How can I glorify God? Psalm 50:23 names one specific way. God said, “Whoso offers praise glorifies me.” We don’t need to use this as a Saturday night confession, “I’ll fix sinning all week with this one confession.” We can, however, salvage a wasted day of not glorifying God by praising Him.
In Psalm 103:1-2, David starts with three principles of praise before he actually starts praising the Lord.
1. We are commanded to praise in Psalm 103 to “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me.”
We must choose to praise Him. At the same time praise is the overflow of “all that is within me.” Even though praise is an act of will and obedience, praise is not an outward ritual. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for honoring Him with their lips when their hearts were from him (Matthew 15:8).
2. We are commanded to praise God: “bless his holy name.”
Praise is God-centered. Worship must be all about God. Worship is not a fair show in the flesh by the alleged worshipers.
3. We are commanded to praise God for His “benefits” or blessings. It is a choice to be positive. To focus on His “benefits.” If you ever find yourself struggling with a negative attitude, read Psalm 103 back to God. It is pure praise. There is not a single negative statement in this Psalm.
When you do premarital counseling and you ask the husband to be to “list five faults of your future wife.” “She has now.” One year later you ask him to list five qualities: “She has none.” What has changed? Probably not the wife. His focus has changed. If we are negative about life or even God, we need to let God use Psalm 103 to change us.
The Psalm can help us focus on the Lord’s blessings in 103:3-5 and His attributes in 103:6-18. First David praises the Lord for five “benefits’ or blessings.
1. Praise the Lord for His Blessings (Psalm 103:3-5)
David repeats “who” at the beginning of each of the five blessings he praises God for.
A. Praise the Lord for His Forgiveness (103:3a)
David the adulterer and murderer was forgiven. So are you if you know Christ. The righteousness of Christ has been imputed to your account in heaven according to Romans 4. Paul quotes David in Psalm 32:2 who wrote, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” He has not just forgiven one of our sins, which would be grace, but He has forgiven all of our sins.
B. Praise the Lord for Healing of infirmities (103:3b)
The Great Physician can heal directly in answer to prayer. He can use medicines. Paul told Timothy to take a little medicine for his stomach’s sake. He can choose not to heal. Paul had a constant thorn in the flesh. Paul also said, “I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Lastly, God can heal by taking you to heaven. Either way, the Lord heals all of our diseases.
C. Praise the Lord for Deliverance from the pit of sin (103:4a)
In Psalm 40:2, David rejoiced, “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.” God not only delivered us from the pit of sin but from a “bottomless pit” of eternal separation from God in Hell.
D. Praise the Lord for Victory over Sin (103:b)
God not only delivered Joseph from the pit from which his jealous brothers had thrown him, but God exalted him to second only to Pharaoh. God wants to deliver us from and to. From sin and to victory over sin. Thirteen years after Joseph was rescued out of the pit, God exalted him to a place of leadership that not only saved his family but his nation.
God has delivered us from the pit of sin to reign in life (Romans 5:17) in service to others.
E. Praise the Lord for Spiritual Satisfaction (103:5)
Sin satisfies temporarily but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Serving the Lord satisfy until old age. Eagles grow old and still soar high because of molting. The old feathers are replaced with new feathers. They not only look young but they fly high. Paul put it this way, “The old man is perishing but the inward man is being renewed day by day.”
I watched the last sermon J. Vernon McGee preached before he died. He had lost weight from his battle with cancer. His collar was twice the size of his neck. He said, “I could turn completely around in this pulpit and my suit would not move.” But then he preached the Word of God. He opened God’s Word and preached with power. His satisfaction with walking with the Lord resulted in renewed power in ministry.
Take a few minutes today, and reread these five verses and pray back to God as if they were your own words, and “Bless the Lord.”
In addition to praising the Lord for what He has done for us, we can praise Him for who he is.
