This Bible Study is is provided by http://www.theseason.org/ and shared with permission from it's author R. Christopherson

This is a Psalm of David, looking forward to the coming of the King.

Psalms 103:1 "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name."

This blessing being offered to the Lord is not referring to the flesh body, but is coming from your inner soul. To bless the Father is to thank him for all the blessings that He has given to you.

Psalms 103:2 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits:"

Have you stopped to count all the benefits that God has given to you? Each breath of air is a life giving benefit to you and your flesh body. The water that you drink gives you life, and all the things that allow you to live your life a little easier are gifts from God. God created all things for his pleasure, but as sons of God, they are and were provided for you also. The things that we call free to us, were given to us by Father.

Psalms 103:3 "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases;"

With repentance God forgives all of your iniquities, and He will also heal your diseases. This is a promise to you from God Himself. If God healeth all of these diseases, how can so many people be dying from all these sicknesses? Look past the diseases of this earth age of flesh man; for it is better that the iniquities of your sins are forgiven and your soul has eternal life, than for the sick flesh to be healed. Jesus was asked this same question in Matthew 9:1-6 when he saw those that brought the man with palsy to Him to be healed. When Jesus saw the faith in these people and the sick man; He said in verse three; "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." However, there were scribes standing by and watching what was taking place. the scribes did not believe in a life hereafter, and after hearing Jesus say; "thy sins be forgiven thee", they called Jesus a blasphemer. Jesus could read their thoughts and told them directly; "Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, `Thy sins be forgiven thee'; or to say, `Arise, and walk? " [verse 4, 5]

Matthew 9:6 "But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins," (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) "Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house."

So what is the greatest in your mind, to have the sickness of our soul healed, or the sickness of your physical body? Our Lord Jesus Christ came first to heal the sickness of your soul, then the sickness of your physical body. The forgiveness our your sins is eternal, but the life we live in our flesh body can be very short indeed. However, with all the air, land and water pollution and violations of the health laws of the bible, mankind today has set himself up to be under attack by all forms of sickness and diseases. It's a lot better to have cancer in the flesh, than cancer in the soul that causes your soul to perish. Cancer of the soul is sin, and only the blood of Christ, through your repentance can take away that cancer. That's why we pray to the Father for forgiveness in Jesus name.

As far as the cancer of the flesh, our Heavenly Father can heal the cancer of these flesh bodies. God can perform miracles to these bodies when we in faith ask for His healing. Sure, many God fearing men and women die of sickness and diseases, but God is preparing an army for both sides, and at his return, that army of saints on the other side will return with him to establish His kingdom right here on this earth.

Revelation 19:14 "And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean."

This event of God's army of saints following our Lord Jesus Christ is when the Lord comes back to earth. Our Lord's coming is not far off, for we are living in the final generation. This army of believers will come and battle with Satan and his realm in the final war of this earth age. Those saints that are here on earth in their flesh bodies will witness this coming, for each of them have the seal of truth in their minds, and know what is happening. Those Saints that were called home to the Lord, will indeed war and bring the force that will end all of Satan rule on this earth. The seventh trumpet will close out this age of flesh man, with all the evil rudiments [elements] that go along with flesh man. Flesh man simply cannot end Satan's rule, but the army of the Lord can. God's angelic beings through the power that God places within them, can bring those victories to pass. So why does God do it this way? Ezekiel 38:23 "Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.' "

Psalms 103:4 "Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;"

It is our Heavenly Father that redeemeth our soul from destruction, which is the pit, the abyss. Through repentance and your faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ, your soul can be saved from the lake of fire. Our Father saves us as a kinsman would take care of His next of kin. Almighty God is our kinsman redeemer, and He wants us to look upon Him as a father that cares for your needs. He does have mercy and shows loving kindness to those that love him.

Psalms 103:5 "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

He relies on you and I to speak up, and tell other of those good things that are in His Word. However there is another point to this verse, and that pertains to what we eat and the strength that is within our physical bodies. The eagle has its strength and vigor even to a very old age, because it stays alert to its enemy around him, and feeds right.

