Another reason to thank the Lord is because He is merciful. "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." God doesn't give us what we deserve, and I'm oh so grateful for that! He could easily justify crushing me each and every day for my sins. Yet even before I knew Him as Savior and Lord He was merciful, and His mercy is with me to this day! "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 Isaac Watts wrote in one of his great hymns, "He breaks the power of cancelled sin/ He sets the prisoner free/ His blood can make the foulest clean/ His blood availed for me."

We thank and praise the Lord because He is understanding. "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." We're weak and imperfect. He could find us absolutely contemptible, but He loves us! He helps us along in our weakness and guides us along through life.

We thank and praise the Lord because while we are perishing, He is eternal. "But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children..." In His love we will live forever with Him in His house, as Psalm 23 says, forever.

David goes so far as to command all the angels in Heaven to bless the Lord! "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!" I don't think any angels took offense, because that's exactly what they do constantly. Revelation 4:8 says, "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'" Jesus taught us to pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven." As much as we are able within our human limitations, aided by the Holy Spirit, we must constantly give praise and thanks to the Lord.

David concludes as he began: "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" The worship service in David's Tent or in the Temple will come to an end at some point. But God's people must worship constantly. In Revelation 4 and 5 we learn the two reasons for worshipping God: He is holy, and He is worthy. He is holy because of who He is. The Lord told Moses His name: "I Am." We can name all sorts of things that He is as we rattle off an endless list of His attributes: He is omniscient (knows everything), omnipresent (everywhere at once), wise, just, merciful, etc. But in front of all of those is His name, I Am. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is in me bless His holy Name!" And we worship God because He is worthy. The word worthy comes from the word worth, and our word worship comes from this word. Worship is recognizing the "worth-ship" of God. He is worthy because of what He has done. He created all things, including us. And He has redeemed us through the blood of the Lamb. We praise Him because of His great works of creation and redemption. I love to read chapters 4 an 5 of the Book of Revelation as part of my preparation for worship. I'd have to say that they are my favorite passages in the whole Bible!

A few weeks ago I commented in a sermon about how I found worship dull when I was growing up. I came to realize that this is not a matter of worship style, contemporary vs. traditional worship, but really a matter of our hearts. Do we come to the House of the Lord with our hearts and minds primed to worship? Do we ask God to "tune our hearts to sing [His] praise?" Take some time on Saturday evening to meditate on what you'll be doing in the morning. And as you wake up on the Lord's Day begin your worship even as you're preparing to join with your brothers and sisters in God's House.

Harry Ironside said, "We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction." If we will worship God, bless Him with all we are and all we have, everything else in life will fall into place. We will have what we really need, and find out that we really didn't need the other things we thought we needed. Worship organizes our lives!

Enjoy this beautiful song, "10,000 Reasons," by Matt Redman. Enter into the Lord's presence!