11/4/2023
Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Psalm 103:1-5 NKJV — 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: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psalm 103 is filled with the language of praise. It portrays the activity of God through His various acts of kindness and in response the psalmist displayed a heart compromised of admiration for God. The linguistical structure of this psalm publicizes the blessings of God and the magnification of God for His goodness. "This psalm represents a soliloquy in which David surveys God’s goodness and encourages God’s creation to join him in divine praise." 1 David is commending God for His involvement in his life through acts of benevolence, forgiveness, healing, redemption, loving-kindness, tender mercies, and satisfactory means of the bestowal of good things upon him.
He cited the name of God in a praiseworthy manner for the excellency of His greatness that was performed in his life. He blessed God. He extolled God. He magnified God. He glorified God.
The desire of David to bless God was the proper act of acknowledgment as he reflected on the perfect and unlimited wondrous works of the Lord. In accordance to analyzing the motif, Bless the Lord for His Forgiveness, there are several actualities to be considered when speaking of God’s forgiveness.
Forgiveness Is a Divine Act of Pardon
David affirmed that God forgives all of our iniquities (v. 3). The Hebrew word for forgives is salah which means to pardon or spare.
Who is God sparing and pardoning? The answer is those who have a change of heart by desiring to have a contrition to turn away from sin. He is pardoning the penitent person of his or her immorality, perversity, mischief, waywardness, and vile ways.
Godly sorrow, remorse, and repentance over one’s sin gives way for God’s forgiveness to be permissible in His stance toward the sincere in heart. Psalm 51:17 is written "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— these, O God, You will not despise." The Life Application Study Bible put it this way, "God wants a broken spirit and repentant heart. You can never please God by outward actions—no matter how good—if your inward heart attitude resists Him. Are you sorry for your sin? Do you genuinely intend to stop? Brokenness here is about being open and responsive to God’s correction, as opposed to being hardened or resentful. God is pleased by this kind of humble repentance." 2
Speaking solely about those who are lost in sin; when people have the right demeanor toward sin, they will see themselves in violation of God’s law, they will realize their sinful state of condemnation and turn to God for salvation.
2 Corinthians 7:10 reveals that "for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." Under the conviction of God, a person agrees with God about the awfulness of sin. In turn such individuals are led by God to forsake and renounce his or her sin so that they can be forgiven by the Lord. Upon a person being forgiven by God, they receive His gracious act of pardon through justification. The doctrine of justification reveals that the repentant sinner is declared legally right with God, freed from guilt and the penalty of sin, and has a newfound position before God. A position that declares regenerated sinners right in the sight of God by our demonstration of faith in the atoning work of Jesus.
According to the Easton's Bible Dictionary, “forgiveness of sin is one of the constituent parts of justification. In pardoning sin, God absolves the sinner from the condemnation of the law, and that on account of the work of Christ, i.e. He removes the guilt of sin, or the sinner’s actual liability to eternal wrath on account of it. All sins are forgiven freely. The sinner is by this act of grace forever freed from the guilt and penalty of his sins. This is the peculiar prerogative of God. It is offered to all in the gospel.” 3
In Scripture, Romans 4:23-25 mentions that "now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." Jesus was the substitutionary Lamb offered up through death for the offenses of mankind’s sinfulness as transgressors of the law of God. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead justifies every born-again believer because of His vicarious act of love that paid the penalty for sin and granted us acquittal.
David understood that it was the characteristic of God to pardon sin. David demonstrated confidence in God to pardon sin early on in his life in Psalm 51.
Psalm 51:1-7 NKJV — Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness. According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight— that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Therefore, when it came to Psalm 103:3a, David could attest that God was a forgiver of sin based on his knowledge of who God was and what he knew that God could do. Whatever sin that David might have had in his life during this timeframe, whether past or present, he ascribed unto God the attribute that He was more than capable to forgive all of his sins and grant him pardon. The ability to be convicted of sin by perceiving that we are wrong and the ability to possess the proper attitude toward sin through the conviction of God enables us to repent and in turn bless God for His forgiveness. Our hearts should overflow with praise unto God that despite our known violations of going against His standard, He still chooses to permit us amnesty from the penalty of sin. The posture of our praise should be one of gratitude as believers enjoy the blessedness of God.
We have the true and substantial enjoyment, that consists of God’s freely pardoning and blotting out our sins and receiving us into his favor. 4
Sin invokes an unfavorable situation between mankind and God, but the blotting out of our sins by God makes us favorable before Him. In alignment with the heart of David, we too can praise God for His act of forgiveness in our own lives.
