December – 16 – Love and Worship God
By Spally TaylorDecember 11, 2018
Sunday School Lesson
December 16
Love and Worship God
RECOMMENDED READING
Devotional Reading: Psalm 86:1–7
Background Scripture: Psalm 103:1–17a, 21, 22
Psalm 103:1–17a, 21, 22
1.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 forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
- Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
- Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
- The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
- He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
- The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
- He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
- He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
- For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
- As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
- Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
- For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
- As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
- For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the placethereof shall know it no more.
17.a But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.
- Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
- Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.
Key Verse
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
—Psalm 103:12
Lesson Aims
After participating in this lesson, each learner will be able to:
- Give the reasons for praising the Lord found in today’s text from Psalm 103.
- Tell how these reasons apply to Christians living under Jesus’ new covenant.
- Compose a psalm to the Lord, combining an acknowledgment of the Lord’s character with an awareness of the blessings He has given.
HOW TO SAY IT
Introduction
- Praying It Upward
Sometimes when a person is the recipient of a kind deed, the individual will talk about “paying it forward.” The idea is that anyone who has been helped should “forward” that kindness to someone else. This way of thinking is meant to counter a self-centered, “me first” frame of mind.
The principle of paying it forward can be drawn from certain biblical passages. When sending His disciples to preach and do miracles in His name, Jesus said, “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8; compare Romans 15:25–27).
Scripture also encourages the practice of “praying it upward,” of acknowledging that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). Offering praise to the Lord does not mean ignoring the needs of others around us; if anything, it encourages us to bless others as we have been blessed and to thus “pay forward” the goodness we have received from God.
The Bible includes dozens of commands to praise the Lord. The book of Psalms witnesses many such imperatives and a variety of expressions of praise to God. One such is the source of today’s lesson text.
- Lesson Context
The book of Psalms has often been described as “Israel’s hymnal.” It is replete with expressions of emotions directed to God. These range from praise (as in today’s passage from Psalm 103) to extreme frustration and anger at how God appears to be addressing (or not addressing) the problems of a broken world. Often there is disappointment and confusion expressed over how God’s own covenant people are being mistreated while evildoers seem to suffer no consequences in doing as they please (see Psalms 73 and 74). No sentiment seems to be off-limits in the Psalms. This makes the book of immense value to God’s people when they pray.
The above factors and others have resulted in Bible scholars noting various types of Psalms. These include hymns, psalms of thanksgiving, laments, royal psalms, wisdom psalms, and messianic psalms. Certainly some of these can overlap, so one must be careful not to be too rigid with such classifications. A writer can go from lament to praise in the same brief psalm (as in Psalm 13).
Like any hymnal, the book of Psalms includes contributions by different authors and covers a wide span of time. The oldest psalm is by Moses (Psalm 90), and there is at least one psalm that comes out of the setting of the captivity of God’s people in Babylon (Psalm 137). These two benchmarks are separated by approximately 900 years.
About half of the psalms are attributed to King David, known as the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Samuel 23:1). Today’s passage from Psalm 103 is one of those psalms. While some psalms include a superscription that provides the setting (example: Psalm 51), there is no such background given for Psalm 103. It simply notes the association with David.
- Opening Exhortation
(Psalm 103:1–5)
- Reasons to Praise (vv. 1, 2)
- Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
The word bless is used in Scripture both of what God does for people and what they offer up to Him. God’s blessings are His gifts to His people, what the psalmist (David) calls “his “benefits” (Psalm 103:2, next). The people’s blessing of God is expressed in praise of Him and gratitude for those benefits. Indeed, the Psalms often use the words bless and praise rather interchangeably, as parallel thoughts (examples: Psalms 34:1; 104:35; 145:2).
David’s blessing of the Lord is not a casual, half-hearted sentiment. It comes from his very soul. In the Old Testament, the word soul is often used to signify a person’s being or essence. The frequently used device in Hebrew poetry known as parallelism, in which the second line of a verse repeats the thought of the first line—sometimes in reverse order—highlights this meaning. We saw this earlier as an example in lesson 1:
An individual’s soul is therefore all that is within that person. In a sense, David is talking to himself, encouraging remembrance of the Lord’s goodness. Similar “soul talk” is found in Psalm 42:5, 11. A person’s name represents that individual’s character or uniqueness. God’s holiness is one of His most prominent qualities (examples: Leviticus 19:2; Joshua 24:19; Psalm 99:3, 5, 9; Isaiah 6:1–3; Revelation 4:8; 15:4).
