Joyce Meyer - Psalm 103 (08/23/2019)
Joyce Meyer teaches from Psalm 103, urging us like David to command our soul to bless the Lord and never forget His many benefits—from full forgiveness and healing to mercy that removes sin forever. She warns against complaining, which opens doors to the enemy as it did for Israel, and stresses knowing God's ways intimately rather than just His acts, while reminding us to speak His Word to activate angels and trust His restoration.
Prioritizing God's Word for Joy
Well, thank you for joining us today, for enjoying everyday life. You know, I believe that any time you take time to receive the Word of God, that you are much more likely to enjoy that day than you would a day where you did not give God's Word a place of priority in your life.
And so, today we are going to teach on Psalm 103. Very wonderful psalm. A little bit lengthy, but I think we can get to most of it. But one of the things that amazes me when I study the Word compared to just reading the Word is the amount of different lessons that is in like one chapter of the Bible are in one psalm. You are going to find out today that there is like close to a dozen different lessons in here. And if you just read through something real quickly, you do not really get that. I think it is just there is so much more that we can learn if we will take time and slow down. And so, I actually like to kind of write down the things that I learned. So, we are going to get started.
David Commands His Soul to Praise
Psalm 103, verses 1 and 2. Bless, affectionately, gratefully, praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is deepest within me, bless His holy name. Bless, affectionately, gratefully, praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not one of all of His benefits. Now, this is what I think, I do not know this for sure, but I think David was talking to himself. I think maybe it could have been a morning when David woke up and maybe he did not feel so hot that morning emotionally, or maybe his body was not just exactly cooperating with him that day. I think we forget that the people that God used to write the words that we read in the Bible were people, just like us. They were flesh and bone like us. And so, I do not know about you, but I have a lot of mornings where I have to talk to myself. Because I find that when I first wake up in the morning, there is a lot of things that I know that I need to do that day that my body is not real interested in at all.
Talking to Yourself Like David Did
And one of them is, I weight train three days a week, and it is interesting, sometimes within the first three to four minutes when I first open my eyes, I think, well, maybe I will just call the trainer and tell him I cannot go today. And so, we have to talk to ourselves. I think a lot of people would improve a lot if they would just go have a meeting with themselves occasionally. So, I think we can look at it that way. Maybe David just got up and felt some of the things that we feel, and he said, okay, listen, soul, which is your inner life, and whatever is going in us will come out of us. So, he is saying, today, we are going to praise the Lord. And I love this verse, too. He says, and forget not one of all of his benefits.
How Easy It Is to Complain
Do you know how easy it is to complain? I honestly think it would be a major accomplishment if any one human being could get through one whole entire day and not at least murmur just a little bit. I do not... we do it so much we do not even realize that we do it. I am reading a book by a gentleman that went to be with the Lord a long time ago, but he was a very, very great man of God. And he said, it is very challenging for us to not murmur. He said, all we have to have is a little bit of food that does not suit us or if the weather does not suit us or if things do not turn out exactly the way that we want it to. And complaining, actually, is a bigger problem than what we think it is sometimes. And I am going to show you that today.
Praise More Than Complain
So, David tells himself to praise the Lord. The question is, do we complain more about the things we do not like in our life than we do praising God for the benefits that we have? There is not one of us, myself included, that does not need to hear this about two or three times every day. It is... I mean, you all are wonderful, godly people. I know you are because you work for me. So, I mean, you are... You are the most awesome. And people watching today, many very wonderful, godly people. But it would be pretty interesting to see how many people, even in this room, have made it this far today. And not found anything at all to... You know, we think about complaining, but then there is murmuring.
Murmuring Prolonged Israel's Journey
And, you know, the Israelites, they murmured when they were in the wilderness. They murmured... And so they were there 40 years trying to make an 11-day journey. 40 years trying to make an 11-day trip. And one of their big problems, one of the things that kept them there was murmuring and complaining. And you are going to see a little bit later why that even happened. But it says that the Israelites complained, and their journey took them 40 years. And in 1 Corinthians 10, 9 and 10, we have a New Testament scripture where God is using the example of the Israelites to remind us of how really dangerous it is.
