Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 103:1
[A Psalm] of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name.
1. My soul is the Psalmist’s self or personality: all that is within me are the various organs of the body, which were regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of thought will and emotion. The Psalmist summons all the faculties and powers of his being to unite in the praise of Jehovah.
his holy name ] Cp. Psa 33:21; Psa 105:3; Psa 106:47; Psa 145:21. Jehovah’s holiness, which must needs be vindicated in the punishment of Israel’s sin, was again demonstrated in the deliverance which proved His faithfulness to His covenant. Cp. Eze 39:7; Eze 39:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 5. The Psalmist exhorts himself to praise God for His manifold mercies.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Bless the Lord, O my soul – The word bless, as applied to God, means to praise, implying always a strong affection for him as well as a sense of gratitude. As used with reference to people, the word implies a wish that they may be blessed or happy, accompanied often with a prayer that they may be so. Such is the purport of the blessing addressed to a congregation of worshippers. Compare Num 6:23-27. The word soul here is equivalent to mind or heart: my mental and moral powers, as capable of understanding and appreciating his favors. The soul of man was made to praise and bless God; to enjoy his friendship; to delight in his favor; to contemplate his perfections. It can never be employed in a more appropriate or a more elevated act than when engaged in his praise.
And all that is within me … – All my powers and faculties; all that can be employed in his praise: the heart, the will, the affections, the emotions. The idea is, that God is worthy of all the praise and adoration which the entire man can render. No one of his faculties or powers should be exempt from the duty and the privilege of praise.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 103:1-22
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
A song of praise
Like stately pillars supporting a solemn temple, three noble psalms, placed side by side, exalt the glory of Jehovah: 103 glorifies the God of grace; 104 the God of nature; 105 the God of history. Each springs from a strong pedestal of adoration, and is crowned with a rich capital of praise.
I. This is a psalm of humanity. It is a true psalm of life; the experience of a throbbing human heart; born of the Holy Ghost, in travail of soul, amid the exigencies of weakness and sin, into the rapture of Divine compassions. All the darkness and evil of the world it knows, but suffers these only to enhance the richness of the life with God into which we move. This great achievement is won by finding out God.
II. This is humanitys psalm of adoration to God. We see His throne exalted, His kingdom stretched abroad; His angelic hosts above, His inanimate works, below, called upon to praise Him. His eternal power and Godhead, His everlasting years, are set before us in great majesty. Think rightly on God, and all that is within you will bless Him; and this will bless you. If our life had more praise, it would feel less drudgery. Forget not, unworthy source of so much ingratitude, despondency, distrust. Count your mercies.
III. A great truth and a great duty.
1. God offers the penitent a full redemption.
2. Accept this full redemption. (C. A. South-gate.)
A song of praise
I. The object of praise. The living, not the imagined, the present, not the remote God, by His own inbreathings, called forth this tribute to Himself from a heart in which He dwelt. Sublime in His being, He is oftenest called Preserver, Judge, Father, King. In these several relations He is brought before us in this psalm.
II. The persons and things which are summoned to praise. The grossest confounding of body and spirit then prevailed; yet the soul was a term which all understood, though few could explain. This, the direct inspiration of the Almighty, would naturally be the first to perceive and respond to Divine favours. It is bidden, therefore, to express itself. The emotional, intellectual, and even animal nature may and must each offer Him its peculiar sacrifice of thanksgiving.
III. The reasons for praise. The shower of good things had been so constant, that merely to mention some of them seemed to the enthusiastic singer to ensure within himself the response he sought. He accordingly rallies his own too sluggish soul to pour forth its meed of praise, mindful of the general blessings he had received. He was prone to forget them. All are. Ingratitude is fostered by abundance. Thanklessness is more than meanness. Themistocles sadly said of the Athenians, that when a storm arose, they sheltered themselves under him as under a plane tree, which when the weather was fair again, they would rob of its leaves and branches. So do the needy multitudes cry unto God, and helped, return not to give Him glory, save here and there a stranger. Nay, more; they selfishly use their benefits to deprive Him of that honour which is His due. It was just this sin against which Jehovah had cautioned Israel (Deu 32:15). And so, as if writing down the long list of gifts that he may count them, the psalmist would beget a fit return. This psalm has been called a little Bible within the greater. It is a striking revelation of the being, character, and purpose of God. It is also a clear portrayal of the origin, doings, needs, blessings, and destiny of man. (Monday Club Sermons.)
A song of praise
I. Thanksgiving for personal benefits.
1. Thanks for forgiveness and inward healing.
2. Thanks for redemption and glory.
3. Thanks for intermediate blessings.
There is a long journey from the mouth of the pit of destruction, whence God has rescued us, to the gate of glory by which God will bring us in to receive our everlasting inheritance. On that way we are not left to our own resources. He gives us the supplies needful for the journey, and ministers the strength with which we may reach the end.
II. Praise to the character of God.
1. The righteousness and judgment of the Lord (Exo 33:13).
2. The mercy and grace of God (Exo 34:6-7).
III. The measure of Gods mercy.
1. Heavenly greatness (verse 11; Rom 5:20).
2. Infinite forgiveness (verse 12).
3. Fatherly pity (verse 13).
4. The shortness of mans day and the eternity of Gods mercy (Psa 103:15-17).
5. A solemn reminder (verse 18).
IV. A universal call to praise (Psa 103:19-22). Let us who have been forgiven, renewed in the inner man, redeemed from destruction, whose lives have been crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercy, take up the song of thanksgiving, and so, perchance, extend His mercies to those who are yet strangers to it, by setting forth His benefits as we have come to know them in our own experience. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
A souls song to God
The singer of this melody, whoever he may have been, has left behind him the valley and has climbed to magnificent heights; yea, on the suburbs of heaven, he sings with impassioned ardour of the goodness of his God, and, finding his voice inadequate to give vent to his gratitude, he summons a goodly choir–the works of God, the ministers of God, the angels of God–to accentuate the joyful strains and to make His praise glorious.
I. A blessed exercise. Some one has said that the Christian ought to be like a horse that has bells on his head: so that he cannot go anywhere without ringing them and making music. His whole life should be in harmony; every thought should constitute a note; every word he utters should be a component part of the joyful strain.
1. The psalmist is solicitous that his praise should be spiritual. It is his soul and not his lips he addresses. He wants nothing formal, mechanical, lifeless, spiritless.
2. The psalmist also arouses himself to unreserved adoration. And all that is within me, etc. Our nature is a many-stringed instrument, and every string is to contribute its quota to the symphony. If the soul is to be the leading singer, then every faculty of our mental, moral, and spiritual being, like a united choir, are to render the chorus.
3. The psalmist also urges himself to personal adoration. O my soul. He begins with himself, and, albeit he goes out from himself and seeks to engage others in singing unto God, he comes back and concludes his exhortation with himself as the subject. Let the trees clap their hands, let the ocean lift up its voice, etc. Bless the Lord, O my soul.
II. A reasonable exercise. In praising God, we perform one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In praise, we largely eliminate the element of self, and are like the angels in performing the unpolluted service of the skies.
1. There are national benefits.
2. There are social benefits. God setteth the solitary in families. He has placed us together so that the cup of our life might be full. What a benediction is Home!
3. But better than all others, there are spiritual benefits of which we must take strict account. These are Gods greatest gifts to us.
(1) Forgiveness. Mercy comes to thee full-handed. Love abundantly pardons.
(2) Healing. Eyes at one time blinded by the God of this world can now see the things eternal, ears afflicted with deafness can now hear the welcome sound of Gods voice, hands once sadly paralyzed can now perform the glorious business of the King, feet which dragged from sheer impotency can now run on Gods errands with joyous alacrity, and faces once wearing the ugly scowl of sin now shine with the beauteous smile of God.
(3) Redemption.
(4) Coronation.
(5) Satisfaction.
(6) Rejuvenescence. (J. Pearce.)
Sell-exhortation to worship
I. With the whole soul. There are at least three immeasurable faculties within–intellect, imagination, conscience. All these should praise Jehovah, who is the True, for the intellect; the Beautiful, for the imagination; and the Righteous, for the conscience. Let all come out in praise, as all the powers of the harp come out under the touch of the master musician; as all the powers of the seed come out under the genial influence of the sunbeam.
II. For urgent reasons. All His benefits.
1. Sin is an offence; and here is forgiveness.
2. Sin is a disease; and here is healing.
3. Sin is ruinous; and here is restoration.
4. Sin is a degradation; and here is exaltation.
5. Sin is discontent; and here is satisfaction.
6. Sin is weakness; and here is invigoration. (Homilist.)
The saints blessing the Lord
You see here a man talking to himself, a soul with all his soul talking to his soul. His own soul is the first audience a good man ought to think of preaching to. Indeed, if any man desires to excite the hearts of others in any given direction, he must first stir up himself upon the same matter.
I. This exhortation is remarkably comprehensive.
1. The unity of our nature is hero bidden, in its concentration, to yield its whole self to the praise of God. No white-washed sepulchres will please the Lord,–Bless the Lord, O my soul,–Let the true Ego praise Him, the essential I, the vital personality, the soul of my soul, the life of my life! Let me be true to the core to my God; let that which is most truly my own vitality spend itself in blessing the Lord. My immortal soul, what hast thou to do with spending thine energies upon mortal things? Wilt thou hunt for fleeting shadows, whilst thou art thyself most real and abiding? Raise thyself on all thy wings, and like the six-winged cherubim adore thy God. But the words suggest yet another meaning,–the soul is our active self, our vigour, our intensity. When we speak of a mans throwing his soul into a thing, we mean that he does it with all his might. My intensest nature shall bless the Lord. Not with bated breath and a straitened energy will I lisp forth His praises, but I will pour them forth ardently in volumes of impassioned song.
2. But, then, David speaks of the diverse faculties of our nature, and writes, All that is within me bless His holy name. The affections are to lead the way in the concert of praise. But the psalmist intended next to bestir the memory, for he goes on to say forget not all His benefits. Recollect what God has done for you. Thread the jewels of His grace upon the thread of memory, and hang them about the neck of praise. For mercies beyond count, praise Him without stint. Then let your conscience praise Him, for the psalm proceeds to say, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Conscience once weighed thy sins and condemned thee; now let it weigh the Lords pardon and magnify His grace to thee. Let thy emotions join the sacred choir, for thou hast many feelings of delight; bless Him who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies, etc. Is all within you peaceful? Sing some sweet pastoral, like the twenty-third psalm. Let the calm of your spirit sound forth the praises of the Lord upon the pleasant harp and the psaltery. Do your days flow smoothly? Then consecrate the dulcimer to the Lord. Do you feel the exhilaration of delight? Then praise ye the Lord with the timbrel and dance. On the other hand, is there a contention within; does conflict disturb your mind? Then praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, for He will go forth with you to the battle. When you return from the battle and divide the spoil, then praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals. What-ever emotional state thy soul be found in, let it lead thee to bless thy Makers holy name.
II. This suggestion is most reasonable. The Lord has given innumerable blessings to every part of our nature; all our faculties are the recipients of blessing; therefore should they all bless God in return. Every pipe of the organ should yield its quota of sound. As all the rivers run into the sea, so all our powers should flow towards the Lords praise. To prove that this is reasonable, let me ask one single question:–if we do not devote all that is within us to the glory of God, which part is that we should leave unconsecrated; and being less unconsecrated to God what should we do with it?
III. It is necessary. It is necessary that the whole nature bless God, for at its best, when all engaged in the service, it fails to compass the work, and fails short of Jehovahs praise. All the man, with all his might, always occupied in all ways in blessing God, would still be no more than a whisper in comparison with the thunder of praise which the Lord deserves. Do not, therefore, let us insult the Lord with half when the whole is not enough. Jesus Christ will have of us all or nothing; and He will have us sincere, earnest, and intense, or He will not have us at all.
IV. It is beneficial.
1. It is beneficial to ourselves. To be whole-hearted in the praise of God is to elevate our faculties. Consecration is culture. To praise is to learn. To bless God is also of preventive usefulness to us; we cannot bless God and at the same time idolize ourselves. Praise preserves us from being envious of others, for by blessing God for all we have, we learn to bless God for what other people have.
2. It is also useful to others. You cannot do good more effectually than by a happy consecrated life, spent in blessing God. If there be anything that is cheerful, joyous, dewy, bright, full of heaven, it is the life of a man who blesses God all his days. This is the way to win souls. We shall not catch these flies with vinegar,–we must use honey.
V. All this is prepatratory. If we can attain to constant praise now, it will prepare us for all that awaits us. We are harps which will be tuned in all their strings for the concerts of the blessed. The tuner is putting us in order. He sweeps his hands along the strings; there is a jar from every note; so He begins first with one string, and then goes to another. He continues at each string till He hears the exact note. The last time you were ill, one of your strings was tuned; the last time you had a had debt, or trembled at declining business, another string was tuned. And so, between now and heaven, you will have every string set in order; and you will not enter heaven till all are in tune. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The keynote of the year
David sounds the tuningfork with this clear note–Bless the Lord, O nay soul.
I. The blessed occupation. How, then, can we bless God?
1. God blesses us by thinking well of us, and we bless God by thinking well of Him. Think deeply of what the Lord has done. Do not pass His mercies over superficially, but look into them. Do not cease to think of the covenant of electing love, of everlasting faithfulness, of redeeming blood, of pardoning grace, and all the ways in which eternal love has shown itself.
2. We also bless God when we wish Him well. Sit down and wish that all men knew God, that all men worshipped Him; and let your wishes blaze up into prayers. Wish that all idols were abolished, and that Jehovahs name would be sung through every land by every tongue. Wish well to His Church, His cause, His people, and all that concerns His glory.
3. You can bless God by speaking well of Him. Have you said anything to praise God to-day?
4. Bless His name by acts and deeds of holy service and consecration Do it with hand, and purse, and substance, and sacrifice.
II. The commendable manner mentioned. Half the virtue of a thing lies in the way in which it is done. Now, in the service of God, it is net only what you bring, but in what spirit you bring it.
1. That mode of blessing God to which we are called is very spiritual–a matter of soul and spirit. The music of the soul is that which pleases the ear of God: the great spirit is delighted with that which comes from our spirit. A heart that praises Him has within itself all the harmonies that He delights in. The sigh of love is to Him a lyric, the sob of repentance is melody, the inward cries of His own children are an oratorio, and their heart-songs are true hallelujahs.
2. When we bless God, the sacred exercise should be intense. Let every part of your manhood be aroused, and so aroused as to be in fine form. Give me a man on fire when God is to be praised. Let all that is within me bless His holy name. A whole God, and a holy God, should have the whole of our powers engaged in blessing His holy name.
3. The text seems to remind me that we ought to do this repeatedly, because in my text the word bless occurs twice. Bless the Lord, O my soul: bless His holy name. And in the next verse there is bless the Lord again. He is a triune God: render Him triune praise.
III. The sacred object of this blessing–Jehovah. I adore the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God that made the heavens and the earth. I worship the God that cut Rahab, and wounded the crocodile at the Red Sea, the God that led His people through the wilderness, the God that gave them the land of Canaan for a heritage. This God is our God for ever and ever. He shall be our guide, even unto death. Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, we worship Thee; we bless Thee! Do you love a holy God? While you bless Him for His mercy, do you equally bless Him for His holiness? You bless Him for His bounty, but do you feel that you could not thus bless Him if you were not fully aware that He is perfectly righteous? Bless His holy name. Aye, when that holiness burns like fire, and threatens to devour the guilty, let us still bless His holy name! When we see His holiness consuming the great Sacrifice, we bow before the Lord in deep dread of soul, but we still bless His holy name. An unholy God! It were absurd to think of such a thing; but a thrice-holy God–let us bless and praise Him.
IV. The suitable monitor. Who is it that says to David, Bless the Lord, O my soul? Why, it is David talking to David. The man speaks to himself. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A song of praise
This psalm is a type of intelligent thanksgiving–an expression of sanctified emotion based upon sanctified thought. We see at once how this true emotion is distinguished from mere formal thanksgiving by the words, all that is within me–words which appeal to the very deepest feelings of the heart. But we also notice how, as so often in Scripture, a caution is associated with the highest devotional feeling at the point where one in the ardour of holy rapture forgets for the moment that he is a sinful man in a sinful world: Bless the Lord, O my soul! yet, my soul, thou art weak and fallible, and prone to forget these very mercies which are calling forth thy praise. Forget not all His benefits. It is with blessings much as with troubles: few people, comparatively, have great catastrophes in their life, and few have great, colossal joys. There is only the daily succession of little, commonplace pleasures, and we foolishly get into the way of attaching little importance to anything which is not of the nature of a crisis. Go back over your life and pick up the happy times–the day your little child began to walk; the day your boy graduated with honour; the many evenings you have come home tired and have found rest, and light, and warmth, and pleasant words at home; how many happy hours over a book or in conversation with a friend. These, after all, are the benefits which make up the staple of our life. They seem to be little blessings, perhaps because they are so common, yet if we number all Gods benefits we shall find the sum of them very great. The psalmist specifies certain causes for thanksgiving; and the first of these is very significant–the forgiveness of his sins. And rightly, because this is essentially the first fact in all thanksgiving, and is therefore the key not only to this psalm, but to the whole great lesson of Christian thankfulness. Having thus laid this spiritual foundation for a true thanksgiving, the psalmist now passes to mention temporal mercies, yet, possibly, all along with an undertone of spiritual meaning. God healeth all diseases, redeemeth the life from death, ministers to the healthful appetite with good things, makes His child strong and vigorous as the eagle. The association of these benefits directly with God imparts to them a spiritual suggestiveness such as they may well have in this psalm. They are not only pleasant facts, but types of spiritual good. He healeth all thy diseases, but the most deadly disease of all is sin. Thy mouth is satisfied with the kindly fruits of the earth, yet man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Thy youth and vigour are renewed like the eagles, but thou knowest too what it is to be strengthened with might by Gods Spirit in the inner man. And now, through all these things–forgiveness, redeeming, renewing–God is working toward an ulterior purpose. He crowneth thee. Gods work is not finished in the forgiveness of sins. If a prince were to take a beggar out of the street in order to make him the heir to his throne, would his work be done when he had washed and decently clothed him? No. He must be trained for his position. All that kingly power and fatherly love can command must combine to fit him to be a king. The redeemed sing to Him who not only washed them from their sins, but also made them kings and priests. And as we reach the close of the psalm we find its keynote struck again. It is a psalm of thanksgiving, but it tells us that true thanksgiving can be only within the sphere of Gods accepted sovereignty, from the standpoint of voluntary allegiance to Him. The foundation of all thanksgiving is that God reigns–the foundation of our individual thanksgiving is that God is our King. (M. R. Vincent, D.D.)
Divine goodness celebrated
I. The mercies enumerated.
1. Benefits bestowed.
(1) Personal. Life, health, food, etc.
(2) Spiritual. The great gift of His Son, Gospel ordinances, Word, Spirit, etc.
2. Iniquities forgiven.
(1) We are all chargeable with iniquities.
(2) They are many.
(3) God forgives all.
(4) This forgiveness is communicated through repentance and faith in Christ.
3. Diseases healed.
(1) Bodily.
(2) Spiritual.
4. Redemption from destruction.
5. A crown of lovingkindnesses and tender mercies.
II. The thanks presented.
1. He blesses God.
2. He does this with all his soul.
3. He calls upon all within him to join in the work of praise.
4. He purposes a lively remembrance of Gods goodness. And forget not all His benefits. He would keep it before his eyes; he would be constantly meditating upon it; morning and evening, and in the night watches, etc.
Application.
1. The amazing extent and profusion of the Divine goodness.
2. The immense obligations we are under to serve and bless God. (J. Burns, D.D.)
Worship
Worship means recognition of worth, doing homage to goodness. Even when the worth is limited, as in the case of a good man, the recognition should be cordial. When the homage is offered to Infinite Goodness all the gifts of mind and heart should be brought into play, so as to yield the maximum of worship and recognition. The Lord our God ought to be loved and served with all the heart, and soul, and strength, and mind. Unhappily, in no department of human conduct do the ideal and the reality lie further apart than in religious worship and in religious life. What then are the conditions under which it is possible to render such a service as is illustrated in this exquisite psalm?
1. Faith, or a right conception of God, a right idea of God. We must believe in a God whose character is fitted to inspire devout thought and excite religious affections of reverence, trust, gratitude, and admiration; such a God, that is to say, as is presented to our view in this psalm. He must bless God in a feeble, cold, hesitating fashion, who is all the time not sure whether his Divinity be worthy of worship. The lips say: God is good; the mind thinks only of the chosen objects of an arbitrary favouritism. The tongue declares: God loveth the right; the reason asks: Why then do bad men prosper and good men pine? If we are to worship and serve God aright, this antagonism between word and thought must be overcome. We must believe in a God whose name is a veritable gospel of gladness to our souls
2. Sincerity. Everywhere in Scripture we find great stress laid upon this condition of efficient service. The perfect man in the Bible is not the man without fault, but the man of single-hearted devotion who loves and serves God. Faults in conduct, errors of judgment, infirmities of temper there may be in abundance. The one quality that redeems, ennobles character is self-devotion without reserve to the Divine kingdom of the Gospel, to the cause that is worth living for.
3. Liberty. No one can say with emphasis, O Lord, truly I am Thy servant, unless he also is able to say, Thou hast loosed my bonds. There are bonds which keep men from being religious, or from being devoted in religion, and there are bonds springing out of religion itself by which many saintly souls are bound. Everything pertaining to religion–worship, creed, practice, tends to become an affair of routine, ceremonial, formula, mechanical habit. Fetters are forged for soul and body, for every faculty of our composite nature–for hand, tongue, mind, heart, conscience. And by such as are in bondage it is regarded as a mark of piety and sanctity to wear with scrupulous care all these grievous fetters. There are times, however, when the bondage becomes unbearable, and the human spirit rises in rebellion and asserts its liberty. Such an epoch is a veritable year of jubilee, when minds are emancipated from worn-out commonplaces, and hearts are enlarged into original and heroic love, like rivers in flood overflowing their banks, and consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God. It is the acceptable year of the Lord, acceptable to redeemed men, though regarded with pious horror by the slaves of tradition, and acceptable to God also. For, be it understood, God takes no pleasure in spiritual bondage. God gets no glory from that sort of thing. His glory is bound up with liberty, for with liberty came opening of closed lips, unsealing all the fountains of religious emotion, locked up by the frosts of a dreary winter, awakening all dormant powers of thought, whereupon once more men bless God with all that is within them. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
The Christians gladness deeply rooted
How vigorous was the plant of joy in the writers heart. And why? Because its roots were spread far and wide in a nourishing soil. In the experience of Gods forgiving love and ever bountiful kindness to himself, in the recognition of Gods sure friendliness towards all that are oppressed, in the remembrance of the vast past of His lovingkindness to His people, in a large, real, partnership of joy with all them that fear Him, and in an exultant realization that God and gladness ruled the universe, did this cheery saint and singer root his joy. What a poor feeble plant is the happiness of many professed Christians! And no wonder–for it lacks strong and ample roots. No sufficient time or pains are given that thought and affection may spread abroad in the rich nourishing ground of Gods vast goodness and lovingkindness. Take time to be happy–to be exultingly and persistently happy in God and His salvation! (C. G. M.)
The harp of the heart
A more wonderful instrument than any which Israels psalmist ever struck is carried in the human breast. Upon its ten strings the hand of God often strikes, and evokes most sublime melody. The one hundred and third psalm was originally played upon this harp of the heart. Its keynote is, Bless the Lord, O my soul! let all that is within me bless His holy name. At another time the strains of that harp were inexpressibly plaintive and mournful. They were like the wail of a sick child. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. Against Thee have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. Happy is the man who can begin to rehearse for heaven by attuning his heart to the will of God. He is like the old psalmists psaltery, every wind that Providence sends only makes music in him. Even boisterous gales of adversity call forth grand and sublime strains of resignation. When he is in trouble, he giveth songs in the night. The kind acts he performs for others touch sweet chords in his memory. And amid all the harsh and jangled discords of this world, such a Christ-loving soul is a harp of gold making constant melody in the ear of God. (T. L. Cuyler, D.D.)
Praising with the soul
When the photographer fits that iron rest at the back of your head and keeps you waiting ten minutes, while he gets his plates ready, why, your soul goes out of town, and nothing remains but that heavy look! When the work of art is finished, it is you, and yet it is not you. You were driven out by the touch of that iron. Another time, perhaps, your photograph is taken instantaneously, while you are in an animated attitude, while your whole soul is there; and your friends say, Aye, that is your very self. I want you to bless the Lord with your soul at home as in that last portrait. I saw a book wherein the writer says in the preface, We have given a portrait of our mother, but there was a kind of sacred twinkle about her eyes which no photograph could produce. Now, it is my hearts desire that you do praise God with that sacred twinkle, with that feature or faculty which is most characteristic of you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM CIII
God is praised for his benefits to his people, 1, 2;
he forgives their iniquities, and heals their diseases, 3;
redeems their lives, crowns them with loving-kindness, 4;
satisfies them with good things, renews their youth, 5;
he helps the oppressed, makes his ways known, is merciful and
gracious, and keeps not his anger for ever, 6-9;
his forbearance, and pardoning mercy, 10-12;
he is a tender and considerate Father, 13, 14;
the frail state of man, 15, 16;
God’s everlasting mercy, and universal dominion, 17-19;
all his angels, his hosts, and his works, are invited to praise
him, 20-22.
NOTES ON PSALM CIII
The inscription in the Hebrew, and in all the Versions, gives this Psalm to David; and yet many of the ancients believed it to refer to the times of the captivity, or rather to its conclusion, in which the redeemed Jews give thanks to God for their restoration. It is a Psalm of inimitable sweetness and excellence; contains the most affectionate sentiments of gratitude to God for his mercies; and the most consoling motives to continue to trust in God, and be obedient to him.
