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 forgives all your iniquity,
     who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
     who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
     so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness
     and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
     his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
     slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
     nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
​​     nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
     so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
     so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
     so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
     he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;
     he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
     and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
     and his righteousness to children’s children,
to those who keep his covenant
     and remember to do his commandments.
The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
     and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
     you mighty ones who do his word,
     obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
     his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
     in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Psalm 103:1–22).

Gratitude for a Pivotal Decision

It’s a work of grace that in the last year and a half, the testimonies came back repeatedly, “He was just blessing the Lord. He was just blessing the Lord.” He was saying to Keith, “Just thank the Lord for something.” In other words, “The issue isn’t me, the issue is whether God is blessed by his people.” So, let me just say a brief word, I won’t keep you much longer, about Psalm 103.

Before I do, I do want to say thank you God, that Ozzie voted yes in 1980 for me to come. I mean, just picture this. I tried to picture this. What if Ozzie had said no? What if he said no to Char, or Marlene, or Jim Backlin, or Clarence Ohman, or Vern Carlson, or Marvin Anderson, what if he had said no? What if he said, “He’s too young. He’s had no pastoral experience. He’s never done a funeral in his life. He’s never baptized anybody. He’s preached maybe 15 times. The guy’s ill-equipped to take this church. No, I’m voting no.”

Just think, what would my life be? I just have no idea what I would have done. Who knows where I would be instead of spending the last 29 years with you. So, I do not take it for granted that he said yes and that Char said yes. I don’t know if it was unanimous or not, maybe Char didn’t say yes — yes, she said yes. She said yes to me. So, thank you, Father in heaven for that gift.

Blessing God for All His Benefits

Now, just a word or two about this psalm. You heard it. It’s almost all, “Bless you, bless you, bless you,” and it has reason after reason after reason as to why God should be blessed, thanked, honored, praised, and treasured. However, every one of those blessings, that is every one of those reasons for blessing, have a yes-but to them.

David wrote this. He wrote it a thousand years before the cross of Jesus, and yet it takes the cross of Jesus for every one of those blessings to stand. This psalm points to Christ over and over and over again. That’s why I want us to end up here is pointing our finger to Jesus with a psalm that was written a thousand years before he came.

He Forgives You

Here are just a few illustrations of what I mean by that. It says:

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 forgives all your iniquity . . .

And oh, David knew that, right? He was an adulterer, murderer, and a liar. He forgives all your iniquities. And of course, the question is, how can you do that? Just like that? Does God just say, “We won’t count the adultery. We won’t count the murder. We just won’t count it. We’ll just drop it.” Everything in us cries out, “Wait a minute, it isn’t that simple.” Isaiah 53:6 gives the answer, doesn’t it?

All we like sheep have gone astray;
     we have turned — every one— to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
     the iniquity of us all.

Who’s him? A thousand years from now, David’s sin is going to go on Jesus. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So, this psalm won’t even work, from the beginning, without Jesus. Your sins and Ozzie’s sins are the same way. There’s nothing but sinners in this room. Our only hope, when we exalt God in Psalm 103, is that our sins are covered by the one who came a thousand years later and bore our sins.

He Heals You

Psalm 103:3 says that he heals all our diseases. Well, what about the last one? Yes, that one too, right? But it’s because of Christ. He went into this grave, killed it, and came out of the grave. And all those who are in Christ are coming out of the grave. The last disease is going to be healed. This Psalm is true all the way, but it’s true because of Christ.

He Redeems You

Psalm 103:4 says, “He redeems your life from the pit.” The New Testament makes something of that because it says that David saw corruption. He went into the pit and he stayed there until the resurrection. Jesus went into the pit and came right out to lead a whole host of captives, including Ozzie, David, and you, if you’re in him.

He Crowns You

In Psalm 103:4, it says, “He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” Yes, over and over again, he crowned this man’s life with mercy. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great was his steadfast love towards Ozzie. As a father shows compassion on his children, that’s the way he had compassion on Ozzie. But, the word “crowns” connotes royalty. Is that royalty? It is. We have died with him, Paul says, and have been raised with him and seated with him at the right hand of God (Ephesians 2:4–7).

Ozzie was, by faith, already seated at the right hand of God, in royalty. Now, his soul is there and he’s seeing, and one day, that body is coming out of the grave renewed, made strong, handsome, beautiful, and able to do the sports all over again. And there will be royalty about him and you, if you’re in him. We will be princes and princesses sitting with him on the throne of the universe.

He Satisfies You

Psalm 103:5 says, “[He] satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” It was renewed over and over again. But, then I look around this room. How renewed do we feel? Are we getting stronger? No, we’re not getting stronger. We’re getting weaker. Our inner man is being renewed day-by-day and our outer man is wasting away (2 Corinthians 4:16). So, what about this? His youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Just for 40 years, and then it’s all downhill? I don’t think so.

We will mount up with wings like eagles. We will run and not grow weary. We will walk and not faint forever (Isaiah 40:31) because Romans 8:23 says that we who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, groan inwardly, waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. And oh how new it will be, and how we will run, and how there will be a new heavens, a new earth, and new bodies to live in them. And this Psalm will be completely fulfilled.

He Works Righteousness

The Lord works righteousness
     and justice for all who are oppressed (Psalm 103:6).

Those were hard days in the 1960s in the North Minneapolis, hard days. Justice, was it done? By prayer? By a wife’s help? By a Lutheran brothers at your side? Yes, but look at the world. Look at this world he has left behind. What a mess. What an absolute mess this world is. There is injustice everywhere in the world.

So, does the Lord work righteousness and justice? Oh, yes, he does. He works it decisively in the cross, so that everyone can be forgiven — all of his sins of racism or whatever kind will be vindicated at the last day because all of them went on to Jesus. Or if you reject Jesus, he will be vindicated. Those sins will be paid for in hell. Justice will be done. All of it. Every wrong in this world will be righted on the cross or in hell. I hope that your wrongs will be righted by Christ on the cross.

Come Join the Song

So, let me close just by reminding us that the response to all these blessings in this Psalm was, “Bless the Lord.” I’m doing that right now. I have the microphone. Bless the Lord, O my soul. I’m saying it. And then, David says, “Angels, you join me now. Hosts of heaven, join me now. Bless the Lord.” And then, he looked around at all the works of God. Ozzie was one of those works. You are one of those works. I’m closing by saying, will you join David? Will you join me? Will you join Ozzie? Will you join Dorothy and those who’ve had a word here? Will you join us in blessing the Lord? Or will you just leave this room, go back to your television and bless man, bless yourself, bless your house, bless your job, bless your retirement, bless you vacation, and not bless God?

Oh, may Ozzie’s legacy be that all of his children, and all of his grandchildren, and all of his great grandchildren, and all of his great, great grandchildren until Jesus comes, bless the Lord with all of the circle of his friends. Oh, leave this room in a moment, blessing God. That’s what Ozzie, I think, would want me to call you to do because he modeled it so well.