Psalms 103

Psalms 103THE Psalmist calls upon himself to praise God for personal favours already experienced, Psalms 103:1-5. From these he rises, in the body of the psalm, to the contemplation of God’s attributes, in themselves considered and as manifested in his dealings with his people, Psalms 103:6-19. He concludes as he began, with an exhortation to bless God, no longer addressed merely to himself, but to all creatures, Psalms 103:20-22. According to the exegetical hypothesis already mentioned, this is the song of mercy and judgment promised in Psalms 101:1. The arguments in favour of this theory have been already stated. The principal objection to it, and that by no means a conclusive one, is the want of unison and even concord, as to tone and spirit, between the psalm before us and the two preceding it.

Be this as it may, the psalm before us is a complete and finished composition, being one of the most simple and yet regular in structure that the book contains. This has contributed, with other obvious peculiarities, to make it a favourite vehicle of thankful praise among the pious of all ages.

1. (Psalms 103:1) By David. Bless, O my soul, Jehovah, and all within me (bless) his holy name! The attempts which have been made by modern critics to discredit the inscription in the first clause chiefly consist in representing the many imitations and allusions to this noble composition in the later scriptures as a cento of citations from those scriptures by the writer of the psalm itself, a preposterous inversion of the laws of evidence to which the neological critics are especially addicted, and by which anything and everything can be disproved or proved at pleasure. Bless, when applied to God, means to praise, but with a strong implication of devout affection. By calling on his soul to do this, he acknowledges his own obligation, not only to praise God, but to praise him cordially, with all the heart, according to the solemn requisition of the law (Deuteronomy 6:5), to which there is perhaps a reference in all such cases. See above on Psalms 3:2.

The parallel expression, all within me, is the plural form of one repeatedly used else-where, and denoting the inside of anything, and more especially of man, his mind or heart, as distinguished from his mere professions or external acts. See above, on Psalms 5:9; Psalms 49:11. The literal translation of the form here used is my insides or inner parts, the strong and comprehensive meaning of the plural being further enhanced by the addition of all, as if to preclude exception and reserve, and comprehend within the scope of the address all the powers and affections. His name of holiness (or holy name), i.e. the revelation of his infinite perfections. See above, on Psalms 5:11; Psalms 22:3.

2. (Psalms 103:2) Bless, 0 my soul, Jehovah, and forget not all his dealings. The positive exhortation is repeated as a kind of foil to the negative one following, in which there seems to be allusion to the frequent admonition in the Law to Israel, not to forget the Lord who brought him up out of the land of Egypt. See Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy 8:14. The last word in the verse before us is the passive participle of a verb which means to treat, and commonly to treat well. See above, on Psalms 7:4. The idea here conveyed is that of treatment, determined by the context to be kind and gracious treatment. The latitude of meaning and the plural form are both represented in the English word dealings, which, though susceptible of either application can, in this connection, only have a good one.

3. (Psalms 103:3) Forgiving all thy guilt, healing all thy sicknesses. The participles are to be grammatically construed with Jehovah as the object of the praise required, and assign a reason for the requisition, furnished by the personal experience of the soul itself. The original expression is still more definite, each participle having the article prefixed, the (one) forgiving, the (one) healing. See a similar construction carried out still further in Psalms 18:32-34; Psalms 18:47-50. The last word in the verse is an unusual one borrowed from Deuteronomy 29:21, where sicknesses are joined with plagues or strokes, to signify calamities considered as penal inflictions. The same idea is expressed in other words, Exodus 16:26.

The relation of the clauses, in the verse before us, may be that of cause and effect. Forgiving all thy guilt and thereby removing all the misery occasioned by it.

4. (Psalms 103:4) Redeeming from the grave thy life, crowning thee (with) mercy and compassions. The combination of the article and participle is the same as in ver. 3, the (one) redeeming, the (one) crowning. The continuation of the sentence in this form keeps the attention fixed upon the reasons for which, or the characters in which, the Lord is to be praised. As if he had said, Bless him as the one forgiving thee and healing thee, redeeming thee and crowning thee. Redeeming means delivering, but with a strong implication of cost and risk. For the twofold sense of the word translated grave, see above, on Psalms 16:10, and compare Psalms 30:9.