Verse 1. Bless the Lord] He calls on his soul, and all its faculties and powers, to magnify God for his mercies. Under such a weight of obligation the lips can do little; the soul and all its powers must be engaged.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Let all my thoughts and affections be engaged, and united, and stirred up to the highest pitch in and for this work.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Bless, c.when God is theobject, praise.
my soulmyself (Psa 3:3Psa 25:1), with allusion to theact, as one of intelligence.
all . . . within me(De 6:5).
his holy name (Ps5:11), His complete moral perfections.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Bless the Lord, O my soul,…. His better part, his soul, which comes immediately from God, and returns to him, which is immaterial and immortal, and of more worth than the world: God is to be served with the best we have; as with the best of our substance, so with the best of our persons; and it is the heart, or soul, which he requires to be given him; and such service as is performed with the soul or spirit is most agreeable to him; he being a Spirit, and therefore must be worshipped in spirit and in truth: unless the spirit or soul of a man, is engaged in the service of God, it is of little avail; for bodily exercise profiteth not; preaching, hearing, praying, and praising, should be both with the spirit, and with the understanding: here the psalmist calls upon his soul to “bless” the Lord; not by invoking or conferring a blessing on him, which as it is impossible to be done, so he stands in no need of it, being God, all sufficient, and blessed for evermore; but by proclaiming and congratulating his blessedness, and by giving him thanks for all mercies, spiritual and temporal:
and all that is within me, bless his holy name; meaning not only all within his body, his heart, reins, lungs, c. but all within his soul, all the powers and faculties of it his understanding, will, affections, and judgment; and all the grace that was wrought in him, faith, hope, love, joy, and the like; these he would have all concerned and employed in praising the name of the Lord; which is exalted above all blessing and praise; is great and glorious in all the earth, by reason of his works wrought, and blessings of goodness bestowed; and which appears to be holy in them all, as it does in the works of creation, providence, and redemption; at the remembrance of which holiness thanks should be given; for he that is glorious in holiness is fearful in praises, Ps 97:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the strophe Psa 103:1 the poet calls upon his soul to arise to praiseful gratitude for God’s justifying, redeeming, and renewing grace. In such soliloquies it is the Ego that speaks, gathering itself up with the spirit, the stronger, more manly part of man ( Psychology, S. 104f.; tr. p. 126), or even, because the soul as the spiritual medium of the spirit and of the body represents the whole person of man ( Psychology, S. 203; tr. p. 240), the Ego rendering objective in the soul the whole of its own personality. So here in Psa 103:3 the soul, which is addressed, represents the whole man. The which occurs here is a more choice expression for ( ): the heart, which is called , the reins, the liver, etc.; for according to the scriptural conception ( Psychology, S. 266; tr. p. 313) these organs of the cavities of the breast and abdomen serve not merely for the bodily life, but also the psycho-spiritual life. The summoning is repeated per anaphoram . There is nothing the soul of man is so prone to forget as to render thanks that are due, and more especially thanks that are due to God. It therefore needs to be expressly aroused in order that it may not leave the blessing with which God blesses it unacknowledged, and may not forget all His acts performed ( = ) on it ( , , e.g., in Psa 137:8), which are purely deeds of loving-kindness), which is the primal condition and the foundation of all the others, viz., sin-pardoning mercy. The verbs and with a dative of the object denote the bestowment of that which is expressed by the verbal notion. (taken from Deu 29:21, cf. 1Ch 21:19, from = , root , solutum, laxum esse ) are not merely bodily diseases, but all kinds of inward and outward sufferings. the lxx renders (from , as in Job 17:14); but in this antithesis to life it is more natural to render the “pit” (from ) as a name of Hades, as in Psa 16:10. Just as the soul owes its deliverance from guilt and distress and death to God, so also does it owe to God that with which it is endowed out of the riches of divine love. The verb , without any such addition as in Ps 5:13, is “to crown,” cf. Psa 8:6. As is usually the case, it is construed with a double accusative; the crown is as it were woven out of loving-kindness and compassion. The Beth of in Psa 103:5 instead of the accusative (Psa 104:28) denotes the means of satisfaction, which is at the same time that which satisfies. the Targum renders: dies senectutis tuae , whereas in Psa 32:9 it is ornatus ejus ; the Peshto renders: corpus tuum , and in Psa 32:9 inversely, juventus eorum . These significations, “old age” or “youth,” are pure inventions. And since the words are addressed to the soul, cannot also, like in other instances, be a name of the soul itself (Aben-Ezra, Mendelssohn, Philippsohn, Hengstenberg, and others). We, therefore, with Hitzig, fall back upon the sense of the word in Psa 32:9, where the lxx renders , but here more freely, apparently starting from the primary notion of = Arabic chadd , the cheek: (whereas Saadia’s victum tuum is based upon a comparison of the Arabic gda , to nourish). The poet tells the soul (i.e., his own person, himself) that God satisfies it with good, so that it as it were gets its cheeks full of it (cf. Psa 81:11). The comparison is, as in Mic 1:16 (cf. Isa 40:31), to be referred to the annual moulting of the eagle. Its renewing of its plumage is an emblem of the renovation of his youth by grace. The predicate to (plural of extension in relation to time) stands first regularly in the sing. fem.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Cheerful Praise. | |
A psalm of David.
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
David is here communing with his own heart, and he is no fool that thus talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good. Observe,
I. How he stirs up himself to the duty of praise, Psa 103:1; Psa 103:2. 1. It is the Lord that is to be blessed and spoken well of; for he is the fountain of all good, whatever are the channels or cisterns; it is to his name, his holy name, that we are to consecrate our praise, giving thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 2. It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is within us. We make nothing of our religious performances if we do not make heart-work of them, if that which is within us, nay, if all that is within us, be not engaged in them. The work requires the inward man, the whole man, and all little enough. 3. In order to our return of praises to God, there must be a grateful remembrance of the mercies we have received from him: Forget not all his benefits. If we do not give thanks for them, we do forget them; and that is unjust as well as unkind, since in all God’s favours there is so much that is memorable. “O my soul! to thy shame be it spoken, thou hast forgotten many of his benefits; but surely thou wilt not forget them all, for thou shouldst not have forgotten any.”
II. How he furnishes himself with abundant matter for praise, and that which is very affecting: “Come, my soul, consider what God has done for thee.” 1. “He has pardoned thy sins (v. 3); he has forgiven, and does forgive, all thy iniquities.” This is mentioned first because by the pardon of sin that is taken away which kept good things from us, and we are restored to the favour of God, which bestows good things on us. Think what the provocation was; it was iniquity, and yet pardoned; how many the provocations were, and yet all pardoned. He has forgiven all our trespasses. It is a continued act; he is still forgiving, as we are still sinning and repenting. 2. “He has cured thy sickness.” The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul; it is its disorder, and threatens its death. This is cured in sanctification; when sin is mortified, the disease is healed; though complicated, it is all healed. Our crimes were capital, but God saves our lives by pardoning them; our diseases were mortal, but God saves our lives by healing them. These two go together; for, as for God, his work is perfect and not done by halves; if God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, he will break the power of it by renewing grace. Where Christ is made righteousness to any soul he is made sanctification, 1 Cor. i. 30. 3. “He has rescued thee from danger.” A man may be in peril of life, not only by his crimes, or his diseases, but by the power of his enemies; and therefore here also we experience the divine goodness: Who redeemed thy life from destruction (v. 4), from the destroyer, from hell (so the Chaldee), from the second death. The redemption of the soul is precious; we cannot compass it, and therefore are the more indebted to divine grace that has wrought it out, to him who has obtained eternal redemption for us. See Job 33:24; Job 33:28. 4. “He has not only saved thee from death and ruin, but has made thee truly and completely happy, with honour, pleasure, and long life.” (1.) “He has given thee true honour and great honour, no less than a crown: He crowns thee with his lovingkindness and tender mercies;” and what greater dignity is a poor soul capable of than to be advanced into the love and favour of God? This honour have all his saints. What is the crown of glory but God’s favour? (2.) “He has given thee true pleasure: He satisfies thy mouth with good things” (v. 5); it is only the favour and grace of God that can give satisfaction to a soul, can suit its capacities, supply its needs, and answer to its desires. Nothing but divine wisdom can undertake to fill its treasures (Prov. viii. 21); other things will surfeit, but not satiate,Ecc 6:7; Isa 55:2. (3.) “He has given thee a prospect and pledge of long life: Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” The eagle is long-lived, and, as naturalists say, when she is nearly 100 years old, casts all her feathers (as indeed she changes them in a great measure every year at moulting time), and fresh ones come, so that she becomes young again. When God, by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, recovers his people from their decays, and fills them with new life and joy, which is to them an earnest of eternal life and joy, then they may be said to return to the days of their youth, Job xxxiii. 25.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 103
Praise For God’s Graciousness
Scripture v. 1-22:
Verses 1, 2 are David’s call to his own soul to bless the Jehovah God with all his soul, not with a divided soul, and all his inward emotions, forgetting not all His benefits; This corresponds with the Mosaic form of blessing of Num 6:24-26. For His name is holy, Psa 22:3. And in prosperity men are warned to “forget not all His benefits;” All good things are given of God, forget it not, Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11; Deu 8:14; Deu 32:15; Psa 13:6; Psa 119:17; 2Ch 32:25.
Verse 3 acknowledges two of these gracious benefits from Jehovah to be: 1) forgiveness (repeatedly) of all ones iniquities, and 2) repeated healing of all ones diseases, as described, a) Psa 130:8; Isa 33:14; Mat 9:2; Mat 9:6; Mar 2:5; Mar 2:10-11; Luk 7:47; and b) Exo 15:26; Psa 147:3; Jer 17:14; Eph 1:7.
Verse 4 asserts also that the gracious Jehovah continually redeems ones life from the powers of destruction, or the pit, and crowns one with loving kindness and tender mercies, Isa 59:20. So shall He crown Israel at His coming, Psa 65:11; Psa 102:11; Psa 102:23; Psa 68:20; Psa 78:3; Psa 25:6; Psa 40:11.
Verse 5 asserts that He too sends two further benefits: 1) by satisfying the mouth with good things, Psa 63:5; Psa 68:11; Psalms , 2) renewing his youth like the eagle’s. The eagle is an emblem of vigor, as suggested, Isa 40:31; La 5:21.
Verses 6, 7 declare that the Lord Jehovah executes His righteousness and judgment on behalf of all who are oppressed, as illustrated in disclosing His ways of truth to Moses, and his caring acts toward the children of Israel, as a father of the orphans and judge of widows, Psa 68:5; Exo 33:13; Psa 25:4; Isa 9:11; Exo 34:10.
Verses 8, 9 extol the Lord as: 1) merciful, 2) gracious, 3) slow to anger, and 4) plenteous in mercy, as expressed Exo 34:6; Num 14:18; Deu 5:10; Neh 9:17; Jer 32:18.
Verse 9 adds that “He will not always chide, chastise, or scold; Neither will He keep (continue) His anger for ever against His people; Though it is reserved for the wicked, Isa 57:16; Lev 19:18; Jer 3:5; Jer 30:5; Mic 7:18.
Verse 10 declares that the Lord has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us (in chastisement) according to our iniquities, as threatened, Lev 26:23-24; Psa 130:3; Ezr 9:13. He does execute His threat against hardened transgressors, v. 11,13, 17.
Verses 11, 12 describe how far the Lord has removed the transgressions of the redeemed from them, from those who have been objects of His mercies, and respectfully fear Him. The distance is said to be as far as the heaven is high above the earth, so far that it cannot be measured, and as the east is from the west, Infinite points that can not be fixed, or reached, Isa 43:25; Eph 1:7. See too Mic 7:18-19.
Verse 13 explains that just as the father continually pitieth his children, so the Lord “continually pities them that fear him,” Num 11:12; Deu 8:5; Isa 63:15-16; Mal 3:17.
Verse 14 adds “For he knows our frame (the misery of our state in sin); He remembers that we are dust,” or deathly beings, Rom 5:12.
Verses 15, 16 further emphasize that man’s days of life are like grass, or a flower of the field that flourishes, temporarily; For the wind passes over it, in a dry blast, and it (the grass and flower) is soon gone; and it shall be found there in its place no more. So is the brevity and limitation of the life of men on earth, Psa 8:4; Psa 37:2; Psalms 90; Psalms 5, 6; Job 14:1-2; Gen 41:6; Gen 41:23; Job 7:10; Job 20:9.
Verse 17 asserts that the mercy and righteousness of the Lord exists from everlasting to everlasting.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Bless Jehovah, O my soul! The prophet, by stirring up himself to gratitude, gives by his own example a lesson to every man of the duty incumbent upon him. And doubtless our slothfulness in this matter has need of continual incitement. If even the prophet, who was inflamed with a more intense and fervent zeal than other men, was not free from this malady, of which his earnestness in stimulating himself is a plain confession, how much more necessary is it for us, who have abundant experience of our own torpor, to apply the same means for our quickening? The Holy Spirit, by his mouth, indirectly upbraids us on account of our not being more diligent in praising God, and at the same time points out the remedy, that every man may descend into himself and correct his own sluggishness. Not content with calling upon his soul (by which he unquestionably means the seat of the understanding and affections) to bless God, the prophet expressly adds his inward parts, addressing as it were his own mind and heart, and all the faculties of both. When he thus speaks to himself, it is as if, removed from the presence of men, he examined himself before God. The repetition renders his language still more emphatic, as if he thereby intended to reprove his own slothfulness.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
MY FAVORITE CHAPTER
Psalms 103
Delivered March 1st 1925 on return to his pulpit, after a serious illness of nine months duration.
FOR long I have listened to people talk of their favorite chapters, or their favorite texts. I think I have not, until now, fully understood their meaning. Certain Scriptures have been peculiarly dear to me because of their application at points of my need, and I have long leaned upon them. For instance when I went to prayer, I remembered the word of the Lord Jesus, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. When I was ready to preach, it was an inspiration and a joy to recall the gracious promise found in Isaiah, As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. God has again and again made good that promise to me, until in every pulpit appearance I have depended upon it, and not being disappointed, it has grown in sweetness and support.
When I have sinned, I have remembered the word, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and through that promise I have enjoyed the sense of pardon and its consequent peace.
And so, at many other points of living, the word has come to strengthen and confirm my faith. In your presence I have often remarked that the 15th chapter of I Corinthians was to me the climax chapter of Gods Book; the greatest single compendium of doctrine to be found in any chapter in all its sacred pages.
I have a great and good friend, a brother minister, admired and beloved, who has recently published a book on The Ten Great Chapters of the Bible; Genesis 1, Exodus 20, Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, Luke 15, John 14, Acts 2, Hebrews 11, 1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 21. To a great extent I concur in his selection; but if I were producing a book upon the same subject now, I would be compelled to give prominent place to another chapter which was held in esteem in the days of my health, but which became my support, my life-buoy, in the days of my serious illness, and I am bringing to you, on this 28th anniversary, the chapter that tided me through these dark days of near death and the far more difficult ones of convalescence; a chapter that I shall be compelled to recommend hereafter to people whose nerves have collapsed and whose spirits are in the consequent despair.
I am inclined to think from this moment, when asked my favorite chapter in the Book, I shall answer instantly and unhesitatingly, The 103rd Psalm. My wife, the nurse at my bedside, and friends who came to call, at my request read this chapter over and over again during those dark days and it was to me light and life and hope. It is natural, therefore, that on this great day I should speak to you concerning that which then meant so much to me!
When last I appeared before you, we were dealing with the Psalms in our serial study of the entire Scriptures, and so let me present this Psalm under the heads, The Ground of Thanksgiving, the Grace of our God, and The Great Oratorio.
THE GROUND OF THANKSGIVING
We have in the opening verses of this chapter the Psalmists burst of praise upon the memory of benefits, which increases as he takes account of the budget of mercies.
The burst of praise! Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy Name. It is commonly supposed that the world was sadly lacking in joy and rejoicing back of the time of our Lords advent, but not so with those who by faith beheld Him afar, and certainly David was among them; probably chief among them. That may account for the circumstance that he became Israels sweetest singer, for after all, the most pleasing music is generally jubilant.
It was the Psalmist who said, It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto Thy Name, O Most High (Psa 92:1). It was the Psalmist who wrote, O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
It was the Psalmist again who shouted as if he had organized all saints into a choir, O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth (Psa 96:1). It was the Psalmist who commanded, Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing (Psa 100:1-2). It was the Psalmist who in an ecstacy of spirit said, I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing (Psa 101:1).
Are we surprised, then, to have this 103rd Psalm open with such a burst of praise? Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy Name? Perhaps one thing that most profoundly impresses careful and sympathetic students of the Psalms is the almost infinite variety of expression that voices thanksgiving and praise. David was not a perfect man. The record of his sins is written in letters black, and never, while time runs on, will his reputation recover from spot and stain; and yet so many are his virtues and so marvelous are his spiritual attainments that even the critical are compelled to see why he was named a man after Gods own heart.
Chief among these virtues are his sense of pardon, his high appreciation of Gods gracious part in the same, and the spirit of praise and thanksgiving that was forever finding vibrant voice. How good it is to have a grateful child! To that virtue, God never has been, is not and never will be insensible! It is doubtful if among Christian virtues, there is one prized by the Lord above this one. Would angels be angels at all, would the spirits of the redeemed men, now in glory, retain their heavenly station, if they were not a grateful, praiseful, joyous company?
Most of us believe that we shall have vocation for all eternity, and shall serve the Lord day and night forever and ever without weariness; and can we not easily imagine, that David is the chief choir director in Gods Heaven, and that in spirit he has grown more soulful, jubilant and songful as the millenniums have run by.
The memory of benefits! Every sentiment of thanksgiving, if it continue, must be properly voiced. Davids burst of praise had adequate occasion, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. How few people there are who retain consciousness of Gods acts of mercy to the extent of recognizing their accumulating riches.
There are small men who dwell on any losses they have sustained, but big business men look at the other side of the ledger, and are inspired by the gains shown. There are starved, pinched souls in the world, who do little but dote upon their miseries. Sad to say, some of these are church-members and such are always tempted to render the text, Praise the Lord, O my soul, but dont forget His failures, and dont be unmindful of His judgments. In other words, they dote upon their miseries instead of delighting in His mercies.
There is a story told of an Iowa farmer whose corn crop was a bumper, and a friend congratulated him upon the seasons yield, saying, It has been a great year for you. Yes, in some ways, but an awfully hot one. But hot weather makes good corn. Yes, if you get enough rain! Well, havent you had rain enough this season? asked the friend.
Well, yes; we cant complain of lack of rain. Well, isnt this the greatest crop you have ever had? Yes, I think it is, but you know a crop like this is awfully hard on the soil.
Such critical ingrates try the souls of men. Who shall say God has patience with them? Search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and while you will find complainers a multitude, you will never find a grouch for whom even God had any compliments or through whom God ever wrought a work of any importance! You can make a king of Israel out of the ruddy, joyful lad, and among all the musicians of the millenniums, the singer who gets his standard pitch from his spirit of praise will never be surpassed. If you are here this morning without a song of joy there can be but one explanation of your dumb silence. You have forgotten to take note of Gods goodness, to be cognizant of all His benefits.
The budget of mercies! As David proceeds in his praises, he sums up the occasions of his song, and what a marvelous summary it is. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities (item 1) ; who healeth all thy diseases (item 2); who redeemeth thy life from destruction (item 3); who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies (item 4); who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles (item 5); and then as if to heap up the measure and make it run over, he adds, t(The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for ALL that are oppressed.
Do you know of what I was reminded as I sat before this Scripture contemplating it for this sermon? Of our good treasurer, who annually sits down with the Board of Trustees and suggests to them different sums for the various parts of the work, and when they have voted all these amounts, this amount to this thing, and that amount to the other, a further amount for this and a fourth for that, and so on, until the entire budget for the year is provided; then the treasurer quietly suggests, And now under miscellaneous! We need a considerable sum there for things not now known or otherwise provided for, and so the sum covering possible expenditures is added and approved.
When the Psalmist had recounted his forgiveness, his healing, his redemption, his crown of loving-kindness and tender mercies, his physical satiety, his renewed youth, he finally winds up by saying, Now to cover it all, to include what I havent mentioned, let me remark, The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Into that budget of mercies has gone sufficient so that none shall suffer.
It is little wonder that the man who comprehends so much should break out in a new anthem, O, sing unto the Lord for He hath done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm hath gotten Him the victory. The Lord hath made known His salvation. His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered His mercies and His truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
My good friend, Dr. Massee, in speaking of the Lords deliverance of Israel out of the land of Egypt, the very deliverance upon which David is reflecting, said, Here is pure grace. Jehovah put His neck into the yoke of Egyptian bondage with Israel and thereby broke the bondage and delivered His people therefrom. He bore them on His wings as an eagle; endured their gainsayings and murmurings; He substituted mercy for justice; patience for wrath; forgiveness for the penalty of death, and taking their sins, bore them, removing thus the barrier between Himself and them. It was grace that did this great thing.
And this leads us to the next theme upon which the Psalmist is ready to dwell,
THE GRACE OF OUR GOD
It is exercised for all the oppressed. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. It is a marvelous statement and a statement that was never true save when applied to Him. It is the custom of politicians to pledge just that thing. Every cheap reformer is going to execute righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed; is going to provide panaceas for all that are sick; is going to see that the poor are treated justly and that social and financial equality shall be accorded to all. It is the stock in trade of the present-day Russian leaders; it was the pledge eloquently made and wretchedly kept of the late English Labor Party; it was the promise paraded by La Follette and his followers; in fact, it has always, since the days of Absalom who cried, Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice, been the chief political staple of ambitious candidates who seek to dupe the people into the idea that if they were put in the place of power, universal prosperity, in which every living man should share equally, would become the experience of the land. The truth, however, is that up to the present while some great and gracious men have been elevated to high office and have striven with every power at their command to exercise righteousness and judgment in behalf of the oppressed, the honor of so doing remains forever the glory of the Lord.
We had lately a sample of the sort of teaching that is being given young men and women in our schools in an utterance that fell from the lips of Mr. Davidson Ketchum, a Canadian editor, speaking before the students in Toronto University. Referring to Wm. Jennings Bryant statement, that Young men and women of this generation were forsaking God, he boldly affirms, We say boldly, God has forsaken the young men and women of this generation. It took us a long time to realize this, for always when we used to wonder where God was and what He could be doing there were reassuring figures such as Mr. Bryans, to tell us that God was just biding His time; that He was not deaf to the cries of His suffering children nor blind to the insolence of their oppressors, but in His wisdom (it was always His wisdom) He was staying His hand for the present. The time would surely come, however, when He would arise and set things right for good. The world went on; but the time did not come. We are now and then apt to speak a little impatiently. * * Here were we in a world that seemed to need God more than ever, sinking deeper and deeper into the hole, and God doing nothing about it at all, save to pursue His policy of masterly inactivity. Then came the war and out of the realization of the innocent suffering and degradation which it brought, our faith in that everlasting wisdom began to melt away. This was carrying the free-will business a good deal too far. No earthly father would ever let his children destroy each other, body and soul, for the sake of their education. If that were really Gods plan, He must be hopelessly pedantic. We didnt believe it; there must be a screw loose somewhere. Let Him take back His free-will and find a better scheme.
And from this blasphemy he goes further, finally disposing of God altogether and then playing the trick of the modernist, he makes the appeal that while he loses God, he finds Christ, and his Christ is a man who conquered and the fact that one man had conquered, was the assurance that other men could conquer! What blasphemy! How different from the reasoning of David whose clear mind and logical processes have made his name immortal. David found that the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. That He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the Children of Israel, and instead of being cold and indifferent, He is just the opposite. To Moses He revealed His plans and purposes, and before the eyes of men His conduct was the evidence of His character.
It is a great thing, even though by suffering and trial, to come to know Gods intent and thought; to understand His program. This is the privilege of the favored; and yet such is His righteous grace that all men who truly think upon the same are compelled to see in that course a God of grace and power.
Therein is manifested His essential nature.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him (Psa 103:8-11).
When by weakness and suffering, one is stripped absolutely of all self-confidence and the soul itself seems to stand in sheer nakedness before God, conscious that it has not a single rag of righteousness with which to cover against His gaze, then this Scripture becomes precious indeed and instead of trusting in human character or human conduct, we are compelled to rest alone in character Divine, merciful, gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy, not chiding, not dealing with us after our sins, not rewarding us according to our iniquities! What ground of hope in the circumstance that as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him! How good to think with the modern astronomer and scientist upon the infinite stretch of the universe, measured now by millions on millions, billions on billions, trillions on trillions of miles, and then to know that we have but begun to lay the line that stretches from one side of the same to the other, and to be forced to consent that distance is infiniteit knows no endand then to remember that as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us! O, what pardon and what consequent peace! Who shall attempt to describe it? The language of Scripture alone is sufficient!
And the Psalmist goes a step farther, He states the ground of our confidence.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him.
For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto childrens children;
To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His Commandments to do them (Psa 103:13-18).
What a ground of hope!
I know what it is to be a father! I know what it is to pity my children, and by that I learned how the Lord pitied me, and I remembered with joy that He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. He knows that frame, not because He made it, but because He experienced it! He Himself became flesh and blood. He Himself was in all points tempted like as we are, and by temptation learned how to succor the tempted, and sympathize with the sinning and suffering. Dr. J. C. Massee, pastor of the Tremont Temple, in a sermon recently published in our magazine, said truly, My Lord was a personality with two natures; wholly God, wholly manthese two. As man, He was tempted in all respects like as we are tempted, and His temptation meant nothing by way of showing me how to combat my temptations unless it made Him feel the undertow of that current of carnality that draws man out beyond his depth and holds him over the abyss below. He was tempted; He was tried. Being broken upon the rack of human suffering, tempted to over-confidence, to under-confidence, and to other confidence, by that very devil who busies himself by laying snares for mans unwary feet.
I will not say with Dr. Massee, My Lord could have sinned, for had He sinned, His Lordship would have been disproven. God cannot sin and God was in Him. God cannot even be tempted and God was there; but to deny that Christ could be tempted is to deny that He had a human body filled with human blood.
And I certainly say with Dr. Massee and with the Scriptures that the human side of my Lord knew every temptation that besets me and by that circumstance, learned to sympathize with me.
Men imagine they are paying him greater compliment to deny that His physical life knew the temptations common to us. On the contrary, such a course takes away our Christ altogether and leaves us no God manifest in the flesh. In proportion as God occupies and dominates a man, in that proportion he resists temptation, however strong it appear, however deceptious it may be; but that is no proof that the man doesnt feel the power of the temptation, nor the draw of the current. God was perfectly in Christ. That is why He did not sin; probably why He could not sin; but, being Christ, living in a fleshly body, He had to feel temptation and learn how to sympathize with every man of usbadgered and beset by the same. Blessed be His Name; it was a sympathy born of my experience and He escaped no part of it.
I believe with Joseph Parker that He knew the meaning of atheism. It was as if God were not in the heavens when blackness hung over all the earth, and He, dying as a culprit, cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? In that very experience, infidelity came in for sympathy with our Lord, and even the infidel and the atheist need not go to the grave without hope. God in Christ will pity him and out of sheer mercy send His Spirit to quicken him to a consciousness of truth, and point him to salvation.
Is it any wonder, having discovered such graces in God, the Psalmist should conclude this marvelous Scripture with
A GREAT ORATORIO
Into that oratorio he weaves the following facts: Our God is the one worthy of all praise; all creatures should join in it; all creation should sound it forth.
He is the one worthy of all praise. There isnt a true believer living who can escape righteous wrath when one, speaking after the manner of Davidson Ketchum, strives to strip God of all honor, prove Him destitute of all grace, and utterly discount His claims of goodness, mercy, compassion, justice. When Mr. Ketchum said, Away, Reassurers, with your ready parallels and analogies. We are going to study this business out for ourselves in the life and words of one who ought to know all about it, and we shut our ears to them and studied Christ. The conclusions drawn from that study that God had deserted Christ, disappointed Christ, left Christ to die lonely and forsaken, and thereby proved that if He had ever been on the throne, He was there no longer, makes absurd all that Christ Himself ever thought or said. It was Christ Himself who said, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It was Christ who said, God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. It was Christ who said, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. It was Christ who declared, The Father Himself, which hath sent Me (Joh 5:37). It was Christ who said, I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Fathers will (Joh 6:38-39). It was Christ who said, I and My Father are one; and this whole business of attempting to divorce God and Christ is solely in the interest of that modernism which would dethrone God and prove that evolution alone had produced in Christ the character-example of the ages.
Again and again our Lord declared that His miracles were wrought for the glory of God, and that the grace of salvation was from Him and Him alone. It was doubtless in thinking upon such false teachers as Ketchum that His pained heart cries, O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee: but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy Name, and will declare it.
If it be answered this was all before He was forsaken on the Cross, then turn to the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ in the Apocalypse, a revelation which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants, and in that revelation God is glorified by the risen Lord as He was never praised previous to the crucifixion. I shall not now take time to run the Book through and take from it paean upon paean, but rather to remind us of that matchless picture of the heavenly harpers who sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy Name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest (Rev 15:2-4).
All creatures should join in it. Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts; ye ministers of His, that do His pleasure (Psa 103:20-21).
Hear the coaxing word of this sweet singer of Israel, O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (Psa 95:6). Recognizing the lowliness of even an earthly kings office, he says, All the kings of the earth shall praise Thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of My mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord (Psa 138:4-5).
Praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts (Psa 148:2). Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the psaltery and harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance: praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals: praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord (Psa 150:2-6).
But the Psalmist is not yet content. Gods glory has not been sufficiently compassed, nor has His Name had the honor it deserves.
So he wants all creation to sound it forth. Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion. David would have all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise (Psa 98:4). He would have the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together (Psa 98:7-8).
But the concluding word is to you and to me, personal and important. Bless the Lord, O my soul! Are you blessing Him this morning? Dont imagine for one moment that He is indifferent to that question.
Joseph Parker says, I sat in the great auditorium. The orchestra numbered 500 and more. In the midst of the great rendition the keen-eared conductor threw up his baton and shouted, Flageolet! He had missed the music of that small instrument. Amidst organ peals and combined notes of hundreds of instruments, one thing was lacking to a complete harmony, the flageolet. O, Thou God of glory, whom angels praise, to whom all saints should bring their songs of thanksgiving, before whom all creatures should bow in adoration and unto whom all creation should render laudation, grant that my voice may not fail, that yours may not be silent!
March 1st, 1925.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
This, as appears from the superscription, is one of Davids Psalms. It is a Psalm of great beauty and preciousness, and has been a great favourite of devout souls in all ages. The fulness of the mercy of God in the forgiveness of sins and the enrichment of the soul, and His tender, fatherly pity for His frail and dying children, are here gracefully and gratefully celebrated. It must have been composed at a time when the Poets soul was filled with precious and grateful recollections of Divine benefits, and with strong and tender confidence in God.
GOD BLESSING MAN AND MAN BLESSING GOD
(Psa. 103:1-5)
I. God blessing man. Psa. 103:3-5. The Psalmist mentions a number of blessings which he has received from God.
1. Forgiveness. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Thine iniquities, says John Pulsford, are in-equities. There is nothing just or right in thee. Thy very nature is an in-equity, bringing forth nothing but in-equities. In-equities towards thy God, in-equities towards thy neighbour, and in-equities towards thyself, make up the whole of thy life. Thou art a bad tree, and a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. Notice the completeness of His forgiveness. Our iniquities are more than can be remembered, and are very heinous, but He forgiveth them all. The continuousness of His forgiveness. He forgiveth. Within us are tendencies to sin and around us are temptations. Our life is sadly marred by transgressions and shortcomings, we need repeated forgivenesses, multiplied pardons; and God bestows them. He continues to forgive.
2. Healing. Who healeth all thy diseases. The primary reference is to bodily sicknesses. (Comp. Exo. 15:26; Deu. 29:22). But we cannot regard that as the exclusive reference. Corruption and disease have a spiritual origin. All material corruption was preceded by spiritual corruption. All diseases were, and are, spiritual to begin with. Disease is a state of in-equity in the body, but it is only the in-equity that pre-existed in spirit, fulfilling itself in matter. The Divine art of healing therefore lies in the forgiveness of the souls iniquities. Remove the iniquities of the soul, and universal healing comes in. Christ healeth all thy diseases, by forgiving all thy iniquities.Pulsford. Bodily diseases are analogues of spiritual disorders and infirmities. He heals all these.
3. Redemption. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Hengstenberg: From the grave. Perowne: From the pit, including death, the grave, Hades. David had many marvellous deliverances from danger and death which were worthy of celebration. The Lord redeems the soul from sin, and from the penalty of sin, spiritual and eternal death. He will ransom His people from the power of the grave, and endow them with endless and blessed life.
4. Coronation. Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies. The love of God not only delivers from sin, disease, and death: He makes His children kings, and weaves their crown out of His own glorious attributes of loving-kindness and tender mercies.Perowne. He heaps upon redeemed sinners untold riches from His full heart; and shows to them the softest ways of His love. Mercies are the softnesses of eternal love, but tender mercies are unutterable endearments from the heart of hearts.Pulsford.
5. Satisfaction. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things. There is diversity of opinion as to how which is rendered mouth in the A. V. and in the P. B. V.should be rendered. See Perownes critical note, and Barnes in loco. But there is no dispute as to the meaning of the clause. God satisfieth the souls of His servants. He, and He alone, can satisfy the deep needs, and respond to the boundless desires of the soul. Out of God the wants of mans great and awful soul can never be satisfied. By His presence and grace He fills it with delightful satisfaction. He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. (Comp. Psa. 63:5; Isa. 55:1-2; Isa. 58:11.)
6. Invigoration. So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. There is no reference here to the fable of the eagle renewing its youth in old age. There is perhaps an allusion to the moulting of its plumage periodically, whereby its strength and activity are increased. As the Christian derives his life from Christ, that life can never become feeble or old. Living in Christ, he will flourish in immortal youth. His eternal life will be an eternal progression towards the perfection of youthful vigour and beauty.
Such are the great and inestimable blessings which the Lord confers upon His servants. It is important that we should notice that these blessings
1. Are adapted to mans deepest needs. Forgiveness, satisfaction, redemption.
2. Tend to promote his perfection and blessedness, which can be found only in connection with the loving-kindness and tender mercy of the Lord.
II. Man blessing God. (Psa. 103:1-2.) God blesses man with gifts; man blesses God with praise. The Psalmist blesses the Lord
1. With hit soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Not merely with the tongue or pen, but with the heart and soul.
2. With his entire spiritual being. And all that is within me, bless His holy name. David would enlist every thought, faculty, power, the heart with all its affections, the will, the conscience, the reason, in a word, the whole spiritual being, all in man that is best and highest, in the same heavenly service.Perowne.
3. With recollection of His benefits. Forget not all His benefits. The Psalmist thoughtfully recalls the blessings he has received from God, and is thereby the more urgently incited to praise Him. We are sadly prone to cherish the memory of injuries, and to neglect the memory of benefits. Let us, like the Psalmist, strive to recollect the blessings we have received of the Lord, that thereby our praise might be more grateful and hearty.
4. With reverent admiration of His character. Bless His holy name. Gods holiness consists of all the perfections of His character in harmonious and beautiful union. David praised the Lord not merely because of the benefits he had received from Him, but because of His own glorious perfections. He praised His beneficence, and adored His holiness.
CONCLUSION.Let us learn from this subject.
1. The motives of Divine praise. Why should I bless the Lord?
(1) Because of what He does for mebenefits.
(2) Because of what He isholy.
2. The model of Divine praise. How shall I bless the Lord?
(1) Heartily.
(2) With all my powers and affections.
3. The means of Divine praise. By what means can I thus bless the Lord? Recall His benefits, and the heart will grow warm with gratitude, &c.
4. The blessedness of Divine praise. It brings holy cheer to the troubled spirit. It is a foretaste of heaven. To the man whose soul is filled with praise this world is a scene of Divine manifestation, a temple filled with heavenly voices and traces of the feet of God.
MANS REMEMBRANCE OF THE LORDS BENEFITS
(Psa. 103:2. Forget not all His benefits.)
Consider
I. The benefits of God. Who can enumerate them? He gives us physical benefits; e.g., food, raiment, health, &c. Social benefits, e.g., friends, &c. Intellectual benefits, e.g., His own revelation in nature, history, and the Bible, books, &c. Spiritual benefits, e.g., pardon, help, &c. His gifts are innumerable. They are also very rich. He gives not only kindness and mercy, but loving-kindness and tender mercies. The difference between mere kindness and loving-kindness, between mere mercy and tender mercy, is the difference between a flower without fragrance and a flower that is fragrant.Parker.
Rightly viewed the benefits of God must call forth our wonder, admiration, gratitude.
II. The benefits of God may be forgotten. In what sense? Not absolutely. Memory treasures all things, loses nothing. Like the records made with invisible ink, not seen under ordinary circumstances, invisible perhaps for years, yet when brought under the influence of heat appearing distinctly; so with memory, &c. But we treasure that in our memory in which we are most interested. The miser remembers anything that will assist him in accumulating money. The grateful heart remembers benefits. But in depraved human nature there is a sad tendency to forget benefits. Too frequently injuries are treasured, benefits are forgotten. A thankless heart receives benefits, and does not recognise them as such, acknowledges no obligation, &c. All are prone to fail somewhat in treasuring and keeping in view the Divine benefits.
III. The benefits of God should not be forgotten.
1. Because of the gratitude we owe to God for them. Hengstenberg: He who has been blessed and refuses to bless has sunk from the state of a man to that of a beast. Has he not sunk lower than some beasts? Every blessing involves the obligation to gratitude and praise.
2. Because of the confidence they are calculated to inspire. Every benefit we receive increases our obligation and encouragement to trust in the Lord. Parker: The atheism of anticipation should be corrected by the gratitude of retrospection. He who reviews the past thankfully may advance to the future hopefully.
SPIRITUAL DISEASES HEALED
(Psa. 103:3)
I. Why sin is called a disease.
1. As it destroys the moral beauty of the creature. (Gen. 1:31; Gen. 6:5, compared; Job. 42:1-6; Psa. 38:3-8.)
2. As it excites pain. (Psa. 51:8; Act. 2:37; 1Co. 15:56.)
3. As it disables from duty. (Isa. 1:5; Rom. 7:19.) To God. To man.
4. As it deprives men of good sound reason. (Isa. 5:20.) It stupifies the faculties.
5. As it is infectious.
6. As it leads to death. (Rom. 5:12; Rom. 5:21; Rom. 6:16; Rom. 6:23.)
II. The variety of sinful diseases to which we are subject. All thine iniquities, all thy diseases. (Mar. 7:21-23; Rom. 1:29-31; Gal. 5:19-21.)
Almost as many as the bodily diseases mentioned in the bills of mortality.
III. The remedy by which God heals these diseases.
1. His pardoning mercy through the redemption of Christ. (See text. Isa. 53:5; Rom. 3:23-26.)
2. The sanctifying influences of grace. (Eze. 36:25-27; Heb. 10:16.)
3. The means of grace. (Eph. 4:11-13.)
4. The resurrection of the body. (1Th. 4:16-17; Php. 3:10-11.)
5. The case of an ignorant, insensible sinner is very deplorable.
6. The case of a real Christian is very hopeful. His sinful disease is radically healed. The completion of his cure is certain.
7. The glory of Christ, as the physician of souls, is great indeed. (Rev. 1:5-6).F. R, in Skeletons of Sermons.
THE INFINITY, EXPRESSIONS, AND OBJECTS OF THE DIVINE MERCY
(Psa. 103:6-14)
The Poet having celebrated the mercy of God to himself, proceeds in these verses to celebrate His mercy to Israel. Consider
I. The Infinity of the Divine mercy. As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. The Psalmist uses a figure of the greatest extent which the world affords in order to set forth the immensity of the mercy of God. It is, like Himself, infinite. As we imagine nothing higher or vaster than the heavens, so the favour of God exceeds our highest thoughts, and surpasses our most extensive and expressive figures. All the measures of the universe are inadequate to set forth the infinite love of God. (Compare Psa. 36:5; Psa. 57:10). He is plenteous in mercy. Above the mountains of our sins the floods of His mercy rise. All the world tastes of His sparing mercy, those who hear the Gospel partake of His inviting mercy, the saints live by His saving mercy, are preserved by His upholding mercy, are cheered by His consoling mercy, and will enter heaven through His infinite and everlasting mercy.Spurgeon.
II. The expressions of the Divine mercy. It is manifest
1. In His vindication of the oppressed. The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. We have here
(1) The sufferings of the Church. The people of God have often been grievously oppressed and persecuted.
(2) The champion of the Church. The Lord defends the cause of His people, interposes for their deliverance. He humbles the pride of the oppressor, and exalts the oppressed into safety and honour.
2. In His general dealings with His people. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.See Homiletic sketch on this verse.
3. In the long delay of His anger. Slow to anger. The Lord has long patience even with the most provoking sinners. He restrains His wrath that the wicked may have longer time and more frequent opportunities for repentance. Though His anger ever burns against sin, yet in mercy to the sinner He bears much, and bears long with him, that he might yet be saved.
4. In the transient duration of His anger. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger for ever. I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth, &c. (Isa. 57:16). The second clause, says Hengstenberg, depends upon Lev. 19:18, Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Nah. 1:2 again depends upon the passage before us: The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He keepeth wrath (not assuredly for His people, of whom the declaration of the Psalmist holds true, but still) for His enemies. God will manifest His displeasure towards His people if they sin against Him, and will punish them for their sins; but when chastisement has accomplished its mission, He will again manifest His loving-kindness. His anger is so slow to rise, so ready to abate.
5. In the forgiveness of sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. The great point here is the completeness of the forgiveness of sin by God. On this point see remarks o Psa. 85:2. When sin is pardoned, says Char-nock, it is never charged again; the guilt of it can no more return than east can become west, or west become east.
6. In His fatherly compassion. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. Matthew Henry well says: The father pities his children that are weak in knowledge and instructs them, pities them when they are froward and bears with them, pities them when they are sick and comforts them (Isa. 66:13), pities them when they have fallen and helps them up again, pities them when they have offended, and, upon their submission, forgives them, pities them when they are wronged and gives them redress; thus the Lord pities them that fear Him. Nay, much more than thus; for He is the Father of all mercies, and the Father of all the fatherhoods in heaven and earth.
7. In His fatherly consideration. He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust. He is acquainted with our fashioning; the manner in which we are formed, and the materials of which we are made; He knows how weak we are, and exercises a kindly consideration towards us. He is not exacting in His demands upon us, but is pitiful to our weakness.
8. In the revelation which He made to His people. He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. This verse refers to Exo. 33:13, where Moses says to the Lord, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight; and consider that this nation is Thy people. And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. God made Himself known in the guidance and protection of His people, and in the many mighty acts which He wrought on their behalf. The children of Israel saw His acts, His marvellous doings for them. But Moses saw the principles underlying those acts, and the methods of the Divine administration. This revelation the Psalmist rightly regards as an expression of Gods mercy. Varied and countless are the manifestations of His mercy to us.
III. The objects of the Divine mercy. To all men upon earth the mercy of God extends. Holy angels need not the Divine mercy, apostate angels need it, but receive it not. Man both needs and receives it. Of all men upon earth we may say,The Lord is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. But in this Psalm the people of God are specially mentioned as the objects of His mercy. Thrice His mercy is said to be upon them that fear Him. And the Psalmist in the eighteenth verse gives a further description of them: To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them. Holy fear is expressed in obedience. Excellently says Perowne on Psa. 103:17 : For the third time Gods mercy and loving-kindness is said to be upon them that fear Him, as if to remind us that there is a love within a love, a love which they only know who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, who fear Him and walk in His ways, as well as a love which maketh the sun to shine, and sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust. In the next verse there is the same limitation, To such as keep His covenant, and to those who not only know but do His will. The blessings of the covenant are no inalienable right; mancipio nulli datur; childrens children can only inherit its blessings by cleaving to it.
CONCLUSION.Are we of those who are thus designated? Do we reverently fear Him? Let those who do rejoice in the manifold expressions of His mercy toward them. Let those who do not, accept the offer of pardoning mercy, trust His grace, &c.
THE MERCY OF GOD IN THE AFFLICTIONS OF MAN
(Psa. 103:10)
Consider
I. The views which this declaration presents to us of the Divine covenant.
1. He has not dealt with us as our sins deserve. Do they not deserve banishment from God, the forfeiture of His parental relation to us, the execution of His righteous sentence upon us? When is it that afflictions appear heavy? When sin is felt lightly. When is it that afflictions appear light? When sin is felt to be heavy. We know the light we have resisted, the convictions we have disregarded, the mercies we have received and forgotten, and the impressions against which we have rebelled. And then in proportion to our actual knowledge of God, our experience of the Divine mercy, our acquaintance with the Divine goodness, is the aggravation of our guiltiness.
2. He has not dealt with us as He has dealt with others. Look at the conduct of a righteous and holy God towards fallen angels; the antediluvian world; the cities of the plain; the ancient Israelites for their backslidings. Look at others for the purpose of deepening your gratitude and raising your admiration of the Divine mercy towards you.
3. His dealings towards us have always been mingled with mercy even in the severest dispensations. Had He rewarded us according to our iniquities, there would have been no mercy and no hopeno termination, no diminution, no alleviation of suffering. When we think of the mercy, mingled with all His judgments and chastenings, have we not reason to adopt the language of the Psalmist in the text?
4. There is mercy in the support we have under affliction. He does not allow us to suffer alone. What consolation is mingled in the cup of suffering placed in our hands! what promises! what supports! what precious, everlasting consolation and good hope through grace!
5. There is mercy in the removal of affliction. How often do we find the God of grace and of providence wondrously interposing to remove affliction by unexpected means, by unthought-of alleviations, by circumstances of which we had not the least conception, &c.
6. The mercy which is displayed in the results of His dispensations. He intends, by blighting the gourd, to bring us to the shadow of the tree of lifeby cutting off the stream, to bring us nearer to the fountain of living watersby putting the taint of bitterness in our earthly comforts, to bring us to taste that He is gracious. It is the end of His dispensations to make us more humble, more watchful, more spiritual, more holy, more alive to God and eternity. In the school of trial God prepares His children for their inheritance.
II. The practical uses we should make of this declaration.
1. It should lead us faithfully to inquire what has been the effect of chastening and trial on us? When the rod is upon you, what is the course you pursue? Where do you get rid of your troubles? Are you brought to Gods throne? Are you brought to humility, to self-abasement, to penitential sorrow? Are you brought to feel there is no mystery in the rod, that all the mystery is in the mercy towards you?
2. It should excite adoring gratitude for the love, the patience, the wisdom, and the faithfulness of our Father in heaven.
3. It should teach us to cherish humble confidence. All things work together for good to them that love God. All His paths are mercy and goodness. I will trust in Him, and not be afraid.
4. It should lead us to exercise unreserved submission. The submission of patience, the submission of obedience, ought to be the result of these views of the Divine character.
5. Let there be practical imitation of the Divine conduct in our temper towards othersin patience, forbearance, forgiveness. Be ye imitators of God, as dear children, and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.Dr. Fletcher.Abridged from The Preacher.
GODS MERCY AND MANS FRAILTYA CONTRAST
(Psa. 103:15-18)
The contrast between mans frailty and transitoriness and Gods unchangeableness and eternity, which we found in Psa. 90:1-6, is here repeated. The similarity of thought and expression is so great that Hengstenberg says, That David without doubt drew it from Moses. As most of the ideas occurring in this passage were considered in our Homily on Psa. 90:1-6, it will be sufficient to present the outline of our subject here, and refer the reader to that homily. The chief points of the contrast seem to be these
I. The frailty of mans life upon earth, and the mercy of God. How frail is human life here! As the hot and burning east wind destroys the grass and the flower, so sickness, sorrow, suffering speedily cut short mans career. The flower with its beauty and fragrance soon fades and dies, and man in his glory of corporeal beauty, mental ability, geniality of temper, and holiness of heart and life, soon passes away. But the mercy of the Lord is not a weak, perishable thing. It is great, glorious, abiding. Here is consolation and strength and inspiration for man. He is frail; but he may take refuge in the rich and all-sufficient mercy of God.
II. The brevity of mans life upon earth, and the eternity of the mercy of God. As for the life of man, the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. The loving-kindness of the Lord is eternal as His own Being. Man, saddened with the transciency of human strength and beauty and life, here is rest for thee in the eternal mercy of God! Here is what we, as sinners, need; and it is here in inexhaustible and unchangeable fulness and freeness.
III. The final departure of man from the earth, and the eternal mercy of God present with him wherever he may be. It is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. Man goes hence to
The undiscoverd country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns.
It is a saddening and a solemn consideration that at death we leave this world never to return to it. The farm, the shop, the office, the study, the home, the Sunday school, the Church will know us no more when we have trod the way to dusty death. We shall have gone from earth for ever. But gone where? Ay, where? How shall we fare when we have taken the last, the lonely, the irretraceable journey? These considerations would be insupportably mysterious and painful, but for this fact: Wherever we may be, the loving-kindness of the Lord will be present with us. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. We do not leave that behind us. We do not travel into any region where it ceases to be present and operative. Having that upon us, all must be well, &c.
IV. The final departure of good men from the earth, and the eternal mercy of God resting upon their descendants. Good men pass away for ever, but the loving-kindness of the Lord is continued to their posterity. Church members die, but the Church remains. Gods righteousness is unto childrens children. The covenant of mercy extends from generation to generation, provided that they do not violate their interest in it. For here is the limiting condition: To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.
God will not forget or fail in His part of the covenant; let man also remember and keep his; and then he may take to himself the consolation, and inspiration, and strength of the contrast we have been considering.
THE GLORIOUS REIGN AND PRAISE OF THE LORD
(Psa. 103:19-22)
I. The glorious reign of the Lord. The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all. Here are three ideas
1. The stability of His reign. The Lord hath prepared His throne. Perowne: Jehovah hath established His throne. His throne is firm and stable. All the rage and rebellion of earth and hell cannot shake it. His dominion is an everlasting dominion.
2. The majesty of His reign. His throne in the heavens. The heavens are the most vast and sublime portion of the universe. In them the glory of the Lord is most conspicuously and splendidly displayed. His throne is said to be established there to indicate its loftiness and majesty.
3. The universality of His reign. His kingdom ruleth over all. He rules in all places. The heavens, the earth, and the seas are subject to His sway. The regularity and order of the universe proclaim His sovereignty. He rules over all creatures. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creatures. He rules over all persons. Holy angels delight to do His will. He is supreme in the world of men. And devils cannot sever their connection with His authority. He controls Satan himself.
II. The glorious praise of the Lord. The Poet began the Psalm by calling upon His soul to bless the Lord for His benefits; he proceeded to celebrate His goodness to all them that fear Him; now he summons the entire universe to unite in ascribing blessing to Him; and he concludes by calling upon his own soul to join in the praise. The praise of the Lord is celebrated by
1. Holy angels. Bless the Lord, ye His angels, &c. (Psa. 103:20-21). In speaking of these angelic beings, the Psalmist brings into view
(1) Their great power. They excel in strength. Margin and Perowne: Mighty in strength. Hengstenberg: Strong warriors. The deeds ascribed to them in Scripture indicate their amazing might. But in our text the strength which is spoken of is clearly intellectual and moral chiefly. They are mighty to do the will of God, and grow stronger by doing it.
(2) Their ready obedience. They do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word. They wait and listen for the intimations of His will, and then hasten to carry them out. They are prompt in obedience to Him, and eager to do His pleasure.
(3) Their immense numbers. All His hosts. Gods angels are multitudinous. There are vast armies of them.
(4) Their Divine service. Ministers of His, that do His pleasure. They are His, for He made and sustains them; His, for He employs them in His service; His, for they are reverently and lovingly loyal to Him. These glorious beings bless the Lord by reverently celebrating His perfections and joyfully obeying His behests. They praise Him both by song and by service.
2. The unintelligent creation. Bless the Lord all His works, in all places of His dominion. All His works praise Him as they answer the end for which they were created. Sun, moon, and stars by diffusing light and heat, and by unfolding their beauty and glory, praise Him. The earth by its verdure, fruit-fulness, &c., praises Him. All His works throughout the universe unite to bless Him.
3. Redeemed men. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The Poet ends the Psalm as he began it by calling upon his own soul to bless the Lord. We who know His redeeming love have the most moving and mighty reasons for celebrating His praise.
CONCLUSION.While the universe is songful in praise of the Lord, shall my tongue be silent? While others are glowing with enthusiasm, shall my heart be cold? Bless the Lord, O my soul. While others gladly obey and serve Him, shall my service be wanting? Shall I praise Him in words and not in deeds? Rather let my ears be attentive to hear His commands, and my feet swift and my hands dexterous to obey them. Let us all praise Him, both in song and in service, with lips and with lives.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 103
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Bless Jehovah; for He is Worthy.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 103:1-5, Bless Jehovah: For his Personal Dealings. Stanza II., Psa. 103:6-10, For his Revealed Character. Stanza III., Psa. 103:11-14, For his Kindness, Forgiveness, Compassion, and Considerateness. Stanza IV., Psa. 103:15-18, For the Continuity of his Dealings, in Contrast with Mans Frailty. Stanza V., Psa. 103:19-22, For the Permanence and Universality of his Kingdom, let All his Creatures Bless Him.
(Lm.) By David
1
Bless Jehovah O my soul,
and all within me his holy name:
2
Bless Jehovah O my soul,
and forget not any of his dealings:
3
who pardoneth all thine iniquities,[380]
[380] So (pl.) some cod. (w. 1 ear. pr. edn., Sep., Vul.)Gn. M.T.: iniquity (sing.)
who healeth all thy diseases,
4
who redeemeth from the pit thy life,
who crowneth thee with kindness and compassions,
5
who satisfieth with good thy desire,[381]
[381] So Sep. SupplicationDel. AgeCarter. SpiritLeeser.
thy youth reneweth itself like an eagle.[382]
[382] Or: vulture. So Dr.
6
A doer of acts of righteousness is Jehovah,
and acts of vindication for all who are oppressed:
7
Who made known his ways to Moses.
to the sons of Israel his doings:
8
Compassionate and gracious is Jehovah,
slow to anger and abundant in kindness.[383]
[383] Cp. Exo. 34:6-7. The Refrain of the Bible (see The Emphasised Bible).
9
Not perpetually will he contend,
nor to the ages retain [anger]:
10
Not according to our sins hath he done to us,
nor according to our iniquities hath he dealt with us.
11
For as the heavens are exalted over the earth
exalted[384] is his kindness over such as revere him:
[384] So Gt.Gn. M.T.: Mighty.
12
As far as the east is from the west
hath he put far from us our transgressions:
13
Like the compassion of a father on sons
is the compassion of Jehovah on such as revere him;
14
For he knoweth how we are formed,[385]
[385] Ml. our formation.
putteth himself in mind that dust are we.
15
Weak manlike grass are his days,
Like the blossom of the field so doth he blossom:
16
When a wind hath passed over it then it is not,
nor acquainted with it any more is its place.
17
But the kindness of Jehovah is from age to age
on such as revere him,
And his righteousness is unto childrens children
18
unto such as keep his covenant
and unto such as remember his precepts to do them.
19
Jehovahin the heavens hath he established his throne,
and his kingdom over all hath dominion.
20
Bless Jehovah ye[386] his messengers,
[386] Some cod. (w. Sep. and Vul.): all yeGn.
heroes of vigour doers of his word,
hearkening to the voice of his word:
21
Bless Jehovah all ye his hosts,
his attendants doers of his pleasure:
22
Bless Jehovah all ye his works,
in all places of his dominion:
Bless Jehovah O my soul.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 103
I bless the holy name of God with all my heart.
2 Yes, I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things He does for me.
3 He forgives all my sins! He heals me!
4 He ransoms me from hell! He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies!
5 He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagles!
6 He gives justice to all who are treated unfairly.
7 He revealed His will and nature to Moses and the people of Israel.
8 He is merciful and tender toward those who dont deserve it; He is slow to get angry and full of kindness and love!
9 He never bears a grudge, nor remains angry forever.
10 He has not punished us as we deserve for all our sins,
11 For His mercy towards those Who fear and honor Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west.
13 He is like a father to us, tender and sympathetic to those who reverence Him.
14 For He knows we are but dust,
15 And that our days are few and brief, like grass, like flowers,
16 Blown by the wind and gone forever.
17, 18 But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, to those who reverence Him; His salvation is to childrens children of those who are faithful to His covenant and remember to obey Him!
