Psalm 103 Part 1

Intentional gratitude can transform your perspective. If you’ve ever met someone who exudes joy, even in the middle of a stressful situation, it is inspiring. As Dr. Timothy Brown leads us through Psalm 103 in today’s message, we’ll be encouraged to look for the good that God has brought into our lives. Even if life seems full of bad right now, looking at His goodness will bring thankfulness for what He’s done, and hope for what He can do.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. You're about to hear a message from God's Word filled with biblical wisdom, practical insights, and life-changing truths. A message designed to inspire your faith and give encouragement.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Through centuries it's been sung by glad hearts, and today it's as fresh and full of beauty as ever. So today I want to give you four grateful realities about the grateful life. And my goal in this sermon is that when you leave this place, you will be more grateful today than you were yesterday. In fact, as I prepared this message, I had to have my own time of confession and repentance because, like many of us, we struggle with having an attitude of gratitude. But after you read Psalm 103, it changes your perspective.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Intentional gratitude can transform your perspective. If you've ever met someone who exudes joy even in the middle of a stressful situation, it is inspiring. As Dr. Timothy Brown leads us through Psalm 103 in today's message, we'll be encouraged to look for the good that God has brought into our lives. Even if life seems full of bad right now, looking at his goodness will bring thankfulness for what he's done and hope for what he can do. Prepare your heart, open your mind, and get ready to embark on a journey of faith with Dr. Timothy Brown in the book of Psalms chapter 103 with today's edition of Truth for Transformation.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

How many of you have ever had someone that's made an impact on your life? Like you can just think through. For me, it's a couple named Dick and Donna. I met them 10 years ago, and they're just an amazing couple. And for Dick, he's taught me how to see the world from a bigger perspective, how to navigate conflict, how to work through things and the greater good. And for his wife Donna, she's taught me how to live a grateful life. Donna just turned 90 years young. And one thing about her is she's forever young. And so we went to a restaurant recently, and uh it was one of those sit-down restaurants, and we had, at the time, it was before Elijah was born, we had five children around the table. And not to mention any of the names, but one or two of my children were a little restless in a sit-down restaurant, and I'm like, this cannot go well. You know, you're in a sit-down restaurant or want to have conversation with a couple we don't get to see but like once a year. And it's a little restless, and Donna says, Isn't it so good to have such energy? I wish I had that kind of energy, don't you? And just in a moment, with a few precise words, she took a stressful situation and turned it into laughter. And observing her, she would not speak negative about anything or anyone. She was positive. And so I just began to take a few mental notes about Donna and what I've learned observing her over the past 10 years. And a few things is she focuses on what's positive, not what's on negative. And her words, instead of saying words that build tear people down, she uses words that build people up. And the other thing I've learned is a smile can go a long way in a room. When you have someone that gives a smile, it just brightens a room. And so I want to be more like Donna when I grow up. How about you? Today the message is entitled The Grateful Life. And for those of you who grew up in the 60s, don't confuse it with the grateful dead. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the grateful life. And so we're going to look at Psalm 103, and we're going to look at this passage that is all about worship, all about thanking God for his goodness. So before we read that, I want to read a few quotes. This is on your listening guide. These are Bible scholars throughout the ages that have looked at Psalm 103 and have just really admired its beauty and quality of worship. Matthew Henry says this psalmist stirs himself up and his own soul to praise God and not to leave it to others. He charges himself with this duty and sees to it that it reformed faithfully. John Calvin said this psalmist devotes himself entirely to praising God, knowing that he can never fully express the greatness of God's benefits, that all his senses and facilities must unite in the work. The famous pastor G. Campbell Morgan said this it's perhaps the most perfect psalm of pure praise to be found in the Bible. Through centuries it's been sung by glad hearts, and today it's as fresh and full of beauty as ever. So today I want to give you four grateful realities about the grateful life. And my goal in this sermon is that when you leave this place, you will be more grateful today than you were yesterday. In fact, as I prepared this message, I had to have my own time of confession and repentance because like many of us, we struggle with having an attitude of gratitude. But after you read Psalm 103, it changes your perspective. So the first grateful reality is this the grateful life praises God's name with one's entire being. Look at verse 1 of Psalm 103. 