"Gratefulness in Prayer" 11-20-22
Overview
Gratefulness in Prayer
"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name" Psalm 103:1. Notice what David is doing: he is talking to himself. Half the Psalms are attributed to King David, and here he addresses his own soul—a biblical way of referring to one's whole self: mind, body, emotions, will, and personality. Three times in the opening verses he commands his soul to "bless," that is, to greet, thank, and praise the Lord. This same pattern appears throughout Scripture (Psalm 42:5; Psalm 104:1; Psalm 116:7).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones once observed that a major cause of unhappiness in the Christian life is that we listen to ourselves rather than talk to ourselves. We replay yesterday's bad conversation; we rehearse the worry that God has forgotten us; we project tomorrow's worst-case scenarios. David models a better way. He preaches truth back to his own soul, telling it not to "forget all his benefits" Psalm 103:2. He then names five: the Lord forgives all our iniquity, heals all our diseases, redeems our life from the pit, crowns us with steadfast love and mercy, and satisfies us with good so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 103:3-5; cf. Isaiah 40:31). Each benefit finds its fullness in Christ: forgiveness through his substitutionary death, healing of our deepest disease—sin—through his blood, redemption from the grave through his resurrection, and steadfast love that is "from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him" Psalm 103:17.
When Martin Luther's barber, Peter Beskendorf, asked him for advice on prayer, Luther wrote a 34-page response. His counsel was simple: take a psalm or a passage of Scripture and speak it back to yourself—morning and evening, two, three, four verses at a time. For Luther, prayer was Scripture-born. When we let the Word form our prayer, gratitude rises naturally, and we are delivered from ruts of repeating the same hollow phrases. Praying Psalm 103 might sound like this: Thank you, Lord, that you have forgiven all my iniquities and cast my sins as far as the east is from the west. Thank you for healing the disease of sin through the blood of Jesus. Thank you for redeeming me from the grave so that I will live with you body and soul forever. Thank you for your steadfast love and mercy, and for renewing my strength when I have none of my own.
This is grace upon grace: God gives us what to tell ourselves about him, and he gives us the very words to say back to him. So when the inner dialogue starts pulling you down, stop listening and start speaking. Open the Psalter, address your own soul, and bless the Lord.
Transcript
Would you open your Bibles Please with me for our study today to Psalm 103. 2s
If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find that in the Old Testament 8s
page 517. 13s
Psalm 103 for our study today. 15s
Question. 21s
Do you ever talk to yourself? 23s
Do you ever talk to yourself? 26s
Now maybe you're sitting there thinking to yourself, maybe, why do you ask? 31s
Well, no worries. 38s
Physiically, typically, talking to yourself is really quite, quite normal. 41s
For example, have you ever said, where did I put those keys or in a grocery store when you're thinking of the aisle for a certain item? 49s
Have you ever said, out loud, perhaps coffee, coffee, coffee? 61s
I think of just the silent dialogue that we have with ourselves constantly that also falls in the camp of talking to yourself. 68s
And interestingly, the studies say on this that when we verbalize something, that it will help you, for example, find your keys faster. 78s
It'll help you find the coffee faster because what's happening is you're engaging the language portion of your brain. 91s
You become, you become more deliberate. 99s
The thought process slows down. 103s
Now why do I bring this up? 109s
I bring this up because in Psalm 103, what we see is an example of one who's talking to himself. 111s
You'll notice in your Bible, it says, right under Psalm 103, it says, of David. 125s
Half of the Psalms are attributed to King David. 131s
And David is talking here to his soul. 136s
Look, please, adverse one. 141s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 144s
Now the soul here, it's an interesting, interesting concept. 152s
The soul here is a biblical way of referring to yourself, for example, Psalm 104. 159s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, oh Lord, my God, you are very great, or Psalm 16. 168s
Return, oh my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bound to flee with you, Psalm 42. 176s
Why are you cast down, oh my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? 184s
It's very common, we see in Holy Scripture, that in talking to oneself, the author will talk about oneself as one's soul. 193s
And the soul here is much more than the spiritual center that we all have. 203s
The soul here is all encompassing in Holy Scripture. 209s
The soul is the mind and the body. 213s
It's the emotions, it's the will, it's the personality. 217s
And notice the threefold emphasis. 224s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, bless his holy name, bless the Lord, oh my soul. 226s