19 The Lord has made the heavens His throne; from there He rules over everything there is.
20 Bless the Lord, you mighty angels of His who carry out His orders, listening for each of His commands.
21 Yes, bless the Lord, you armies of His angels who serve Him constantly.
22 Let everything everywhere bless the Lord. And how I bless Him too!
EXPOSITION
The superscription of this psalm is By David, and the few grammatical peculiarities found in the psalm itself are probably insufficient to discredit this ancient literary tradition; since, according to Chwolson, quoted by Thirtle (O.T.P. 29), those peculiarities may be merely genuine ancient Hebrew grammatical forms accidentally retained. By whomsoever written, this sacred song breathes a deeply devotional and tenderly trustful spirit: whoever has sins to mourn or sorrows to carry may find therein solace or instruction.
I. BLESS JEHOVAH, FOR HIS PERSONAL DEALINGS.
Psa. 103:1. Bless, as on bended knee, Jehovah (Yahweh) the Becoming One, who, out of his own Divine resources, can supply all creature-need: O my soul, my true inner self, realising thy complete personality in and through all the parts and powers wherewith thou art endowed. And all within me, especially my heart or mind, and my reins or impulses; (bless) his holy name, as the summarised expression of his revealed person and character.
Psa. 103:2. Bless Jehovah, O my soul; for thus again I address thee, that is myself; I being subject and object, inspector and inspected, teacher and taught in one; about to project myself from myself, to look at and examine myself, to encourage and admonish myself; and, therefore, by reason of the mysterious complexity of my being, responsible for my state and conduct before God. Thou, O my soul, thus gifted, use the ready instrument of self-discipline, thy memory: Forget not any of his dealings: his benefits, if thou wilt,but have not all his dealings been benefits, though sometimes in disguise? forget not any of his dealings, for whereas it would be difficult to forget them all, be it thy care, as far as may be, that thou forget none, since the forgotten mercy or chastisement may be that which thou dost now most need to recall. (Cp. Intro., Chap. III., Soul.)
Psa. 103:3-5. Whothat is Jehovah (five times repeated!). By the help of these pronouns, catechise thyself, O my soul! How many of these appeal to thee? Knowest thou nothing of the pardon of thine iniquitiesthus searchingly put first, as most concerning thee? Even of the healing of thy diseases art thou unmindful? Has thy life never been redeemed from the pit of Hades? Have no garlands of Divine kindness and compassions ever decked thy brow? On what numberless occasions have not thy lawful desires been satisfieddesires for food, sleep, rest and countless other mercies; and canst thou forget Who it is that, through all channels, has been the bountiful satisfier of thy craving? Dost thou arise each morning a new man, still in thy youth right down to old age, and canst thou forget whose recreative energy it is that thus worketh within thee?
II. FOR HIS REVEALED CHARACTER.
Psa. 103:6-10. Nor is this all, O my soul. He who has become all this to thee, has revealed and made public his character; by acts of righteousness fulfilling his promises, by acts of vindication for all who are oppressed, chiefly by bringing Israel out of Egypt, approving himself of old to the confidence of his people, making known his ways unto Moses, and his doings to the sons of Israel; especially proclaiming himself to the former as Compassionate and Gracious, Slow to Anger and Abundant in Kindness; thereby giving occasion to The Refrain of the Bible (see Emphasised Bible on Exo. 34:6-7)of which hast thou not heard, O my soul?a Refrain running through the Holy Scriptures, and shewing how holy men remembered and pleaded it in times of national trouble? In harmony with which Refrain, thou mayest confidently reckon, O my soul, that although Jehovah may long complain, yet will he Not perpetually contend; although he leave not altogether unpunished, but visiteth the iniquity of fathers on sons and upon sons sons unto a third and unto a fourth generation, yet Not age-abidingly, Not age-without end, will he retain the sinner in being, and his anger against the sinner; seeing that he himself has declared that before his perpetual wrath no spirit could abide (Isa. 57:16). Therefore, be thou sure, O my soul, that even in his most awful visitations he never ceases to deserve thy praise; while, as to thyself and thy brethren, thou canst still say, Not according to our sins hath he done to us, Nor according to our iniquities hath he dealt with us. For his revealed character, then,Bless Jehovah, O my soul.
III. FOR HIS KINDNESS, FORGIVENESS, AND CONSIDERATENESS
Psa. 103:11. Lift up thine eyes on high, O my soul, and see how lofty are those overarching heavens: in like manner, lofty beyond all thought and hope is Jehovahs kindness over these who revere him.
Psa. 103:12. Canst thou measure from east to west, when each recedes as thou approachest? So neither canst thou mete the distance to which he removes from thee the transgressions which he forgives. The wages of sin is death; but in his favour is life; and these can never meet and mingle.
Psa. 103:13. Thou knowest the compassion of a father on his sons, how like it is to the compassion (from r-ch-m = womb) of a mother for her babe. Thou, then, only revere him and such tender Divine compassion shall rest on thee.
Psa. 103:14. Do thy source in dust, and thy continued kinship therewith, ever enfeeble and hamper thee, in the service thou wouldst fain render him; doth thy temper fail because thy nerves are unstrung; hast thou to cease from work, even for him, because thou art weary, hungry, cold? Be of good cheer: he knows it all, he made thee thus. He puts himself in mind that, even where the spirit is willing, the flesh may be weak.
IV. FOR THE CONTINUITY OF HIS DEALINGS IN CONTRAST WITH MANS FRAILTY.
Psa. 103:15-16. Art thou discouraged, O my soul, because of the frailty of thy being and the brevity of thy days, so like the withering grass and the fading blossom? Shrinkest thou from the nipping wind that shall cut thee off, and from the thought that the vacancy thou leavest will soon be filled and thou shalt be missed no more? Yet hear thou again.
Psa. 103:17-18. Not so is the kindness of Jehovah, even with regard to thee. It has perpetuating ways of its own. It descendeth from generation to generation. Thy progenitors are gone? Yea, but leaving behind for thee a legacy of blessing, in so far as they revered Jehovah in their day. Thou, therefore, in like manner, mayest leave a blessing behind thee: only teach thou thy children how to inherit it. And of this be sure: that in the end righteousness and faithfulness and obedience shall prove stronger than sin. Therefore still Bless Jehovah.
V. FOR THE PERMANENCE AND UNIVERSALITY OF HIS KINGDOM
Psa. 103:19. The object of thine adoration is supreme, for it is Jehovah himself whom thou wouldst bless. Beyond him is there none; outside his dominion is there none: in the heavens, high above this earth, hath he established his throne; just to the degree, therefore, to which he comes to reign on earth, he must needs bring heaven with him. And his kingdom over all hath dominion; therefore are there no beings unaccountable to him, therefore is there no creature-freedom uncircumscribed by him, therefore can there never be any events not subservient to his rule. Moral evil can only enter and stay in his dominions as long as he permits. This, O my soul, is thy safety and stay. My soul, thou art the richer, that there are heavens, within the compass of which are gathered subjects of thy King; for, although the Creator might be above all locality, yet not so the creature; and therefore it is a joy to thee to think of inhabited heavens, especially if and so far as they are peopled by loyal fellow-subjects of thine. Thine emotions must needs go forth to them. They may not hear thine appeal to them, save through their Sovereign and thine; yet wouldst thou fain emulate or even provoke their devotions, and feel the ecstasy of fellowship as they bless Jehovah.
Psa. 103:20. Bless Jehovah, ye his messengers whose privilege it is, when ye have entered his presence and listened to his commanding word, to depart on your several errands of state, thus making good your official name, in which alone ye appear to delight: with swiftness ye fly, with heroic vigour ye execute, with loyal promptness ye return to hearken again to your Sovereign Lord.
Psa. 103:21. Bless Jehovah, all ye his waiting hosts, his attendants, abiding more continually in his presence, doers of his pleasure, howsoever made known, by look, by hint, by perceived need and fitness, by inward impulsehis pleasure, not your own.
Psa. 103:22. Bless Jehovah, all ye his works, in all places of his dominion: whether with reason, or with instinct; or with neither, leaving it to more favoured ones to perceive your use and beauty and render praise for the same, becoming interpreters of your parts and powers, and employing you to rise the higher towards the Divine Throne. And, both first and last, chiefly thou, finding thyself in such large and glorious fellowship as thou humbly tenderest thine adorations,Bless Jehovah, O my soul.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
What is meant by the expression: Bless Jehovah?
2.
How is the word soul used?
3.
What a beautiful penetrating analysis of man is given in the comment on Psa. 103:2. Read it again.
4.
What is the ready instrument of self-discipline?
5.
There are five areas of Gods personal dealings with us. Please list them (as in Psa. 103:1-5) and make personal application.
6.
In what sense is our strength renewed like an eagle?
7.
In what two or three acts has Jehovah revealed His character?
8.
There are four personal characteristics of Jehovah. Name them and discuss their application to Israel and to you.
9.
In what way does our Lord deal with us like sons?
10.
Is our frailty ever an excuse for sin?
11.
The brevity of life is a great source of discouragement. How is it overcome?
12.
The heavens are peopled or populated. Of what comfort is this to us?
13.
Who are the messengers of our God? What is their ministry? How does it relate to us?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
1. Bless the Lord, O my soul To “bless the Lord” is to praise him by declaring his attributes and works, and offering thanksgiving. To “bless” an individual man is to invoke the favour of God upon him. See Num 6:22-27. “Soul,” here, cannot be taken as the intermediate, or psychical nature, between the mind and body, according to the Greek trichotomy, but the ego, the self, and is parallel to the all that is within me, or inward parts, in the next line; or, as we would say, my inmost soul the depth of my being. It is to be a soul-work, not formal or lip service. David rouses himself to the sum total of all his higher powers in ascribing praise to God. The word “bless” occurs six times in the psalm.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 103
Psa 103:1 (A Psalm of David.) Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Psa 103:1
Mat 6:9, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”
Psa 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Psa 103:2
Php 4:6, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”
Psa 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psa 103:4 Psa 103:4
Psa 103:5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Psa 103:5
Psa 103:5 Scripture Reference – We see another reference to the renewal of strength and the flight of an eagle in Isa 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Psa 103:6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Psa 103:7 Psa 103:8 Psa 103:9 Psa 103:9
Eph 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”
Psa 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psa 103:11 Psa 103:12 Psa 103:12
Psa 103:12 Scripture References – Note similar verses:
Isa 43:25, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
Isa 44:22, “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.”
Psa 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
Psa 103:15
Jas 1:10-11, “But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
Psa 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psa 103:20
[102] Benny Hinn, “Sermon,” at Fire Conference, 5-6 June 2009, Miracle Center Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda.
Psa 103:21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
Psa 103:22
Hymn to the Mercy of God.
v. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, v. 2. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, v. 3. who forgiveth all thine iniquities, v. 4. who redeemeth thy life from destruction, v. 5. who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, v. 6. The Lord executeth, v. 7. He made known His ways unto Moses, v. 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, v. 9. He will not always chide, v. 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, v. 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth, v. 12. As far as the east is from the west, v. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children, v. 14. For He knoweth our frame, v. 15. As for man, his days are as grass, v. 16. For the wind passeth over it, v. 17. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, v. 18. to such as keep His covenant, v. 19. The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, v. 20. Bless the Lord, ye His angels, v. 21. Bless ye the Lord, all ye His hosts, v. 22. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion, EXPOSITION
A PSALM of joy and thanksgiving for God’s manifold mercies, especially for his loving kindness in forgiving sin and transgression (Psa 103:3, Psa 103:8-12, Psa 103:17) passing into adoration of him upon his heavenly throne (Psa 103:19), and a call on all creation to praise him (Psa 103:20-22). The “title” assigns the psalm to David, and this view of its authorship is taken by Hengstenberg and Professor Alexander. But other critics see in “certain Aramaic terminations” indications of a later date. Whoever the author, we must regard the composition as less “the outbreathing of gratitude from one individual spirit” than “intended to be used as a national thanksgiving” (Kay).
The psalm divides itself into four portions:
the first (Psa 103:1-5) an outburst of praise for blessings granted by God to each man severally;
the second (Psa 103:6-14) an enumeration of his loving kindnesses towards his Church as a whole;
the third (Psa 103:15-18) a representation of man’s weakness and dependence on God; and
the fourth (Psa 103:19-22) a glance at God’s unchanging glory, and a call upon all his creation to bless and worship him.
Psa 103:1
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Repeated in Psa 103:2; also at the end of the psalm; and again in Psa 104:1, Psa 104:35. To “bless” is more than to praise; it is to praise with affection and gratitude. The psalmist calls upon his own soul, and so on each individual soul, to begin the song of praise, which is to terminate in a general chorus of blessing from all creation (Psa 104:20-22). And all that is within me. “All my whole natureintellect, emotion, feeling, sentimentbrain, heart, lungs, tongue,” etc. Bless his holy Name; i.e. his manifested Personality, which is almost the same thing as himself.
Psa 103:2
Bless the Lord, O my soul. Repetition, in Holy Scripture, is almost always for the sake of emphasis. It is not “vain repetition.” Our Lord often uses it: “Verily, verily, I say unto you;” “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? . Feed my sheep Feed my sheep.” And forget not all his benefits (comp. Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11, Deu 8:14, etc.). Man is so apt to “forget,” that he requires continual exhortation not to do so.
Psa 103:3
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. This is the first and greatest of “benefits,” and is therefore placed first, as that for which we ought, above all else, to bless God. God’s forgiveness of sin is a frequent topic with the psalmists (see Psa 25:11, Psa 25:18; Psa 32:1; Psa 51:9; Psa 85:2; Psa 86:5, etc.). Who healeth all thy diseases. This is best understood literallynot as mere “parallelism.” Among the greatest blessings which we receive of God is recovery from sickness.
Psa 103:4
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. When sickness seems about to be mortal, or when danger threatens from foes, God often steps in and “redeems” meni.e, saves them, rescues them (see Psa 56:13; Psa 116:8; Isa 38:16, Isa 38:20). Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies (comp. Psa 8:5; Psa 18:50; Psa 23:6, etc.).
Psa 103:5
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things. So Dean Johnson and our Revisers. But the rendering of by “mouth” is very doubtful. The original meaning of the word seems to have been “gay ornament,” whence it passed to “gaiety,” “desire of enjoyment,” “desire” generally ( , LXX.). Dr. Kay translates, “thy gay heart;” Professor Cheyne, “thy desire.” God satisfies the reasonable desires of his servants, giving them “all things richly to enjoy” (1Ti 6:17), and “satisfying the desire of every living thing” (Psa 145:16). So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s; rather, like an eagle (comp. Isa 40:31). The meaning is, not “thy youth is renewed as an eagle’s youth is,” for an eagle’s youth is not renewed; but “thy youth is renewed, and is become in its strength like an eagle.”
Psa 103:6
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment; literally, righteousnesses and judgments; i.e. “acts of righteousness and acts of judgment.” For all that are oppressed. The care of God for the “oppressed” is a marked feature of Holy Scripture (see Exo 2:23-25; Exo 3:9; Jdg 2:18; Jdg 6:9; Job 35:9-14; Psa 9:9; Psa 10:18; Psa 79:1-13 :21; Psa 146:7; Isa 1:17, etc.).
Psa 103:7
He made known his ways unto Moses. God’s ways are “past finding out” by man (Rom 11:33); they must be “made known” to him. God made them known to Moses by the revelations which he gave him, especially those of Sinai. His acts unto the children of Israel. The rest of the Israelites were taught mainly by God’s “acts”not that his words were concealed from them, but because
“Segnius irritant animum demissa per aures,
Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus.”
Psa 103:8
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. This was a part of the revelation made to Moses (Exo 34:6), whose words the psalmist closely echoes, both here and in Psa 86:15 (comp. also Psa 111:4; Psa 112:4; Psa 145:8).
Psa 103:9
He will not always chide; or, contend (see Isa 57:16; and comp. Jer 3:5, Jer 3:12). God will relent from his anger and forgive men, after a while. He will not be “extreme to mark what is done amiss.” Neither will he keep his anger forever. He is not implacable. He will accept repentance and amendment (Eze 18:27) He will accept atonement (1Jn 2:2).
Psa 103:10
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us (rather, requited us) according to our iniquities. God never punishes men so much as they deserve to be punished; “in his wrath he” always “thinketh upon mercy.”
Psa 103:11
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him (comp. Psa 36:5, “Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds”). The metaphor is bold, yet inadequate; for God’s mercy is infinite.
Psa 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. God’s mercy is the cause, the removal of sin the result. The two are commensurate, and are “described by the largest measures which the earth can afford.”
Psa 103:13
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him (comp. Deu 32:6; Job 10:8; Isa 29:16; Isa 63:16; Isa 64:8, etc.). (For the nature of the “fear” spoken of, both here and in Psa 103:11, see the description in Psa 103:17, Psa 103:18.) It must be a fear that produces obedience, or, in New Testament phrase, that is a “godly fear” (Heb 12:28).
Psa 103:14
For he knoweth our frame; or, our formation (Kay)the manner in which we were formed (see Gen 2:7). He remembereth that we are dust (comp. Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19; Gen 19:27; Job 34:15, etc.).
Psa 103:15
As for man, his days are as grass. Here is a new departure. From the loving kindness and mercy of God the psalmist passes to the weakness and helplessness of man. Man is like grass (Psa 37:2; Psa 90:5, Psa 90:6; Psa 102:11; Isa 40:6-8, etc.). His days fleet and fade. He never “continueth in one stay.” As a flower of the field (comp. Job 14:2; Isa 28:1; Isa 40:6; Jas 1:10; 1Pe 1:24, etc.). He flourisheth; i.e. he cometh up in full vigour, glorious to look upon, rejoicing in his youth and strength, but within a little time he fadeth, falleth away, or is “cut down, dried up, and withered.” There is no strength or stability in him.
Psa 103:16
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; literally, it is not. The burning sirocco, the wind of the desert, variously named in various places, blows upon the flower, and almost immediately scorches it up. So man, when he flourishes most, is for the most part brought low by the wind of suffering, trouble, sickness, calamity, and sinks out of sight. And the place thereof shall know it no more; rather, knows it no more. Seeing it not, forgets it, as if it had never been. So with the greatest menthey pass away and are forgotten (comp. Job 7:10).
Psa 103:17
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him (comp. Psa 103:11, Psa 103:13). Through this “everlasting mercy” of God, man, though so feeble and fragile, does not wholly pass away, but continues to be the recipient of God’s bounty. And his righteousness unto children’s children. God’s “righteousness” is his everlasting justice, by which he gives to men according to their deserts.
Psa 103:18
To such as keep his covenant; i.e. “to the faithful”to those who, notwithstanding many lapses and many shortcomings, are yet sincere in heart, and seek to do his will. Such persons remember his commandments to do them.
Psa 103:19
The Lord hath prepared (or, established) his throne in the heavens. In conclusion, the incomparable majesty of God is set before us, in contrast with the feebleness of man, and he is put forward as the one and only fit Object of worship, alike to the spiritual (Psa 103:20, Psa 103:21) and the material creation (Psa 103:22), as well as to the psalmist himself (Psa 103:22). Seated on his everlasting throne, he challenges the adoration of the whole universe. And his kingdom ruleth over all (comp. Psa 47:2; Dan 4:34, Dan 4:35).
Psa 103:20
Bless the Lord, ye his angels (comp. Psa 148:2). That excel in strength. The angels that “excel in strength”literally, are mighty in strengthmay best be understood as those called in the New Testament “archangels” (1Th 4:16; Jud 1Th 1:9), the highest of the glorious beings that stand around the throne of God (Rev 8:2, Rev 8:6; Rev 10:1) and execute his behests. These are they that, in an especial sense, do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Psa 103:21
Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts. Here the inferior angels seem to be meantthat “multitude of the host of heaven” which appeared to the shepherds on Christ’s natal day (Luk 2:13), and which is elsewhere often referred to in Holy Scripture. Ye ministers of his (comp. Psa 104:4) that do his pleasure. The inferior, no less than the superior, ranks of angels continually carry out the will of God, being “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb 1:14).
Psa 103:22
Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion (comp. Psa 19:1-4; Psa 145:10; Psa 148:7-13). The “works of God”i.e. his material universecannot, of course, he said to “bless” God in the same sense that men and angels do; but, in a language of their own, they set forth his glory, and to the poetic mind seem truly to sing his praise. The “Song of the Three Children” is a natural outburst from devout hearts. Bless the Lord, O my soul (comp. Psa 103:1, and the comment ad loc.).
HOMILETICS
Psa 103:1-5
God’s goodness to ourselves.
The psalmist begins by addressing himself; he has before him his own personal experience during a long (or lengthening) life; and he finds ample reason for full, heartfelt gratitude. Of the “benefits” he has received, he gives
I. A RECITAL OF THEM. They include:
1. The Divine mercy when he has sinned (Psa 103:3). These sins have been
(1) very many;
(2) of various kinds, including not only smaller and greater wrong doings, but the long catalogue of omissionsof submission and service unrendered;
(3) they may have been aggravated and of a deep dye;
(4) they may have been committed in all the many relationships and through all the successive stages of human life.
2. Divine restoration. (Psa 103:3, latter part, and 4.) And this is inclusive of
(1) restoration from daily weariness and exhaustion;
(2) recovery from the less serious ailments and evils to which every one is subject; probably
(3) bringing back from the grave when dangerous illness has brought low.
3. All the loving kindnesses which make life beautiful and glad (Psa 103:4). The excellency of human love, the comforts of home life, the sacred joy of worship.
4. The continuance of Divine protection and replenishment to later life (Psa 103:5). God had satisfied his prime (marginal reading, Revised Version) with good thingshad so visited and renewed him in his manhood, that now, instead of a growing feebleness, he felt the vigour and hopefulness of youth; perhaps he was far enough on the way to be said to be “still bringing forth fruit in old age.” He calls on himself to cherish
II. A REMEMBRANCE OF THEM. “Forget not,” etc. (Psa 103:2). Antecedently that seems impossible; certainly in the case of any one claiming to be devout. Yet it is quite possible for us to be
(1) so sensible of our own agency in securing our comforts as to lose sight of the Divine action, and so to overlook them; or to be
(2) so occupied with present cares and pleasures, or with future claims, that we may be regardless of them (see Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11-18). What the wise and good man will desire for himself is that he will constantly carry with him a deep sense of God’s abounding goodness to him through all his course. This will lead to
III. FULL–VOICED AND FULL–HEARTED UTTERANCE OF PRAISE. (Psa 103:1, Psa 103:2.) God’s praise is not to be rendered by an occasional and formal “returning of thanks” either at the table or in the church. It is to be a daily offering, and one that comes from the heart as well as from the lips. “All that is within us,” the whole range of our faculties, is to combine to speak and to sing his praise. Gratitude to God for his abiding and abounding goodness to us, both as citizens of this world and as his children, should be a very leading and powerful factor in our soul, making our character beautiful with spiritual worth, and our life resonant with holy song.
Psa 103:6-18
The confidence of God’s children.
These strong, sustaining words call us to consider
I. TO WHOM THE DIVINE ASSURANCES ARE GIVEN. It is clear that they are given to the servants of God. The thought runs through the whole passage (see Psa 103:11, Psa 103:13, Psa 103:18). Where this is not explicitly stated, it is to be understood (see particularly Psa 103:12). Those may not claim the fulfilment of promises to whom they were not made. First enter the service of Christ, and then look up for all the blessings assured to those who believe in him.
II. THESE DIVINE ASSURANCES THEMSELVES.
1. The overthrow of evil, and the consequent deliverance of the good (Psa 103:6). God “executes righteousness and judgment” in two wayssometimes by a Divine intervention, when he overturns the designs of the wicked, and at the same time redeems his people (e.g. the Jews from Pharaoh and from Haman and from Sanballat); more often by the constant outworking of those righteous laws which are always acting on behalf of rectitude against iniquity (see Psa 34:15, Psa 34:16).
2. Divine patience. (Psa 103:2.) God is “slow to anger.” It was said of a noble modern ruler that, under great provocation, he was “slow to smite, and swift to spare.” Of how many might the opposite be said? Our God is “slow to anger.” His displeasure is awakened, his condemnation uttered, only when it would be unrighteousness to remain unmoved and silent.
3. Divine mercy. (Psa 103:10-12.) Instead of inflicting pain, poverty, misery, deaththe wages of sinGod has
(1) spared to us our life and our health;
(2) multiplied to us our comforts and our joys;
(3) offered to us, in Jesus Christ, a full restoration to his Divine favour;
(4) planted within our hearts the seeds of piety and holiness;
(5) made us heirs of eternal life. The mercy of God, in Christ Jesus, has such immeasurable heights and breadths (Psa 103:11, Psa 103:12).
4. Divine pity. (Psa 103:13.) Nothing can exceed the pity of the parent for his or her child when in pain or trouble. Then the very tenderest and strongest as well as the purest emotions of the human heart are stirred. “As one whom his mother comforteth”with such perfect sympathy, such exquisite tendernessdoes God comfort us (Isa 66:13). God’s pity for his children is felt
(1) in their various distresses, and may be counted upon in all time of need (see Heb 4:15, Heb 4:16);
(2) in their spiritual endeavours and struggles, when the work is hard, and the soul is weak, and the issue is uncertain. And here we have, as we may well rejoice to have, the assurance of:
5. Divine considerateness. (Psa 103:14.) Christian service is imperfect; our character is blemished, and our work is faulty; but it is sincere; it is rooted in faith; it is animated by love; it is purified by prayer. And he who accepted the service of his apostles in the garden, “knowing their frame” and the weakness of the flesh (Mat 26:41); he who has owned and blessed the spiritual endeavour and the earnest labours of his people in every age and in every Church since then;will accept our service and crown our labours now, though in the one and in the other we fall far short even of our own ideal. Well, indeed, would it be if we made as generous allowance for one another as our Master makes for us all.
6. Divine continuance. (Psa 103:15-17.) With the brevity of all human things we contrast the continuance of the Divine. We ourselves pass away and are forgotten, but God’s mercy and his righteousness remain forever. We can always count on them. Men may be very true and very kind, but they pass to where they cannot reach and help us. Let us commit ourselves to the goodness and the faithfulness of God, for on that we may build with absolute security. This is the true confidence of the children of God. But we are reminded in one verse (7) of
III. THE ONLY HOPE OF THE DISLOYAL. God revealed himself, “his ways, and his acts,” to Moses, but grace and truth have come by Jesus Christ (Joh 1:17). In the gospel God has revealed himself as the Divine Father, who waits to receive his wayward but penitent children. Those that are obdurate and impenitent may not plead his promises, may not appropriate to themselves the sustaining assurance which apply to other persons. But they maythey mustreturn in humility and in faith to the Father whom they have forsaken; and, once at home with him, they may rest in his loving favour and rejoice in his upholding Word.
Psa 103:19-22
The range of God’s rule and claim.
We have here –
I. THE WIDE RANGE OF GOD‘S RULE. (Psa 103:19.) If his throne were “prepared” anywhere on earth, while within sight of a few, it would be out of sight of and, in that sense, far away from many cities and provinces; but being “prepared in the heavens,” it is (in thought and feeling) in view of all, and is thus near to all, and “his kingdom ruleth over all.” “The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men; from the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth” (Psa 33:13, Psa 33:14). To our imagination, and therefore practically to ourselves, the heavens are much nearer to us, much more “central,” than any Jerusalem could be. Every kingdom, every city, every human home, is in the regard, under the control, subject to the rightful sway, of the Divine Sovereign.
II. THE FULNESS OF THE DIVINE CLAIM. God’s claim:
1. Ascends to the highest intelligences; the “angels that excel in strength” owe to him their homage; they do, indeed, hearken and obey.
2. Descends to inanimate nature. All his works praise him; unconsciously they “declare his glory.”
“There’s not a plant nor flower below
But makes his glory known.”
