447: He Remembers That We Are Dust (Ash Wednesday) |Tim Henderson

Introduction

Alright. So, I'm curious. How many of you guys have a specific favorite Psalm? So, one that's like this, you got a fave? What what is it? Oh, a Psalm though. Not song. No. But Psalm from the Old Testament Psalter. Yeah. Anybody got a favorite Psalm? Don? One thirty nine. One thirty nine. Right? Is this you search me. You know me. You know when I sit. You know when I rise. Yeah, that's great. Gil? 70 okay, don't recognize 73. What's Psalm 73? Oh, okay. There's a number of places where in the Psalm. Yeah, it is. Psalm 37 and Psalm 73. Yes. Okay. I recognize Psalm 73. Just wondering like when I see the wicked and the prospering, how's it all gonna end and you just need to see God's sovereignty in a broken world? Yes. I recognize that now. Yeah. Ellen, you want a Psalm now? 23. 23. Okay. One probably the world's favorite Psalm would be 23. I bet that's that's familiar almost to everybody.

Couple more favorites? One fifteen. One fifteen. I don't know that. What is that one, Pete? Not our wait. I don't still recognize that. So, you used some Latin phrase that smart people know. So, so not ourselves. I'll have look this up. I don't recognize this one. How about one or two more? Favorite Psalms? Psalm one. Psalm one is in my short list for sure. Right? I mean, the gateway to the Psalms. I love it. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. Jenny? 91. See, the risk of doing this is it shows how much I don't know. What is Psalm 91? Is there a key line that we might recognize? I don't know it myself. Okay. I'll look that one up. One fifteen ninety one and then I felt like there was somebody over here that seemed to hear yeah. 11. +1 21. Again, I got nothing. What is that? Oh, lifting my eyes to the hills. Yes. Right. Well, okay. That was disappointing, Dan. I agree. I agree. The names of these Psalms are not that descriptive. Know? They're literally numbers. I will tell you my first favorite psalm was Psalm one zero three. There was a time when you asked me what's my favorite psalm, my answer would have been one zero three because it was literally well, I mean, everyone knows Psalm 23. But beyond that, I don't think I could have named a single psalm when Psalm one zero three became my favorite. And it's beautiful. And we're gonna look at it tonight. I don't remember exactly why this one kinda got lifted off the page for me. It might have actually been at a Michael Card concert, if you guys are old enough to remember when Michael Card was a singer and songwriter. He's one of the handful of people that really taught me my Bible.

The Significance of Psalm 103

But what I wanna do tonight is just kinda skim through it with you. We don't, I get like, what, twelve minutes or something tonight. So we don't give much time. But I wanna look at a few things in Psalm one zero three. Well, it'll as we go through it, I think it'll become a little more obvious why we're looking at it on an Ash Wednesday. But turn in your Bibles. And if you don't know this trick, just split your Bible right in the middle, and you're probably gonna be in the Psalms. And then navigate to 103. I wanna make a few observations to you about it.

First thing to notice once you find it is that psalm one zero three is a psalm of David. And what I want you to see is that he's talking to himself. Psalm one zero three is David talking to himself. He says, praise the Lord, my soul, all my inmost being. Praise his holy name. I think we tend to make fun of people who talk to themselves, but talking to yourself is actually a good idea. I had a counselor once when I was at a super low point in my life and he said, Tim, you need to talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself. Does that land? What I could tell is like, Tim, you have these automatic tapes that are playing and you're listening to them. You're just listening to the lies that are just kinda running through your head. You need to seize that narrative and stop it, and you need to speak over it. You need to talk to yourself. And that's exactly what David's doing. He's like he's telling himself. He is seizing his own narrative and saying you need to praise the Lord. You need to praise him. Oh my soul praise his name.

And then he goes from simply praising him to a very specific thing. He tells himself, don't forget. Don't forget God's benefits. And the reason, of course, that he tells himself not to forget his benefits is because we forget his benefits. Right? And so he says, forget not all of his benefits. And then what he's gonna do is give a very specific benefit, and that's really what he's gonna focus on for the next little bit of this psalm. Take a look at verse three. He says, forget not his benefits, verse three, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. I think you may have noticed in your own life that forgiveness is more or less immediate. But the healing of diseases, that takes considerably longer. Right? And in fact, it may be a long time. It may be a very long time until your body is finally whole. It may not even be before this body gets renewed. But both are certain. Both are true. He forgives you immediately, but the healing of the body may take some time. Right? But both are benefits. We ought not forget it. We should remember it.

God's Character and Humanity's Mortality

Okay? Now take a look at verse eight, and I'm curious if you guys will recognize this or remember this. I know we've talked about this at different times. Verse eight says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. What is that? You guys remember what that is? Thirty four six. Boom. Gary. Exodus thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This is Psalm thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This is Psalm thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This is Psalm thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This is Psalm thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This is Psalm thirty four six. And why is that why is that significant, Gary? It's repeated over and over in the Old Testament. Over and over. This passage, it’s really God's self-portrait. In the original time it occurs, God is speaking to Moses and he reveals himself as the Lord, the Lord, the gracious, the compassionate God who's slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. It is this magnificent moment. And then it gets repeated, you guys, it's all over the place. It shows up elsewhere in the Pentateuch. It's in the history books. It's in the poetic books. The prophets quote it. The whole thing, like for hundreds of years, the writers of scripture point back to that particular verse. It's their favorite verse. Right? Psalm 103 is just one of those dozen times that he picks it up.

