Bless the Lord

Well, again, welcome to Hope Lowertown, soon to be Hope St. Paul, as we transition over there over the next month or so. And still on track to— again, we didn't set a hard date, but excited to get over there. That will— again, we can look at those. If you have any questions about all that stuff next week, we can chat through that. We've been in— this is week 6 of the Psalms. We kind of took a break from Mark. We've been slowly walking through the Gospel of Mark. We'll take a kind of a summer break. We'll be doing a little— Summer break. little sermon series that we still got to figure out as elders, and especially the kind of timing of when we move in. We'll see what happens. But right now we're in the Psalms, and I kind of— I'm basing this off of an old John Calvin quote, a reformer from the 1600s, that in his commentary on the Psalms, he called this the— that the Psalms are the anatomy of the soul, meaning Now you have God's word. God's word is written to us. It's for us that we can take God's word, and these are the words of God that he has for us. But the Psalms are God's word that he wrote and gave to us that we then can give back to him. Now, when we have some emotion or some deep feeling, and I just don't even know how to express myself, the Psalms are written to say, hey, are you mad at God? Here's how— Yeah. This is God saying, this is how you can express your anger with me. You're frustrated, you're feeling down, you're feeling depressed. This is how you can, you can reflect that back to me. And I'll even give you words to do that. It's this anatomy of the soul. So Ben Jones, one of our elders, he preached last week. Thank you for doing that. I was over at Columbia Heights filling in for Pastor Drew. He was on a mission trip. And so here we are back in, um, we're going to be not back, we're in Psalm 103, looking at gratitude or praise. Um, a few weeks ago, I was, uh, in the back in the sound booth with Patrick, and he was, uh, so this story maybe might be misrepresented because it was like secondhand, but, um, I don't even know how, how the story, how we got talking on this, but we started talking about Forrest Frank. Anyone familiar with Forrest Frank? Okay. Super popular. Kids love him for sure. Really, really popular guy. He's, I think he's 30, right? Something like that. And they just had a tour in Minneapolis here. And so it was on Sunday and it wasn't the best in the soundboard with Patrick. And somehow, of course, we just naturally started talking about Forrest Frank. I don't remember how it came up, but basically he just said that Sarah, his wife, was, you know, she's feeling a little, I don't know, convicted, a little Just like, hey, this guy just really enjoys Jesus. He just, it just, every song is just happy and it is, it is, they're powerful. They're, they're, they're fun songs to sing for sure. But he just enjoys being a Christian. And I think she was feeling that. I'm like, how come I, I think sometimes we just want to be down or something. I don't know. It just, life has me down. And, and, and I was like, oh, actually my, my family got to go to the concert. So I, I took this photo. Uh, from the, from the nosebleeds. Um, and, and, and so my, my kids were there and my wife and we, we, we were up there and they're singing these songs. And I remember feeling the same thing of almost like, hey, come on, Forrest, when are we going to get real? You know what I mean? Like, what are we going to— where's the minor key at that just says, yeah, this is hard and this really stinks sometimes. Right. And I was just like, it just, I was just waiting for it as if you can't, really worship God unless you've had a hard life. You know what I mean? It was just like, I just was feeling this in that moment. And then he shared his testimony about how he went through a really difficult time. I don't need to go into details. You can listen to him, I'm sure, talk about that or read about it. But the song that he wrote coming out of a difficult season of life, I think it was a death of a loved one that he was talking about, that this happened. And During that season, the song that he wrote about, uh, is— was this song. It's called Thankful. I've got— so I'm gonna, I'm gonna read the lyrics here, right? Because this is, this is, this is kind of the, the, this Forrest Frank of like, hey man, why are you always just happy and, and worshiping God in this way? Don't— maybe you just haven't experienced the, the life of hard knocks yet, but someday you will and, and your keys will start changing. And it was like, no, no, actually he did have some difficult things. And this is what came out of that. I've got so much to be thankful for. And this is why I asked that question. Like, hey, what is just something just kind of mundane? And yet I really want this thing. Like, I would almost say I need this thing. I've got so much to be thankful for. Look, I've