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. So when we start reading this, we're reminded that we should praise God for who He is. Worship, actually, in our English comes from two words, worth and ship. And when you put it together in our English language, the word has come to mean to ascribe worth to someone or something. And the tragedy is anything you value or add worth more than God is actually what you worship. And that's why it goes back to the Ten Commandments, have no other gods before me. And my children are like, we don't struggle with that anymore. We don't worship gold statues or idols. And I was like, no, think again. Anything that you value more than God or more than the things of God is actually what you add worth to. It's called worship. And so I want you to think about your life. When you come to church, do you come to praise God or do you come praising God? Now the difference is this when I come to church and my goal is to praise God, it takes about three songs from the worship team to get me ready for worship. Came by real late. By the third song, you guys are all singing. But how many of you come already worshiping when you come here? See, there's the two different diametric opposed thoughts. One is I live my life and I come to church to kind of get refueled, I get my worship on. And the other spectrum is I'm coming out of a lifestyle of worship. Everything I do is a living worship service. It's Romans 12, 1. Present your body as what? A living sacrifice. It's your reasonable act of worship. So what I want to do is look at these two verses, and Caroline, I Caroline and I did not get together about this passage. It's interesting what she said about the heart of worship and this psalm. It's like the two go together. We didn't plan it, but the Lord did. So I want us to look at the first two verses, and this is going to kind of be like a worship workshop. Like if we were having a workshop on how we should worship God, these two verses really inform us. The first one is this true worship is all about God. It's not focused on me. You notice how it starts. Bless the Lord, O my soul. You notice bless the Lord, not bless me if you can. A lot of times we come into church and we got that sour look, bless me if you can, Pastor. Bless me if you can, worship leader. But it no, it's bless the Lord. So when we look at music, and a lot of songs, rightly so, get criticized. Have you noticed that some of our modern songs, and I'm all for modern music, but some of them are very me focused. You ever notice that? And I think whether it's an old hymn or a new song, our focus should be the Lord. It should be vertical worship, not me. Because the danger is something called narcissis. You're like, what is narcegesis? It's where I read myself into every verse. And it's like, it's not about you, it's about God. So be careful of narcissis. Be careful of reading yourself into every, you're the hero of every story, you're the hero of every song. Last time I checked, Christ was the hero. All right. I'm just a supporting cast. So worship starts with who God is. The other thing about worship, it's something that you must choose to do. So bless the Lord, oh my soul. It's a choice. I've heard people say, well, I just don't feel like it. Have you ever heard that or said that? Worship is not a feeling. Now, fillings result from worship, but if you worship when you felt like it, you wouldn't worship very often. So the psalmist has to say, Oh my soul, I'm commanding my soul to make this choice. I'm gonna worship God whether I feel like it or not. I'm gonna worship God in the good times and bad. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. We also see that true worship happens when you worship God with your entire being. Notice he says, and all that what is within me. If you're like me, it's easy to worship God 50%. I'm half here, right? The other half of me is that I'm thinking about what I'm gonna do tomorrow, or I'm gonna go to lunch, the stresses I've had this week, right? But if you worship God with all of your soul, that's saying that you're 100% engaged. How many of you enjoy having a conversation with someone and they're staring off into space? They're looking at the person across the room and you're like, this person, they're not focused. When you come to God, He knows exactly how much you're giving. And I'm under conviction even as I say this, because very seldom do most of us, you may be the exception, but do we come worshiping God with everything we've got? True worship causes you to consider the holiness of God. Notice it says, bless his holy name. Whenever you worship, when it's true worship, it takes you in another realm. You leave the realm of the temporal and you enter into the holy of holies before the throne room of God. And like Isaiah 6, you see a God that is holy, holy, holy, thrice holy. When you worship, does it take you in another realm? Are you still stuck here in the temporal? It's just like we want to be caught up into God's presence. And you're like, how do you do that? John 4 24, Jesus tells us how. God is spirit, and if you want to worship God, you've got to worship him in spirit and in truth. Many of us are good at truth, but how many of us allow our spirit to connect with the Holy Spirit, to connect with God? That's how worship takes place. And finally, true worship leads to praise and thankfulness for God's glory. It says, forget not all his benefits. So, in summary, worship is not about location, it's not about style, it's not about sound, it's not about lights. None of those things are bad. But what worship is about is you engaging God for who he is. He is worthy. We're talking about the King of the Kings, the Lord of Lords. We're talking about the one who defeated death and rose victoriously. This is what worship is and does. So as you think about the grateful life, I want you to remember Fanny Crosby. Who is Fanny Crosby? She is a lady that when she was born, she had sight, but due to a medical miscalculation by a doctor, she lost her eyesight. And instead of allowing that to grow bitterness and anger towards God, I want you to hear what she says. And I'm paraphrasing her words. She says, I think that my blindness was a gift. It was a gift of divine providence. She said, if you offered me my sight today, I would refuse it. And the reason why, I feel like I'd be distracted by the beautiful things around me. She saw her blindness as a gift to focus on God without distractions. And she wrote at least 8,000 hymns of praise to God. So blindness for her was not a burden, but it was a blessing. How she had an attitude of gratitude. She knew that the grateful life focuses on the goodness of God, not the challenges around you. I am definitely convicted by Fanny Crosby. How about you?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

