Context: ‘Of David’
All we know about the context of this psalm is that it is a psalm ‘of David’, and that it was written to be sung. We don’t know when in his life he wrote it, or what he had in mind when he wrote it.
But even so, the fact that it is one of David’s psalms tells us a lot. It reminds us of the man, a man after God’s own heart, anointed as a boy as Messiah and Christ to save God’s people, an unlikely warrior who beat Goliath and saved Israel. We remember him as the righteous servant of Yahweh, pursued by murderous King Saul. He was driven from family and inheritance to hide behind rocks, in caves, and driven to the land of false Gods and to pretend insanity. Yet in the end this same David was elevated by Yahweh over the whole house of Israel. David, the one for whom Yahweh established a kingdom which became the envy of kings for the next 400 years, against whom every subsequent king would be judged and who established Jerusalem, who made plans for the temple, and most importantly, was the one to whom God gave an eternal dynasty.
Yet, of course, as comparatively righteous as he was, David still was a flawed Christ. He prayed remember not the sins of my youth (Psalm 27:5). During his mid life crisis, David was found in bed with another man’s wife. His adultery and murder resulted in rape, and fratricide, and civil war, and who almost brought his kingdom to ruin when he counted the fighting men. This is the David who at some point penned this song.
The Believer’s Blessed Benefits (vv. 1-5)
This psalm is a call to praise Yahweh. The Christ, the king of Israel, calls on every believer to bless God for benefits received.
He starts with himself. Self, bless God! We see that in verses 1 to 2:
1Of David. Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—
David is talking to himself. He is stirring himself into action, exhorting himself. He doesn’t listen to himself, he talks to himself. And I reckon most of us waste too much time listening to ourselves, and not enough time talking to ourselves. Of course, if you’re like me, you’re good at cursing yourself. “Oh how could I do that, what a dufus, yadda yadda.” But here David gives us an example of Christian self-talk, something much more positive and productive and godly. David gives us an example of a bit of Christian cognitive behavioural therapy. David takes himself in hand and incites himself to praise God. Self, Get up, and remember who God is and what he has done for you.
And so he starts itemizing the chief blessings God has given him. He starts up a list of the wonderful privileges Yahweh has poured out upon him. Verses 3 to 5:
3[Yahweh] who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Heading the list is forgiveness of sins. In fact, this whole psalm is all about the wonder of sins forgiven. As David says elsewhere, “Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will never impute sin” (Psalm 32:1-2).
Friends, we all need forgiveness. You need it, and I need it, our children need it, our world needs it. We need it today, we needed it yesterday, we will need it tomorrow. We are people who are weak and sinful, disobedient and rebellious, and are ready to fall. If we haven’t done murder and adultery, like David, we’ve done it in our heads. Jesus says the one who is angry murders, and the one who looks and lusts, has committed adultery in his heart. These things by themselves show us that we deserve hell.
But David knew the blessedness of sins forgiven and iniquity covered. And he likewise speaks to other sinners and telling them to not despair of anything in the past. No matter what unchangeable and abominable sin accuses you from your past, there is forgiveness available for you, as much as for David.
In the middle of the list is the redemption of our lives from the pit in verse 4:
4who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion […]
Our sin leads to death. The wages of sin is death. And our broken bodies will one day be laid in the earth. You and I, sinners that we are, are doomed to die, unless Jesus returns first. And yet, the benefit of Yahweh steps in.
Friends, the grave for David is not the end. David is confident that God will bring his body up from the grave. And beyond his death, Yahweh will crown him with love and compassion. The redemption from the pit is the resurrection of the dead. This is the ultimate renewal of our decaying and dying bodies. We receive a new resurrected body.
Knowing the God Who Knows Our Needs: Love, Forgiveness and Eternal Life (vv. 6-18)
How can David speak to himself with such confidence? How can he tell himself so assuredly that God will forgive his sins and redeem him from death. It’s because he knows his God. He knows God’s past dealings with his people, so he knows what God will do in the future.
“My guarantee is my record” (vv. 6-10)
Former Prime Minister Howard used to often say, “My guarantee is my record”. You want to know me and know whether I will keep my word. Look at what I have said and done in the past. And David is treating Yahweh’s record as his guarantee. So we read in verses 6 to 8:
6The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (NIV)
God has dealt with us in the past. He has shown us what he is like. He has been patient with us again and again. And he has declared to Moses his character (Exod 33:18-34:9). Moses wanted to see God’s glory. So God would put Moses in the cleft of a rock, and show him his back. And at the top of Mount Sinai, God declared to Moses his name:
The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation. (Exod 34:6-7)
That’s how David knows what Yahweh is like. He has read his Bible. And we see the accent is on grace in the face of punishment. Yes, there is wrath to the third and fourth generation, but David picks up the accent on love and forgiveness to the thousands, rather than the just punishment to the third and fourth generation. Both are true, but mercy triumphs over judgment. So with confidence, David declares in verses 9 and 10:
9He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. (NIV)
Even when God has judged us, he has let us off in the end. He cannot help himself. David experienced this himself. When David sinned by counting the fighting men, he chose three days plague from Yahweh as punishment.
14David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men” (2 Samuel 24:14 NIV).
And David was right (2 Samuel 24:16). For when the angel went to destroy Jerusalem, Yahweh was grieved because of the calamity. God said “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” And that place became the site of the temple that Solomon would build.