got a roof and a bed, a couple of groc— I'm not going to sing it or rap it the way he does, but a couple of groceries to stay fed. I've got a phone. No, it's hard to not do. And clean water and some shoes when I want to go farther. Today I've got so much to be thankful for. Hey. I woke up this morning thinking, thank you, Lord. Hey. For giving me everything I could ever need and more. I've got so much to be thankful for. Eh? I have lights and a fan, a couple people who know who I am. I have a car and clean clothes, pots and pans I can cook on the stove. I have the sun and air in my lungs and a big mess that I get to clean up. I love that one. But most of all, one thing's true. Jesus, I'm grateful for you. You, you, ah. That's what I want to do today. We have been in the Psalms for now 5 weeks looking back. Today, the 6th week. Some of them have been heavy. They've been, they've been maybe almost depressing. I'm like, man, I walked into church and I was feeling good. And then I heard the pastor and I was like, wow, this is rough. So, but this morning I want to, I want to just bless the Lord. I want to Forrest Frank this or King David this and just worship Jesus. So let's look at this song. We're going to be at Psalm 103. I couldn't fit it all on the handout if you grabbed one of those, but we'll read through the whole thing eventually. And I don't— I really don't want to maybe dig into this the way I normally would. You're like, yeah, right. But let me Let's just get into this. I actually, I was talking with the elders about this and Ben said that he preached on Psalm 103 back in June, June 30th, 2024. He actually opened with a musician too. Does anyone remember the musician he opened with? Started with a T. TobyMac. TobyMac. He did the same thing 2 years ago and you all fell for it. TobyMac, that's the, that's the millennials. Forrest Frank, I guess, maybe would be the best way to describe him. Oh, boy. All right. He's still kicking. He's still kicking. All right. So if you want to go back and listen to that, that sermon was 13 minutes long. And you're like, we need to get Ben up here more often. Can we do that, please? And you all laugh, but there's a little bit of truth behind that laughter. I used this quote a couple of weeks ago when we were in the depths, when we were looking at Psalm 42 and 43, looking at spiritual depression. And I quoted Martyn Lloyd-Jones of, stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself. And I want to use this again, but this time in a way that it's actually preaching to ourselves and preaching the gospel to ourselves that is in a form of gratitude, not just of self-interrogation. Talk to yourself, preach the gospel to yourself. You have so much to be thankful for. Say that to yourself. Bless the Lord, O my soul. As we're going to see here in this psalm, there are no petitions, no petitions. There's no, God, can I have this? God, can you please remove this thing from me? God, can you destroy my enemies? There's none of the supplications, none of the petitions to God to remove or do anything. It's just worship and praise for who God is. So let's look at this. Got 3 just points, 3 small points: my soul, his character, and all his works. This is a psalm of David, 2nd king of Israel, wrote a lot of the psalms that we have in our book of Psalms. And he says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Do you hear him talking to himself again? Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits, who forgives all of your iniquity, or your sin, Who heals all of your diseases? It starts off with my soul. This is very personal for King David and on purpose. There was a pastor, C.H. Spurgeon, English preacher from the late 1800s, and he had a sermon on this psalm that I that I was reading this last week, and he says this: My Soul. He's differentiating. I'm sorry, I stopped quoting him. That's why I normally put it up on the screen. He's differentiating from an individual personal thing that's happening in this text versus a corporate thing. Okay? So he says, my soul, not merely the family through the father or the mother, nor the people through the pastor, nor the congregation through the choir. But personally, this is— there are going to be corporate aspects of the psalm, as we will see very explicitly. But I want you, and this might sound weird, I want you to think about yourself this morning. I want you to be selfish and think and hear yourself saying, bless the Lord, O my soul. He continues, 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 the eagle's. I love this list here, verses 3, 4, and 5, benefits. They list these benefits and it's in the— get a little nerdy here with me— it's in the second person singular here. He lists these who forgives. Okay, so he says, bless the Lord, the Lord who forgives my iniquity, who heals Who redeems, who crowns, who satisfies, who renews. This again is King David just