Psalms 103:6 "The Lord executeth righteousness And judgment for all that are oppressed."

When you are down and mentally out, God will bring you out of that condition by His proper correction. Father knows how to correct those that are oppressed, for He is continually watching us and He knows what is on our minds.

Psalms 103:7 "He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel."

God literally spoke to Moses, telling him what he ought to do, and those things and people to stay clear of. The Israelites had many miracles that they could see daily, from the manna on the ground, to the holding back of the red sea. They saw the miracles and witnessed the love of our heavenly Father for them.

Psalms 103:8 "The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy."

The Hebrew text reads, "The Lord is compassionate and longsuffering, not wanting that any should perish. He is slow to anger and very generous with the blessings He gives to them that love and trust Him."

Psalms 103:9 "He will not always chide: Neither will He keep His anger for ever."

The Lord will not contend [chide] with us forever; for there is a time coming when the longsuffering will be over, and this ending will be at the sounding of the seventh and last trump. Then God's wrath will spill over on Satan, his system and all that have willingly become part of that system.

There are two tribulations coming to this earth shortly, the first is by Satan, and the second by God and His army, and God's tribulation will not be against those that love and trust Him. Satan's tribulation is deception, deceiving the world into worshipping Him, and those that are sealed with the Word of God, know that truth of the events that are going on around them, and will not be deceived by Satan.

Psalms 103:10 "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."

Psalms 103:11 "For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward them that fear Him."

These two verses tell us exactly how to please our Heavenly Father. The word "fear" as given here should be "revere", and this misleads many people in their attitude and respect to our Lord. So this is saying that when you revere our Heavenly Father, it pleases Him very much. God states this fact three times; here, in verses 13 and 17. He is calling your attention that when you love and revere Him, showing proper respect to Him, He will show His reward of mercy and kindness to you.

Psalms 103:12 "As far as the east is from the west, So far hath He removed our transgressions from us."

This is a promise from our heavenly Father to you personally. He is telling us that as far as the east is from the west, for these two directions are infinite, so far that they will never meet. Not just the direction of the points on the compass, but to the very ends of heavens itself. That is how far your sins are removed from you when they are covered over the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. After repentance, the question of whether those sins are removed or not, is well established here. Those forgiven sins are so removed from you that it is as if that sin was never committed in the first place. That is why you must learn to forgive yourself also, for if guilt is removed in the books of heaven, you must learn to remove that guilt in your own mind, after repentance. This is a promise to you from God, and you take it by your faith in Him. God doesn't want to hear about those sins again, and the only one that will bring them up is Satan and those doing the work of Satan, but we are to order them out of our lives. God forgives.

Psalms 103:13 "Like as a father pitieth his children, So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him."

This is the second time that God told us that He takes pity on those that revere Him and His Word. When a small child comes to you and say, I'm sorry mother, forgive me, I'm sorry daddy. Your love that flows out to that child is but a small example of how our heavenly Father's love will flow out to you. That is the same emotion that our Heavenly Father has for you when you ask Him for forgiveness for the sin in your life. Even the thought that God will hold your forgiven sins up to you in the future is from the devil. There is no sin after repentance. The Lord takes pity on those that revere Him, and you can feel that warmth of His Spirit within you at repentance.

Psalms 103:14 "For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."

God knows what you are made of, from the very clay of this earth. He knows the sickness that can enter these flesh bodies, and the trouble that comes when there is a chemical imbalance to that system. He knows and sees the troubles and trials that you are going through in living your life in your flesh body, and of those of Satan that are out to take advantage of you. He knows all the temptations that you can and will go through while living in your flesh body. There are no secrets hidden from our Lord. He even sees into the mind of those that would plot against you, and He doesn't expect perfection from you while you are in the flesh. But still, when you go to Him, as a small child does to its mother or father for forgiveness, God will remove that sins so far away from you that it will never be brought up by Him again. Our heavenly Father is very real, and He is more natural than your earthly mother or father. He is supernatural. It is only natural that we pour our love out to Him in return.