Complaining Invites the Enemy
Because I think that we open a door for the enemy when we complain. I think that when we praise God and give thanks that we are opening the door for God to work in our life, but when we murmur and complain, we are actually inviting the enemy to come in and just give us more of what we already have that we do not like. So it says, we should not tempt the Lord, try His patience, and become a trial to Him, critically appraising Him and exploiting His goodness. So if I am complaining about my trials, God says, okay, look, you are actually becoming a trial to me. I am tired of listening to you murmur and complain. I want to hear about the good things that I am doing in your life.
Miracles Didn't Stop Their Complaining
And then it goes on to say, and I am in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 9 and 10, He said, Now, obviously, I am not trying to say that if you complain, you know, you are going to fall over dead. But the point is, is that they complained so much. You have got to remember, they complained after watching the Red Sea part, after manna coming down every day. I mean, these people were seeing phenomenal miracles that we think, oh, man, if I could just have one miracle like that, I would never complain about another thing. Well, yes, you would. And I would, too. Because we seem to have a longer memory about our problems than we do about our blessings for some reason. So this is something that we cannot wait to feel like doing. It is something we have to do on purpose and be aggressive about.
God's Benefits in Psalm 103
And it is 23,000 of them fell dead in one day. They complained and complained and complained until it says the enemy got in the camp. And 23,000 of them fell dead from a plague in one day. Then in verses 3 through 5, going on to another subject now, talking about God, God who forgives everyone all of your iniquities, who heals each one all of your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercy. And I particularly like verse 5, who satisfies your mouth, your necessity, and desire at your personal age and situation with good, so that your youth renewed is like the eagle, strong, overcoming, and soaring.
Youth Is a Mindset
So I love that, that God renews our youth. And you will see in a little bit that Paul said that even though his outer man was decaying, his inner man was being renewed day by day. So we have got a lot of probably people in here today that are in your 20s and you may not be overly concerned about age yet, but there will be a time when you will not be 20 anymore. Believe it or not, there will be a time when you will be 60 or 70 or 80 and right now you think that is so ancient, but it will sneak up on you faster than you think. So I want you to remember, remember this, age is a number, youth is a mindset. Age is just a number, but youth is a mindset. So no matter how many years you add to your age number, you can keep a youthful mindset, still be creative, still have vitality, still be doing great things for God. Amen?
Inner Renewal Day by Day
And so, the scripture that Paul talks about is 2 Corinthians 4, 16, and he says, therefore, we do not become discouraged, utterly spiritless, exhausted, and wearied out through fear, though our outer man is progressively decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is progressively being renewed day after day. Now let us talk about the first thing that we saw there where it says that he forgives all of our iniquities and he heals all of our diseases. Now, there is so much sickness in society today. But the good news is that God works in many, many, many different ways and as long as we have him in our life, we always have the hope of getting better and better and better.
Hope for Healing Always
And there are things that we do not know what to do about them and there are things that we do not think we are going to get over but then later on, years later, we look back and we think, my gosh, God did deliver me from that. He does not always do it by the means of what we would call a miracle which means that there is no natural instrumentality but even all the medical stuff that God provides today, I do not think we realize what a miracle it is. And trust me, none of those people who are such brilliant surgeons and brilliant doctors and all the treatments they have come up with, they did not just get a bright idea one day and do that. All their creativity comes from God.
Complete Forgiveness with No Record
And so, and then I always like to say this too, the good news is, when you are no longer here, you are still somewhere and I can promise you as a believer that if you do not get the total, final fulfillment of your healing while you are right here on this earth, the minute you pass out of this realm into the next one, there is not going to be one thing that bothers you, no crying, no tears, no pain. So the bottom line is, we are healed. Our bodies may be catching up with it, but that is a promise from God. And let us talk about this forgiveness of sins. Oh my goodness. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, all are justified and made upright with God.
God's Arms Are Open Wide
And all, we have some people watching from home today that you think all does not mean you, but it does. Because no matter what you have done, no matter how many times you have done it, God loves you, and believe it or not, He is not even mad at you. He does not like what you have done to yourself through not following His commandments, but God is not like mad at you and does not want anything to do with you because you have done a lot of things wrong. Matter of fact, you are exactly the person that He sent His Son to die for, and His arms are open wide to you today.