As New Testament believers, Justin Terry states “forgiveness lies at the heart of God’s gracious reconciling work in Christ. He died for the forgiveness of sins, and we respond in faith to the astonishing action through repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness helps us to understand both the saving work of Christ and the need for human response to that gracious action, and therefore enables us to draw together these objective and subjective aspects of salvation.” 5
The reality of perceiving God in this manner will move Christians to bless the Lord now and forevermore.
Forgiveness Brings About Restorative Joy
David rejoiced in God by thanking Him for His forgiveness. The activity of blessing God for His act of forgiveness enabled David to show gratitude through honoring the work of God in his life. David aspired to echo a joyful rendition of praise by letting his audience know what unfolded in his life as a measure of God's forgiveness. He had been forgiven time after time for his shortcomings over the course of his life and did not take God for granted when he was forgiven.
In Psalm 32:1-2 David expressed this sentiment when he wrote blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.
It was inevitably a wholesome expression of David to bless the Lord for blessing him. It is a joyful experience to be forgiven by God, to have your sin to be covered by the Lord, and to have your sins removed by God. Jerry Bridges wrote “our sins have been put away. To use the language of the Scriptures…they are completely removed, put behind God’s back, blotted out, remembered no more, and hurled into the depths of the sea.” 6
The totality of what God has done for us and does for us should cause joy to flow from the depths of our hearts to our lips in giving praise to Him. The fact that God forgives us of all our iniquities when we confess our sins and forsake our sins should lead to joy because in the process of being forgiven, we are granted the mercy of God. In Proverbs 28:13, it is recorded, "he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." When we understand the magnitude of sin and its consequences, then we will rejoice upon grasping the full act and sum of the forgiveness of God being put on display.
Lewis Drummond asserted that “forgiveness transcends finite human reason. The mere thought that one’s entire sin account can be utterly eradicated is staggering. Yet it is quite clear that the forgiveness of sin strikes at the very core of human need and experience. It speaks of guilt gone, remorse removed, depression disappearing and the emptiness of life eradicated. What power there is in forgiveness! And it all comes abundantly from the gracious hand of God.” 7
The graciousness of God to forgive us is reason to rejoice. The notion of being cleansed from sin and standing right before God is all the reason in the world to rejoice. Sin has a damaging effect of hindering a believer’s fellowship with God, has associated punishment, and for the unbeliever is a means of condemnation unto everlasting destruction. For the aforementioned things to be removed in our lives, this should empower us to bless the Lord. When we factor in that separation from God is removed when we are forgiven (Ephesians 2:13), when we factor in that we are no longer condemned as a result of justification (Romans 8:1), and when we acknowledge that the wrath of God is not set against us for all eternity (Revelation 20:15), it should spur within us a temperament of being joyous.
We can bless God through our restorative joy in alignment with being forgiven since Scripture reveals:
Ephesians 2:13 NKJV — But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Romans 8:1 NKJV — There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Revelation 20:15 NKJV —And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
For every lawless deed committed in the members of our body, we are forgiven by God. Our forgiveness is tied to our faith. Faith in God as a means of His forgiveness and salvation allows us to be set free from the bondage of sin and to be blessed of God. Romans 4:5-8 declares "but to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.”
In spite of the enormity of his sin and the utter absence of personal merit, David knew the blessing of imputed righteousness. 1
Imputation involves God crediting our spiritual account with His righteousness while at the same time removing our sinfulness from us. Rejoicing in the Lord for His forgiveness toward us should invoke within us an anthem of praise. We should be glad in heart and our gladness should be evident in our appreciation toward God for the mighty acts that He has performed in the lives of His children. Psalm 32:10-11 is penned "many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!" The psalmist entered a state of joy upon confession of his sin.
“After the psalmist confessed and experienced forgiveness, he became a conduit for God’s praise and called on others to do the same.” 8
Every believer's mindset toward God should be engulfed in the activity of praise to bless the Lord. Are you blessing the Lord for His act of forgiveness? Are you exalting His name for His kindness and gracious activity in your life? If you are failing in this area, now is the time to bless Him for the great things that He has done for you, is doing for you, and what you know that He will do for you.
References
The MacArthur Study Bible
The Life Application Study Bible
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Calvin Commentaries on the Bible
Justin Terry. The Forgiveness of Sins and The Work of Christ: A Case for Substitutionary Atonement
Jerry Bridges. The Gospel for Real Life. Pg. 69.
Lewis Drummond. The Voice from the Cross, Baker, 1990, p. 18.
The Holman KJV Study Bible