Psalm 102 — 103
Personal Praise to the Lord (vv. 1–6) To "bless the Lord" means to delight His heart by expressing love and gratitude for all He is and all He does. Parents are pleased when their children simply thank them and love them, without asking for anything. True praise comes from a grateful heart that sincerely wants to glorify and please the Lord. "All that is within me" means that all of our inner being is focused on the Lord—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:28–31). It also means that we are prepared to obey His will after our praise has ended. The word "all" is found at least nine times in the psalm (1–3, 6, 19, 21–22), for the psalm is a call for total commitment to God. We give thanks to the Lord before we receive our food, and this is right, but the Jewish people were also to give thanks after they had eaten and to remember that the Lord had given them their food (Deut. 8:7–20). My immigrant Swedish relatives used to follow this practice. At least fourteen times in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses admonished the people to remember the Lord and what He did for them, and nine times he cautioned them not to forget. (See Deut. 32:18.) It was when the third generation of Jews came on the scene and forgot the Lord that the nation began to decay (Judg. 2:7—3:7).
Judah, this was a witness to the surrounding nations that Jehovah was on the throne and guiding in the destiny of His people. And what about the future generations in Israel? The Lord made His covenant with them as well, and He will fulfill it (vv. 18, 28). God's compassion, God's covenant, God's glory, and God's people are all a part of the future of Jerusalem! As Alexander Maclaren wrote, "Zion cannot die while Zion's God lives." Surely the Lord will keep His promises and His glory will return to Zion (Ezek. 40—48). He hears the prayers of His people and one day will answer them. Israel and the Gentile nations will assemble and worship the Lord together (vv. 21–22; Isa. 2:1–4).
The Changeless Character of God (vv. 23–28) The psalmist was afraid he would die in midlife and never see the restoration of Judah, Jerusalem, and the temple. (See Isa. 38:10.) The eternal God would remain forever, but frail humans have only a brief time on earth (90:1–12). This passage (vv. 25–27) is quoted in Hebrews 1:10–12 and applied to Jesus Christ, which reminds us that it is in Him that these promises will be fulfilled. He is God, and He is the same from generation to generation (Heb. 13:5–8). Leaders come and go, cities and buildings appear and vanish, but the Lord is the same and never abdicates His throne. God's eternality reminds us of our own frailty and the transitory nature of our lives, but it also reminds us that His promises and purposes will be fulfilled. The psalmist closed his prayer by remembering the future generations, for though he did not see his prayer answered in his day, he knew that the answer would come. May we today be concerned about God's work on earth and the future generations who will serve Him after we are gone! May the future not weep because we have not been faithful!
David listed six special blessings from the hand of the Lord (vv. 3–5): forgiveness, healing, redemption, love, satisfaction, and renewal. The word translated "forgives" is used in Scripture only of God's forgiveness of sinners (see vv. 10–12). The word for "iniquity" pictures sin as something twisted and distorted. Those who have trusted Christ have experienced God's forgiveness (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 2:13). When you read 32 and 51, you learn that David knew something about God's gracious forgiveness (and see vv. 10–12). God is able to heal every disease (Matt. 9:35), but He is not obligated to do so. Paul was not able to heal two of his friends (Phil. 2:25–30; 2 Tim. 4:20), and David's own baby son died in spite of his fasting and praying (2 Sam. 12:15–23). The believer's body will not be completely delivered from weakness and disease until it is redeemed and glorified at the return of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:18–23). In Scripture, sickness is sometimes used as a picture of sin and healing as a picture of salvation (41:4; 147:3; Isa. 53:10; Luke 5:18–32; 1 Peter 2:23–24). The word redeem (v. 4) would remind the Jewish people of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt at the exodus (Ex. 12–15). The statement describes God rescuing someone about to fall into a pit, and "the pit" is a symbol of sheol (6:5; 16:10; 28:1), the world of the dead. David himself was often very near to death, so perhaps he had premature death in mind. David also knew something about crowns, but no crown he ever wore compared with God's lovingkindness and compassion (tender mercies). These attributes also appear in verses 8, 11, 13, and 17. Believers should "reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:17 nkjv; and see Rev. 1:1:6). We are seated with