The peculiar form of the possessive pronoun, in this verse and the one before it, has been represented as a proof of later date, but really belongs to the dialect of poetry, from which, in all languages, certain expressions are continually passing into that of common life, so that what in one age is poetical is in the next colloquial, and seems therefore to belong to the later period and to shew the recent date of any composition in which it occurs. The familiar use of such words as oftentimes, perchance, etc., in our own day may thus be used hereafter to prove the writings of our older poets spurious. The figure of crowning, which occurs above in Psalms 65:11, suggests the idea of dignity and beauty, while the absence of merit in the object, and the sovereign freeness of the gift, are indicated by making the crown itself a crown of mercy and compassion. The last word in Hebrew is expressive of the warmest and tenderest affections. See above, on Psalms 18:1; Psalms 25:6; Psalms 40:11.

5. (Psalms 103:5) Filling with good thy soul—(then) is renewed, like the eagle, thy youth. The peculiar construction of the two preceding verses is continued through the first clause of the one before us, and then suddenly abandoned. Filling, the (one) filling, in the sense of satisfying or abundantly supplying, but without the accessory notion of satiety. See above, on Psalms 81:16; Psalms 91:16. With good, literally the good, by way, of eminence, the chief good or the real good. Thy soul is not a literal translation of the Hebrew term, which, in every other case where it occurs, means ornament or decoration.

See, for example, Psalms 32:8. The translations mouth, life, etc., are gratuitous conjectures from the context. The best explanations is that furnished by the analogous word honour, glory, which is sometimes applied to the soul as the nobler part of man. See above, on Psalms 16:9. This explanation is confirmed by the frequent combination of the noun soul and the verb to satisfy. See above, Psalms 63:5, and below, Psalms 107:9, and compare Isaiah 58:11.

It is also sanctioned by the ancient versions; for although the Targum makes it mean old age, a palpable conjecture, the Septuagint and Vulgate have desire ( desiderium), a frequent sense of soul in Hebrew, and Jerome translates it literally, ornamentum. The word then is introduced into the translation of the second clause, in order to retain the Hebrew collocation, which is not without its emphasis. Is renewed, or retaining the reflective form of the original, renews itself. The supposed allusion in this clause to a fabulous or real renovation of the eagle in its old age, rests upon a misconception of the language, as the only point of comparison with the eagle is its strength and vigour, as in 2 Samuel 1:23, Isaiah 40:31, and the whole verse may be paraphrased as follows: “So completely does his bounty feed thy strength, that even in old age thou growest young again, and soarest like an eagle.”

6. (Psalms 103:6) Doing righteousnesses (is) Jehovah, and judgments for all oppressed. Thus far the reasons urged for praising God were personal, i.e. derived from individual experience. With these, from the very constitution of our nature, all our grateful exercises must begin. But if genuine they do not stop there, as the Psalmist, at this point, ascends from private causes of thanksgiving to more general views of God’s administration, as a basis for the universal call with which the psalm concludes. The connection here may thus be stated: “Such have been the Lord’s compassions to myself, but these are only samples of his goodness. He is not only merciful to me, but to all who are oppressed, and to deliver whom he executes his judgments.” There is no contrast here intended between mercy and justice, with respect to different objects of the Lord’s compassion.

The meaning is, that man’s injustice is redressed by God’s mercy. The redemption of his people is often represented as coincident with the condign punishment of their oppressors. Doing, i.e. practising in general, and executing in particular cases. The participle (doing) signifies habitual and constant action; the plural form (righteousnesses) completeness and variety, adapted to all possible emergencies. Judgments, as usual, denotes judicial acts, as distinguished from mere attributes or principles.

7. (Psalms 103:7) He makes known his ways to Moses, to the children of Israel his (mighty) deeds. The general statement of the fact in the preceding verse is now followed by the great historical example furnished in Jehovah’s dealings with his people. This serves, not only to illustrate what was said before, but to shew that it was not a mere vague declaration of what God will do to all men, but a definite assertion of his purpose and his practice with respect to his own people. All the oppressed, to whom he grants or promises deliverance, are not mankind in general, without distinction or exception, but his own people when in that condition. The first clause contains an obvious allusion to the prayer of Moses, as recorded by himself, Exodus 33:13, from which passage it appears that the ways of God, which he desired to know, were his modes of dealing with his people, or the course of his dispensations towards them. See above, on Psalms 25:4; Psalms 67:2.

The knowledge thus imparted was experimental or afforded by experience. The parallelism between Moses and the Children of Israel shews that the latter were represented by the former. The last Hebrew word is one constantly applied to God’s exploits or mighty deeds in behalf of Israel. See above, on Psalms 9:11; Psalms 78:11.