No Stain Left After Forgiveness
I was thinking the other day I was talking to God about some things that I felt like I had done wrong, some behavior issues, and I was repenting and asking God to forgive me, and then just a few minutes later I thought, you know what, it is so amazing when God forgives us, there is not even any kind of a smear or a stain or a smudge even left on our record. You know, if you think about maybe if you wrote something down wrong and you erased it, you could still tell that something was still there one time. But when God forgives our sins, they are gone. No stain, no record, no smudge. He removes our sins as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more. Is not that amazing?
Justice for the Oppressed
Verse 6, the Lord executes righteousness and justice not for me only but for all who are oppressed. I want to just say a word today to people that are poor, you have been mistreated, you have been hurt, you have been abandoned, you have been abused, you feel like all your life you have been oppressed. Do you know what, God has got his eye on you and he not only wants to take care of you and deliver you, but the Bible says that he will deal with the oppressors. And I love that. You know, we do not have to try to deal with our enemies. God will do it for us if we follow him.
God Restores Multiplied
And you know, he is great at restoration. Whatever you feel that the enemy has stolen from you in your life, I can tell you that God will give it back to you multiplied many, many, many, many, many times over. I love this scripture, 1 Samuel 2, 8 through 10. He raises up the poor out of the dust and he lifts up the needy out of the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and to inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and he has set the world upon them. I am going to just skip to verse 10. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces. Against them he will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge all the people of the earth and he will give strength and power to those that are anointed.
Why Israel Kept Murmuring
Let me say again, no matter how mistreated you have been, God knows what you have gone through and he has got a plan for your restoration. Keep your eyes on him and do not waste your time being angry at the people that hurt you. Instead, let God take care of all that. Now, verse 7 through 11 and verse 7 is something I want you to pay particular attention to because this is going to kind of tell us why with all the miracles that the Israelites saw, they still found so much to murmur about. I think we may read the Bible all of our life and miss this if somebody does not point it out.
Knowing Ways vs. Seeing Acts
Verse 7, he made known his ways to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel. Now, we would probably read that and think the Israelites were better off because, boy, they saw the great things that God could do. But that is really not the truth. He made his ways known to Moses. Moses knew God. The Israelites only knew his miracles but they did not know him. And you know what? We need to pray, God, teach me your ways. Not just do this for me, do that for me, fix this, fix that. But God, teach me your ways.
Pray to Know God Intimately
Would everybody watching today begin to pray that prayer? On your own, God, teach me your ways. Because here is the thing to remember. God can do a miracle but if I do not know him, if I do not know his ways, then I am just going to need another miracle tomorrow and another miracle the next day. But if I know God's ways and I begin to follow his ways, then guess what? I am not going to have nearly as many messes in my life and I am not going to need as many miracles all the time. So maybe we just need to take a break from the give me, give me, give me, give me, and say, Lord, teach me your ways. I want to know you.
God's Merciful Character
What did Paul pray in Philippians 3? That I might know him and the power of his resurrection. He did not say, I want to know what all you can do for me. He said, I want to know you. And a lot of you young girls that are in the mercy home right now and you are getting your life fixed together and you are here to share with us today. You know, that is one of the best things. I know you come in and you have problems and there is things that you need God to fix for you and all kinds of things that need to be restored in your life and God wants to do that. But do not just settle for God, do this for me, do that for me, fix this, fix that. Let us go beyond that to God, I want to know you. I want to know your ways. I want to know your character. I want to behave the way that you want me to behave.
God Is Slow to Anger
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and loving kindness. He will not keep his anger forever, nor will he hold a grudge. Now, I am not going to say that God does not ever get angry, because he does get angry at sin. But the thing is, he is not an angry God. And I think a lot of people that have been raised by an angry parent, like I was, and many of you were, it was so easy to make my dad mad. I mean, you just did not, most of the time you did not even really know what you did that made him mad. But, you know, if he was mad, somehow or another, he found a way to make it your fault.