And what David does with it in Psalm 103 I think is kind of interesting. He begins by quoting it directly, right? Verse eight, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. That's verbatim, Exodus thirty four six. So, he starts off just saying it, but it seems like as he's quoting it, he almost gets caught up in it and he stops quoting it, and he just starts to describe. He kinda goes rogue. He starts to kinda free form it. And as he free forms it, it's right as this passage, the Lord, the Lord, the grace and compassion of God, slow to anger, batting love. He starts to riff as soon as Exodus 34 would begin to talk about the fact that God is a forgiving God. And that seems to be the thing that David is really caught up in.

Alright? And so he says it like this in verse nine. He's gonna convey this, the reality that God is a forgiving God. He's gonna talk about it both quantitatively and qualitatively, and then also quantitatively. Look at it in verse nine. It says, he will not always accuse nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. That's the qualitative description of the nature of God's forgiveness. Right? Basically, if God is forgiving, He may get mad but He doesn't stay mad. He doesn't harbor His anger forever. He does. God does have an emotional life, and it comes through over and over in the scriptures. We can do things that grieve him, that disappoint him. He does get angry, but he does not nurse the anger. It's temporary and it gives way to His grace.

Praise his name that that is so. Because he's forgiving, David goes on to say, he doesn't treat us as we deserve. Right? We deserve justice, but we get mercy. And David is just riffing on it, again, qualitatively. And then what's interesting is he tries to describe this quantitatively. And I say try because how in the world would you describe the forgiveness of God quantitatively? Like, how how would you do that? Here's how David tries to do it. He says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. He uses incalculable distances to quantify incalculable grace. And the whole thing, all of it, Psalm one zero three, is basically like he is, for he is gracious and compassionate. And the whole thing, I think, is really uplifting, at least until we get to this next line. Okay? I think this next line maybe is one of the reasons that this passage stands out. If there's any downer in Psalm one zero three, it's these next few lines. Okay? And these lines are why we're looking at this on Ash Wednesday. It's why Thomas Cranmer, like four hundred years ago, basically said, hey. When Ash Wednesday rolls around, I think this is one of the passages you guys ought to look at. And we said, all right. We'll do it. Right? Here's what's going on. Take a look at this.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. — Psalm 103:13

For he knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass. They flourish like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. — Psalm 103:14-16

In other words, what David is saying is God's treatment of us is impacted by the fact that he knows we are dying. He remembers that we are made out of dust and we will return to dust. We are flowers that fade. We pass like a breath. David is saying that God is kind to us when he corrects us because he remembers that we're mortals. That is one of those benefits that we might wanna remember. Right? Doesn't mean that God would refrain from saying true things to us. He does correct us, and sometimes that correction is painful. But he's gracious when he does it, and his goal is restoration because he knows, he remembers that we're mortals, that we're made out of dust.

Application and Reflection

Now Ash Wednesday, Quigg opened our service tonight. He read some of the history and some of the reasons for the Lenten season and for Ash Wednesday in particular. Ash Wednesday is not a holiday that is described anywhere in Scripture. It's a man-made tradition. The Bible never mentions anything about Lent. The whole thing is made up by the church. It's merely a tradition. But our lives are filled with traditions, and they're filled with good traditions. Right? You might have a tradition of bringing a tree into your house on Christmas or eating a turkey feast at Thanksgiving or blowing things up on July 4. Right? And we adopt these traditions and we choose to follow them not because they're divinely mandated but because we find them helpful. We have learned it's helpful to set a day that we're like, let’s just pause and remember with gratitude all that he has done. Right? Let's celebrate the graciousness of God to give us a country. There's all these different things. And I think as long as we don't pretend that traditions have divine origin and as long as they don't contradict scripture, game on. Let's do these things.

And Ash Wednesday happens to be one of those traditions that I really like. I think there's enormous wisdom in having a day every year that we set aside and we remember we are dying. We are made of dust. And soon, very soon, we shall return to dust. I particularly love the Anglican liturgy around Ash Wednesday. In fact, my favorite line in the entirety of the Book of Prayer is something that we're gonna recite tonight. You'll hear it in a few minutes, but I'm gonna tell you already because I just want to say it twice because I really like it.

There's this line in prayer. I think it might even have been Saint Anselm's prayer, but it says, oh, Lord our God, grant us the grace to desire you with our whole heart. And now listen to this. That desiring you, we may seek you. And seeking you, we may find you. And finding you, we may love you. And that loving you, we may hate those sins from which you have delivered us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

That's gold. Right? That's it. Why do we hate our sins? Because we love Him. Why do we love Him? Because we have found Him. Why do we why do we find Him? Because we sought Him. Why did we seek Him? Because He gave us the grace to desire Him.

There is so much wisdom in those few lines. That is gold. And I not only love our Ash Wednesday service because of the beauty of the liturgy and the wisdom of reminding that we're dying, but because I remember the very first time I ever attended an Ash Wednesday service, which was in this room, and I actually preached at it, is kind of strange because I'd never been to one before. But Quig looked me in the eye and he smeared ashes on my forehead and he said, remember, dust you are, and to dust you shall return. And it was Craig, I'll never forget it. I know that you've done it. You've forgotten it. You've done it ten million times, but it hit me like an electric shock to be, like, reminded and startled that it's all true, that this life is so brief, and the way that we pass these moments matters.

Dust you are, and to dust you shall return. We flourish like a flower of the field, and then the wind blows over us and we are gone. Because God is kind with us because He knows that we are weak and that we are fleeting. And I suspect that our experience of His kindness to us in our mortality might induce us to be kind to others for they too are dust.

And I hope that as you enter into these next several weeks, six weeks leading up to Easter, you might follow David's pattern: that you might talk to your own soul, that you might tell yourself to praise Him for His love so that you'll be mindful of His love and so that you'll be a conduit of His love to others.

Praise the lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the lord, my soul. Amen.