preaching to himself. God, you are so good. I want to bless you. This is who you are. This is the same self-addressed fighting stance. If you remember that from a couple of weeks ago, or this Mortal Kombat, right? It's a— it's a fighting stance, not a finishing move. That this is— that's what this is, of preaching Jesus to ourselves. And now this posture now is a posture of gratitude. So let's just quickly move along here and look at his character, verses 16 through 18. It says, the Lord work— sorry, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. And he made his ways known to Moses. And He acts to the people, and His acts to the people of Israel. And the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. We see in these couple of verses here there is a change in the object of God's care, meaning there is— now it becomes corporate. There is a shift, all who are oppressed, children of Israel, us, all those who fear, as we will see. Then what does He do? As he's worshiping God, as he's blessing God, he says, I want to remember who God is. And matter of fact, I want to remember who God said he was. And so this isn't— this psalmist here by David is— he's not just making this up. He's actually directly quoting a passage in Exodus when Moses is at the top of a mountain and he says, God, I want to see you. Can I see you? And God's like, uh, I mean, you could, but then you die. So, I mean, you want to— let's not do that. So he says, I want to, I want to hide you in the cleft of the rock, right? This stained glass window over here. I'm going to hide you in this cleft of the rock, and I'm going to pass by you, and I'm going to let you look at where I once was. That, that we can do. And it says this, the Lord passed before him, before Moses, and proclaimed, So this is God's words now that are quoted in the Psalm here. This is God. He says, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Okay. Again, in our English translations, when we see LORD in all caps, which it doesn't even translate, and when I was copying and pasting from the ESV here, But the Lord, the Lord, when it's in all caps, that means his covenant name. So this is God shouting out loud to Moses as he passes by him. Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious. He, he gets personal with Moses, which is, I think, quite important. So it's Yahweh, the name, like my name versus just in general. Some god or deity or being. He's saying, no, this is, this is me. This is my name that I've chosen to reveal to you, Israel. Moses, you are the only nation, you're the only people that get to call me by my name. Maybe by illustration, everyone in this room, most of you that know me, call me Brian. That's my name. But it's my, it's what everyone calls me. But there's two kids in here who get to call me dad, right? You you don't call me dad, right? That would be I'd you'd get punched in the no, you wouldn't do that. I'm just I'd lose my job, right? There's two kids, three kids in the world, two in this room that get to call me dad. That's personal. That's intimate. And that's the difference between Yahweh and just. God, that's just like saying Brian, but Yahweh, that's like saying Father, Dad. And he shows up and he says, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. This is from Exodus 34, and the psalmist King David is going to quote that here. This is who he is. I wanna bless you, I wanna worship you. And matter of fact, I'm gonna use your words, who you say you are about yourself, and reflect them back to you. Verse 9, 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. We see this us and our. Well, who does pay for it then? He does. Amen. There has to be a payment for sin. This is high treason. You can't just excuse this. This is treason against the Creator of the universe. Someone has to pay for the iniquities. Who is it? It's God. The Apostle Paul makes this very clear in his epistle Called Colossians to the church in Colossae. He writes this in chapter 2, verses 13 through 14. And you who were dead in your trespasses, in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. Huh? What is that all about? Basically, what Paul is saying here is that he doesn't deal with us according to our sins or how bad we've messed up, the trespasses, But then he also paid— sorry, that we don't even follow our own rules, right? That's this idea of my own flesh, that I'm going to obey my own rules, but the way that I want you to treat each other, I don't treat other people that way all the time. I'm imperfect even in my own mind, in my own conscience. God made alive. together with Him, with Christ, having forgiven all of our sins. Well, how did He do that? There's got to be a payment. But the psalmist here, King David, just said He doesn't deal with us according to our sins, that He doesn't repay us according to our sins. There's got to be a payment. And he said, how does He do it? Verse 14, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands This he set aside. How? Nailing it to the cross. Through Jesus. He paid for it in full when he took on flesh, when he lived the life that I couldn't live and was executed, nailed to a cross, buried, and then rose again. Life might not be perfect right now, but man, we've got a lot to be grateful for. And this is it. It's Jesus. The psalmist continues, for as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love for those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. I know I've shared this before. There's my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Beefus, that she had this globe. Right? And I remember her doing this. Hey, when I start— when I'm going to walk north, when I go south, you tell me when you're all north, north, north, north, south, south, south. Okay, cool. I'm going to start walking west, west, west. Tell me when I get to east, right? And you know, you cross some prime meridian, some kid's like, east! It's like, no, you dummy. And you just keep walking, right? Because you can't. You can't. It doesn't work that way. I was the dummy, just in case you were wondering. I have a lot of shame from that still from 6th grade. I remember that moment. And you're walking on the globe. And it just doesn't. That's the whole— as far as the east is from the west, it is infinitely apart from one another. That's how far he removes our sins. And then here we get this, what I was just talking about, this idea of Yahweh, this personal language. 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 we are dust. For as man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower in the field, for the wind passes over it and it's gone, and its place knows it no more. There's this, I don't know who it is, but every once in a while they pull up on my algorithms and whatever social media I'm on, and it's these people who clean gravestones. I don't know if you've ever seen this before, but they find some old old tombstone, you know, from the late 1700s or whatever. And they pick it up, you know, they put some new footings in or whatever, and they clean it and they wash and they put the sand in it so the letters stand out. And it's kind of cool because whoever makes that little video does a little bit of a history behind the person, and I like history, and it's kind of cool. The thing is, if there wasn't a stone there, that person's name would never be uttered ever again. Right? They lived a life. Maybe they got married, maybe they had kids, so maybe their kids were like talking about their dad. Maybe their grandkids, like at most, knew who they were. They're gone. Flourished like a flower, but then it's just no more. But that's who we are. That's who I am. But God, you, But the steadfast love— maybe you've picked up on this theme as we've been going through the Psalms, that I've been trying to pick Psalms that highlight this steadfast love, the hesed, this covenantal, everlasting, never-fading love that God has for us. But the steadfast love of Yahweh from everlasting to everlasting. On those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children. This doesn't just end after one or two generations in some memory. No, this just keeps going to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. There's 3 measurements here of this hesed, this covenantal love. I love this, just poetry. I'm just going to do my best to try to quantify what this love is. As high as the heavens over earth, as far as the east is from the west, from everlasting to everlasting. David is just trying to describe the immense love of God. But again, he's preaching this to himself, or we should be saying this This is, this is love, right? And I think sometimes it can be, it can feel so, I don't know, otherworldly or ethereal or just, yeah, God loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yeah. Yeah. This, this is love. All right. Those of us who have had the, maybe the privilege of like, well, maybe, maybe we'll go way back. Okay. Let's, we'll go way back. Pre-9/11. Do you remember back in the day when you could like go into an airport and do whatever you wanted? There was a time where you could do that. And there was moments when people then would return on a flight and you could greet them at the gate. Like when they would get off their plane and deboard, you could be standing there. That was true. Now, can you imagine being gone on a work trip or being gone on something for a week or whatever, and you come back and as soon as you come out, there are people there with signs and flowers saying, welcome home. I tell you, in those moments like that, the way that I've never experienced that because of 9/11, but I remember doing that for my dad. I remember doing that for people. And I can only imagine the way that they would feel loved and seen and cherished. And that when you are, I mean, in a moment of loneliness or