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Psalm 103

Thanksgiving for God’s Goodness

Of David.

1

Bless the L ord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name.

2

Bless the L ord, O my soul,

and do not forget all his benefits—

3

who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

4

who redeems your life from the Pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5

who satisfies you with good as long as you live

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

 

6

The L ord works vindication

and justice for all who are oppressed.

7

He made known his ways to Moses,

his acts to the people of Israel.

8

The L ord is merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9

He will not always accuse,

nor will he keep his anger forever.

10

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

12

as far as the east is from the west,

so far he removes our transgressions from us.

13

As a father has compassion for his children,

so the L ord has compassion for those who fear him.

14

For he knows how we were made;

he remembers that we are dust.

 

15

As for mortals, their days are like grass;

they flourish like a flower of the field;

16

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

and its place knows it no more.

17

But the steadfast love of the L ord is from everlasting to everlasting

on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to children’s children,

18

to those who keep his covenant

and remember to do his commandments.

 

19

The L ord has established his throne in the heavens,

and his kingdom rules over all.

20

Bless the L ord, O you his angels,

you mighty ones who do his bidding,

obedient to his spoken word.

21

Bless the L ord, all his hosts,

his ministers that do his will.

22

Bless the L ord, all his works,

in all places of his dominion.

Bless the L ord, O my soul.


To the same purpose is the comparison immediately following, (verse 15,) that all the excellency of man withers away like a fading flower at the first blast of the wind. Man is indeed improperly said to flourish. But as it might be alleged that he is, nevertheless, distinguished by some endowment or other, David grants that he flourishes like the grass, instead of saying, as he might justly have done, that he is a vapor or shadow, or a thing of nought. Although, as long as we live in this world, we are adorned with natural gifts, and, to say nothing of other things, “live, and move, and have our being in God,” (Acts 17:28;) yet as we have nothing except what is dependent on the will of another, and which may be taken from us every hour, our life is only a show or phantom that passes away. The subject here treated, is properly the brevity of life, to which God has a regard in so mercifully pardoning us, as it is said in another psalm: “He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again,” (Psalm 78:39.) If it is asked why David, making no mention of the soul, which yet is the principal part of man, declares us to be dust and clay? I answer, that it is enough to induce God mercifully to sustain us, when he sees that nothing surpasses our life in frailty. And although the soul, after it has departed from the prison of the body, remains alive, yet its doing so does not arise from any inherent power of its own. Were God to withdraw his grace, the soul would be nothing more than a puff or blast, even as the body is dust; and thus there would doubtless be found in the whole man nothing but mere vanity.

17. But the goodness of Jehovah, etc The Psalmist leaves nothing to men to rely upon but the mercy of God; for it would be egregious folly to seek a ground of confidence in themselves. After having shown the utter emptiness of men, he adds the seasonable consolation, that, although they have no intrinsic excellence, which does not vanish into smoke, yet God is an inexhaustible fountain of life, to supply their wants. This contrast is to be particularly observed; for whom does he thus divest of all excellence? The faithful who are regenerated by the Spirit of God, and who worship him with true devotion, these are the persons whom he leaves nothing on which their hope may rest but the mere goodness of God. As the Divine goodness is everlasting, the weakness and frailty of the faithful does not prevent them from boasting of eternal salvation to the close of life, and even in death itself. David does not confine their hope within the limits of time — he views it as commensurate in duration with the grace on which it is founded. To goodness is subjoined righteousness, a word, as we have had occasion frequently to observe before, denoting the protection by which God defends and preserves his own people. He is then called righteous, not because he rewards every man according to his desert, but because he deals faithfully with his saints, in spreading the hand of his protection over them. The Prophet has properly placed this righteousness after goodness, as being the effect of goodness. He also asserts that it extends to the children and children’s children, according to these words in Deuteronomy 7:9, “God keepeth mercy to a thousand generations.” It is a singular proof of his love that he not only receives each of us individually into his favor, but also herein associates with us our offspring, as it were by hereditary right, that they may be partakers of the same adoption. How shall He cast us off, who, in receiving our children and children’s children into his protection, shows to us in their persons how precious our salvation is in his sight?


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