Psalms 103:15 "As for man, his days are as grass: As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth."

Mortal man's days are like the grass, very short. The flowers of the field spring forth, and bloom in their season.

Psalms 103:16 "For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; And the place thereof shall know it no more."

"The wind" as used in this verse is the "ruach" in the Hebrew text. Keep this in the spiritual realm as given here. The Spirit of God passes over that flesh soul, and it is gone. Where is it gone to? It goes back to the Father that sent it at conception.

Ecclesiastes 12:6 "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern."

When the silver cord of life that connects your soul with that clay bowl that we call a flesh body is broken, it means that you die. The life of your soul, and spirit which is the intellect of that soul, has left the flesh body. The flesh is dead and the soul has departed.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it."

Dead flesh decays back into the elements or dust of the earth that it is made of. The usefulness of that body is finished, but the soul goes instantly back to the Father that placed that soul into its mother's womb at conception. No there are no souls out there in those graves in the cemeteries, for like Paul warned us in I Thessalonians 4:13, that this is as the heathen think and believe. We have an eternal hope, and at death our soul and spirit return to the Heavenly Father [God] Who gave it. This earth age is the place that shall know it no more. The flesh is not important, and at death the soul is all that is important, and it has already risen to be with the Father because of the price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross.

I Thessalonians 4:14 "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him."

Just as you believe that Jesus died and rose again, and God took him to be with the Father, surely you can see that your soul at death will be brought to heaven also. No soul is laying out there in a hole in the ground but brought instantly to be with the Father as we read in Ecclesiastes 12:7. Paul is telling you not to be ignorant as the heathen are, and yet today many take this beautiful truth and turn it into a babbling lie. So what is the fact that Paul is telling you? The subject that is addressed here, and answered in the Greek text is: "Where are the dead", "Where are those that have died and their bodies laid in the ground." The rest of this explanation is set, the dead are not out there in the ground, but with the Father.

I Thessalonians 4:15 "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep."

No, no flesh man can prevent the soul of any person that has died from doing anything, for that soul is instantly taken back to be with the Father. However, those souls that are still living within their flesh bodies do look forward to the coming of the Lord. That is just as true in Paul's day, as in this final generation. Then at the sounding of the seventh and final trump, when all the other trumps have sounded, they our Lord will return with His saints, to establish His kingdom right here on this earth.

I Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:"

Why will the dead in Christ rise first? That is what we have been talking about all along, because they go to be with Him instantly at the death of their flesh body. How can that be so hard to understand. There is no rapture, and there is no escape from getting around the events of our day that are recorded in the Word of God. When you die in the flesh, you go to be with God. Those that are living in their flesh bodies look forward to the return of the Lord, at the seventh trump. Then at the last trump all flesh is done away with instantly, faster than you can wink an eye, and we are in Christ's kingdom right here on this earth for the next thousand years. That is what is said in the seventeenth verse.

I Thessalonians 4:17 "Then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

Verse seventeen comes after verse sixteen, and in verse sixteen the seventh trump has sounded. All the other trumps have also sounded, and Satan has had his time here on earth deceiving all the people in their flesh bodies on the earth. At the sounding of the seventh trump, Jesus Christ return with all the saints to this earth, and in clouds of witness or masses of people in their "breath of life" soul bodies shall defeat Satan. Where will Jesus be at this time? That's right, here on earth; because the seventh trump has sounded, and in you are new incorruptible body under the one world kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalms 103:17 "But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, And His righteousness unto children's children;"

There is no end to the mercy of the Lord, but notice there is a qualifier, "upon them that fear [revere] Him." This is your third notice of God mercy that is given to those that love and respect Him and revere His Word. There is a great deal more here than just the flesh body. The Lord places you in these flesh bodies at conception like the flower in the field, and when the Spirit of God moves over that flesh and your soul is called back to Him, that is where He wanted you in the first place, to love and enjoy you, and this time in your flesh body is just a passing thing. It's like a vapor in the night, so get your spiritual mind focused on the life that is eternal. Sure we all have to live and go through this life once, and then we return to the Father.