3. Includes all that come between. Whatever or whoever are intended by the “hosts” and “ministers” of Psa 103:21, it is certain that the psalmist included the children of men. It may, indeed, be said that it is impossible to conceive of any of God’s creatures or children who owe him so much as we do. For our creation, our endowment, our temporal mercies, our redemption at an infinite cost, and for all the Divine love, patience, considerateness (see above), we have been receiving from him, we owe him “perpetual songs of praise.”
III. THE THOROUGHNESS OF OUR SERVICE.
1. Our praise is to be the devout expression of our deep feeling; much more than a reverent attitude or an appropriate deliverance: “all that is within us” (Psa 103:1) is to come forth in grateful utterance; our song is to express our soul; it is to be the natural, unbidden voice of our homage, our attention, our love, our submission, our consecration.
2. We may he concerned about the piety of our neighbour; but the first thing to do is to address ourselves: “Bless the Lord, O my soul!”
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 103:1-5
A pattern of praise.
This psalm is all praise; there is no supplication in it. It has helped myriads to praise God, and the secret of such help is that the psalmist was himself filled with the spirit of praise, and it is the blessed contagion of that spirit that helps us today as in the days of old. And it is a pattern of all true praise. It is so in these ways.
I. IN ITS OBJECT.
1. It is praise of the Lord. All is addressed to him, and is for him.
2. And in his holiness. “Bless his holy Name.” What a happy fact this reveals as to the psalmist and all who sincerely adopt his words! We can bless God for his beneficence and mercy and goodness, but only a holy soul can bless him for his holiness. Such soul delights not merely in the kind acts of God, but in the pure and perfect character of God.
II. ITS METHODS. It shows us how we should praise the Lord.
1. Personally. “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” It is not a work to be handed over to any choir or any people whatsoever. It is to be our own personal work.
2. Spiritual. It is to be the soul’s work. Poetic speech, eloquent phrase, beautiful music, skilled song,all count for nothing if the soul be not in the work.
3. Whole hearted. “All that is within me.” Intellect, memory, imagination, affection, will, all the energies of our spiritual nature, should be engaged.
4. With set purpose. See how he calls on himself, stirs himself up to this holy work, repeats his exhortation and protests against that one chief causeforgetfulnessof our failure to render praise. “Forget not any of his benefits.” This is how we should praise the Lord.
III. ITS REASON. He tells wherefore we should bless the Lord.
1. For forgiveness. This our first necessity; all else avails not without that.
2. For the healing of the soul. It would be but a poor salvation if soul healing did not follow forgiveness, for without the latter we should soon be back to our sins again (2Pe 2:22). Therefore we need this healing of the soul. And it is promised (see Eze 36:25).
3. For penalty in this life averted. He “redeemeth thy life from destruction.” God does not redeem our life from all the consequences of our sin (Psa 99:8), but from the worst he does. The forgiven man may have to suffer much in consequence of his past sins, but it is as nothing compared with what he would have had to suffer had he not been forgiven. The comfort of God’s Spirit, power to witness for Christ, victory over sin, hope bright hope of life eternal,all these are his; his life is redeemed from destruction.
4. For, next, God crowneth with loving kindness. See all this illustrated in the story of the prodigal sonforgiven, healed, redeemed, crowned, the ring, the robe, the shoes, the feast, were for him; and what answers to them yet is the crowning told of here.
5. For satisfaction with good. This also awaits us: would we but trust God more, we should know it for ourselves. They who walk with God, abide in Christ, know what it is. Let us not rest until we know it for ourselves.
6. For youth of soul renewed. (See homily on this subject.) The outward man may, will, decay, but the inward man shall be renewed day by day.
IV. ITS RESULTS. What a history it would be if we could only trace out what this psalm has done for God’s saints in all ages! What spiritual victories it has won! what strength it has imparted! what holy joy! Christian, sing this psalm more heartily, so that many poor lost ones, hearing its sweet evangel, may turn and with you bless the Lord.S.C.
Psa 103:5
Renewed youth.
How can that be? We must grow old. Every day brings us nearer to old age, and there is no escaping it except by premature departure. We pass on by stages which succeed each other in regular and well marked order from infancy to the last scene of all, the second childhood, which finds us “sans teeth, eyes, tasteeverything.” With all of us age creeps on apace, but almost unnoticed. Now, our ideal of age shifts. Children think all grown up people old, and some very old. But when men come to the verge of three score years and ten, they will often flatter themselves that even yet they are not old. But there are certain unmistakable signs which no observant man can fail to notice, and which remind him that the day of life is on the wane. Physical fatigue; less of elasticity and power; he gives in sooner than he did when strain is put on his strength. The way the young treat us. In Thackeray’s beautiful story, ‘The Newcomes,’ he pictures the colonel sitting in his cheerless room, and hearing his boy and his friends singing and making merry overhead. He longed to join them and share in it; but the party would be hushed if he went in, and he would come away sad at heart to think that his presence should be the signal for silence among them, and that his son could not be merry in his company. “We go into the company of young men like Chris Newcome and his friends; they cease their laughter and subdue their talk to the gravity which is supposed to be fit for the ears of the seniors. Then we know, too plainly to be mistaken, what has befallen us; we are growing older; the stamp of middle age is upon us.” But if the juniors do not bring home the fact to us, the conduct of the seniors does. Old men have confidence in our judgment, grow civil as they see we are approaching to their side, and have arrived at an age when it should be no longer true that “knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.” They think they can trust no man, and they consult us as they never would have done had not the dew of our youth long ago disappeared. Yes; we must grow old. And why should we regret it? It is an honour and reward which are given of God. “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, as a shock of corn,” etc. The Bible never speaks of “the dreary gift of years;” and if, in melancholy mood, Moses asserts that which, thank God, is so often untrue, that in the years of old age “their strength is but labour and sorrow,” the general tone of the Bible tells that days “long in the land” are God’s own reward to his people. But whether we be content or no at the inevitable advance of age, there is the fact, and hence the question comes againHow can a renewed youth be? “Can a man enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” Now
I. THE TEXT DECLARES THE FACT OF RENEWED YOUTH. And this in no mere poetic sense, but literally and truly. It says, “like the eagle,” which year by year renews its plumage, and so seems to renew its vigour and activity along with its new garment.
1. But the renewal of our youth is not physical. Though the bodily life be sustained and nourished by appropriate food and rest, yet, in spite of this, the physical energies succumb to the decay of nature. The outward man not only does, but must, perish. The reservoir gets lower, the constant drain is but inadequately repaired, and by and by our life has all run out. No elixir vitae can prevent this. It is inevitable.
2. But the renewal told of in the text is spiritual. As in Job 33:23-26, where not physical, but spiritual, rejuvenescence is the theme. “They go from strength to strength;” “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;” “Whoso liveth and believeth on me,” said our Lord,” shall never die.” Of Moses it is said that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. What an illustration have we in the life of St. Paul of this ever-renewed youth!
3. The characteristics of youth belong to such. Capacity for progress, growth, development. It is never too late for them. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be.” Hopefulness. The path of their life is lit up by the sunshine of the love of God, and it grows brighter and brighter. Enjoyment. The keen relish for all that is delightful is one of the blessed appanages of youth, and that which is like to it is part of the blessedness of that rejuvenescence of which we are speaking. Fulness of joy in his presence is theirs. Innocence, also. “The wicked one toucheth them not.” Strength and vigour. They are as athletes in the contests which they have to wage: in the spiritual conflicts they fight, “not uncertainly, as one that beateth the air,” but theirs is “the good fight,” not only for the object for which it is waged, but for its manner and issue also. Such is this renewed youth.
II. EXPLAINS ITS SECRET. “He satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” Christ is the Bread of their life, and they live by him. His are the “good things” by which they are sustained. This is the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which accounts for their renewed youth. They eat the flesh of Christ, and drink his blood; he is their living Bread. They follow his footsteps, they drink into his Spirit; the mind which was in Christ is formed in them, and they grow up into him in all things.
III. ENCOURAGES US TO MAKE IT OUR OWN. Is youth yet ours? Then by yielding our young hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ, let us receive from him that eternal life, that life of the Spirit, whose youth is ever renewed. But if youth has passed away for us, let us in like manner renew it, and gain again all those blessed characteristics, only in far higher degree and manner, which are God’s gift to them that are young.S.C.
Psa 103:9
He will not always chide.
This psalm is full of the recital of things to be thankful for, and of expectation that we be thankful. Amongst these things, this fact declared in our text is one. And
I. WE SHOULD BE THANKFUL THAT IT IS ONLY CHIDING, not something worse. God is speaking to his own children, not to the world of the ungodly. These latter he is angry with every day, and sternly punishes, and if they repent not he will destroy them. But though God chide his children, there is not the severity, nor the lack of alleviation, nor the endlessness and hopelessness, which characterize his dealings with hardened and ungodly men.
II. THAT THERE IS SUCH CHIDING. “For what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” (Heb 12:7). If God did not make sin full of smart and pain, we should be sure to go back to it again. But when the world sees that there is no partiality with God, that his own children have to suffer even as, and often far more than, others when they do wrong, this tends to beget a holy fear. Yes; blessed be God for our chiding!
III. THAT EVEN THIS WILL HAVE AN END. When we repent of our sin, when God’s purpose is fulfilled, when we enter heaven. “Therefore humble yourselves,” etc.S.C.
Psa 103:13-18
Wherefore another gospel when we have this?
It should seem as if no gospel could be more full, precious, clear, and heart uplifting than this. It is paralleled but not surpassed by St. John’s word, “God is love.” Why, then, was it needful for Christ to come in order to reveal to us another gospel? Have we not everything here, in this utterance of the Old Testament, and in those others in the same Old Testament, which are like unto it? What more, then, could be needed? We reply
I. THE MISSION OF CHRIST WAS NEEDED IN ORDER TO REVIVE AND QUICKEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH OF THE LOVE OF GOD. It had been, when our Lord came, so limited, petrified, and practically lost, that it was almost as if it had not been. Pharisaism and Sadduceeism had so overlaid or lessened it, that only a few elect souls knew of it or believed it. God’s Fatherhood was not much more in our Lord’s day than a dead letter.
II. TO MAKE IT REAL TO MEN. True, our text stood there in the psalm, but the life of the Lord here on earth could alone make it stand out as a real, living truth. Then there was held upplacarded, as St. Paul says (Gal 3:1)before the eyes of all men, what the pity and love of God could do and endure for the sake of sinful men. And so, as our Lord said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all,” etc.
III. TO ENSURE ITS BEING SPREAD ABROAD. The Jews, we well know, would never have allowed this. Their inveterate exclusiveness and scorn of all other nations would have kept it to themselves alone. It was necessary that Christ should come and command his disciples to “go into all the world, and preach,” etc.
IV. TO REVEAL ITS ENLARGED SCOPE AND AIM. Life and immortality were brought to light by the gospel. Death, till Christ came, kept its sting, and the grave its victory, but he took both away. Such were some of the reasons wherefore God became man, and lived and suffered and died in the Person of Christ. Doubtless there are others, but amongst them all that horrible one, so sadly dear to theologians of a bygone age, is not to be foundthat it was to turn the heart of God from anger to love, for God was and eternally is LoveS.C.
Psa 103:13
The pity of God.
I. THE FULL, CLEAR DECLARATION OF THIS IS FOUND ONLY IN THE BALE.
1. It is not in ancient mythology. The gods of the heathen were strong and much else, but not pitiful.
2. Nor in Nature. How heartless, how cruel, how utterly unsympathizing, she is! The dearly loved, the precious, the innocent, suffer, die in thousands, and Nature has not a solitary tear for them.
3. Nor in society. Law, the bond of society, cannot pity, it can only enforce its commands.
II. NEVERTHELESS, SUGGESTIONS OF IT ARE TO BE FOUND. The lower animals seem to have no affection for their offspring; but:
1. Such suggestions are traceable amongst the higher orders of animal life. See the affection of the mother bird or beast. See the affection of the dog for his master. And of the horse. A blackbird has been known to care for and feed a young robin that had fallen from its nest.
2. And amongst men. Not much amongst savages; but pity advances as we observe the higher races and the more civilized.
III. BUT FAR MORE IS HUMAN PITY SEEN IN THE HUMAN FAMILY AND HOME.
1. There we get the idea most of all realized. “Like as a father,” etc. God has made use of our happy familiarity with parental love and pity to teach us what he himself is.
2. And there we learn what pity is and will do. It will inflict pain. Every father and mother do, but not, if they be wise, in anger, in revenge, or in passion, or carelessly, but ever out of love, for the sake of the child.
IV. THUS WE LEARN THE PITY OF GOD.
1. It will inflict pain if for our good.
2. But such infliction does not argue that the sufferer is shut out from the love of God. Man’s punishments too often are utterly loveless. See how we treat our criminals, both in prison and when they come out. What a contrast to the Lord’s way I See how the father of the prodigal forgave, but the elder brother did not. See the parable of the two debtors.
3. It bids us trust it utterly and forever.S.C.
Psa 103:19
The kingdom of God.
The psalm does not go about to proveScripture never doesthe existence of God, nor the fact that he exercises dominion over us; it takes both for granted, and proceeds to speak of the nature and obligations of the Divine rule. That rule is here asserted. Note
I. ITS CHARACTERISTICS.
1. Its basis and foundation. These are immutably right. His is not the mere right of might, but a far higher thing, the might of right. Not alone, but .
2. Its extent. This is so vast, that not alone is our eyesight aided with all conceivable telescopic power far outstripped, but even our thought fails to grasp in its comprehension, or even in its imagination, the wide range either of the material or moral universe over which God reigns.
3. Its regulating law. That law is holy, just, and good, and clothed with power to enforce its sacred sanctions. Its moral perfection is seen supremely in the atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Its purpose and aim. These are the highest possible. The glory of God is to be secured, that glory on which the well being of the whole universe depends. Let God be banished from his throne, and straightway chaos comes again. And the highest well being of his creatures. The two are never antagonistic, but joined in inseparable union. Where one is, there is the other.
5. Its duration. Forever and ever. Such are the characteristics of this blessed and glorious kingdom, whose subjects consist only of regenerated soulssouls that can say, “Oh how I love thy Law! it is my meditation all the day.”
II. THE EFFECT WHICH OUR FAITH IN THIS DIVINE KINGDOM SHOULD HAVE UPON US.
1. Obedience. To know God’s will should be to obey. “Blessed are they that keep his commandments.”
2. Praise. What truer gospel can there be that such a rule is that under which we live?
3. Trust. We cannot always understand the ways of God; they are high above our thought; but we can ever trust, and that is ever good.
4. Confident hope. “He must reign till he hath put all enemies,” etc. And he will do this. S.C.
Psa 103:22
The peril of the spiritual guide.
Such is the title which a great preacher has given to a sermon on this text. The subject is suggested by its closing words. The psalmist had been summoning angels and all the works of the Lord to bless the Lord, and, as if he remembered that he might be
I. CALLING OTHERS TO PRAISE THE LORD, AND YET NEGLECTING IT HIMSELF, he adds,
“Bless the Lord, O my soul!”
1. And this is a real possibility and a terrible peril. Like as a guide to the loveliest scenes of nature may lead a traveller to different points of view, which will show the glorious landscape at its best, and may expatiate on the beauties that are to be seen, yet may himself be not in the slightest degree stirred or moved by what he calls on the traveller to admire. He has come to be so familiar with it all; he has said the same thing so many times, it is part of his professional talk; he has seen all these glorious things so often, that they have lost their power to affect him. At first it was otherwise; he had become a guide to these scenes because he so delighted in them. But that was a long time ago. He had thought that he could not spend his life more happily than in conducting others to these same beautiful places, and showing them their glories. But all that enthusiasm has long passed, and he is now a mere professional guide.
2. And so, the great preacher to whom I have referred points out, it may be with the spiritual guidethe minister of Christ, the teacher of others in holy things. He may have begun with enthusiasm for the blessed truths and the bright prospects to which he was to lead others; he had such joy in them himself, that to show to others these things seemed an employment to which he might, as in fact he did, give his whole life and soul. But alas! he has got so familiar with it all; the work has become such a routine, that all the old zest and glow and enthusiasm are gone, and he too has become a mere professional guide. God help him and all such! This is the peril.
II. THE SAFEGUARD is, by continual meditation, prayer, and obedience to the Lord, to maintain the freshness, the force, and the “first love.” And this safeguard is sure.S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 103:3
God the Healer of disease.
Though this psalm is one of the most familiar, both its authorship and its particular occasion are quite unknown. Early in the psalm this text comes. It is part of a review of God’s personal mercies to the psalmist, but it is doubtful whether the psalmist referred to times of bodily disease and bodily healing, or to the soul diseases which answer to “iniquities.” In view of the way in which Eastern poets loved to repeat their thought with slightly altered phraseology, it is quite possible that the text may read, “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and healeth all thy soul diseasesthose soul conditions of frailty and infirmity, out of which iniquities come.” But, however that may be, it is certainly true that God is the Healer of all men’s diseases. The work of the physician must always be traced back to the Divine Physician, who alone has proved to be the recuperative force in human vitality. God has healed us again and again through the agency of the doctor and the medicine.
I. WHAT IS SAID ABOUT MEN‘S SICKNESSES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT? Abraham and Isaac died of sheer old age. So indeed did Jacob, but there is a fuller reference to his ending. For all that appears in the record, neither the patriarchs nor their families suffered any sicknesses during their lives. Evidently, these experiences of sickness were not then seen in their relation to character, and so there was no need to leave any narratives concerning them. Sickness is reckoned with under the Mosaic system, but in a very peculiar way. It was treated as an outward sign and consequence of sin; both the sick person and those who tended him being treated as “unclean.” To limit this rule because, in its working, it occasioned very serious family and social disturbance, one particular form of diseasethat most typical form of disease, leprosywas taken as the representative of all forms, and the law of the “unclean” was strictly enforced in relation to it. Judaism never suggests the idea that character is cultured by the experience of sickness; and so even its priests and Levites offer no example of tending the sick poor. Sickness, in the old economy, served its purpose simply as the outward sign of God’s judgment on sin. When Job’s friends came to comfort him, they could think of no other view of sickness than this, though Job felt sure that there must be a higher meaning, if only he could reach it. In the historical books the references to sicknessother than great pestilencesare very brief. One king suffered from internal disease, and one had the gout, but there is only one instance in which any details of a sickness are given, and in that case the relation of it to character first clearly appears. Hezekiah, in the middle of his reign, but before any son and heir was born to him, was smitten down with a bad kind of boil or carbuncle, which put his life in peril. He turned to God in his distress, and gained from God recovery. Evidently he prayed the prayer of faith. As evidently the Prophet Isaiah prayed for him the prayer of faith. And yet it is significantly told us that means were used to ensure his recovery, “Now Isaiah had said, Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.” The Book of Job is not a discussion of the questionWhat ought a godly man to do who is smitten with sickness? Its subject is rather thisWhat moral end can explain the Divine permission of sickness? One king was seriously reproved because, when he was ill, he “sought unto the physicians, and not unto God.” But the wrong was not in his seeking the help of the physicians, but in his failing to seek God first, and to let him send him to the physicians: All we can say about this matter, in connection with the Old Testament, is that when moral considerations began to prevail over ceremonial ones, a truer and worthier view of sickness began to gain power. Then sickness was seen to be one of the great moral agencies by means of which God wrought his higher work in characters and in souls.
II. WHAT IS SAID ABOUT SICKNESS IN THE GOSPELS? Our Lord, as a moral and spiritual Teacher, our Lord as a Saviour, found in men’s sicknesses, infirmities, and. disabilities his best agencies for reaching their souls with saving influences. To him suffering was the issue and consequence of sin. And so it was to everybody in his day. Sickness illustrated sin. Suffering produced moods of mind in men which laid them open to his higher influence. So he worked very largely for and among sick people, always trying to get their sicknesses sanctified to them, even in the very act of healing or removing them. He revealed fully to the world the moral relations of sickness, the moral possibilities that lie in sickness. Our Lord’s dealing with it is unique, not so much because it was supernatural, as because it was moral. He dealt with it only as a means of securing soul healing. Since Christ’s time, sickness, disease, and disability have taken rank among God’s remedial agencies, God’s character culturing agencies, God’s sanctifying agencies.
III. WHAT IS SAID ABOUT SICKNESS IS THE EPISTLES? The apostles never claimed to exert any independent powers. They always healed “in the Name of Christ.” They conceived of themselves as holding that special ability in trust for particular ends in the propagation of the gospel. They did not heal everybody. They only healed when the healing could make a way for the gospel, draw attention to it, or prove its Divine origin. And the historical fact is that the power of healing passed away with the first generation of disciples. It is found, in later ages, only in separate and highly endowed individuals, to whom has been entrusted a genius for healing. The case of the Apostle Paul is a remarkable one. He had the gift of healing. He did heal the father of Publius. But he was not carried away by the gift he possessed. He held all his gifts under the most careful restraints. His friend and fellow labourer, Epaphroditus, was “sick, nigh unto death,” but St. Paul put forth no power to heal him. God had mercy on him, and restored him in the ordinary way. Trophimus was left at Miletum sick, but it did not enter the apostle’s mind that he, or the eiders, could have cured him if they had tried. St. Paul himself had some bodily infirmity which he calls a “thorn in the flesh,” but he simply prayed about it, as we pray about such things now. The reference made to this matter by the Apostle James has been gravely misunderstood. It must be read in the light of the chief point he deals with in his Epistle, viz. that faith which cannot get expression in action is not acceptable faith, it is mere sentiment. Anointing sick people with oil was no religious ceremony in the days of the apostle. Using oil in the toilet was simply the sign of health. Those who prayed in faith for the healing of the sick should show their faith by acting as if their prayer was answered. Get the sick man up, dress him, anoint him, in the full confidence that God answers prayer. So Jesus said to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth thine hand!” If he believed, he would do what Christ told him, and find power come in so doing. In every age God has healed diseases through his own appointed healing agencies; and those we must use in faith.R.T.
Psa 103:4
The Divine crown on man.
“Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.” What various answers could be given to the questionWhat is the true crown of a man’s life?” No doubt the term “crown” may be used in a variety of senses. The psalmist seems here to think of the crown as that which bedecks and beautifies; and he makes us think of the crown of flowers on the May queen, rather than of the jewelled crowns on wealthy kings. So the question comes to beWhat is the true adornment, or enrichment, the true decoration, of a human life? Then the answer comesIt is what God gives a man beyond his mere necessities, in the rich outpouring of Divine loving kindness and mercy. It may be put in this wayThe Divine provisions are crowned with Divine bestowments.
I. DIVINE PROVISIONS. We cannot be surprised that God, as Creator, should supply all the reasonable needs of his creatures; or that God, as Father, should supply all the wants of his children. There is a certain obligation resting on God that arises out of his relationships. There is a fairly good sense in which the creature and the child may be said to have claims on God, to which, if he be God, he must respond. “The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.” But the limit of the claim to necessities should be clearly shown. And real necessities are very few, and can be easily defined. Try to conceive the change, in life and relations, if God were now to draw back from us everything but our actual necessities. St. Paul could say, “I have all, and abound.“
II. DIVINE BESTOWMENTS. Illustrate by the luxuries and delicacies that the housewife provides beyond the necessaries of the table and the house. She enriches, or crowns, her provisions. So with our Father-God. He meets need, but goes beyond need to give us all things “richly to enjoy.” All the extra things, all the pleasant things, all the pretty things, of life, are bestowments of the Divine loving kindness and tender mercies. If we may think of God’s duty in what he provides, we may think of his personal love to us in what he bestows.
Then show that personal love can never rest satisfied with its objects being merely provided for; it never can rest until they are happyhappy up to the very limit of their power to be happy. What must God the Father’s idea of happiness for his earth children be? With that he would crown them.R.T.
Psa 103:6
The Lord of the oppressed.
The point set forth prominently is that God is actively engaged in securing the interests of the oppressed. That goes into the word used, “executeth.” We might think of justice and judgment as the pillars of God’s throne, and yet conceive of him as only announcing his just decisions; leaving to others the work of carrying them out. To put it in a formal way, the legislative rights of God may be recognized, but the executive rights of God may be denied. We may fully hold both truths of fact. God does pronounce his own judgments; God does execute his own sentences. The figure for God is especially effective in Eastern countries, where justice is so often perverted, and the oppressed have no chance if they happen to be poor. Illustrate by our Lord’s parable of the unjust judge and the importunate widow. All the oppressed and poor may be absolutely sure that Jehovah will considerately hear their cases, deal with perfect uprightness in relation to their trouble, and carry out his decisions, whatever they may involve.
I. THE LORD OF THE OPPRESSED HEEDS THE OPPRESSED. The poor often find it nearly impossible to get their cases brought before the magistrates, judges, or kings of earth. It is the righteousness of God that he is right towards every one; all may seek, and none ever seeks in vain. There is absolute freedom given to every man and woman under the sun to tell out the trouble to the Lord. And we may have absolute faith that no tale of human need was ever poured out before God, and disregarded by him. It is a beginning of hope, that the Lord surely heeds us.
II. THE LORD OF THE OPPRESSED ACTS FOR THE OPPRESSED. God’s decisions never merely lie on a statute book, like many acts of earthly courts and parliaments. If God decides a thing, it has to be carried out; nay, he himself presides over the carrying it out. We are to have confidence in the Divine energy and activity. “Commit thy way unto the Lord, and he will bring it to pass.” How, when, where, he will execute his judgments, we may not anticipate; it is enough for an oppressed soul to know that God is acting for him. “He will bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon day.”
III. THE LORD OF THE OPPRESSED ACTS UPON THE OPPRESSORS. It is not merely that the oppressed are delivered or defended; it is that those who have injured them feel the weight of Divine indignation. Judgment is in one sense for the oppressed, and in another sense for the oppressors.R.T.
Psa 103:9
Chiding, but not keeping on chiding.
“He will not always chide.” A prophet prays, “O Lord, correct me, but in measure.” The supreme danger of all who are in positions of authority over othersparents, teachers, mastersis that they may chastise beyond the requirements of the particular case; they may continue the chiding under the impulse of feeling, when judgment requires its strict limitation. They who chide when in a passion always over chide; they try to satisfy their feelingand it is unrestrained feelingrather than the actual demands of the case. Now, the psalmist has the utmost satisfaction in God, because he is quite sure that God never over chides. There never yet was one unnecessary stroke given by the Lord’s rod. That complaint no man ever yet fairly made.
I. GOD NEED NOT OVER CHIDE. Either by making the chiding over severe or by keeping it on too long. He need not:
1. Because he is never carried away by feeling. God is the infinitely self-restrained One; and so he is always himself, and perfectly competent to deal with every case.
2. Because he has the infinite power to estimate influences and results. This is often the explanation of man’s over chiding. He cannot follow influences, and so see quickly when his object is attained. And it may he added that God has power to stop chidings. Man has not. He may be compelled to keep on awhile a training work he has begun, because, even if he could stop it, he would do serious mischief by stopping it. The omniscience and omnipotence of God prevent him from ever needing to over chide.
II. GOD DOES NOT OVER CHIDE. For the assurance of this, appeal may be made to the experience of God’s people in all ages. Their marvel always has been, and always will be, that God should put such strict limitations on his chidinge, and accomplish such an “exceeding and eternal weight of glory” by such “light afflictions.” This complaint no child of God, who was in his right mind, ever made; certainly no child of God ever had a right to make.
That God will surely chide us is our ground of assurance. Our self-willedness will never be left alone, to ruin us. That God will never over chide is our abounding consolation.R.T.
Psa 103:10
The measure of the Divine dealings.