despair, I genuinely, the whole point of this Psalm is God loves you. I mean, that intimate love. He knows you in and out. He sees you perfectly. And he says, yeah, Dad, Dad, I love you so much that I'm going to send my Son to die for you. I can't even fathom that kind of love. I have kids. I can't imagine sacrificing my own son for one of you. And I love you guys. But not like that. That is love from everlasting to everlasting. That's that, that's that covenantal, everlasting, never failing love. This isn't just God's love for others. This is God's love for you. And so that, that when we think about that, that's why we can cry out, bless the Lord. my soul. If we have any time, let's look at this last phrase here or this last point, all of His works. The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His kingdom rules over all. Again, here we're going to see this corporate aspect. Bless the Lord, O you 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 the places of his dominions. Bless the Lord, O my soul. You can see that he adds himself, his own soul to this corporate choir of blessing and worship to God. It's far bigger than himself. I've said this many times, right? But this is a song of gratitude here that starts personal, but it doesn't stay private. I've said this again, that we are called to have a personal relationship with Jesus, but it's never meant to be private. It's not. It's not private the same way that Ryan— where'd Ryan go? Ryan still in here? Oh, yep, there he is. He's a little head above the soundboard. Ryan just got engaged. Congratulations, Ryan. Woo! What do you do when you're in that moment? You can't contain yourself. You want to tell everybody, this is— I am in love. And he even logged onto Facebook for the first time in 2 years to tell everyone that he was in love. That's what happens. I can't contain it. It's my individual personal relationship with Jesus and he loves me and it's so powerful that that I can't contain it. I'm going to tell others so that we corporately can worship and praise and glorify God together. How do we do this? Let me just, in the last few minutes here, I want to talk about this. All right. I may have brought this up 9 years ago or so. I used to teach systematic theology and I'd bring this up and it always caused an argument and I don't get it. Because I know I'm right. No, let me explain. And it really is semantics. It totally is. You can completely disagree with me. For me, this helps. It just helps me define some words. It helps me understand a little bit more of what's going on. So I'm splitting hairs here, but it helps me again think. One, so I've got these 2 circles, right? Worship, one circle, glorify, In another one. I think they're different concepts, but they overlap, of course. And in the middle, this is new, I've never done this before till today, is this idea of that bless is in the middle. You take worshiping God and you take glorifying God, and when they overlap in the intersecting part of the circle, it's bless the Lord. Okay, let me explain. Worship, by its very definition, its word in the Hebrew is to bow down or to be made low, or you bow down before something. It's active, it's physical, it engages the mind. It's active, right? I sing a song, I pray a prayer, I meditate on God's Word. I'm actively worshiping God. This psalm is a lot of active worship. Bless the Lord. Let me— God, let me remind you who you said you were and how cool this is that you said that thing about you. revealed yourself to us. Wow, you're so amazing. Bless the Lord, all of creation, all of the universe. That's worship. Glorifying God, I think, is more passive. It's on purpose, but it's not this active conversation or act towards God, towards God. This is how I live my life. This is how I treat others, how I live in a way that glorifies God. I glorify God in the way I drive my car. I don't worship God in the way I drive my car. I can worship God while I'm in my car, okay? Put some Forrest Frank on and I can worship the name of Jesus, but I glorify him in the way I drive my car. Does that make sense? Yeah. A little bit of differentiation. I get that. Some of you, I know you, I'm gonna get an email. Don't email me on this. Okay? I understand. I get it. It just helps me. Bless the Lord, though, is both of these things. It's a life that sees God as a loving Father and desires to please him and live the way that Jesus taught us to live. And then naturally tell him how much I love him and I'm thankful for him. It isn't one or the other, one's better than the other. It's both and. Let me, let me give an example. I love it when my kids say, Dad, I love you. My daughter prays a lot of times for our meals, 5-year-old, and she says, God, thank you for Henry the Awesome. Mom the beautiful, Dad the strong, Jack the smart, and me the cute. Right? When she says that, man, I, I, I, I'm— she's not worshiping me, but man, I, I