What does bless mean? 236s
Literally the word here means to greet. 238s
And so, when we greet, when we bless the Lord, we are thanking him, and we are praising him. 241s
David then is talking to himself. 250s
He's talking to himself, and he's reminding himself, all of his self, to give thanks and praise to the Lord. 257s
What is that? 272s
That's self-talk, isn't it? 275s
David is talking to himself. 278s
The preacher Martin Lloyd Jones. 287s
He wrote that the major cause for our unhappiness in life is that we listen to ourselves instead of talk to ourselves. 291s
It's listening to the rehearsing in our mind and the dialogue that we give ourselves silently of the bad day that we had yesterday. 323s
It's the endless loop that we listen to on days when perhaps the conversation just went awry and it was just a bad conversation. 336s
And like that endless loop, we just play it over and over and over listening to ourselves. 346s
We play it. 353s
It's that listening to ourselves when we say to ourselves, I don't know where God is. 357s
As you go on April, it's just leap. 369s
It's that listening to ourselves when we say to ourselves, 374s
I don't think I can make it through this. 382s
It's the listening to ourselves. 387s
When we project onto the future all sorts of the possibilities of the bad that might be. 391s
The major cause of unhappiness in our lives is listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. 401s
So instead of listening to ourselves, what is it that we can then say to ourselves? 417s
Using the model here of Psalm 103, where King David is talking to himself, 425s
well what is it that we can talk to ourselves about? 433s
Back to the text, verse 1. 438s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, blesses holy name. 440s
It's David reminding himself to give thanks and praise to God with all of his being. 446s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and do not forget all his benefits. 453s
And then he lists five benefits from the Lord. 460s
Here's the first one, verse three, who forgives all your iniquity. 464s
David lived in the forgiveness that was his through God Almighty. 472s
He anticipated the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come, the Messiah that would bear the sin of the world. 476s
It's in the substitutionary death of Christ that all our sins are forgiven. 486s
We are washed clean in the blood of Jesus. 493s
All of the thoughts, all of the words, all of the deeds, all the things we've done, all the things that we've left undone, 498s
all of those things, the spotless lamb of God bore upon himself on the cross. 504s
Bearing the wrath of God for sin, our sin, and God declaring to us forgiven. 512s
David, saying to himself, David, don't forget the benefits of the Lord, and he starts with forgiveness. 527s
He then goes on, who heals all your diseases. 541s
All of us are healed. 548s
All of us are healed. 550s
It just depends on whether it's this side of heaven or not. 551s
The physical struggles, sometimes it is God's will to heal us, this side of heaven. 557s
Sometimes it is not. 563s
He heals us in heaven itself. 564s
There is no disease. 567s
There is no infirmity in heaven. 568s
Not a one. 571s
But the healing of the disease here that is being referred to is the disease that we have, and that is the disease of sin healed through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 573s
David then, talking to himself, blessed the Lord, all my soul, do not forget his benefits, forgiveness, second healing. 587s
He goes on, who redeems your life from the pit. 600s
The pit in Scripture is a metaphor for the grave. 609s
So here, David is reminding himself that through the Messiah, at that time, to come, that indeed the Messiah would redeem him from the pit from the grave. 614s
We know his Christians at the moment we die, it is a transition in living. 626s
We are here, and then we are there in the reality of paradise itself. 631s
And we know from the promise of Scripture that when the Lord comes again, he will raise our bodies from the grave. 637s
We will be given the new heavenly spiritual body, and we will live with God forever in heaven, body and soul. 644s
The promise here, the benefit that David reminds himself of to give thanks for is the redemption from the very grave, the very fact that he will live body and soul in heaven. 655s
David, saying to himself, David, don't forget the benefits. 674s
David talking to himself, saying, don't forget the benefit of healing. 684s
Don't forget the benefit of the redemption from the pit. 693s
He goes on who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. 699s
David reminding himself to bless the Lord with regard to the love and mercy that he shows. 707s
Look how that theme carries throughout this song, verse 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding instead fast love. 714s
Verse 11, for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. 726s
Verse 17, but the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. 736s
And the self-talk of David continues. 746s
The very next verse verse 5, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles. 751s
