But from everlasting to everlasting the loving devotion of the LORD extends to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to their children’s children—But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;But the lovingkindness of Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, And his righteousness unto children’s children;
3 sermons cite this verse
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. The Lord is filled in kindness, above the kingdom of God. The wonderful Mississippi short story writer Eudora Welty once wrote a memoir. It was called One Writer's Beginning. And in her memoir, she used this fascinating image. She said that writing about her own life thoughtfully and reflectively was like riding on a mountain railroad at night. It was only when the train went around a bend, around a curve, and threw suddenly a light on what had passed that she was able to see a mountain of meaning rising, rising still along the path that she had traveled. There is, I think, just such a moment of retrospective illumination in this beautiful 103rd Psalm that we just heard. Most of the psalm is an exuberant song of blessing and praise. The psalmist's cup is full and flowing over. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless God's holy name. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is the steadfast love of God. …
This is God's word. Back in March, we looked at this passage, we looked at the whole psalm, but we looked at the beginning of it and it just killed me not to be able to go to the meat of it. And today we are. Last week, we laid down a thesis, and that thesis is going to serve us for a series of studies on the nature of God, who God is. And the thesis goes like this. In action movies, especially with the kind of movies we see in the summer, in action movies, all the players are cartoon characters. They are one-dimensional. They're either heroes or villains or they're stereotypes of some kind. They're not nuanced. They're simple and they're one-dimensional. And as a result, there's no personal engagement with them. I mean, we're not supposed to have personal engagement with them. So when they're blown away, we just applaud it to special effects. It doesn't bother us, see. There's no personal engagement with them. They're one-dimensional cartoons. …
I will venture to say that nine out of ten of the terrible feelings which men have when under conviction of sin are not the work of God's Spirit, but are the result of the uprising of their own unbelief stirred and agitated by the diabolic suggestions of Satan. He knows that it is "now or never" with them—if he can now drive them to despair and keep them from coming to Christ, he will have gained his end. But if now the anxious soul should find shelter and rest in the Atonement of Christ, the Prince of Darkness will have lost it forever and, therefore, he exerts all his power and stirs up all his fellow fiends to do their utmost to keep the poor soul in despair! One of the arrows which the devil shoots at such a time is this is that he says to the troubled soul, "Your sins are so great that it is not possible for God to forgive you. You have sinned so grossly and so long—remember your sin on such-and-such a day and on such-and-such a night? If you had not committed such-and-such a sin, you might have been forgiven, but now there is no hope for you! Besides, think of the many ways in which your offenses have been aggravated. You have sinned against light and knowledge—though you have often been reproved, you have hardened your neck and you shall surely be destroyed—and that without remedy. Your case is utterly hopeless." Now, although part of Satan's speech is quoted from the Scriptures, I dare to affirm that this arrow never came out of God's quiver! That quotation has no reference to one who sincerely repents of sin and comes to God seeking mercy for Jesus' sake. However great your guilt may have been, remember that "the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him." If you had gone as far in sin as Satan, himself, could have led you, that great promise of the Lord Jesus Christ would still have been available for you, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto man." If the guilt of a thousand sinners had been concentrated in you, yet still, if you did but wash in the— …