You've been listening to Pastor Timothy Brown. We'll be right back with the message, but first we'd like to share some exciting news with you. We're releasing Dr. Timothy's new book called Go After Jesus. This book is a fresh approach to discipleship and focuses on your identity in Christ as the launching pet for Christian growth. In Go After Jesus, Pastor Timothy paints the picture of the six identities for every follower of Christ. You are a seeker, a disciple, a friend, a fisherman, a warrior, and a lover. We're currently offering two free chapters of this book as a digital download. To get your free chapters, go to Dr. Timothy's website at drtimothybrown.org. Now let's get back to the rest of the message with Pastor Timothy.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

The second grateful reality for the Grateful Life is the Grateful Life proclaims God's goodness in one's daily life. Look at verse 3. Who forgives all of your iniquities, who heals all of your diseases. Now, as we read that, you're like, all right, I'm forgiven, but I still got health issues. I still got problems. How can the psalmist say that? Well, let me give you a distinction. There's reality and there's destiny. Reality is the present reality of what you experience right now. Your sins are forgiven right now. And then there's destiny. What's destiny? It's the future reality for every believer. And as I mentioned last week, where prosperity gospel gets it wrong, they give a lot of the promises of God, but it's not always right now. Sometimes they're when you see Him face to face. So these promises are true, but you've got to understand the difference between reality and destiny. So for those of you who are sick, for those of you who have gone through cancer treatments, those of you who have had health issues, sometimes God does heal right now. We've seen miracles in his church of God healed cancer and other sicknesses. But sometimes the destiny is I will heal you when you see me face to face. So he says he heals all your diseases. He redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. So I want to give you five reasons why you should raise some praise. Who in here wants some raise some praise? Alright? Say that five times fast. It'll give you a little tongue-tied. Well, the first one we just talked about is forgiveness. That when Jesus died on the cross, he took the wrath of God on your behalf. So let me give you some good New Testament theology. A lot of times Christians are worried about the wrath of God being poured out on them. Now that's more Old Testament thinking before Christ came. All the wrath of God was satisfied in the cross. Now, if you haven't accepted Christ, the wrath of God's still there. You better get right. Okay? But for the Christian, the wrath of God has been satisfied. Now, we do get disciplined as children, the author of Hebrews says, there is discipline, but don't think of God as some angry, vindictive God as a child of God. If you are saved, if you're born again, the wrath of God has been satisfied in the cross. And all God's children said, Amen. Now, if you're not right with God, you better think about that because the wrath of God is real. And you're like, how could God have his wrath? Well, it's because God is perfectly holy, but he's also perfectly just. And his holiness has to be satisfied. And the reason why he sent Jesus is he didn't want his wrath to be poured out on his creations. He wanted his creations the chance to become children. But the Bible says in John 1.12, those who receive him became children of God. We're not all God's children. Even though Oprah Winfrey may have said that on our television show, we're not all God's children. Only those who receive Christ are adopted into God's family. So we have forgiveness. We also have healing. When we see He heals all your diseases, what this tells us is eventually, in God's timing and in God's way, He will take away every sickness. He will take away every pain. We read in the book of Revelation that there's going to be a time where he will wipe away every tear from your eye. So sometimes God heals now, but ultimately he will heal us when we enter into eternity and our new glorified body where there's no sickness and no more pain. We also see redemption. What is redemption? It is a term used in the slave market. And it means that someone has paid the price for your freedom to set you free. And here's the thing we don't like to talk about slavery, but all of us were slaves to sin, the Bible says. All of us were slaves until Jesus came. And what was the price he pre paid? His own blood. He shed his blood so that we could be forgiven, so that we could be set free. And you're listening, guide, if you'll notice I have several New Testament references that you can read along. Colossians 1, 13 and 14 says, He, talking about Jesus, has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his Son, of His love, in whom we have redemption through what? Through His blood. The forgiveness of sins. So we have forgiveness, we have healing, we have redemption. The fourth benefit is royalty. Notice in the Psalm verse 103, verse 4, it says, He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. The word crown makes me think of royalty. And here's the thing: when you're adopted into God's family, you go from being not a people to being a people of God. You go from being alienated from God to being reconciled with God. And that's why Peter tells us like this He says, You are a royal priesthood, a