God Is Pleased with Us in Christ
And so I carried some of that into my relationship with God, and I just felt like that God was really hard to please. You know, that I had to just be so careful about everything, because if I made mistakes, he was going to be angry or not be pleased with me. I think more than feeling that God was angry with me, I just always doubted that he was actually really pleased with me. And it was a big step for me when I started to confess by faith, I believe that God is pleased with me. And see, what did he say to Jesus? This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And he did not say it once. He said it to him twice. Two different times, that voice came out from heaven and said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Celebrate Your Victories
Well, we might think, well, yeah, sure, that was Jesus. He did everything right. But see, if we are in Jesus, come on now, if we are in him, then we are joint heirs with him. And whatever he got, we get. So God is not pleased with any of us today because we have this great, perfect, wonderful behavior. Because we all know that we do not. But he is pleased with us because we want to grow. We want to learn. We want to hear. Some of you watching by TV today, or maybe you are, you know, watching on your computer, or you may be listening to this. You know, you may be thinking, well, you know, God is mad about this, and he is mad about that, and he is mad about something else.
Mercy Beyond Our Sins
Well, God does not like the things that we do wrong in our life. But I will tell you something else. He is glad that you are watching the program. He is glad that you cared enough to receive the word. And I think something that we need to do, and I have been thinking about this a lot, I think we need to take the time to celebrate our victories. No matter how small they are, rather than just spending all of our time thinking about what we are not, what we are not, what we did not, what we cannot. And so, that is a good thing to remember. God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy and loving kindness toward us.
Sins Removed Forever
Verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed His transgressions from us. God knows our frame. I love that. David prayed, he said, that He knows our frame. He knows there is nothing about you or I that surprises God. He did not see you make a mistake, and He said, oh no. Well, I did not know you were going to do that. Wow, I cannot believe you are that bad. I mean, God knows everything that we are going to do wrong before we ever do it. Every word we have not yet spoken. Every thought that has not yet gone through our mind. And He loves us unconditionally.
God Is Mindful of Us
One of my favorite parts in scriptures in Hebrews where the Bible says that Jesus understands our weaknesses and our infirmities. Because He has been tempted just like we have, yet He did not sin. You know, the Bible says that, what is man that you are mindful of him? And the son of man that you care for him? Why would God have His mind on us all day? What are we? Who are we that God would be mindful of us? There is a scripture that actually says, we are just like a puff of smoke, a mist of vapor. Remember, there is Joyce. I mean, that is what it says. It says, you know, it is talking about people who say, well, tomorrow we are going to do this, and tomorrow we are going to do that.
Angels Respond to God's Word
And He says, instead of being presumptuous about what you think you are going to do tomorrow, you should remember that you are just a puff of smoke and a wisp of vapor, a blade of grass here today and gone tomorrow. So in light of God, we are absolutely nothing. And yet, God says, I have got my mind on you all the time. I have got a plan for you. I am thinking about you. And I have something good in store for you. So this keeps us humble. God, I do not deserve anything. But I am so grateful for all of your benefits in my life. Amen? God thinks about us all the time. Now, I can already see that I am not going to get finished with this, which is not unusual for me.
Speak Faith to Activate Angels
But verses 19 through 22 talks about some more really great things about blessing God, blessing Him everywhere, bless, bless, bless, bless. And I really like this scripture. It says, bless the Lord, all of His works in the places of His dominion. Verse 20 says, bless the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones, who do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word. So let me just finish this up today by saying that each one of us have angels. We have guardian angels. We hear about them all of our life. But we do not really, I do not, maybe we do not even really believe that they are there. But we all have guardian angels. And this scripture says that angels listen to the voice of God's word.
Keep Confession Right in Delays
So let me put it plainer. They do not hearken to our complaints. You know, I am not going to put my angels to work for me by complaining. But when I confess the word of God, when I say, God, I believe you are working in my life, no matter how difficult my circumstances are, now my angels can go to work for me and help me. And you know, when we pray, if you look even at Daniel, when he prayed, God sent an angel from heaven to bring the answer to those prayers. And that angel had to do warfare in the heavenlies because there were evil spirits fighting against him, bringing that answer. And Daniel continued to pray. But the Bible says, from the first day that you set yourself to fast and pray, the answer was sent. So when we pray for God to do something in our life, to deliver us, to help us, and we do not get an answer when we think we should, maybe it is a long time before that answer comes. That is when we need to be careful about keeping our confession right and saying, God, I believe that you are working in my life.