love when she says things like that. I love when my kids come up and say, Dad, you're the best dad ever, right after I buy them ice cream. Right? I, I, I love that. That would be on maybe the worship side, like the actively using words or saying, I love you. Glorifying though is when I see my kid knock down some other kid and he helps him up and says, hey, are you okay? But when he lives a way that I have taught him to live, when I see him love God and love neighbor, that brings me far more honor. I think that's where we get this idea of worship and glorifying. Likewise, God is blessed when we actively worship him, when we say, hey, I love you, when we praise him and we sing songs, but he's glorified in the way that we live, when we live the way that he desires for us to live, when we live the way that is the best way to live that he has revealed to live in scripture. And when we do both, than we can individually bless the Lord and corporately bless the Lord. I bless the Lord. I've talked about this before. Again, same teacher, Mrs. Biefis, over the chalkboard, she had this big sign. This says John Maxwell. I don't know if he actually came up with this, but your talk talks and your walk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks. The talking part is the worshiping part. I love it when my kids say, Dad, I love you, but then they live in a way that seems like they hate me. Yeah. Well, that doesn't make any sense. Jesus, I love you, but then I live entirely different. That's what this is getting at. Let me, let me end with this quote here. This was from one of the commentaries I was reading this past week. It says, It's a redeemed life, being gloriously occupied with the grandeur and greatness of God. It is a believer living every moment of every day adoring God and being enraptured with his majesty. Worship is not just about keeping an outward facade of rituals, rules, or religion. It's about an inward reality of a living relationship with the supreme majesty of God through his Son, Jesus Christ. So in gospel application, bless the Lord in word and deed. Bless the Lord in the way you talk about him and the way you walk. Bless the Lord in the way that you worship and the way that you glorify him. Bless the Lord, O my soul. We're actually going to get the chance to do this. We're going to, we're going to bless. We're going to do a little bit of worship and glorifying in the sense that we are going to have communion. We do this every week at Hope Lowertown. And we're going to actively engage our mind and our bodies. We're going to be thinking about who God is and worshiping him in that way and physically remembering as we taste the wafer that represents his body that was broken for us and the juice that represents his blood that was shed for us. I actively get to do that. I'm going to worship. And at the same time, I'm going to glorify him because I'm, I'm actually obeying the commands that Jesus gave us, that I want you to do this as long as you, as long as you gather together in remembrance of me and corporately, We are going to do this thing together and then individually we are going to reflect back. And I just want you, as you're praying, I don't want you to petition. I don't want you to ask for forgiveness. That might be a little stretched, but you know what I'm saying? I just want you to, I just want you to worship Jesus. Just bless the name. I didn't talk to the musicians about what songs they're going to play. And the first song is Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of God, right? This is the love of the Father. How fitting in this moment that we just get to reflect and worship who he is and what he's done, what he said he's going to do. How awesome is that as we take these elements? You don't need to be a member of this church or any church. All I would ask is that you're a follower of Jesus. And if you are a follower of Jesus, like, yeah, King Jesus, I have a personal relationship with him, then don't, don't keep it private. We get to corporately do this thing together. Let me. Worship team's going to come and sing 2 songs and feel free to grab these elements as you see fit. Let me pray. Father, thank you for our time together this morning. I think that we can just bless you. You are so worthy of worship and honor and power and glory. Song that we just sang just moments ago. And as we look at this Psalm, God, will you just help us, those of us who maybe are in a dark place or are in a difficult place, to say, yeah, there are so many things to be thankful for. But above all, Jesus, I'm thankful for you. I'm going through a difficult situation, but God, you have forgiven me of my sins through the blood of your Son. You love me in this covenantal everlasting love. God, we remember that as we now worship you and glorify you and honor you. and bless you, O my soul. And it's in the name of your glorious Son, Jesus, we pray. Amen.