Psalms 103:5

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things,.... With the good things in the heart of God, with his favour and lovingkindness, as with marrow and fatness; with the good things in the hands of Christ,

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. Who satisfieth thy mouth. The Hebrew for "mouth" [ `edyeek (H5716)] is the same as in Psalms 32:9, where see note.

Who satisfieth all thy just desires and necessities. Like the eagle’ s; either, 1. As the eagle reneweth her youth by casting all her old feathers, and getting new ones, whereby it seems to grow young again. But this, being common to all birds, would not have been appropriated to the eagle. Or rather, 2. Like the youth of an eagle. As the eagle lives long in great strength and vigour, so that the old age of an eagle is used proverbially for a lively and vigorous old age; so this is a promise of a long and comfortable life.

Psalms 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s.Ver. 5. Who satisfieth thy mouth] Heb. thy jaws, so that thou art top full, eating as long as eating is good. God alloweth thee an honest affluence of outward comforts; open thy mouth wide, and he will fill it, Psalms 81:10. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’ s] The eagle is of all birds the most vegetous and vivacious, renewing her youth and health, they say, at every ten years’ end, by casting her old feathers, and getting new, till she be a hundred years old ( Aquilae senectus. Proverb). Augustine observeth that when her bill is overgrown, that she cannot take in her meat, she beateth it against a rock, and so excutit onus rostri, she striketh off the cumbersome part of her bill, and thereby recovereth her eating. That which hindereth our renovation, saith he, the rock Christ taketh away, &c. See Isaiah 40:31.

(5) Mouth.—On the Hebrew word thus rendered, see Psalms 32:9. The word there adopted (“trappings,” or “ornaments”) would Commend itself here, from the evident allusion in the next clause to the moulting of the bird, and its appearance in new plumage, if the expression “to satisfy ornament with good” were in any way intelligible. The LXX. and Vulg. have “desire; the Syriac “body;” but the Chaldee, “age,” which is supported (Gesenius) by the derivation, gives the best sense:— Who satisfleth thine age with good, so that Thy youth renews itself like the eagle. The eagle’s.—Heb., nesher; properly, the griffon, or great vulture. See Exodus 19:4; and Note to Obadiah 1:4. The rendering of the Prayer Book, “like the eagle’s,” follows the LXX. The idea that the eagle renewed its youth formed the basis of a Rabbinical story, and no doubt appears also in the myth of the Phœnix. But the psalmist merely refers to the fresh and vigorous appearance of the bird with its new plumage.

Verse 5. Who satisfieth thy mouth] 5. For continual communications of spiritual and temporal good; so that the vigour of his mind was constantly supported and increased. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.] There is such a vast variety of the eagle, or genus Falco, that it is not easy to determine which is meant here. The Hebrew נשר neser is a general name for such as were known in the land of Judea; which were probably such as belong to the genus Aquila, comprehending forty-one species and seven varieties. There are as many legends of the eagle among the ancient writers, as there are of some saints in the calendar; and all equally true. Even among modern divines, Bible Dictionary men, and such like, the most ridiculous tales concerning this bird continue to be propagated; and no small portion of them have been crowded into comments on this very verse. One specimen my old Psalter affords, which, for its curiosity, I shall lay before the reader: - Trans. Newed sal be als of aeren thi youthed. Par. The arne when he is greved with grete elde, his neb waxis so gretely, that he may nogt open his mouth and take mete: bot then he smytes his neb to the stane, and has away the solgh, and than he gaes til mete, and be commes yong a gayne. Swa Criste duse a way fra us oure elde of syn and mortalite, that settes us to ete oure brede in hevene, and newes us in hym. The plain English of all this is: - "When the arne [eagle, from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.], a word which Dr. Jamieson has not entered in his dictionary] is oppressed with old age, his bill grows so much that he cannot open his mouth in order to take meat. He then smites his bill against a stone, and breaks off the slough - the excrescence that prevented him from eating; and then he goes to his ordinary food, and becomes young again. So Christ takes away from us our old age of sin and death, and gives us to eat of that bread which comes down from heaven: and thus gives us a new life in himself." I believe the meaning of the psalmist is much more simple: he refers to the moulting of birds, which, in most, takes place annually, in which they cast their old feathers and get a new plumage. To express this, he might as well have chosen any bird, as this is common to all the feathered race; but he chose the king of the birds, because of his bulk, his strength, and vivacity. The long life of the eagle might have induced the psalmist to give it the preference. An eagle was nine years in the possession of Owen Holland, Esq., of Conway, in Wales, and had lived thirty-two years in the possession of the gentleman who made it a present to him: but of its previous age, for it came from Ireland, we are not informed.

5. thy mouth] So the A.V. for the same word in Psalms 32:9, and the R.V. has retained the rendering here, though it rests on no sure basis. The Ancient Versions are at fault. The LXX gives thy desire; the Targ. the days of thine old age; the Syr. thy body; Aq. and Jer. thy adornment. The latter is the regular meaning of the word; and it has been suggested that, like glory in Psalms 16:9, it may mean soul. But this is improbable, as the soul itself is addressed; and it seems better to suppose that the verb has an unusual construction (but cp. Psalms 145:16), and to render: Who adorneth thee to the full with goodliness; (So that) thy youth is renewed like an eagle. In Israel’s resurrection from the grave of exile each Israelite is as it were endowed with a fresh accession of youthful vigour. Cp. Isaiah 40:31, where, as here, the point of comparison is the strength of the eagle, which might well seem to enjoy perpetual youth. There is no need to suppose an allusion to the fable that the eagle periodically renewed its strength by soaring sunwards and then plunging into the sea. Coverdale’s paraphrase in the P.B.V., “making thee young and lusty as an eagle,” gives the sense rightly.

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things - The word translated “thy mouth” here is rendered in the Chaldee “thy age;” in the Arabic, the Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, “thy desire;” in the

5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s—The allusion is to the fresh plumage of the eagle after moulting. The figure of Isa 40:31, is based on the eagle’s breadth and strength of wing.