The point made by the psalmist is that God’s dealings with men are not measured with the same measure as man’s dealings with his fellow men. If we think precisely we shall admit that God does deal exactly with us “after our sins;” but it is as our sins are divinely estimated. When man proceeds to recognize and punish sins, he deals with sins, rather than with sinners; and metes out his punishments according to standard, with no consideration for the individual. Man, when he authoritatively punishes, is not supposed to make allowances. Judges administer law irrespective of persons. Clemency, with us, is left to the supreme authority behind the judge; and only comes in after the judge has given his judgment according to standard. Man’s law concerns acts, not motives. God’s judgments are after another standard. God judges sinners, not merely sins. God unites the clemency of the king with the justice of the magistrate. God makes all reasonable allowances. God considers the force of human frailty. God estimates circumstances and motives. Then God’s is the higher standard, but it is one which only the God of infinite wisdom and perfect righteousness can use. This may be worked out along two lines.
I. THE MEASURE OF DIVINE DEALING IS WHAT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE RACE. God never measures humanity by the standard he provides for the angels. He never measures humanity fallen by the standard he provides for humanity intact. He does not measure the race in its savage condition with the standard for the race civilized. He does not make one absolute standard to apply equally to every branch of the race. He is mindful of, and considerate towards, all forms of racial peculiarity and disability. Carefully show the distinction between an absolute standard of morals, and an absolute setting, or application, of that standard. If God deals with a morally fallen and frail race, he lets mercy help justice to fix the standard.
II. THE MEASURE OF DIVINE DEALINGS IS WHAT IS POSSIBLE TO THE INDIVIDUAL. This is fully treated under verse 14. One point only need be mentioned. In every sin committed by the individual the element of heredity has to be taken into account. The sin is not absolutely and entirely the man’s own. Yet man can never measure this heredity; so his measures will never suffice for deciding the Divine judgments and dealings.R.T.
Psa 103:12
Limitless forgiveness.
What figures will best suggest the entireness of the removal of man’s sin, when God, in his infinite goodness and mercy, deals with it and removes it? That question is specially interesting because, when man is forgiven his sin, he finds it so hard to get rid of the memory of it. In a sense it may be said that a man “never forgives himself.” There is always, therefore, the danger that a man will transfer his own feeling to God, and persuade himself that, though God may forgive, he never really forgets. The psalmist, speaking after the manner of men, and using terms for God which can only in strictness apply to men, declares that God can, and does, and will, utterly forget; “remember our sins no more.” The voluntary Divine forgetfulness is a sublime conception. Jeremiah (Jer 50:20) has this declaration, “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.” Three figures set before us the limitlessness of God’s forgiveness.
I. THE DISTANCE OF EAST FROM WEST. (See text.) “Fly as far as the wing of imagination can bear you, and if you journey through space eastward, you are further from the west at every beat of your wing.” The distance from north to south can be measured. There are north and south polesfixed points. There are no eastern or western poles. From every point alike in the circuit of the world the east extends in one direction, the west in the other. Thus the traveller westward may be said to be ever chasing the west without coming nearer to it.
II. REMOVAL BEHIND THE BACK. (Isa 38:17, “For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”) Two ideas are suggested:
1. “Behind the back” is a strong figure for “out of sight” and “out of mind.”
2. “Casting” behind the back implies resolute purpose. It is as if God had thoroughly made up his mind that he would never look upon them again; he had done with them forever.
III. THROWING INTO THE SEA. (Mic 7:19, “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”) Nothing brings to us the sense of hopeless, irretrievable loss, like dropping a thing into the fathomless depths of mid-ocean. If our sins are cast into the sea, we shall never see them more.
God’s gracious dealings with our sins depend on our right dealings with them. Only sins that we have put away from ourselves by repentance can God put away from us by his full and free forgiveness.R.T.
Psa 103:14
This body of our humiliation.
There is a truth revealed in God’s Word which seems to have a painful side. God is to us as we are to him. “Thou renderest to every man according to his work;” “With the froward thou wilt show thyself froward.” It is a truth which needs careful qualifications. We have one such in this text. God’s ways with us are taken upon due consideration of our bodily frailty. There may be a right or a wrong excuse drawn from the weakness of human nature. We certainly are under limited conditions, and these must be duly considered.
I. GOD‘S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF OUR BODIES. Observe that “frame” is more than “body.” This vehicle of the human spirit is wholly the plan of God.
1. Its actual parts, powers, relations, are known to him. “Fearfully and wonderfully made.” Illustrate hand, eye, brain.
2. The special tone and habit of each individual are known to him. We may think of him studying each one as a parent does the disposition of each child.
3. The conditions due to hereditary taint and to civilization. Some have a great fight with bodily and mental taint or bias. And there are special influences of disease, and mischievous results often follow it.
4. The general frailty, the passing away, the gradual decaying of the vital powers, God knows and estimates.
II. GOD‘S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR BODIES AND OUR MINDS. Minds are spiritual things, but they work through a material frame. The brain is the central machine, to which are attached the separate machines of the senses. The force of the machine is the blood. The spiritual operations of the mind are helped or hindered by the condition of the body. Illustrate a speck in the brain, or weakness in the heart. Sometimes we cannot thinkwe must just be still. Sometimes we feel depressed, and a sombre tone is put on our thinking. We fret over such things, until we remember that our God knows all. He expects no more work from us than he knows we can do; and he never counts the times of repairing and refreshing our bodily machine to be idle or wasted times.
III. GOD‘S WAYS WITH US ARE TAKEN WITH FULL KNOWLEDGE OF THE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR BODIES AND OUR RELIGION. What he asks from each of us is just thisthe noblest religious life we can reach under our existing body conditions. We fret to be free from the body, as St. Paul apparently did: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” But precisely the test under which each one of us is placed is thisCan you live a godly life in that body of yours, and under those precise body conditions of yours? Only when you can will God find it fitting to entrust you with the immortal and incorruptible body. Oar religious life is a thing of varying moods. Sometimes our “title is clear;” sometimes “our feet are firm;” sometimes our “head is lifted up;” sometimes we “walk in darkness, and have no light;” sometimes we say, “All these things are against me;” “I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul.” The very variety unduly troubles us, and we fear lest God should regard us as unstable. But he “knows our frame.” Christian joy is very closely linked with bodily health, and Christian gloom with bodily disease. Some diseases spoil the vision. And the body is the great spoiler of the soul’s vision. The glorious attainment of the religious life is to get above bodyhinderings; to become master of our bodies in Christ; to “know how to possess the vessels of our bodies in sanctification and honour.” Feeling this to be the great aim in life leads to the excesses and extravagances of hermits and devotees. Remember, then, two things:
1. God sees souls.
2. God duly reckons for the body.
It may be that we shall be surprised to find what soul progress we have really made, when the body-clog drops off. This tender and considerate representation of God is full of comfort to us. But then God has not left this sentence to lie in his Word as a general statement. He has taken our frame on himself, so that he might gain experimental knowledge of it. Jesus is the Brother-Man of sorrows. We may think of God’s ways with us as based on the experience of Jesus. And if God’s omniscience is a reason for trust, how much more is Christ’s human experience!R.T.
Psa 103:18
The blessedness of covenant keepers.
Prayer book Version, “Even upon such as keep his covenant.” A distinctly Israelite point of view. If this be regarded as a psalm of the returned Exiles, the reference is a striking one. Judgment had fallen upon the nation because it had forsaken the national covenant. The restoration was a resuming of the old covenant relations. And therefore the supreme anxiety of the Exiles would concern “keeping this new, this restored covenant.” It may be observed that the Lord’s gracious dealings are always to be thought of as strictly conditional. “The blessings of the covenant are no inalienable right. Children’s children can only inherit its blessings by cleaving to it.”
I. COVENANT KEEPERS REMEMBER THEIR PLEDGE. It may have been taken by themselves. It may have been taken in their names by their fathers. It may be freshly taken after a time of lapse. It is a ground of obligation. It is a source of inspiration. It should be kept ever in mind. Illustrate by the oath of loyalty taken by the servants of a king; or by the pledge taken in marriage; or by covenants entered into by those who unite in a common undertaking. See the value of special seasonssacramental seasonswhen covenant pledges are forcibly brought to mind. There is a new covenant in Christ Jesus. It is to that covenant we are pledged; and that covenant we do well to keep in mind.
II. COVENANT KEEPERS AIM AT OBEDIENCE. Sentiment, however good, cannot suffice them. Feelings, as mere feelings, cannot honour God. True covenant keepers try to “remember God’s commandments,” his requirements under the covenant, with the distinct and full intention to do them, and not merely know what they are, or feel that they are wise and good. The Lord Jesus searchingly said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them!”
REVIEW.
1. Set forth what the Lord’s covenant was for Israel, and is for us.
2. Point out how the responsibilities of the covenant may be kept ever before our minds and hearts.
3. Impress that the only acceptable keeping of the covenant is the constant, loving, hearty obedience of all its requirements.R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 103:1-5
Gratitude for unbounded mercies.
I. THE SOUL URGENTLY SUMMONED TO PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS. Inward praise, not the praise of the lips, is here called forspiritual, not bodily worship.
II. THE WHOLE INWARD MAN IS TO RECOUNT TO ITSELF THE MERCIES OF GOD.
1. Every power he hasmemory, heart, and reasonis to assist in recognizing the Divine benefits he has received.
2. Our temptation and danger are to forget. And we are to resist and conquer forgetfulness and ingratitude.
Especially apt to forget the mercies:
1. That we receive in common with others.
2. The mercies that are uninterrupted by constraint.
3. Mercies of a spiritual nature.
III. A THANKFUL SURVEY OF THE FATHERLY MERCIES OF GOD. “The poet calls upon his soul to arise to praiseful gratitude for God’s justifying, redeeming, and renewing grace.”
1. The forgiveness of all his sins.
2. Recovery from bodily sickness and infirmity. Sin, the sickness of the soul; disease, the sickness of the body; and God is the Physician of both.
3. Deliverance from threatened death. The pita name of Hadesthe abode of the departed.
4. Loving kindness and tender mercies make him rich and royal. Like a king, they crown him.
5. No real want of the soul is left unsatisfied. “Shall not want any good thing;” “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
6. His strength is thus constantly renewed. (Isa 40:31.) “They that wait upon the Lord,” etc.S.
Psa 103:13
The pity of the Lord.
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” In the Old Testament revelation of God there are bursts and flashes of light in startling contrast to the ordinary conceptions of him under that dispensation. There are grand conceptions of his power, omniscience, wisdom, and providence prevailing; but sometimes there are the tenderer conceptions of his goodness and mercy, as in the Psalms and prophets.
I. THE REASONS OF GOD‘S PITY. Pity is sympathy for persons on account of weakness, suffering, or calamity. God feels pity for us:
1. On account of our weakness. “He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” We are poor and insignificant compared with the spiritual and mighty angels. We are allied to the dust in one important part of our nature. And we are but children in the germ and infancy of our being. How weak we are in the body to contend against the mighty forces of nature, to encounter accident, to endure suffering! How weak in mind! how ignorant! how feeble in the power of our convictions! how poor in the power of our will!
2. He pities us for our sins and mistakes. In how many ways do we go wrong, not of set purpose, but unwittingly; or from the force of education and outward circumstances! We sin through ignorance. And we sin with knowledge. And God pities the sinner while he punishes. If he did not pity, he would not punish. Punishment is love seeking to recover the sinful child. God’s anger is nothing but love chastising.
3. He pities us in our sufferings. He would not be a Father if he did not. Some of our sufferings are sent by himsuch as we could not avoid. “But he doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men.” Many of our sufferings are self-incurredsuch as we might have avoided. But he, nevertheless, pities us then.
II. THE NATURE OF GOD‘S PITY. That of a father.
1. A father’s pity is helpful. A neighbour’s pity or a friend’s is not always helpful; they are either unwilling or unable to relieve and help us. But a father will do all in his power to help his child. And has not God helped us in our low estate by coming to us in the Person of his Son? He has not sat and looked on and done nothing.
2. It is bountiful. Infinite in disposition to help, and in resources for our relief. “Exceeding abundantly.” God said to the Jews, “What more could I have done for my vineyard?” And surely, in view of the gospel, he might say the same to us. Only one thing to limit his helphis help is to enable us to help ourselves. What we can do for ourselves that he leaves to us. His aim is to make us strong and great.
3. His pity is enduring. Human pity is soon exhausted. “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.” It has borne with each of us very long, and will continue to the end.S.
Psalms 103.
An exhortation to praise God for his mercy, and for the constancy thereof.
A Psalm of David.
Title. ledavid This is one of the psalms of David, which it is supposed was written by him after his recovery from a great illness. See Delaney, book 4: chap. 7. It may be so; but, as we read of no illness that he had, it is by no means clear whether such was the occasion of it, or whether he composed it after a deliverance from some other calamity. It contains a thankful acknowledgment of the great and abundant mercies of God, especially that of pardoning sin, and not exacting the punishment due to it, and is an exquisite performance, very applicable to every deliverance: it may properly be said to describe the wonders of grace, as the following psalm describes the wonders of nature.
Psalms 103
A Psalm of David
Bless the Lord, O my soul: 2Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits:
3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases;
4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction:
Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
6The Lord executeth righteousness
And judgment for all that are oppressed.
7He made known his ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel.
8The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9He will not always chide:
Neither will he keep his anger forever.
10He hath not dealt with us after our sins;
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11For as the heaven is high above the earth,
So great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12As far as the east is from the west,
So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13Like as a father pitieth his children,
So the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
14For he knoweth our frame;
He remembereth that we are dust.
15As for man, his days are as grass:
As a flower of the field so he flourisheth.
16For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
And the place thereof shall know it no more.
17But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
And his righteousness unto childrens children;
18To such as keep his covenant,
And to those that remember his commandments to do them.
19The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens;
And his kingdom ruleth over all.
20Bless the Lord, ye his angels,
That excel in strength, that do his commandments, 21Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts;
Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure
22Bless the Lord, all his works,
In all places of his dominion: EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.A stream of grateful praise, whose gentle and regular waves rise gradually higher and higher, here flows forth from a mind which is moved to its inmost depths by the blessings, especially those of a spiritual nature, which God has abundantly and from the earliest ages bestowed both upon the Psalmist personally, and upon the whole Church. The poet begins by calling upon his own soul to declare its gratitude for the manifestations of Gods favor, which he has himself personally experienced (Psa 103:1-5), and the words which are uttered at the beginning of the Psalm reappear in the last line, and thus enclose the whole. Between these, the Psalmist celebrates Gods gracious and helpful dealings in their actual manifestations in Israel (Psa 103:6-10), in their heavenly exaltation and paternal character, and their relation to sinful and mortal men (Psa 103:11-14), and in their trustworthiness for all who hold fast to His covenant and to His ordinances (Psa 103:15-18). Then the whole world is called upon to praise this heavenly King who rules over all (Psa 103:19-22).
The supposition that either a final strophe beginning with Psa 103:20 (Kster), or the last line (Hupfeld) forms a liturgical epiphony, is without foundation. So also is the assumption that the whole Psalm was designed for the public service (Ewald, Olshausen). Still more unfounded is the notion that the whole people in exile are the speakers. The reference to Davids restoration to the Divine favor after his adultery with Bathsheba (Rosenmller) is too special. There are, moreover, serious grounds for hesitation with regard to the Davidic origin, afforded especially in Aramaic forms, among which the suffixes echi and aychi are the most striking, occurring, as they do, only besides in Psa 116:7; Psa 116:19; Psa 137:6; Jer 11:15, and 2Ki 4:1-7. We may regard the passage cited in Psa 103:8 from Exo 34:6 as the Text (Hupfeld). [Hengstenberg, holding the originality of the superscriptions, defends the opinion of a composition by David, finding resemblances to the preceding Psalm, which he assigns to the same author. Delitzsch and others, observing the same resemblances, and drawing a like inference, refer it, as they do Psalms 102, to a writer near the close of the captivity. Perowne thinks that nothing certain can be determined as to the date or the author. Alexander favors the hypothesis maintained by Hengstenberg, that this is the Psalm of mercy and judgment promised in Psalms 101J.F.M.]
Psa 103:1-4. Bless.The thanksgiving, as a response to the blessing with which God blesses, is denoted by the same word as the blessing itself. On the soul as representing the whole man see Delitzschs Biblische Psychologie, pp. 104, 203. On the organs [E. V.: that is within me] of the cavities of the chest and abdomen, as employed in the service of the mind and soul, see p. 266. The benefits (Psa 103:2) of God are denoted by a word which means, literally, actions for which one has deserved well. Instead of: grave (Psa 103:4), in allusion to the under-world (Psa 16:10), the LXX. have rendered: destruction, by deriving the form not from but from , Job 17:14. [The former rendering is now universally adopted.J. F. M.]
Psa 103:5. The satisfying of the languishing heart or soul is also mentioned in Psa 107:9; Isa 58:11; and the whole context leaves the impression rather of inward satisfaction than of outward nourishing. But we should not translate directly: desire (Sept.) For is known to occur elsewhere only in the signification: array or ornament; and this could very well be employed to denote the soul, as my honor, my darling, and the like expressions, are (Aben Ezra, Mendelssohn, Hengst.) The context, however, must decide as to the special reference of an expression so general and capable of such manifold applications. In Psa 32:9 the same word denotes the trappings of the mule, which are at the same time the means of restraining it, and we therefore render there: harness. Here we are scarcely justified in understanding the body (Syr.) or the cheek (Kimchi, Del., Hitzig) or the mouth (Luther), and still less old age (Chald.) or youth (J. D. Mich., Gesenius). Nor is it probable that there is any allusion to the rejuvenating influence mentioned in the next line, as though the poet, by way of anticipation, were referring to the adornment of the body which had renewed its youth (Kster, Maurer), or had meant by the word attire the whole outfit and equipment which surrounds men like a garment, and is in Job 2:4 denoted by the word skin, in contrast to the soul. [Hupfeld: All the apparatus of external means by which life is sustained, and with which it is invested.J. F. M.] The previous mention of the soul itself does not interfere with our explanation, for the whole person was employed just a little before as representing it, [So Hengstenberg also, who renders: ornament, but explains the word as meaning the soul. Alexander renders: soul, directly .J. F. M.]
Psa 103:7-9. Psa 103:7 alludes to Exo 33:13. The ways are therefore not those to be trodden by men, but those followed by God in His march through the history of the world. Isa 57:16; Jer 3:5 are parallel to Psa 103:9. [He will not always judge is the more literal and correct rendering. For the next clause comp. Jer 3:5; Jer 3:12.J. F. M.]
Psa 103:14-22. The frame does not denote here the moral nature of man (Gen 6:5; Gen 8:21; Deu 31:21) the inherited disposition of his heart (Psa 51:7), but the frame of dust (Gen 2:7) like a potters vessel (Job 10:8 f.; Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9 f.) The second member of Psa 103:16 is taken literally from Job 7:10. The figure of the flower in general, is based upon Job 14:2; that of the grass on Psa 90:5; Isa 40:6 f.; Isa 51:12; the blessing bestowed upon childrens children (Psa 103:17) is from Exo 20:6; Exo 34:7; Deu 7:9. Angels (Psa 103:20) are called upon to praise God also in Psa 29:1; Psa 148:1. They are here called heroes [of strength, E. V.: that excel in strength.J. F. M.] as leaders of the armies of God (Joel 4:9, 11; Isa 13:3; Isa 40:26). The hosts likewise mentioned here appear to be angels of subordinate rank (Del., Hitzig), and not stars (Hengst., Hupfeld). [The latter opinion has originated in the unwillingness to view this verse as containing anything like a repetition of the preceding. The explanation given above would obviate this difficulty. But there is no need of assuming a subordinate rank to be intended. It would be better to understand this verse as being more comprehensive in its application. The preceding one called upon a special class of the most exalted angels to praise their Maker. This one summons all His hosts that minister to Him. We are led to this, besides, by the gradually widening scope of the passage. For the last verse calls upon all Gods works to bless Him. Thus it seems that the word all is intended in each verse to include what goes before, while embracing also a wider class. The application of the term ministers to the stars would seem to be lacking in the simplicity and directness which characterize the language of the Psalm throughout.J. F. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. If the ingratitude and forgetfulness of the human heart were not great by nature, there would be no need of a special and repeated exhortation to the thankful acknowledgment of Gods benefits. For these benefits are numerous and everywhere apparent, are bestowed upon individuals and the whole country, satisfy physical and spiritual needs, and comprise temporal and eternal good. Yet it is indispensable that we trace all this to the invisible Giver of all good, while we have reason, not merely to call upon others to praise God, but also to remind ourselves, that we have not previously given to God something which is requited to us, but rather, that all our thanks are only an acknowledgment of the blessing which we had previously received from Him, and thus do merely trace back this blessing to its source in God. 3. And since He, who thus acts towards us as a Father, is also the holy God and the Heavenly King, His dealings are righteous. His love is neither a weak indulgence of all, nor a capricious preference of some. Its immeasurableness and infinitude are not the absence of moderation or self restraint, but correspond to its more than earthly nature, and express the all-comprehensiveness and all-sufficiency of its influence, proceeding from the inexhaustible and invincible fulness of power which dwells in the Divine nature, but do not interfere with the conditions under which this eternally efficacious grace is displayed in the history of the world, and is received and experienced by individuals according to their constant need. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The more bountifully Gods benefits are showered down upon men in their brief lives of constant need, the more easily is one after another forgotten; but all the more base is such forgetfulness.God in His goodness comes forth to meet our wants, and anticipate our requests; are we as speedy with our thanks and as ready in our praise?That men should praise God with willing readiness, there are necessary, (1) a soul mindful of His blessings, (2) a heart susceptible of love towards Him, (3) a conscience sensitive to His righteous demand.God rules in His kingdom with fatherly goodness, and yet with kingly righteousness; therefore it becomes us to fear as well as love Him, to serve as well as trust Him.If God deals with us as a Father, do we act towards Him as children?The whole world is full of the goodness of the Lord; but how far is the whole world still from knowing and praising Him? What has our Church done to remedy this deficiency? And what is her duty with regard to it?If we lay claim to the rights of the covenant, we must fulfil its obligations; and this we cannot do without the help of our God as it is pledged in the covenant.Man has here below no abiding-place, not even in the memory of the world; but God forgets no one. Ohthat we might remember Him!The Church of God on earth; (1) as the object of His paternal care, (2) as the place where His heavenly glory is manifested, (3) as the organ of His royal government.
Augustine: When thou art forgiven, thy sins begin to set and Gods grace rises.Seek thy good, oh soul! All creatures have a certain good which supplies and completes their nature. Behold the highest good; it is thine!Starke: Not a single sin of an impenitent sinner remains unforgiven, and just as little should a single sin remain in its dominion and evil influence (Rom 6:12).The crown of a believer in this life, as well as in the heavenly, is Gods mercy and compassion, for they are the sure sources of his blessedness.Justification must go handin hand with sanctification and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.The goodness of God is mighty, not only to strengthen our spiritual life, but our temporal also, in so far as it tends to His glory and our welfare.He who would have the unfailing eagle-like vigor of a mind directed heavenwards, let him ever satisfy his hungry soul with grace alone, and strength will never be wanting to him.The most potent remedy for a troubled soul is the contemplation of the compassion and goodness of God.God lets the sinner know and feel His anger, in order to prepare him for the view of His mercy.True parents should not, it is true, tolerate the faults and sins of their children, by being silent with regard to them or overlooking them, as Eli did; but they must recognize, on the other hand, that they are not so much their judges as their parents, and, as it were, their physicians.The more transitory man is, the more abiding is Gods mercy; the Christian must oppose this ground of consolation to all trials, yea, even to death itself.The holy angels are not only our guardians, but also our instructors and leaders in the praise of God,No place is an improper one to praise God, provided only our heart is sincere before Him.We should be as ready (and still more ready) to execute the will of God, as an obedient servant is ready to execute his masters, even at a nod from him; nor should we do this by compulsion, but from love (1Jn 5:3).God knows our distress and ruin better than we ourselves, and regards all men with compassionate sympathy, but looks upon His children especially with the most tender pity.
Berlenburger Bible: The soul which has been stricken and slain, but made alive again, feeling the joy of its new freedom and the enjoyments of its redemption, flows forth without restraint in praise and thanksgiving, in testimony of its gratitude.Rieger: To feel sin and death, and thereafter to have received the atonement and the Spirit which makes alive, and so to praise God, and to join in faith and patience with all the saints of God,this is the subject of the 103 Psalm.Roos: David, when he encouraged his soul to praise God, was conscious of his sins and infirmities; these only were his own. The Lord forgave the one and healed the other, and heascribes all good to Him.Tholuck: The psalmist, while praising Gods immeasurable mercy to those who fear Him and keep His covenant, guards against that carnal conception of the Divine love, which forgets that repentance and faith are the conditions, under which God announces Himself as our Father.Guenther: If God had not been patient with our stammering and halting, we would never have learnt to speak the language of truth, nor walk the way of life; and if He had dealt with the nations according to their disobedience, where would their names have been?Diedrich: The nearer we come to God, the more are we ravished with enlarged discoveries of His forgiveness.Schaubach: Without forgiveness of sins, even the highest earthly good is only a whitened sepulchre, behind which destruction lurks.Taube: Man, in his body, soul, and spirit, is, as it were, a mouth opened wide with cravings; that is his greatest weakness and yet his chief adorning; nothing less than God, the native fountain of youth, can satisfy Him.
[Matt. Henry: He considers the frailty of our bodies and the folly of our souls, how little we can do, and expects accordingly from us; how little we can bear, and lays accordingly upon us; in all which appears the tenderness of His compassion.Hengstenberg: Old age, in other cases always the forerunner of death, is here continually the forerunner of youth: the greater the failure of strength, so much the nearer is the complete renewal of strength.J. F. M.]
DISCOURSE: 672 Psa 103:1-5. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases: who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies: who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eayles.
IT is a favourite opinion of some divines, that we are bound to love God for his own perfections, without having any respect to the benefits which we receive from him. But this appears to us to be an unscriptural refinement. That God deserves all possible love from his creatures on account of his own perfections, can admit of no doubt: and we can easily conceive, that persons may be so occupied with an admiration of his perfections, as not to have in their minds any distinct reference to the benefits they have received from him: but that any creature can place himself in the situation of a being who has no obligations to God for past mercies, and no expectation of future blessings from him, we very much doubt: nor are we aware that God any where requires us so to divest ourselves of all the feelings of humanity, for the sake of engaging more entirely in the contemplation of his perfections. Nor indeed can we consent to the idea, that gratitude is so low a virtue [Note: Deu 28:47.]. On the contrary, it seems to be the principle that animates all the hosts of the redeemed in heaven; who are incessantly occupied in singing praises to Him who loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood. By this also all the most eminent saints on earth have been distinguished. In proof of this, we need go no further than to the psalm before us, wherein the man after Gods own heart adores and magnifies his Benefactor, for some particular mercies recently vouchsafed unto him. To instil this principle into your minds, and to lead you to a measure of that devotion with which the sweet singer of Israel was inspired, we shall,
I.
State the grounds we have to praise God
To enumerate all the benefits we have received from God, would be impossible. We must content ourselves with adverting to them in the peculiar view in which they are set before us in the text. We would call you then to consider,
1.
The freeness and undeservedness of them
[It is this which gives a zest to every blessing we enjoy: in this view, the very food we eat, and the air we breathe, demand our most grateful acknowledgments. The Psalmist begins with speaking himself as a guilty and corrupt creature, who unless pardoned and renewed by the grace of God, must have been an everlasting monument of his righteous displeasure. The same thought also should be uppermost in our minds. We should contrast our state with that of the fallen angels, who never had a Saviour vouchsafed unto them; and with that of the unbelieving world, who, in consequence of rejecting the Saviour, have perished in their sins. What claim had we, any more than the fallen angels? and, if we had been dealt with according to our deserts, where would have been the difference between us and those who are gone beyond the reach, of mercy Let us but contemplate this, and the smallest mercy we enjoy will appear exceeding great; yea, any thing short of hell will be esteemed a mercy [Note: See how this consideration enhanced the favours which God vouchsafed to David, Psa 8:1 and St. Paul, Eph 3:8.].]