The Latitude and Longitude of the LORD’s Love (vv. 11-13)
So David attempts to measure Yahweh’s love forgiveness and love. What can you use to measure it? A 30cm ruler? What about a meter long ruler? Is that enough to measure Yahweh’s love and forgiveness? What about one of those wheelie things with a clicker that we used at primary school?
No, to measure Yahweh’s love, you need satellite and GPS technology. Perhaps even a hyperdrive or warp speed ability. Verses 11 to 12:
11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
If you can snatch the stars from the night sky, you can fathom his love for you. If you can grab the sunrise in one hand and the sunset with the other, then perhaps you might worry that your sins still cling to you. But for the rest of us, David writes so you can be assured of forgiveness. The Saviour severs sins from sinner, so that a sinner is now a saint. This is the forgiveness of a father for his children.
Paul likewise speaks of God’s love in terms of the unfathomable expanses of space. Ephesians 3:17 and 18:
17[…] And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
You see, the bible wants us to understand the un-understandable. It wants us to know what surpasses all knowledge. It wants us to comprehend the incomprehensible. For that is what we embark on when we try to get on top on God’s love for us as our Father and forgiveness of their sins we have in Christ.
Mortality Makes Me Momentary … But (vv. 14-16)
This is a masculine, robust message, God’s love and forgiveness. For we receive it only when we courageously look in the face of our sin and death. It comes to a world where there are graveyards and crematoriums, where there is plenty of work still for coffin makers and funeral parlors, despite the Global Financial Crisis. The word of love and forgiveness comes to us as we slowly succumb to the wages of sin, death. Verses 14 to 16:
14for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
We are momentary, like a flower. Our mortality makes us momentary. Everything we get so stressed about is put into proper perspective by our death. For unless Jesus returns first, we will fall, and the breeze will pass over the place where we once stood. And it won’t know the difference for all our huffing and puffing.
Forgiveness Forever For Whoever Fears the Father (vv. 17-18)
God knows this about us. He knows it better than we do ourselves. So he promises us not just love and forgiveness for this world. He promises us eternal love and forgiveness. Verse 17 to 18:
17But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children—18with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts. (NIV)
Our hearts long not just for love for 80 or 90 years. We long for everlasting love, a love that will stretch into eternity future. Will God’s love matter to me in 3000 years? Will God’s love and forgiveness last long after God has scrunched the heavens into a ball, and put the earth into his incinerator? And king David, the Christ says, “yes”! Yahweh’s love will last from everlasting to everlasting.
Of course, there is a conditional statement here, in verse 17, to those who fear him. And we have seen this expression before. It’s popped up in verses 11 and 13. It is love and forgiveness to those who fear God.
Friends, this response of fearing God in the Old Testament is the parallel to having faith in God in the new. And just as God’s love and forgiveness came to those who feared him, so now it comes to those whose fear of God takes the shape of faith.
God Glorified Globally and Galatically (vv. 19-22)
And so the psalm finishes as it starts, with a call to praise Yahweh. But at the beginning of the psalm, David was just speaking to himself. He was just stirring himself up to thank and praise God. But at the end of the psalm, he is calling on the whole created order, for Yahweh rules over the entire universe. So verse 19, the angels are called to praise God. Again in verse 20, armies of angels are called to serve him. In fact, everything—animal, vegetable or mineral—David the Christ and Messiah calls to bless Yahweh.
Our Context: ‘Of Christ’
Well, David lived 3000 years ago. He was God’s Messiah for his people for a short time.
But after he served Yahweh during his time, he died. And about 1000 years later, a greater son of David was born. And this song was written for Jesus to sing. The psalms are Jesus’ songs, written for him by those who longed for his appearing.
So how is our understanding of Psalm 103 enriched when we think of it sung by our Lord Jesus?
Well, our Lord Jesus, by becoming man, became one with us. He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And by faith in him, we become one with him. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith (Eph 3:17). By his Spirit, we have the mind of Christ. So we are united with Christ Jesus by faith and the Spirit. Christ is one flesh with the church, his body. Christ is the head, we are the members.
And as our head, he speaks to his body and says, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all who are in me, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits.” Yes, don’t forget all the benefits I have won for you through my incarnation, my life, my death, my resurrection, my ongoing intercession, and that come to you by faith. You are forgiven and beloved. You are justified by faith. And since you are justified by faith, you have peace with God through me. You have a gracious standing with God my Father. And so my Father is your father. You are adopted sons of God. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you from the love of God in me. In fact, you are already raised now with me and seated with me in the heavenly realms already. And If you sin, you have someone to speak to the Father in your defence: Me. I was the atoning sacrifice for your sins, and not for yours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Who can separate you from the love of God? Only me, and I died for you and was raised to life for you? So I ain’t going to do it. And when I come back, I, Jesus, will give each of you who are waiting for me a resurrection body just like mine. For I am the firstborn from among the dead, but also the firstborn of many brothers. I will redeem your life from the pit. Your mortal temporariness will be abolished forever. And then the marriage of the lamb with his bride will be consummated. And you will be with me forever.
So fear God, and persevere, and keep going, and repent and believe, and put to death whatever belongs to your sinful nature, and fight the world, the flesh and the devil, and don’t give up, and be merciful to those who doubt and snatch others from the fire, and to others show mercy mixed with fear, and declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. And Praise the Lord, and forget not all his benefits.
Let’s pray that we would do all this.