8. (Psalms 103:8) Compassionate and gracious (is) Jehovah, slow to anger, and rich in mercy. See above, on Psalms 77:9; Psalms 78:38; Psalms 86:15, in all which cases, as in this, the terms of the description are Exodus 34:6. There is here an evident progression in the thought. Not only is God good to me, but to all his people in distress; not only did he prove this to Moses and to Israel by saving them from Pharaoh and their other enemies, but by bearing with their own offences. The previous context might have seemed to concede innocence, if not merit, to God’s people, as the object of his kind regard; but they are here exhibited as sinners, needing his forbearance and forgiveness.

9. (Psalms 103:9) Not to perpetuity will he strive, and not to eternity retain (his anger). This, of course, implies that he is sometimes angry, even with his people, and sometimes strives in opposition to their strivings against him. But as he is always in the right, and they are always in the wrong, it is a signal proof of the divine compassion, that he does not strive and is not wroth for ever. The first clause is closely copied by Isaiah (Isaiah 57:16). The second is itself derived from Leviticus 19:18, where we find a verb meaning to retain or reserve used absolutely in the sense of harbouring a grudge or cherishing a secret spite. This remarkable form of expression is copied, in the case before us, and in Nahum 1:2, Jeremiah 5:12.

The original passage is a prohibition, in obeying which the Lord, as it were, here sets his people an example. Compare Matthew 5:48, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Ephesians 5:1.

10. (Psalms 103:10) Not according to our sins has he done to us, and not according to our iniquities has he dealt with us. That the people stood in need of the divine forbearance, is now still more distinctly intimated. The last verb is the one of which the participle occurs in Psalms 103:2, and might here be rendered, with still closer adherence to the strict sense of the Hebrew preposi-tion, has he bestowed upon us. See the same construction in the Hebrew of Psa 13:6; Psalms 116:7; Psalms 142:7. The past tense has reference to the previous history of Israel as a nation, but involves the statement of a general truth. At the end of the verse, we may suppose it to be tacitly added: as he might have done, not only in strict justice, but in execution of his express threatening, Leviticus 26 L:21.

11. (Psalms 103:11) For as the heavens are high above the earth, mighty is his mercy above those that fear him. The Hebrew preposition is the same in both clauses, and cannot be varied in translation without weakening the sentence. In the last clause it suggests the ideas of descent from above, superior power, and protection, in addition to that of mere relation or direction, which is all that is conveyed by the translation to or towards. The force of the original is likewise impaired by substituting great for strong or mighty. The idea meant to be conveyed is not that of mere extent but of efficiency. The literal meaning of the first words is, like the height of the heavens, or like their being high. His fearers, or those fearing him, is a common description of the righteous, or God’s people, who are more particularly characterised in Psalms 103:18.

12. (Psalms 103:12) As far as the east is from the west, he hath put far from us our trangressions. The form of expression at the beginning is the same as in Psalms 103:11, like the distance of the east, or like its being far. The Hebrew words for east and west, according to their etymology, denote the place of sunrise and the place of evening. Put far from us, as no longer having anything to do with us, a figure which suggests the idea both of pardon and renewal, justification and sanctification.

13. (Psalms 103:13) As a father has compassion, on (his) children, Jehovah has compassion on his fearers. The compound phrase, has compassion, is here substituted for the simple verb pity, in order to retain the preposition on, which follows it in Hebrew, and also because the plural form, compassions, was necessarily employed in Psalms 103:4 to translate the cognate noun. The Hebrew verb is peculiarly appropriate in speaking of parental love. See above, on Psalms 18:1. The preterite forms represent the fact alleged as one already known and well attested by experience.

14. (Psalms 103:14) For he knows our frame, mindful that dust (are) we. The fragility of man is here again assigned as a ground of the divine compassion. See above, on Psalms 78:39; Psalms 89:47. Frame, formation, constitution, or as we say familiarly in English, our make, our build. The Hebrew noun is derived from the verb used in Psalms 94:9, and may therefore be intended to suggest the same idea that is there expressed. He who formed us knows of course how we are formed.

The same noun is applied to the moral constitution, Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21, Deuteronomy 31:21. The word translated mindful is, in form, a passive participle, meaning remembered, but equivalent in use to the active, remembering, or the verbal adjective mindful, just as the like form trusted is equivalent to trusting, Psalms 112:7, the English rejoiced to rejoicing, etc. We are dust, i.e. made of it, and tending to it. Compare Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19, Psalms 90:3.

15. (Psalms 103:15) (As for) man, his days (are) like the grass; like the blossom of the ield, so he blossoms. As the preceding verse expresses the fragility of man by referring to his origin and end, so this verse does the same by a familiar but beautiful comparison, borrowed from Ps. xc. 6, and repeated in Isaiah 40:6-8, Job 14:2. The very name here given to the race is one denoting frailty and infirmity. See above, on Psalms 8:4.