2.
The richness and variety
[The psalm primarily relates to Davids recovery from some heavy disorder: and the terms wherein he expresses his gratitude are precisely such as are used by other persons on similar occasions [Note: Isa 38:17.]. On this account, in our review of Gods mercies, it will be proper first to notice the blessings of his providence. How often have we been visited with some bodily disorder, which, for aught we know, has been sent as a preventive or punishment of sin! (We certainly have reason to think, that at this time, as well as in former ages, God punishes the sins of his people in this world, that they may not be condemned in the world to come [Note: Compare 1Co 11:30; 1Co 11:32. with Jam 5:15].) And how often have we been raised from a state of weakness and danger, to renewed life and vigour! At all events, we have been beset with dangers, and yet not permitted to fall a sacrifice to them; and been encompassed with wants, which have been liberally supplied. Can we view all these mercies with indifference? do they not demand from us a tribute of praise?
But the expressions in the text lead us to contemplate also the blessings of Gods grace. And can we adopt the words in this view? O how great and wonderful are they, if we appreciate them aright! To be forgiven one sin is a mercy of inconceivable magnitude; but to be forgiven all, all that we have ever committed, this is a mercy which neither the tongues of men nor of angels can ever adequately declare. Think too of the corruptions which with most inveterate malignity infect our souls: to have these healed! to have them all healed: We no longer wonder at the ardour of the Psalmists devotion; we wonder only at our own stupidity. Contemplate moreover the efforts which Satan, that roaring lion, is ever making to destroy us; consider his wiles, his deceits, his fiery darts: what a stupendous mercy is it that we have not been given up as a prey unto his teeth!. Look around at the mercies of all kinds with which we are encircled: and mark the provision of ordinances, and promises, yea, of the body and blood of Gods only dear Son, with which our souls are nourished and renewed; so that our drooping spirits, like the eagle when renewed in its plumage, are enabled to soar to the highest heavens with confidence and joy. Can we find in these things no grounds of praise? Must not our hearts be harder than adamant itself, if they do not melt at the contemplation of such mercies as these?]
3.
The constancy and continuance
[See how triumphantly the Psalmist dwells on this [Note: Forgiveth, healeth, redeemeth, crowneth, satisfieth.]; and let us compare our experience with his. Has not God made us also the objects of his providential care, by day and by night, from the earliest period of our existence to this present moment? Has he not also renewed to us every day and hour the blessings of his grace, watering us as his garden, and encompassing us with his favour as with a shield? Surely we may say that goodness and mercy have followed us all our days; there has not been one single moment when our Divine keeper has ever slumbered or slept; he has kept us, even as the apple of his eye; lest any should hurt us, he has kept us day and night.
Say now, what are the feelings which such mercies should generate in our souls; and what are the returns which we ought to make to our heavenly Benefactor?] II.
Stir you up to the performance of this duty
It is the office of your minister to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, yea, to put you in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. We therefore call upon you to praise God,
1.
Individually
[This is not the duty of ministers only, but of all, whatever be their age, situation, or condition in life: every one is unspeakably indebted to God; and therefore every one should say for himself, Bless the Lord, O my soul!
If any object, that they have never yet been made partakers of the blessings of Divine grace, we answer, That you have not on this account the less reason to bless God; for the very long-suffering of God should be accounted by you as salvation; and if you compare your state (as yet on mercys ground) with that of those who have been cut off in their sins, you will see that all the thanks which you can possibly render unto God, are infinitely less than what he deserves at your hands. 2.
Fervently
[Praise is not a service of the lip and knee, but of the warmest affections of the soul. The soul, and all that is within you, should be exercised in this blessed work. As you are to love God with all your heart, and mind, and soul, and strength, so also you are to bless him with all your faculties and powers. You must not however mistake vociferation, and talkativeness, and bodily fervour, for devotion; your expressions of gratitude, even when most elevated and joyous, must resemble those which are used among the heavenly hosts; who veil their faces and their feet, or cast their crowns at the feet of their adorable Redeemer. Not to bless him in this manner, is constructively and really to forget the benefits you have received from him: yea, an utter forgetfulness of them were less criminal than such an ungrateful remembrance.]
3.
Incessantly
[Bless, bless, bless the Lord! says the Psalmist to his soul; shewing thereby that he would have that to be the continual exercise of his mind. Thus should we also labour to have our minds in a constant readiness for this glorious work. We need not indeed be always engaged in the act of praise; for we have many other acts in which a great part of our time must be occupied; but the frame of our minds should always be disposed for this duty, so as to be ready for it whensoever occasion may call for the performance of it. That we shall feel backwardness to it at times, must be expected: the Psalmist intimates as much, by so repeatedly urging his reluctant soul to this duty. But let us follow his example, and urge our souls, however reluctant, to this blessed work. Let us say with him, Bless the Lord, O my soul; bless him, bless his holy name! or like Deborah, Awake, awake, Deborah; awake, awake; utter a song!
Thus to bless God is our privilege on earth: thus to bless him is an antepast of heaven.]
CONTENTS
This Psalm is one continued hymn of praise, and includes a comprehensive view of the goodness of Jehovah, in all the great works of creation and redemption, providence and grace.
A Psalm of David.
How beautifully does the psalm begin, in calling upon the soul to this most pleasing service, of praising God! Reader, do remark it, that it is with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; while with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Unless the heart be engaged in any service, there is nothing truly valuable in that service. Hence it was an ancient custom in the church, at the opening of the service, to call upon the people, Lift up your hearts! Rom 10:10 .
Psa 103:1-6
We have here a succession of scenes: (1) We are introduced to the law court, and we have a graphic picture of the condemned sinner brought before the bar of God and forced to plead guilty. The great act of Justification ‘Who forgiveth all thine iniquities’. (2) We are taken to the hospital ward ‘Who healeth all thy diseases’. Sin as a disease dealt with by the Great Physician. (3) The slave market ‘Who redeemeth thy life from destruction’. (4) The throne room ‘Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness’. (5) The banqueting hall ‘Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things’; and (6) the heavenward flight ‘Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s’.
Alexander Whyte.
Bundles of Benefits
Psa 103:2 The Psalmist set himself one day to count up the benefits he had received from God. He had not proceeded far when he found himself engaged in an impossible task. He found he could not count the blessings he had received in a single day, so set himself to find a help to memory. He took those benefits which he desired not to forget, and he tied them up in bundles. He shaped the bundles into a song. Let us open the bundles and examine them. There are five of them; we see that they are divided into three and two. The first three are bound together by a common reference to sin, and the consequence of sin. The last two reveal how God would deal with His people if sin were taken out of the way.
I. Who Forgiveth All Thine Iniquities. The forgiveness of sin is one of the greatest wonders of Christian experience. It tells us that a man may turn over a new leaf, that his future may not be a copy of his past. The forgiveness of sin is possible, for it is one of the surest facts of real experience.
II. Who Healeth All Thy Diseases. Sin has its consequences and one of them is disease. Sin then makes disease, and God’s relation to disease is described so fully that it gives a distinctive name for God Jehovah the Healer.
III. Who Redeemeth Thy Life from Destruction. On the one hand, the final outcome of sin is destruction; on the other hand, the culmination of God’s action in relation to sin is redemption. Not a redemption of the soul, but of the body, it is the redemption of both, of the whole man.
IV. Who Crowneth Thee with Loving-kindness and Tender Mercies. These words are about the most musical and poetic in the whole Bible. God crowns with lovingkindness and tender mercies, and these are the highest expression of the loving interest which God has in His people.
V. Satisfieth Thy Mouth with Food. The note of Christianity is that no human needs are left unsatisfied. Satisfied with food, so that every need shall be met, this is the promise. Thus in this fifth bundle there are many things for which the Psalmist might well be grateful not only for what is expressed in it, but for the promise of large blessings yet in store for us in the days to coma
J. Iverach, The Other Side of Greatness, p. 119.
References. CIII. 3. W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, 1891, p. 374. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1492. CIII. 3, 4. H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, p. 145.
Recovered Youthfulness
Psa 103:5
The great lesson is that those whom God forgives, crowns with favour, and feeds with spiritual bounties, possess the secret of perpetual youth. The life that God nurtures will always rejuvenate itself and escape the weariness and humiliation of age.
I. We find the process of waste and repair going on in connexion with the common experience of life. Great troubles come to men in sad and obstinate succession, so that they break down utterly; hope exhausts itself, and they are unable to expect anything besides new troubles or the stated recurrence of the old. And then brighter days come. The cloud breaks and the tension is overpast. They are like the man who goes down into the troubled pool a wreck and comes back with the bloom of a child on his face. Youth has renewed itself.
II. Youth is a symbol of the flowing tide of life, and in the natural order of things, age stands for its ebb. If God renew our youth like the eagle’s we shall face without a single hurt the storms and conflicts and testing times of our earthly pilgrimage. Religious life never ought to be old. He whom God thus revives and inspires is able to forget his sorrows and to disburden himself of cares.
III. Many experiences remind us that the attritions in our daily lot tend to wear out religious life itself, and if we neglect the superhuman sources of repair it must wane and perish as surely as an over-pressed physical life. The spirit of the world, which looks everywhere with the suspicious eye, and affirms that the only law observed by the individual and the race is the law of selfishness, has taken possession of us, and every early enthusiasm is black with frostbite. Perhaps it is better we should stand aside and make way for the young, for we are stale, hypercritical, fertile in doubts and misgivings, prone to unhappy forecasts; and the work of the hour can only be done by those whose hearts are warm and eager. But surely that need not be. Religion brings the promise of rejuvenation to the mind, and the temper that has mastered us indicates that we are in closer intimacy with the world than with the God who renews the youth of His servants like the eagle’s.
IV. The temper of old age sometimes steals upon men in their corporate life and influence wanes till final eclipse is reached. It is the decay of faith which disintegrates and topples down dominant nations and conquering empires. The frictions of toil, the fever of overwrought civilizations, the burdens and responsibilities of empire will wear a nation down into weakness, decrepitude, weariness, and despair unless its life be continually revived at the everlasting springs.
V. The recovered youthfulness is in itself meetness for immortality. We need not be appalled at the thought of spending an endless existence in God’s presence, if in the Divine fountain of life we receive renewed baptisms into virginal freshness and vigour. The nature whose youth is here renewed like the eagle’s will be invigorated there for ever-ascending flights. The progress to which we are beckoned is towards an ideal of perpetual youth.
T. G. Selby, The Unheeding God, p. 216.
References. CIII. 5. S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 351. CIII. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons. vol. xx. No. 1171.
Do Our Sins Always Find Us Out?
Psa 103:10
If there be any one truth which holds the modern mind with a more relentless grasp than any other, it is that sin is followed inevitably and inescapably by its due penalty.
This solemn assurance is bound upon our minds by quoting some of the most emphatic sentences of Scripture. ‘The soul that sinneth it shall die.’ ‘They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.’ ‘The wages of sin is death.’ ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ ‘Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’ These teachers strike us with a silent dread as they summon up the conspicuous sinners and make them pass in a procession of shame. Esau finds his profane word fastened as a doom on his spirit. Jacob is driven by his sin into exile, and compelled to reap its reward many years after, both in his own anguish and in the sins of the children. Saul becomes a madman and a suicide. David walks in the streets of his city with men’s eyes condemning him, and sees his iniquity blighting his home and undoing the work of his unstained manhood. Solomon’s voluptuous day ends in a corruption whose penalty he himself begins to bear. And so name after name is summoned up, down to Judas rushing on death in his despair, to show that each man receives the full reward of his iniquity.
Now of the element of truth in this teaching no one need have any doubt, but it is a truth so much overstated, and sometimes set down so nakedly, and without relation to other truths, as to be almost a lie. It is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is not true that every sin is visited by its due penalty. It is not true that a man’s sin always finds him out. It was true that if those Israelites to whom this sombre message was spoken had selfishly remained on the farther side of Jordan, and been content with their own portion, a severe penalty would have fallen upon them. Theirs would have been one of those modern sins for which a man suffers more surely than he knows. It is the sin of the man who selfishly and indulgently ‘cultivates his garden’. But it is not true that a man always pays the uttermost farthing. The man who says so forgets that no single law is unlimited in its scope and power. He ignores the facts of life. He knows nothing of Christian experience. He forgets that law is not supreme and dominant. And he leaves out of account this imperial truth, that there is in the world and over the world a great will, a tender heart, and an infinite power. He forgets that this will uses and controls law. In a word, this grim and crude and unchastened teaching leaves out God. The Psalmist saw the truth steadily, and he saw it whole when he wrote, ‘He hath not dealt with us after our sins’.
Two boys were playing on a narrow ledge, worn smooth by adventurous feet, in the face of a seaside cliff. They had come along the path from the mill, which was set beside the neighbouring stream. Some twenty feet beneath the deep sea-green water lapped against the rock. One of the boys was the miller’s son a bold, lawless spirit. He had been warned again and again of the peril of the path. He had been caught and chastised. His defiant spirit loved the danger. This day a careless step to the edge paid its penalty, and he fell into the smooth deep water below. Death seemed to be his just fate. But his keen cry was heard in the mill, and his father ran out with anger on his face. But when he saw his son struggling with death the frown became a spasm of anguish, and at the risk of his own life he plunged in and rescued him. As that boy lay in his exhaustion, tended by loving care, he knew how far it was true that our sin finds us out. He understood this Psalmist’s profounder word, ‘He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities’. He knew that the world, which seems to be all law, is really all love, and that mercy rejoices against judgment.
Let me illustrate this truth to you, looking at it along the broad lines of God’s dealings with us.
I. Look, in the first place, along the line of God’s providence. When a man’s sin should find him out God’s providence often interferes to avert the penalty and to hide the shame. A man has bowed his head for the stroke, but all that he has felt has been the touch of God’s hand in mercy. Paul taught that ‘whatsoever’ a man soweth, that, and nothing different from that, shall he reap. If a man sow oats, he shall reap oats and not barley. If he sow figs, he shall not reap thistles. ‘He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.’ But between the sowing and the reaping there come in other laws. There lies the whole providence of God. A man may sow and never reap at all. A man may reap where he has not sown, and gather where he has not strawed. And so between a man’s sin and his finding out there comes in the providence of God. It is written in many a scripture, ‘He hath not dealt with us after our sins’.
II. Look, in the second place, along the line of God’s law. Men sometimes speak as though this law of penalty were the one dominant and overruling ordinance. They speak as though the consequences of a man’s sin must sweep on like a grim and unresting fate, must pursue him as a Nemesis with the steady foot of inescapable vengeance. It is a terrifying truth that our sin sets in motion blind forces of retribution. Every man is aghast when he realizes how wide and far-reaching is the range of a single evil deed. But God uses His law to conquer law. God enlists the higher law of mercy to repel the lower law of judgment. God counterworks the law of retribution by the law of repair.
III. Look, in the third place, along the line of God’s grace. Clearly God deals with infinite mercy in His providence and in His law. But there is an inner world where, at first sight, a man’s sins find him out ruthlessly. God’s providence may prevent the direst consequences. God’s law may renew the life and bring out the fair blossom of many an outward grace. But there are what Newman calls, in the noble title of his overdrawn sermon, ‘The moral consequences of single sins’. There are those moral and spiritual issues and effects which are the curse of the soul. The profligate may sit ‘a sober man among his boys,’ but he cannot undo the past. He cannot cleanse his memory, he cannot be wholesome in thought. The events of a man’s wilful years may be left behind him, but in the disability of his conscience, the defects of his character, the torture of old desires, and the indelible hues of sin and error with which his mind is dyed, he shows that his sin is finding him out. And deepest of all there is the sense of things done which cannot be undone, the unanswerable accusation of the past, the breach between the soul and God. We need something more than sweet providence, and something more than correcting law. We need grace. We need that forgiveness and renewal which are proclaimed in the Gospel and wrought out in the Cross of Christ. We need something more than the working of a providence which may interpose between us and our due reward. We need something more than laws which may order and direct new forces. We need to have the breach closed between God and the soul. We need the guilty conscience cleansed. We need the most awful and most desolating consequence of all removed from us, our fearfulness of God and our alienation to Him. These are given us by the Cross.
W. M. Clow, The Gross in Christian Experience, p. 167.
The Infinite Forgiveness
Psa 103:12
The writer of this Psalm groups his thoughts under three clearly defined heads. He speaks in the opening verses of personal forgiveness and the blessings which cluster round it. He next dwells upon the forgiveness which God has extended to His people in their covenant life, as illustrated in past history and the present outlook. And he fittingly closes his meditations with a tribute of praise to the power and sovereign dominion of the God whose mercy reaches to all generations. Our text belongs to the second division, and in terms of inspired rhapsody extols God’s pardoning compassion to the race He had called into His covenant.
I. The average Jew acquired his sense of the Divine forgiveness by remembering that he was an organic part of a redeeming community. God had pitied and pardoned, in significant ways, the race to which he and his forefathers belonged; and whilst affirming from time to time by the prescribed forms his covenant birthright, he was under little or no temptation to regard himself as an outcast.
II. The hope of salvation which some men in modern days entertain because of their affiliation to the Church is a part of the same idea, and is a doubtful survival from Jewish times. God deals with men in racial and confederated aggregates, and is it not well to be identified with an accredited body to which His mercy is pledged? But another idea was emphasized in the ministry of Jesus Christ. His message was a message of condemnation to the body politic but of absolution to the separate penitent. He taught that the Divine Father dealt with the individual, that responsibility was first personal and afterwards corporate, and that men must be saved apart before they are gathered into elect communities.
III. It is the prerogative of a personal God to forgive, and where the Divine personality is either denied or relegated to an obscure background, no place can be found for this cardinal doctrine of the evangelical creed.
IV. The Psalmist’s rhapsody is in no sense exaggerated and the disabilities of our sin do not follow us a day longer than we need their lessons. God’s mercy brings a sweet oblivion of the shame and selfishness of misspent years. In the check put upon our natural ana spiritual strength by the errors of the past, in the shrunken opportunities of which our half-maimed lives are made up, in the less splendid honours that beckon us forward, there may be plain marks of a disability entailed by early unfaithfulness and transgression; and yet God in His love has come so near to us that His immeasurable Being is interposed between our souls and past sin.
V. But the Psalmist implies in his magnificent metaphor that human transgression is dealt with by an act of superhuman grace and power. ‘As far as the east is from the west.’ The terms were of unknown range and unlimited elasticity. These figures of the firmament meant for him just as much as they mean for us with our larger knowledge. All the dimensions of space are used to illustrate this hymn of the Divine mercy through every line of which there murmurs the exhilarating breath of a spiritual springtide. No term can be put to the compassions of Almighty God.
VI. Although the Psalmist speaks in such bold and uncompromising terms of God’s forgiveness, we must not assume that there is any strain of indifference to moral distinctions in the magnanimous act he celebrates. To pardon implies a vast constraint of pity, an indescribable sacrifice, the cost of which men only began to learn centuries later, and the immensity of which is still a mystery to us.
T. G. Selby, The God of the Frail, p. 39.
Reference. CIII. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1108.
The Father and His Children
Psa 103:13
The life of each man may be looked at from two very different points of view. He may be regarded as an individual or as a member of society. Each of these two aspects brings into sight its own particular gifts and opportunities and obligations and advantages.
Our Lord’s parables are divided into two classes according as they treat of this social general aspect of man’s life or of his particular and individual life. Some of those which begin to tell us about the kingdom of God deal with social aspects of human life. Others, such as that of the Prodigal Son, are altogether occupied with the life of each individual. All these individualistic parables start with the great assumption that each man is related to God in a particular manner.
I. God is Your Father, and Because He is so, you have a Claim Upon God. He wishes us to understand that the obligations of Fatherhood are distinctly upon Him. He draws a parallel: ‘If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?’ He not only acknowledges that the claims of Fatherhood are upon Him but He acknowledges it in a way with which we are familiar and on grounds which we can thoroughly understand. God cannot neglect you nor forget you, nor refuse to hear your prayer. He asks you to believe that. This is the great primary act of trusting God which your heavenly Father asks of every heart of man.
( a ) We learn it not from Nature. If this demand upon our faith were made simply in the face of what we call the common course of Nature it would be practically impossible for us to respond to it.
( b ) But from Redemption. As we look out into the world and its history we see One hanging on Calvary. He claims to be God Himself, and if He is then, of course, the sight of Jesus of Nazareth, God Himself, hanging on the cross of pain and shame does not relieve all our doubts and all our difficulties, it does not tell us how this sad state of things came about or why it is allowed to go on, but it does tell us how God cares.
And this leads us to a further consideration.
II. Fatherhood Means that God has a Claim on Us. He has a claim on our life and our obedience, and a claim on our service. It is always the service of sons. If you find yourselves engaged in anxious and strenuous work, you are there because God has said, ‘Son, go and work today’.
A poor lady found in her son’s coat when he came back from school three of the letters which she had written to him unopened. Poor lady! She said, ‘My boy had the first claims on me, and I put everything aside to write to him every week,’ and this was the result, and you can gather how she felt.
So God feels today over your unopened Bible and your unsaid prayers. Remember that we are not neglecting a tyrant but wounding the God Who loves us and Whose heart cries out for us all the time.
Psa 103:13
Dr. Dale says on this text: ‘Years ago when death came to me first and took a child, the anguish was great. Watching her while she lay dying, I learnt for the first time what is meant by the words, “Like as a father pitieth his children”. Only so could I be taught the pity of God. And I learnt, too, at the same time, what God must feel at the loss of His children. What are all these passionate affections but parables of Divine things. Shall God suffer and not we?’
References. CIII. 13. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 186. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii. No. 1660.
The God of the Frail
Psa 103:13-14
Our text directly asserts that God pities us because of the pains and vicissitudes to which this fragile framework of our passing lives condemns us. It also indirectly suggests that He blends mercy with His judgment because of the limitations under which we have to pass our probation upon earth, and because also of the obstructions presented by the flesh to our best thought and service, as well as to the great destiny which is already asserting its promise within us.
I. These words remind us that the pathos of our mortality enlists the pity of the Eternal. God’s survey takes in the final picture of our weakness and all the scenes of pain and humiliation which lead up to the last, sad, tear-bathed page of our earthly history. Is not His scrutiny mollified by the remembrance of everything we may have to endure? That principle is the clue to many enigmas in God’s dealings with the children of men. But for the infirmities of the flesh we might never taste the sweetest springs of God’s tenderness. It is not without a far-reaching reason that God has fashioned us of a weak, sensitive, perishable material. It is the children of the dust who are destined to know at last the deepest secret of His heart.
II. These words imply that this brief life man spends in the flesh enlists the Divine compassion, because great spiritual issues turn upon a right use of its opportunities. The issues of a stern probation intertwine themselves with the textures of our earthly lives.
( a ) This probation is not only limited in its appointed term, but hampered by the desires engendered within the bodily framework. But in His merciful judgment God penetrates through what is apparent and avoids our pitiable confusions between moral and physical causes.
( b ) These words seem to imply that we are the objects of pity because the flesh puts a drag upon our holiest aspiration and service. The Divine Father remembers that we are compassed with frailty and hemmed in by disqualifications. Whilst waywardness must be corrected and moral deformity in all its aspects must be removed, He has taught us that infirmity is distinguished from sin, and, through the mission of One who was tempted like unto His brethren, has assured us of exhaustless compassion.
( c ) The flesh obscures the vision of spiritual things, and these words imply that the Father of light looks graciously upon those who are peering through the imprisoning gloom of the senses in the hope that they will yet see His face. The splendour in which God dwells is filtered of its overpowering brightness by the dullness of the flesh, and we may strain our spiritual senses in vain to see it as it is. God ordained this when He made man of the dust of the ground, and for our constitutional limitations has ready an apologetic, tender, magnanimous final ‘He remembereth that we are flesh’.
T. G. Selby, The God of the Frail, p. 1.
References. CIII. 13,14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi. No. 941. CIII. 15, 16. J. Aspinall, Parish Sermons (1st Series), p. 55. CIII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 323. CIV. 1. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 257. CIV. 13, 14. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 98. CIV. 16. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p. 141. CIV. 19. E. A. Askew, Sermons Preached in Greystoke Church, p. 132. CIV. 19-23. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons, p. 176.
Psa 103
This Psalm was read once a day in the family of John Angell James, of Birmingham. When his wife died he was asked if it should be read. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘it is as full of comfort as of thanksgiving.’
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Psa 103:1 [A Psalm] of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name.
A Psalm of David ] Which he wrote when carried out of himself, as far as heaven, saith Beza; and therefore calleth not upon his own soul only, but upon all creatures, from the highest angel to the lowest worm, to set forth God’s praises.
Ver. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul ] Agedum animule mi, et intima men viscera. A good man’s work lieth most within doors; he is more taken up with his own heart than with all the world besides; neither can he ever be alone so long as he hath God and his own soul to converse with. David’s harp was not oftener out of tune than his heart, which here he is setting right, that he may the better make melody to the Lord. Music is sweet, but the setting of the strings in tune is unpleasing; so is it harsh to set our hearts in order, which yet must be done, and thoroughly done, as here.
And all that is within me This psalm celebrates the fruit of blessing by the Israel of God in that day. For them, as for us now, Messiah’s sufferings produced endless praise. It begins with the individual, as always, “every one that is written in the book.” It follows up the forgiveness of all iniquities with the healing of all diseases; for the age of habitable earth to come will enjoy the full power of Messiah, of which miracles (when He was here or afterwards) were but samples. Then it rises to His ways as well as acts, not as of old partially made known, but attested in all the extent and display of His kingdom. For it is not only Jehovah’s mercy from everlasting to everlasting on those that fear Him, but His throne is established in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. Hence His angels, His hosts, and all His work, are to bless Jehovah everywhere; as his own soul did, and so it concludes. Could this psalm be with such propriety anywhere but here, immediately after Psa 102 ? Inspiration arranged as it wrote; the profit of both is lost by incredulity through vain confidence in man and his thoughts.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 103:1-5
1Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
2Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
3Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
4Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
5Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
Psa 103:1-2; Psa 103:20-22 Bless the Lord When one compares the first and last verses of this Psalm and Psa 104:1; Psa 104:35, it is obvious that they form a unity (six Piel imperatives).
Bless This term (BDB 138, KB 159) is one of two roots used of blessings.
1. (BDB 80) is used 45 times in the OT and corresponds to the bless of Mat 5:3-10 (i.e., the Beatitudes). It denotes a state of blessedness (cf. Psa 1:1; Psa 2:12; Psa 32:1-2; Psa 33:12; Psa 34:8; Psa 40:4; etc.).
2. (BDB 138) is used here (cf. Psa 103:1-2; Psa 103:20-21; Psa 103:21; Psa 104:1; Psa 104:35) and over 325 times in the OT. It was used of
a. YHWH blessing initial creation – Gen 1:22; Gen 1:28
b. YHWH blessing the Patriarchs – Gen 12:1; Gen 18:18; Gen 22:17-18; Gen 26:4; Gen 28:14
c. the cursing and blessing of covenant obedience – Deuteronomy 27-28 (also note Leviticus 26)
The basic root has two (possibly related) connotations.
a. to kneel
b. to bless
Psa 103:1 soul Nephesh (BDB 659, KB 711-713) is the Hebrew term for life force. It is used for both mankind (Gen 2:7) and the animals (cf. Gen 1:24; Gen 2:19). Here, it is parallel with the next phrase, all that is within me, which emphasizes the author’s attempt to praise God with his whole being. See note online at Psa 3:2.
