Psalms 103 - 104 (with 3 topics)

Psalm 103 Said to provide forgiveness & knowledge:

  Praise the LORD, O My soul; all My inmost being, praise HIS Holy Name. Praise the LORD, O My soul, & forget not all HIS Benefits-- who forgives all Your sins & heals all Your diseases, & redeems Your life from the pit & crowns You with love & compassion, who satisfies Your desires with good things so that Your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

  They emphatically are not in the pit; they are the cloud of witnesses not yet in heaven; Hebr says that the ancients were commended for Their faith, yet none of Them received what had been promised. GOD planned something better for Us so that only together with Us would They be made perfect & enter heaven. Indeed, we shall find the psalmist saying in Psalm 119:96, To all perfection observable now I see a limit.

  The LORD works righteousness & justice for the oppressed. HE made known HIS Ways to Moses, HIS Deeds to the people of Israel: the LORD is compassionate & gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. HE will not always accuse, nor will HE harbor HIS Anger forever; HE does not treat Us as Our sins deserve or repay Us according to Our iniquities.

  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is HIS Love for Those who fear HIM; as far as the east is from the west, so far HE has removed Our transgressions from Us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on Those who fear HIM; for HE knows how We are formed, HE remembers that We are dust.

  As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it & it is gone, & its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting, the LORD'S Love is with Those who fear HIM, & HIS Righteousness with Their children's children-- with Those who keep HIS Covenant & remember to obey HIS Precepts.

  The LORD has established HIS Throne in Heaven, & HIS Kingdom rules over all. Praise the LORD, You HIS Angels, You mighty Ones who do HIS Bidding, who obey HIS Word. Praise the LORD, all HIS Heavenly Hosts, You HIS Servants who do HIS Will. Praise the LORD, all HIS Works everywhere in HIS Dominion. Praise the LORD, O My soul.

Psalm 104 Author anonymous; texted in grape is the passage (v. 4) that is quoted in the N.T. (see Psalms 12 - 18 Psalm 15 2. N.T. Quotes from Psalms B.):

  Praise the LORD, O My soul. O LORD My GOD, YOU are Very Great; YOU are clothed with majesty & splendor.

• HE wraps himself in light as with a garment; HE stretches out the heavens as with a tent & lays the beams of the upper chambers on their waters.
• HE makes the clouds HIS Chariot & rides on the wings of the wind. HE makes winds HIS Messengers (Angels), flames of fire HIS Servants.
• HE set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved-- except, of course, by HIM (which happened at the time of Noah).

1. YOU covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at YOUR Rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of YOUR Thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place YOU assigned for them.
2. YOU set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.

• HE makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the air nest by the waters; they sing among the branches.
• HE waters the mountains from HIS Chambers; the earth is satisfied by the fruit of HIS Work. HE makes grass grow for the cattle, & plants for man to cultivate-- bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, & bread that sustains his heart. The Trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that HE planted. There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees. The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the coneys (hyrax or wood badger). The moon marks off the seasons, & the sun knows when to go down.

1. YOU bring darkness, it becomes night, & all the beasts of the forest prowl. The lions roar for their prey & seek their food from GOD. The sun rises, & they steal away; they return & lie down in their dens.. Then man goes out to work, to his labor until evening.
2. How many are YOUR Works, O LORD! In wisdom YOU made them all; the earth is full of YOUR Creatures. There is the sea, vast & spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number-- living things both large & small. There the ships go to & fro, & the leviathan, which YOU formed to frolic there. These all look to YOU to give them their food at the proper time. When YOU give it to them, they gather it up; when YOU open YOUR Hand, they are satisfied with good things. When YOU hide YOUR Face, they are terrified; when YOU take away their breath, they die & return to the dust. When YOU send YOUR Spirit, they are created, & YOU renew the face of the earth.

  May the Glory of the LORD endure forever-- but we already saw in Psa 102:25-26 that this won't happen; all HIS Works will wear out like a garment (at best this will be delayed); may the LORD rejoice in HIS Works-- HE who looks at the earth, & it trembles, who touches the mountains, & they smoke. I will sing to the LORD all of My life; I will sing praise to My GOD as long as I live. May My meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the LORD. But may sinners vanish from the earth & the wicked just be no more-- an e.g. of judgment pronounced "without the radar"; better would be, may they be redeemed. But that would still be "without the radar." Recall "without the radar" is any blessings or pronouncements made outside of prayer (i.e., in direct personal communication with God-- heretofore always denoted by the text in blue. Another keynote is the abscence of Pronouns in the 1st person).

•   Praise the LORD, O My soul.
•   Praise the LORD (Heb., Hallelu YAH-- per the Septuagint).

1. Encounter #1 Attitudes of freed slaves The idea of "attitude of freed slaves" is ancient (consider the Israelites freed from Egypt). But here we see a specific N.T. encounter, the attitude of some freed slaves-- this is definitely not the 1st & last Encounter (consider the host of encounters Jesus had), but here we look at a N.T. encounter in Acts 6:8-10,12-13: Stephen, a man full of GOD'S Grace & Power, did great wonders & miraculous signs (pointers) among the people. Opposition arose from members of the Synagogue of Freedmen-- Jews of various European & Asian areas. Not being able to stand up against His wisdom or the Spirit, they stirred of the general people & the elders & the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen & brought Him before the ruling council of the Sanhedrin. They also produced false witness. We see (ch. 7-8) that after Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrins members were furious, gnashed their teeth, & covered their ears; yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at Him, dragging Him out of the city & began to stone Him. Point is, 1 could focus on the aftermath of the encounter with the Sanhedrin-- & miss that this all began with the attitude of the Freedmen about how they had achieved freedom (who had enabled it).

2. Encounter #2 Attitude of freed sorcerer Opposite of the above Encounter #1, where Stephen received the consequences of the attitude (he was stoned to death), here we have a lost sorcerer, Simon, 1st believing & being baptized (receiving salvation) in Samaria, upon the preaching of Philip, but subsequently not receiving the Holy Spirit. I.e., the freedmen had "succeeded" in acquiring the false witnesses, but Simon was rejected by the Holy Spirit. Now it may well be pointed out that Stephen had no one to intercede, whereas Peter & John came from Jerusalem to Samaria (we shall see that Simon followed Philip everywhere he went, but having lost his acclaim, he was full of bitterness & captivated by sin). In Acts 8:9-24 we find: Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery & amazed all the people of Samaria. They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic. But when they believed Philip as He preached the good news of the Kingdom of GOD, & the name of Jesus Christ, They were baptized. Simon himself believed & was baptized. And He followed Philip everywhere, at 1st simply astonished by the great signs & miracles He saw. When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria (Unclean) had accepted the Word of GOD, They sent Peter & John to Them. When They arrived, They prayed for Them that They might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of Them-- they weren't empowered to minister; They had simply been baptized into (in) the Name of the LORD Jesus. Then Peter & John placed Their hands on Them, & They received the Holy Spirit. When Simon the sorcerless saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, He offered Them money, thinking in this way he could reclaim his status & said,'Give Me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay My hands may receive the Holy Spirit-- as if salvation isn't a prerequisite.' Peter answered: 'May Your money perish with You, because You thought You could buy the (that) Gift of GOD with money. You will have no part or share in this ministry. Repent & pray. Perhaps HE will forgive You-- was that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? For I see that You are full of bitterness & captive to sin. Then Simon answered with true humility-- could he pray directly at that point?, 'Pray to the LORD (Intercede) for Me so that nothing You have said to Me have said will happen to Me-- the only thing Peter had pronounced was you will have no part or share in this ministry.'