Reminded of Isaiah the 40th chapter where the scripture says, but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. 761s
They shall mount up with wings like eagles. 771s
They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. 774s
This is David reminding himself of the strength that comes not from himself, not from his resources, not from pulling himself up by his sandal straps here. 780s
No, this is the strength that comes through God Almighty. 791s
What can we say to ourselves as we see in scripture, positive examples of talking to the self? 801s
What can we say about to ourselves? 811s
Here's a good place to start, isn't it? 817s
It's a good place to start. 821s
And what is the impact of talking to ourselves with these scriptural truths? 826s
What is the impact of such self-talk on our prayer? 837s
What's the impact? 848s
Peter Beskendorf. 853s
Peter Beskendorf. 856s
Here's a trivia question for you. 859s
What is the name of Martin Luther's barber? 862s
Peter Beskendorf. 868s
Peter Beskendorf. 870s
One day, Beskendorf and Luther were having a conversation. 872s
And Beskendorf asked Luther, can you give me some advice on prayer? 877s
Can you give me some advice on prayer? 882s
Luther said, sure. 884s
So, in typical Luther fashion, he went home and wrote the 34 page response to his barber and wrote on the inscription to the master barber, my friend Peter. 886s
In that response about prayer, Luther said, 902s
Peter, what I do? 906s
What I do is I take some songs, I take some scripture, and I speak those to myself, itself talk. 908s
I speak them to myself. 919s
Luther also said, don't get up in the morning. 924s
Don't go to bed at night without speaking to yourself. 929s
Two, three, four scriptures. 935s
Speak it to yourself. 938s
Luther said, 941s
for Luther prayer, prayer was scripture born. 944s
The scripture born. 954s
In your own prayer life, do you ever feel like sometimes you get into a rut that you just find yourself spraying the same thing over and over and over again? 957s
That goes away when you use scripture as the basis for prayer. 966s
When you talk to yourself of scripture, in other words, you receive the word of scripture, and then that impacts one's prayer life. 973s
Where your scripture then forms your prayers. 982s
And what does that birth, it births gratitude? 989s
What did they have it say? 993s
Bless the Lord, give thanks and praise to the Lord. 994s
When scripture is used to form the prayers, to form the thanks, giving gratitude is at the heart. 999s
So, for example, in this text, back to Psalm 103, 1008s
thank you, Lord, that you have forgiven all of my inequities. 1016s
Thank you, Lord, that I have been washed clean through the blood of Jesus Christ. 1023s
Thank you, Lord, that my sins have been cast as far as the east is from the west. 1027s
Thank you, Lord, that you have made me white as the driven snow. 1032s
Thank you, Lord, that every sin has been covered under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1036s
Every sin, all of the past sins, all of the present sins, and even all of the future sins, have all been covered. 1041s
Thank you, Lord, for forgiving all of my inequities. 1047s
When goes on, thank you, Lord, for healing, for healing all of my diseases. 1055s
Whether this is side of heaven or whether in your sovereign to you choose to heal me in heaven itself, 1062s
thank you, Lord, that you heal all of my diseases. 1069s
Thank you, Lord, that there won't be one disease, there won't be one of our infirmity in heaven. 1074s
Thank you, Lord, that you have healed me of my greatest disease. 1078s
And that is the disease of sin through the medicinal blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1084s
as we are forgiven through his holy and precious blood. 1091s
Thank you, Lord. 1095s
Thank you, Lord, that you have redeemed me from the pit, that you've redeemed me from the grave. 1099s
Thank you, Lord, that when I die my spirit, my soul immediately is in your presence, 1106s
that it's a conscious reality. 1110s
And when you come again, you will raise me out of that grave, so that I might live with you body and soul in heaven. 1112s
That we will recognize, thank you, Lord, that we will recognize each other in heaven itself. 1123s
Thank you, Lord, that you have redeemed me from the grave. 1129s
Thank you, Lord, for your steadfast love and mercy. 1133s
Lord, we are hardly hardly steadfast in our restoring you, but thank you, Lord, that you have redeemed me. 1139s
Thank you for your steadfastness. 1149s
Thank you for your love. 1151s
Thank you for your mercy. 1153s
Thank you, Lord, for the strength that is ours, that you renew us to be as strong as an eagle, 1155s
that you take us beyond ourselves and you give us of a strength to live, so that we can live as you created us to live in radical absolute dependency upon you, 1163s
as we receive the strength to live. 1179s
Bless the Lord, to have it talk to himself. 1185s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul. 1192s
All that's within me, bless his holy name. 1196s
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and do not forget his benefits. 1200s
God gives us what to tell ourselves. 1215s
His benefits. 1222s
And he gives us the words of what to say to him. 1226s