While in the flesh body, stay in reality, and keep the things of the flesh separate and in order from the things that pertain to your eternal soul. Know within your soul that there is a great deal more to your life than from the time of conception, to the time your soul leaves your flesh body. However you do have a purpose of service for God while living in this earth age of flesh man. God relies on you and I to spread the Gospel of good news that His salvation is for all those that will love and seek him in repentance. God's love for you is eternal, longsuffering, and has no end when you are in His everlasting arms. God has emotions and He loves to express those thoughts to us through His Word.

Psalms 103:18 "To such as keep His covenant, And to those that remember His commandments to do them."

Here is a qualifier to those receiving God's blessings; God's covenant is His testament, and it is in two parts, The Old and the New Covenant, or Testament. Those conditions are spelled out in the entire bible. The condition for His mercies are for those that are obedient to His Word. Sure you will fall short of those instruction, but that is why we have repentance when we see our short comings. When you do mess up, that is the time to approach the Father and ask for forgiveness, and repent those sins to the Father in Jesus' Name. Then God promised that He will remove those sins as far away from you that He can. When you obey His Covenant and Commandments He has told us what we can expect from Him in Deuteronomy 28:1-14. But when you go against His Word and instructions then the curses are also listed from verse 15 to verse 68. If you chose to be blind to the Old Testament, then don't blame God for the curses that you brought down on your own head.

Psalms 103:19 "The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; And His kingdom ruleth over all."

Jesus went to prepare a throne in the heavens, To sit at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made his footstool. That throne will come back to this earth at the seventh trump. However even now His kingdom ruleth over all. Every thing that happens in this earth age is in accordance with His Word. God is in control. When we revere God and not the things of this world age, then we will receive God's blessings even today. You don't have to wait on those blessings, when you revere Him, for they are all part of the promises within His Word.

Psalms 103:20 "Bless the Lord, ye His angels, That excel in strength, that do His commandments, Hearkening unto the voice of His word."

When you left your spiritual body to enter into your flesh body at conception, you were with the Father. Souls don't float anywhere but depart from one body, the flesh or corruptible body, and go to enter into another, the incorruptible body. You left the first incorruptible body for the corruptible body to be tested in the flesh, and at death or Christ's return, your soul will go back into your incorruptible body. The corruptible body ages and gets sick, but the incorruptible body never ages or gets sick. No soul is ever without a body, and your spirit is the intellect of your soul. Where the soul, is there your spirit is also.

Angels are very natural, for we are made in their image. They are not some mist floating around, and when you leave your corruptible flesh bodies, you go into your incorruptible body for the eternity. You will look as you do in this body, with the exception of age, youth, and the scars and sicknesses that the flesh body picks up. You will be able to go to family members then, and they will recognize you, just as they do in these flesh bodies. The angels excel in strength for one reason, and that is to do our Heavenly Father's will.

Psalms 103:21 "Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts; Ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure."

The hosts of the Lord is that army that shall return with him, to put down Satan and reign with our Lord on this earth. The hosts set out to please God, and seek to do as instructed by the Word. The hosts know of God's love and His feelings for them, and teach others of that love. The hosts include people on this earth that are in their mortal body, that many times are misled and mistaught of the true love of Our Father. A high price altar call cheapens that love that Father has for you, that kinship of a true Father for His children. He says, child I'm here for you; and all you have to do is go to Him. You were with Him in that first earth age, and He knows you better than you know your own children. He sees all that you do, and in love asks you to let Him take up that burden that you have; and He will lighten that load from off your shoulders. Come on, let Him know that you love Him, and be honest with Him. You don't need music playing and heads bowed in shame; no, look up and love your Father in truth, repent and receive real salvation that lasts. For that salvation is based on love and friendship with the One that truly cares for you.

Psalms 103:22 "Bless the Lord, all His works In all places of His dominion: Bless the Lord, O my soul."