holy generation. So I want you to think about that. Let this meditate in your scripture. You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. So when you look at your life before Christ, the Bible says that we were dead in our trespasses and sin. But when Jesus comes in, he adopts us. And now you are crowned. Look at the person next to you and say, You're royalty and didn't know it. Royalty and didn't know it. Alright. So carry your head a little high, a little bit of spiritual swagger, not pride, but holy confidence. I'm a part of this royal family. And then there's also abundance. Notice it says he satisfies your mouth with what? Bad things, sour things. No, he satisfies your mouth with good things. Aren't you glad that you serve a good God? And you're like, Timothy, I haven't had very good things happen to me. And remember the distinction there's reality and there's destiny. Your reality may be there's not good things happening, but your destiny is goodness is on the way. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. Well, Timothy, my reality is not. That's okay. Eventually your reality will catch up to your destiny. It's in God's timing and God's way. As I often say, it's not your best life now, it's your best life later. So just hang in there. So what is this about renewing your youth like the eagles? And so I had to fact check myself. I've used this illustration in the past, and sometimes it's good to see. And there was a story about an eagle. It would pluck out all its feathers, it'd be on a high cliff, and it would, it would, after the feathers are all gone, it would dive down into the water, and all of a sudden it would emerge with new feathers. How many of you have heard that story? All right, well, maybe I haven't shared it here. I apologize for sharing that story because it's actually a pastor like legend. It's not it's good to fact-check yourself because I've heard that story all my life, and it's like this renewal, and the eagle lives 20 more years, and it was a preacher story. It wasn't true. Okay, so I fact-checked it and I found scientifically eagles go through a molting process either yearly or twice a year. And so instead of this dynamic eagle that's dive bombing and all these feathers come out and it's like young again, that's not what the scripture's teaching. It's teaching an ongoing process. So molting, an eagle doesn't lose all of his feathers at once. It uses gradually, loses some, gain some, loses some, gain some. So it's the idea of biblical renewal. Sometimes it's dramatic, like Paul on the road to Damascus, he sees the light, but often it's a gradual, ongoing process of renewal. And that encourages me because I haven't had, I mean, some of some of us have had a few dynamic experiences, but how many of you most of the time it's a slow, gradual, gradual process. So when he renews your youth like the eagle, it reminds us of Isaiah 40, verse 29. It says that he gives strength to the weary, increases the power of the weak. And we got some young people in here. Here's the young people, even youths grow weary, and young men utterly fall. But notice the next verse But those who hope, those who wait in the Lord will what? Renew their strength. They shall mount up like wings, like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint. So I want to look with love into your eyes and say this God understands what you're going through. God understands that you're weary, you're about ready to give up, but Psalm 103 teaches us that God is going to renew you. It's in his time and his way. Sometimes it's not as drastic as you would like, sometimes it's a process. Sometimes healing is instantaneous, but sometimes it's a process. Sometimes God works through miracles, sometimes God works through medicine, sometimes God works through counselor. We don't know which ways he's going to work, but ultimately goodness happens and flows through God. So look at the person next to you and say, renewal is on the way. Renewal is on the way. And that brings us to the third truth about the grateful life. The third truth is this the grateful life ponders God's mercy and grace towards every believer. Notice verse 8, it says, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow in anger and abound in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever, nor has he dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. And I'm like, Thank you, Lord. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Thank you for listening to today's edition of Truth for Transformation with Dr. Timothy Brown. We're in a series called Summer in the Psalms. The Psalms is a very interesting book for many reasons. For one, it has many different authors. King David wrote many of the Psalms, but also Astaf and the sons of Korah wrote some of them. Solomon wrote a couple of Psalms, and Moses even wrote one. Psalms is a collection of songs gathered together to use in Israel's public worship. It was the hymnal of the time, the original hymnal. There is so much inspiration to be found in this book. We're encouraged to praise God for who he is and what he's done for us. The psalms are an example of how we should thank God for our many blessings. Psalms also show us that we're given permission to bring our grief and pain to God. We get a glimpse into the hearts of God's people and their devotion to God. And when we sing our songs that find their inspiration from the Psalms, we follow in their footsteps. If there's something that has touched your heart from today's message, or if you have a question, please reach out to us. Join us in prayer as we strive to live out God's mission for us. You can find us on social media at Dr. Timothy Brown Ministries, where you can share your thoughts or just say hello. You can learn more about what we do at drtimothybrown.org. That's also where you can contribute financially to our ministry. Your giving fuels the mission. Thanks for joining us on Truth for Transformation.