A Greater Worship
Psalm 103
“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships... And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.” David Foster Wallace
Main Idea: We are all called to worship God for who he is and what he has done in Christ.
I. What is Worship? (103:1-2)
The Psalmist (David) begins by talking to himself, urging his soul and “all that is within me” to bless the Lord. This posture gets to the very heart of worship. “Worship is ascribing ultimate value to an object and engaging your mind, your heart, and your will - your whole being, as you do it.” ~ Tim Keller
In response to the worship “drift” that we all experience, Psalm 103 is instructive for us. David is fighting for proper worship by remembering the “benefits” of the Lord. “Worship is the strategy by which we interrupt our preoccupation with ourselves and attend to the presence of God.” ~ Eugene Peterson
David is preaching the gospel to himself and urging his entire being to re-center on God as the object of his worship. Worship is an act of proactively remembering what is true about God so that our mind, heart, and will are re-engaged with the Lord, especially when we are being drawn elsewhere.
II. Why Should We Worship? (103:3-18)
We “forget not” the benefits of God by meditating on two categories:
We remember the works of the Lord (103:3-5)
The Lord forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, satisfies, and renews us. He has dealt with the barrier of our sin and given us meaning in our suffering, inviting us to see his glorious work toward the undeserving. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” ~ Augustine
We remember the character of the Lord (103:6-18)
David here quotes from Exodus 34, when Moses asks to see the glory of God on Mt. Sinai. The Lord responds not by showing his greatness but his goodness (Ex. 33:19), which we are constantly tempted to doubt. When he passes in front of Moses (Ex. 34:6-7) he emphasizes that his glory is seen through his mercy and his grace.
“God does not reveal his glory as ‘The Lord, the Lord, exacting and precise,’ or, ‘the Lord, the Lord, disappointed and frustrated.’ His highest priority and deepest delight and first reaction – his heart – is merciful and gracious. He gently accommodates himself to our terms rather than overwhelming us with his.” ~ Dane Ortlund
As an extension of this, God “does not deal with us according to our sins” but removes them from us an infinite distance (‘as far as the east is from the west’). As a gracious Father, he shows compassion on us in our weakness, patience with our besetting sins, and invites us to humbly fear him.
We have even more reason to worship God than David because we know the substance of Jesus Christ, which he could only see from afar as a shadow. When we remember the benefits of the Lord, we are specifically remembering Christ, who “from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace” (Jn. 1:16)
III. Who Should Worship? (103:19-22)
The Psalmist now realizes that the worship in his own soul has joined a greater song; he is joining with the chorus of the angels, mighty ones, the heavenly hosts, ministers, and all of creation in worship of God. Jesus declared that even the “stones would cry out” (Lk. 19:40) in worship, and Isaiah (55:12) envisions a day where the hills, mountains, and trees sing & clap to the Lord.
Since the Lord has established his throne and his kingdom rules over all, nothing short of the worship of all of creation and all that is within us will suffice. Everytime we worship Jesus through declaring and displaying the gospel, we are turning up the music for others to join in.