16. (Psalms 103:16) For a breath passes over him and he is not, and no more shall his place know him. The pronouns may with equal grammatical correctness, be referred to the grass and rendered it, its. The primary meaning of the first noun (breath) is, in this connection, stronger than the secondary (wind). The wind may be a whirlwind; but to say that a mere breath is sufficient to destroy one is the strongest possible expression of fragility. That the wind is called the breath of God, as the thunder is his voice, is a striking and poetical but needless supposition. He is not or no more, there is none of him, no such thing or person.

See above, on Psalms 37:10. With the first clause compare Isaiah 40:7; with the second, Job 7:10. The last verb means to recognise or know again, as in Psalms 142:4, and the whole clause, that death makes men strangers to the objects with which they have been most familiar.

17. (Psalms 103:17) And the mercy of Jehovah (is) from eternity even to eternity upon those fearing him, and his righteousness to children’s children. Having carried the description of man’s frailty to the furthest point, the Psalmist suddenly contrasts with it God’s everlasting mercy. The use of the simple copulative and, in such a marked antithesis, where but might to us seem indispensable, is one of the most striking and familiar Hebrew idioms. Upon those fearing him suggests the idea of a gift from above. To children’s children simply means given (or belonging) to them. Unless we make the last clause a threatening of hereditary vengeance to the wicked his right-eousness can only mean his rectitude, including his veracity and faithfulness in exercising covenanted mercy. Children’s children, literally sons of sons.

18. (Psalms 103:18) To the keepers of his covenant, and to the rememberers of his laws, to do them. This is the necessary qualification of a promise which might otherwise have seemed too absolute. Even to the descendants of those fearing him the promise availed nothing, unless they themselves were faithful to his covenant and obedient to his law. The last words (to do them) shew that the remembrance of the law required was not merely intellectual but practical and tending to obedience.

19. (Psalms 103:19) Jehovah in the heavens has fixed his throne, and his kingdom overall rules. Not only is he infinitely merciful and faithful, but a universal and almighty sovereign, no less able than willing to fulfil his promises and execute his purposes of mercy. The word translated fixed, like its English representative, suggests the two ideas of preparing and establishing. The same combination with throne occurs above, Psalms 9:7. See also Psalms 11:4, x47:8. Over all; the original expression is still stronger, over the whole, the universe. The same phrase is applied to the entire human race, Psalms 14:3. The past tense of the last verb represents this unlimited dominion as already established or revealed. The future would have made its ulterior continuance the prominent idea.

20. (Psalms 103:20) Bless Jehovah, ye his angels, mighty in strength, doing his word, (so as) to listen to the voice of his word. Having finished his assertion of God’s claims to universal praise, the Psalmist resumes the tone of exhortation with which he began. His appeal, however, is no longer to his own soul, but to the hosts of heaven, the noblest of God’s creatures, the highest order of finite intelligences. Mighty in strength, more exactly mighty (ones) of strength, or, as the first word is applied as a substantive to warriors or conquerors, heroes of strength or mighty heroes. See above, on Psalms 24:8; Psalms 78:25. The construction in the last clause is obscure.

The infinitive may here have the force of a gerund, audiendo, auscultando, by listening to the voice of his word, or, as in Psalms 78:18, it may denote the extent or the effect of their obedience, so as to hearken, or so that they hearken, i.e. listen for the faintest intimation of his will. The expression hearken to his voice, as thus applied, is a Mosaic one. See Deuteronomy 26:17; Deuteronomy 30:20.

21. (Psalms 103:21) Bless Jehovah, ye his hosts, his ministers, the doers of his will. As the word hosts is applied both to the angels and the heavenly bodies (see above, on Psalms 24:10), some interpreters, in order to relieve this verse of a tautology, suppose it to relate to the heavenly hosts in one sense, as the preceding verse does in another. In the same way they account for the change of expression in the last clause. Only intelligent creatures can be literally said to listen for God’s word and to obey it; but even the inanimate creation may be said, without a metaphor, to execute his will. This last phrase occurs also in Psalms 40:8.

22. (Psalms 103:22) Bless ye Jehovah, all his works, in all places of his realm; bless thou, 0 my soul, Jehovah! The angels and heavenly bodies, with men and every other creature, are now summed up in the comprehensive phrase, all his works, i.e. all that he has made, all creatures, and invited to bless God, which invitation the Psalmist then addresses once more to himself, and thus, by a beautiful transition, brings us back to the point from which we started.