2. Praise the Lord for His Attributes (103:6-22)
David repeats “The Lord” three times in verses 6-22 and identifies three attributes of God for which we should praise Him. In addition to praising Him for His benefits, we should praise Him for His attributes.
A. Praise the Lord for His Justice (103:6-7)
The example is the Lord delivering the oppressed children of Israel as they fled from Egypt through the Red Sea. God took care of the oppressors.
David was oppressed for 10-15 years by jealous King Saul. David ran from cave to cave as a fugitive. But David was innocent. David refused to take justice into his own hands even though he had two opportunities.
“Vengeance is mine says the Lord.” One day God will right all wrongs.
B. Praise the Lord for His Mercy (103:8-18)
David does not dwell on the justice of God but rather on His mercy. As bad as we might want God’s justice for someone else we do not want God’s justice for us.
After David had sinned with Bathsheba and her husband, David prayed for mercy (51:1). Now he follows that prayer for mercy with praise for mercy in 103:8-10. The Lord is slow to anger (v. 8). When He does get angry He doesn’t stay angry long (v. 9). Lastly, because He has forgiven our sins, He no longer has a reason to get angry (v.10)
Having experienced God’s mercy, David praises the Lord for His immeasurable mercy in 103:11-13.
a. God’s mercy is immeasurable in height (v. 11). Dr. Steward Custer, an astronomer and theologian said, “Reduce 1 million miles to one foot and the closest star is Northern Canada.”
b. God’s mercy is immeasurable in width (v. 12). East and West go forever into infinity and never meet. Never will we meet our forgiven sins again.
c. God’s mercy is immeasurable in human terms (103:13). When I was in the third grade I had a teacher who scared me to death. I cried every morning before school. Mom had to push me out the door every morning to go to the bus stop. He would yank students out of the class into the hall and paddle them almost every day. After that year he was fired. Finally, we moved out of that school district. I was so relieved. After I was grown and married, my wife and I were at Mom and Dad’s just sitting around talking and I brought up Mr. Davis’ class. And how I cried every day before school And Dad said, “That is why we moved.” I did know Dad moved just so I would not have to face that difficulty each school day.” The mercy of the Lord is even many more times more merciful.
4. God’s mercy is eternal (103:14-18)
We are frail and temporal (103:14). We are not made of gold dust but dirt dust. We don’t live long (103:15, 16). We are like grass and flowers that the hot Palestinian wind not only kills but disintegrates.
By contrast, God is eternal, but He is not just eternal He is eternally merciful (103:17-18). David quotes Moses in Psalm 90.2 who said God is from “everlasting to everlasting.” David goes a step further, God is everlastingly merciful.
Do you know what we are going to sing when we get to heaven in Revelation 7:11-12? “Blessing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen”
C. Praise the Lord for His Sovereignty (103:19)
God raises up nations and kings and puts down nations and kings. He rules the machinery of the entire universe. You say, “But you don’t know what I am going through.” That is true but the Lord does and He cares and He is in control.
John Wesley had been riding horseback for months in downpours of rain on his circuit rides. He finally complained to the Lord: “Why don’t you stop this rain it is hindering my ministry.” About that time a highway robber jumped out from behind a tree with a flintlock musket. The robber was going to shoot, kill, and rob Wesley. But when the robber pulled the trigger, the flintlock misfired. The rain had wet his gunpowder. The robber fled. Wesley got down off his horse and onto his knees in the mud beside the tree and thanked God for the rain.
David reaches a final crescendo of praise in 103:20-22.
David commands every living intellect being to praise the Lord. In other words, “Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord” (150:6). This will perfectly be experienced for the first time when the church is raptured to heaven as previewed in Revelation 5. The church, we believers have cast our crowns at His feet, we are on our faces in worship singing worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The cherubim are also singing and praising God. Then we are joined by angels: Ten thousand times ten thousand times, and thousand and thousands and by every living being in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
Finally, every one bows the knee and confesses with his/her lips that Jesus Christ is Lord “to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11).