O my soul This is a literary form where the author speaks to himself (cf. Psa 42:5; Psa 42:11; Psa 43:5; Psa 104:1; Psa 104:35; Psa 116:7). It is a way of referring to one’s own thinking process.
His holy name The rest of this Psalm, particularly Psa 103:8-14, describes the character of God. This Psalm helps us to get a true picture of the heart and mind of the eternal, creator, redeemer God. See SPECIAL TOPIC: CHARACTERISTICS OF ISRAEL’S GOD .
Psa 103:2 And forget none of His benefits In the OT, for God to forget is very important because it speaks of His pardon. But for a person to forget speaks of his ingratitude or rebellion. A good parallel passage for God’s tender mercy toward fallen man is seen in Deu 4:9; Deu 4:23; Deu 4:31; Deu 6:12; Deu 8:11; Deu 8:14; Deu 8:19; Deu 9:7; Deu 25:19. Just to sit and reflect on who God is and what He has done for us brings joy to the heart of a true believer.
Psa 103:3 Who pardons all your iniquities The term (BDB 699, KB 757) for pardons is used in Hebrew only for God’s forgiveness. Psa 103:11-13 includes three metaphors that describe God’s forgiveness in graphic terms.
Notice the series of participles that describe why YHWH should be blessed (i.e., He gives benefits).
1. He pardons all your iniquities – BDB 699, KB 757, Qal
2. He heals all your diseases – BDB 950, KB 1272, Qal
3. He redeems your life from the pit – BDB 145, KB 169, Qal
4. He crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion – BDB 742, KB 815, Piel
5. He satisfies your years with good things – BDB 959, KB 1302, Hiphil
This series of five participles covers life on earth and a future life in heaven.
Who heals all your diseases The Hebrew noun, diseases (BDB 316), and verb (BDB 317 I) are used in Deu 29:21 in the sense of cursing because of Israel’s disobedience to the covenant. Because of this usage, and several OT passages that speak of healing of sin (cf. Psa 41:4; Isa 1:6; Isa 6:10; Isa 53:5), it is doubtful that the emphasis of this verse is on physical healing, although it surely includes that (cf. Exo 15:26; Deu 32:29; Psa 147:3). The Jews recognized that sin and disease were related (cf. Jas 5:13-18). Here, it is parallel to pardons all your iniquities.
SPECIAL TOPIC: HEALING
Psa 103:4 Who redeems your life The term redeems (BDB 145, KB 169, Qal active participle) is the same as the kinsman redeemer or go’el (BDB 145, Qal active participle, cf. Job 19:25 and also the same root in Ruth 4). Here, God is described in intimate family terms, as He is in Psa 103:13.
from the pit This could be used in the sense of physical destruction, but because of its parallel in relationship to the term Sheol in Psa 16:10, it seems to relate to the author’s hope in the afterlife (see SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? ). Some authors even connect Psa 103:4 b and 5 to this context.
Who crowns you with lovingkindness The verb (BDB 742, KB 815) can mean
1. crown – LXX and most English translations
2. surround – JPSOA, NIDOTTE, vol. 3, p. 384
Both make sense in this context.
compassion The term (BDB 933) is often used of YHWH (cf. Exo 33:19; Deu 13:17; Deu 30:3; 2Ki 13:23; Isa 14:1; Isa 30:18; Isa 49:10; Isa 49:13; Isa 54:8; Isa 54:10; Isa 55:7; Isa 60:10). It was used in Psa 102:14 to describe the exiles’ feelings about the destroyed temple (cf. Lam 3:22).
Who satisfies your years with good things This is a very difficult verse to translate because of the uncertainty of the Hebrew term, years. Literally, it means ornaments (BDB 725). The King James translation, mouth, is obviously incorrect. The ASV translation, along with the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, have desire, which seems to be a derived meaning from the original term, while most modern translations use a textual emendation to bring forth the concept of life or prime of life (cf. NEB, RSV, TEB and JPSOA). The AB (Michael Dahood, p. 26) sees it as referring to eternity (i.e., life with God in heaven). The UBS Text Project gives ornaments a B rating (some doubt).
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle The concept of eagle has caused some commentators to take this verse in two different ways.
1. actually refers to the vigorous strength of eagles (cf. Isa 40:31)
2. the mythical allusion to the phoenix, a bird which comes back to life after death (cf. RSV translation; possibly Job 29:18)
3. eagles molting so as to get new feathers (NET Bible)
The term translated eagle (BDB 676) can refer to an eagle or a vulture. In this context of YHWH’s mercy and grace, eagle is the better choice (note Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11; Isa 40:31).
The verb renewed (BDB 293, KB 293) is rare (cf. 1Sa 11:14; 2Ch 15:8; 2Ch 24:4; 2Ch 24:12; Job 10:17; Isa 61:4; Lam 5:21). It is used only three times in the Psalter.
1. Psa 51:10 – renew a steadfast spirit within me (Piel imperfect)
2. Psa 103:5 – renewed like an eagle (Hithpael imperfect)
3. Psa 104:30 – You renew the face of the ground (Piel imperfect)
Title. of David: i.e. relating to the true David.
Bless. Figure of speech Apostrophe.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. with ‘eth = Jehovah Himself.
my soul = me myself. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
holy. See note on Exo 3:5.
name. See note on Psa 20:1.
Psa 103:1-22 , a favorite psalm of thanksgiving time. I trust that it wasn’t so long ago that you have already forgotten how thankful you were.
Bless the LORD, O my soul ( Psa 103:1 ):
Now this is a command of David, or a command of David, the psalmist to himself. David often was talking to his inward man, talking to his soul. And here he is commanding himself, commanding his soul to bless the Lord, “Bless the Lord, my soul.” In one psalm, David, in talking to his soul, said, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you so disquieted within me?” He didn’t understand his own feelings. Have you ever been at the place where you didn’t understand your own feelings? Why am I feeling this way? Why do I feel upset? Why do I feel discouraged? Why do I feel despondent? Why do I feel blue? What’s wrong, soul? Why are you cast down? What is your problem? Do you think God is dead or something? Now it’s another vein, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”
and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits ( Psa 103:1-2 ):
So quickly we forget the benefits of serving the Lord. David then begins to list those benefits. We are not to forget them.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction ( Psa 103:3-4 );
That is, He saves you from hell.
who crowns thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies ( Psa 103:4 );
You see, it isn’t just a negative thing. The Christian life is far from a negative experience and too many people are only emphasizing the negative aspects. Looking at the negative aspects, when in reality there are far more positive aspects to it than the negative aspects. I really don’t take the negative aspects into much account myself. I’m so excited with all of the positive aspects of serving the Lord that the negative doesn’t really come into mind much. “For He crowns thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
He satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The LORD executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. He made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts unto the children of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy ( Psa 103:5-8 ).
Now you have heard people say, “Well, there is the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament is vengeful and wrathful and murderous and so forth. And the God of the New Testament is love, mercy, and grace.” Now wait a minute. This is Old Testament. And he declares, “Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy.” And you better perhaps read the fourteenth chapter of the book of Revelation, when the cup of the indignation of the wrath of God is overflowing and He pours out His judgment upon this Christ-rejecting earth. And you’ll find that the same God is revealed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, who is a God of love, a God of mercy, a God of patience, but also a righteous, holy God who is absolutely just.
He will not always chide: nor will he be angry for ever. He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities ( Psa 103:9-10 ).
How true that is. God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. God has been merciful to us.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that reverence him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us ( Psa 103:11-12 ).
Interesting that he said as far as the east is from the west, rather than as far the north is from the south. Because the north is only about 12,500 miles from the south. You can only go north until you get to the North Pole, then you are going south. And as soon as you get to the South Pole, you are going north again. The distance of about 12,500 miles, that is, unless you are going straight through. But you can start off tonight flying east, and you’ll fly east the rest of your life, if you don’t change directions. Or you can start flying due west, and you’ll be flying west the rest of your life. So I’m glad that he said as far as the east is from the west, rather than as far as the north is from the south, because I want my sins farther away than the north from the south. I like the east and the west bit. I like God just removing completely my sins, my guilt from me. Because of His mercy.
“As high is the heavens is above the earth.” Now there is some scientific discussion as to just how high that might be. And every once in awhile the scientists come along and say, “Oh, we’ve just discovered a new quasar, or galaxy that is beyond anything we’ve ever known before. It is out there, eight billion light years away, ten billion light years away.” All right, keep searching man; you’re only expanding the mercy of my God. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so high is His mercy over those that reverence Him.”
And so I like all these new discoveries, though I think a lot of them are just fanciful kind of interpreting of the data that they have with their own limited knowledge. And I don’t think that they know what they are talking about, in many realms, and they’ve confessed that now. They had all kinds of ideas concerning Saturn and the rings, all kinds of scientific data that was in the astronomy books, and now they have to revise all of the books on Saturn. We’ve learned so much from this flyby of our little satellite recently. We’ve learned so many things about the rings and everything else, that all of our theories that we had are out the window now because now we have more data. And so science is changing. The facts are changing, the facts of science seem to often change, but that is totally inconsistent. Facts can’t change. So it must be that the scientists were wrong. Oh, but scientists are gods aren’t they? And if they said if we evolved from the tadpole, surely they must know. I don’t know how high the heaven is above the earth, but however it is, that’s just how high God’s mercy is towards me.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that reverence him. For he knows our frame; and he remembers that we are dust ( Psa 103:13-14 ).
Now we don’t remember that ourselves often. We think that we are the rock of Gibraltar. We think, “Man, I can stand, you know. Let me at Satan, you know.” And we are challenging so oftentimes Satan to do battle with us. “Come on, just… you know. Come on out and fight.” And God looks down upon us and He is, number one, merciful, because we reverence Him. And secondly, He pities us, just like a father pities his child. Because God remembers our frame. He knows we are but dust. This body made out of the dust. God remembers that.
Man has a tendency to magnify his body. Oh, this body consciousness; everything is the body of man. We have come into a body worship cult. How man worships the body. We were driving down to Newport Beach the other night and this place down there. I haven’t been down to Newport for a long time. All these guys working out in the windows, standing there, curling, you know. Mirrors, all over the walls. The old body cult. Worshipping the body. But God remembers it’s just dust. God looks down and says, “O man, just a bit of dust.” He knows our frame; He knows we are but dust.
Which means that God doesn’t really expect as much out of me as I expect out of myself. And so oftentimes I am so disappointed with myself, and I weep because of my disappointment over myself. “Oh, I thought I was stronger than that, I thought I was better than that and all. Oh God, I am so sorry I disappointed You.” He says, “You didn’t disappoint Me. I knew you were dust all the time.” God wasn’t disappointed; I was disappointed in me. But God knew me, He knew me better than I knew myself. He knew that I was but dust. I thought I was Superman. I thought I could I leap buildings with a single bound, and He knows my frame.
As far as our days, we are as the grass: or like a flower in the field ( Psa 103:15 ).
So for a time, for a moment, we may flourish,
But when the wind passes over it, the grass, the flower is gone, and the place of it remembers it no more. But the mercy of the LORD ( Psa 103:16-17 )
Now man in passing, we are dust, we are transient, we are passing, like the grass or the flower.
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting ( Psa 103:17 )
High as the heaven is above the earth. That is one dimension of it, but from another dimension, it’s from everlasting to everlasting, from the vanishing point to the vanishing point, God’s mercy. The height of it and the breadth of it. How glorious.
to those that reverence him ( Psa 103:17 ),
And the key here all the way through is to those that reverence God.
and his righteousness to the children’s children [that’s my grandkids]; And to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. For the LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless ye the LORD, ye angels, that excel in strength, and do his commandments, harkening to the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the LORD, all his works in all of the places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul ( Psa 103:17-22 ).
So David calls the angels, the heavenly hosts, in to the praising of God. Those angels that are the ministers of God, doing His will, His pleasure. Then all of his works, all of the places of God’s dominion. Then again, as he started the psalm, he ends it, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” “
Let us read, dear friends, the one hundred and third Psalm, not because we do not know it, but because I trust that we know it by heart, and feel that it is a fit expression for our hearts thankfulness on this last Sabbath evening of another year.
Psa 103:1. Bless the LORD, O my soul:
He has been blessing thee; now begin thou to bless him. If, during the week, thou hast been busy about the things of the world now leave these unimportant matters, and come to the grandest exercise in which an intelligent spirit can be engaged. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let there be no sleeping now, no coldness, no indifference; let it be real soul-work. His blessings have been real, let thy praises be real, too.
Psa 103:1. And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the whole of his name, and especially the holiness of it; be glad that thou hast a holy God. There was a time when this was a terror to thee, for thou wast unholy, and unable to delight in Gods holiness; but he has cleansed and washed thee, and now thou canst rejoice in the whole of his character, in the wholeness, or the holiness, of his blessed name.
Psa 103:2. Bless the LORD, O my soul,
Do it again. If thou hast praised him now in thy heart, lift up thy heart yet higher. Let the praise come up from a greater depth, from the very bottom of thy heart, and let it rise to a loftier height, even to the highest heaven.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Psa 103:2. And forget not all his benefits:
Thou hast a bad memory for good things; but now try to make thy memory awake, forget not any of Gods benefits. If thou canst not remember all, yet do not wilfully forget any of them: Forget not all his benefits. Here is a list to help thy memory:-
Psa 103:3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Canst thou not praise the Lord for this? One of those iniquities, like a millstone about thy neck, would be sufficient to sink thee into hell; but God forgives them all. He does it now as much as ever he did. He still forgives, for the forgiveness of God to his people is a continuous act. Do thou, then, continually praise him, and rejoice in him.
Psa 103:3. Who healeth all thy diseases;
None can set the human frame in order but he who made it. Medicines and physicians are of little service unless God blesses the doctors skill. Especially does the Lord heal soul sicknesses; and they are very many and very terrible. Bless his name that he continues still to heal. As fresh complaints break out in thy poor flesh or spirit, and thy soul mourns over them, he comes, and gives the healing balm.
Psa 103:4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Keeping thee from the gates of the grave; and, better still, delivering thee from the jaws of hell.
Psa 103:4. Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
The Lord has made a king of thee; and what an empire is thine! And what a crown is this, which thou dost wear! Other crowns make the head lie uneasy; but this is the softest, the best, the richest coronet that ever crowned head did wear. Thou mayest be content to keep it though all the Caesars should offer all their pomp to thee in exchange for thy crown; He crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
Psa 103:5. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
The mouth of man is very hard to fill. There are some mens mouths that never will be filled until the sexton gives them a shovelful of earth; for they are covetous and greedy, and always hungry after more; but God has filled thy mouth, not with earth, nor with earths treasure, but with good things, the very best things. The best of the best he has given thee, all that thy heart desireth, in giving thee himself; so that thy youth, when thou growest old, and feeble in thy spirit, returns to thee once more. Bless the Lord, then, for all these mercies.
Psa 103:6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
He lets the oppressor go on for a while; but sooner or later, there comes a terrible retribution. There is nothing of oppression in this world that can live long; for God is abroad, and oftentimes even the horrors of war make an end to the equal horrors of oppression. God interposes in dreadful judgments to execute vengeance on those that oppress the poor.
Psa 103:7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Bless him for this. Bless him for the Old Testament Scriptures. Bless him that he did not hide himself of old; but did speak to his people, and reveal himself by his prophets, and by the types and symbols of the law, Bless his name, and study much the revelation of his ways and acts, and get all the good out of it that thou canst.
Psa 103:8. The LORD is merciful and gracious,
Bless him, O my soul! Bless him for this, for where wouldst thou have been if he had not been merciful? Where wouldst thou be if he were not gracious, giving grace to keep thee what thou art, and to make thee better?
Psa 103:8. Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
Blessed words! Any who are under a sense of sin will suck honey out of these choice expressions. Slow to anger. God does get angry at last when grace has had her day; but he is plenteous in mercy.
Psa 103:9. He will not always chide:
He will chide sometimes. He would not be a kind Father if he did not. That is a cruel father to his children who never chides them. This was Elis sin, and you know how it brought destruction upon him and his house. Our Father takes care to chide us when we need it; but he will not always chide.
Psa 103:9-10. Neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Brothers and sisters, bless his name for this. Let every verse, as we read it, awaken fresh gratitude; and let us keep up the music of our souls in harmony with the language of the Psalm.
Psa 103:11-12. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
They are gone. There is a chasm between us and our sins, which will never be bridged. To an infinite distance has the great Scapegoat carried away all the sins of his people; they shall never return to us.
Psa 103:13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
The best of them need pity. There is something to pity in them; and because the Lord pities them, he will not lay too heavy a burden upon them, he will not demand too much of them, he will not give them over to their enemies. He deals tenderly with them because they are so weak.
Psa 103:14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
Sometimes we do not remember that ourselves; we think that we are iron, and we fancy that we shall last for ever; but the Lord remembereth that we are dust.
Psa 103:15-16. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Before even the mowers scythe comes, the hot eastern wind has dried up the grass, and it is gone. How little a thing carries us away! It seems as if it did not need death to come with a sharp scythe to cut down such frail creatures as we are; he does but breathe upon the field, and all the flowers are withered at once. Oh, that we might all be prepared for such a speedy end of our lives, and not look upon this world as a place for a long stay; but only as the meadow in which we, in common with other feeble flowers, are blooming out our little hour!
Psa 103:17. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
Blessed be his name that mercy had no beginning, and shall never have an end. You and I are of yesterday, and therefore we pass away tomorrow; but God is ever the same, and of his years there is no end, because he is without beginning; and such is his love to his people, eternal, and unchangeable. Bless his name for this, dear friends. Do not forget what is to be the accompaniment to the reading of the Psalm; but constantly bless the Lord, praise him, and magnify his holy name.
Psa 103:17-18. And his righteousness unto childrens children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
Bless him for his goodness to our children. Some of us have seen the covenant of the Lord kept to our children as well as to ourselves. May we all have that blessing in the case of all that spring of us!
Psa 103:19. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
Bless him for his sovereignty. A God who did not reign would be no God to us; but the Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; and let his people be glad because he hath prepared his throne in the heavens, beyond the reach of all mans attacks or assaults. Beyond all time and change, the Lord reigneth on for ever and ever, and his kingdom ruleth over all. It extends over all things that are on the earth, and above it, and beneath it; angels and men and devils are all subject to his sway.
Psa 103:20-22. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
I think, before we pray, we must bless and magnify the Lord by singing Miltons version of Psalms 136 :-Let us with a gladsome mind, Praise the Lord, for he is kind:
Psa 103:1-5
PRAISING GOD FOR ALL OF HIS MERCIES
The superscription identifies this as a Psalm of David; and, “Nothing in it forbids the supposition that he was the author. However, nothing in the psalm or anywhere else enables us to determine the precise occasion on which it was written.”
This is a perfect psalm, suitable to all times and situations. Christians more frequently turn to this psalm than to any other. Its terminology has entered into the speech of all generations. This writer remembers from the prayers of his grandfather the employment of Psa 103:10 verbatim as it appears in the King James Bible, and also an exclamation that, “The time and place that know us now, shall soon know us no more for ever,” founded upon Psa 103:16.
Some of the critical writers would assign this psalm to the times of the exile, or afterward, depending upon the occurrence of certain Aramaisms; but as Leupold observed, “Aramaisms are never a sure index of date.” As Paul T. Butler, a distinguished Christian Church scholar of Joplin, Missouri, wrote in 1968, “Aramaisms cannot be made a criterion for determining date, because they are found in both early and late Old Testament books. Also, the recently-discovered Ras Shamra texts reveal Aramaic elements (Aramaisms) dating back to 1500 to 1400 B.C.” This, of course, knocks the keystone out of the arch of critical devices for late-dating Old Testament writings.
Another unwarranted assumption that labels many psalms “liturgical” is also very untrustworthy. “Of course, it cannot be denied that liturgical use of many psalms could have been made, but it is equally correct that they are beautifully adapted to personal use.”
The organization of this psalm appears to be: (1) a self-exhortation to praise God (Psa 103:1-5); (2) Israel exhorted to bless God (Psa 103:6-13); (3) God’s consideration for man’s frailty (Psa 103:14-18); and (4) all in God’s kingdom to bless Him (Psa 103:19-22).
Psa 103:1-5
SELF-EXHORTATION
“Bless Jehovah, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
Who forgives all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy desire with good things,
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.”
Who is it who cannot make the spirit of this worship his own? Every mortal life has received countless benefits at the hand of the Lord, has been healed of many diseases, has received forgiveness of sins, has experienced the redemption of his life from destruction threatened by many dangers seen and unseen, and has enjoyed countless satisfactions from the good things which the Lord has provided.
“So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle” (Psa 103:5). There was an ancient fable of the eagle renewing its youth in old age, similar to the fable of the Phoenix; but as Briggs noted, “It is doubtful whether there is any allusion here to the fable; but at all events it is the fulness of the life and vigor of the eagle that is thought of.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 103:1. When bless is used towards the Lord it means to praise and adore Him as the source of all blessings. In the language of the familiar Doxology: “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.” soul as used here means the entire living being which is why the Psalmist added the specification in the second clause of the verse.
Psa 103:2. The close of the preceding verse stipulated the entirety of man’s being should bless the Lord. This verse indicates the reason for such praise to the Lord, that it is on account of the benefits received. Forget not means not to be inattentive to, not merely that the facts have “slipped the memory.” When man fails to give proper consideration to the goodness of God it is as bad as if he had entirely forgotten it.
Psa 103:3. The emphasis in this verse should be on the pronoun who and not on the word all. Other passages teach that forgiveness for sin is offered on certain conditions, and that disease is healed only when the Lord’s will calls for it. But the thought of the Psalmist is that when these favors are bestowed upon man, the Lord should receive all the credit and praise for it.
Psa 103:4. One way to redeem a thing is to prevent the condition threatened. Those who are faithful to God will be protected from the destruction intended by the enemies. To crown means to bestow abundantly the good things considered. The faithful servants of God will thus be given the kindness that springs from divine love, and the mercy that is prompted by His tender or mild regard for his children.
Psa 103:5. The Lord does not always give us what we may think we should have. But he will give us that which actually satisfieth, which means to leave no real want of good things. These good things of life are what will sustain our existence. No man will actually be made or be kept young. However, if the Lord sustains him he will be kept comparatively young and strong. Like the eagle’s is a comparison drawn from the enduring strength of that mighty bird. Funk and Wagnalls’ Bible Dictionary says that the eagle is used as a figure of various traits. Strength is one quality mentioned and Isa 40:31 would justify the figure.
It seems almost a work of supererogation to write anything about this psalm. It is perhaps the most perfect song of pure praise to be found in the Bible. It has become the common inheritance of all who through suffering and deliverance have learned the goodness of Jehovah. Through centuries it has been sung by glad hearts, and today is as fresh and full of beauty as ever. It is praise intensive and extensive.
As to its intensity, notice how the entire personality of the singer is recognised. The spirit of the man speaks. He addresses his soul, or mind, and calls it to praise first for spiritual benefits, and then for physical. And again notice how in the sweep of the song, things so small as the frame of the physical and its constituent dust are recognised, while yet the immeasurable reaches of east and west are included.
The extensive mercy of Jehovah, as evident in the same system, is seen in other psalms, but perhaps never so majestically as here. It begins with individual consciousness (vv. Psa 103:1-5); proceeds in recognition of national blessings (vv. Psa 103:6-18); and ends with the inclusion of all the angels, and hosts, and works in the vast dominion of Jehovah. The my of personal experience merges into the our of social fellowship, thus culminates in the all of universal consciousness. Yet all ends with the person word, and the perfect music of the psalm is revealed in the fact that it opens and closes on the same not.
the Lords Abundant Mercies
Psa 103:1-12
Davids name heads this peerless psalm, which expresses, as none other, the soul of the universal Church and of the individual Christian. Notice the present tenses throughout these verses. Gods tender dealings run parallel with our lives. He is never weary nor exhausted. When once He begins, He keeps on. Let us enumerate the blessings that He gives in such unbroken abundance, and as the fingers tell the successive beads, praise Him: forgiveness; healing, Exo 15:26; redemption from perils and accidents, seen and unseen; the crowns that He places on our unworthy heads; entire satisfaction, Psa 36:8; Isa 58:11; perennial youth.
It was a proverb among Orientals that the eagle literally grows younger. This is the psalmists reference in Psa 103:5. For us it means that the life which is fed from the eternal springs is eagle-like in royal strength and sunward flight. Ways or plans are revealed to the inner circle; the ordinary congregation knows only acts. The Father does chide, but only till we put sin away. Conceive the infinite spaces of East and West-such is the distance of forgiven sin from us. It is impossible that the blame or curse of it should ever return upon the redeemed soul.
Psa 103:2
This Psalm is: (1) a monologue; (2) a psalm of recollection; (3) a psalm of thanksgiving. David begins by gathering together all the benefits by recollection, and now he has to arrange them, so that they can be sung by any soul exercising itself like his, and remembering the first benefit his soul has got.
I. The first benefit is forgiveness. David arranges all on a business plan; he puts his chief benefit first.
II. “He healeth all thy diseases.” He says to his soul, as Aristotle said, “We are working under another category now.” A moment ago there was a saint standing like Joshua, clad with filthy garments, an accuser accusing him, a gallows awaiting him, a broken law, a guilty sinner without any one to help him. But He “forgiveth all thine iniquities,” though a man feel his sins so great, someone great sin so black, that his heart is sick, and he feels as though he needed another communion table to wash that sin away. But He heals malice, envy, carnal feelings, backbiting, unbelief, “all thy diseases.”
III. He “crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” Beyond the seas, out there in the East, they have crowned their singers, their speakers, their wrestlers, with laurel leaves; but I never read in Eastern story that they ever had laurels for the man whose tragedy was never acted, whose oration found no audience, whose song was never sung before the great Greek congregation. Christ came to seek and to comfort those who have uncrowned themselves, to seek out the poor, undistinguishable singer whose song has never been sung, the speaker who has found no suitable audience. He seeketh out the weary and lost, who have been broken by the weight of their load; and He crowneth poor sinners with His lovingkindness and tender mercy.
IV. The result of the crowning is that his mouth is satisfied with good things; his youth is renewed like the eagle’s. When David was a child in the sheepfolds of Bethlehem, he had watched many of the ways of the children of nature. He had seen many an eagle come home bloody and bruised; he had seen her, guided by her instinct, retire to the cleft of the rock and gain strength there, shaking off her broken plumes. He knew her times and her seasons. She basked in the sunshine, resting until her strength was renewed. And when he sees himself a poor old broken-winged eagle, to him, the poor old sinner, the memory of the eagle comes back. He flies to the Rock of ages, flies like many a heart since that has been sick with pain and sin.
A. White, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 10.
I. It seems at first a strange thing that we should call upon our souls to bless the Lord. It is a fitting and natural thing that we should call upon the gracious God to bless us. But what can I give to Him? He is all fulness; He needs nothing, surely, that I can present to Him. How can I bless Him? Herein is a great mystery-the mystery of love. Love is a great want; God’s love is a great want: love can only be satisfied with love. (1) David in this matter is very careful to stir up his soul; he knows how content we are to think about these things and let the heart sleep. (2) David wants the individuality of the praise. “My soul.” No man can give the bit of praise that I can give.
II. Next he begins to number, to look at, the benefits. Here are three things that you and I should do with our benefits. (1) We should weigh them; they are so substantial. The word “benefit” in itself is a grand word. It means “good deed.” God’s word ever clothes itself in deed; He loveth in truth and indeed. (2) Number God’s benefits. If we begin to number them, we must find out that they are numberless. (3) Measure the Lord’s benefits. Do not measure your mercies by your desires, for your desires are made for God. Keep your mercies in the right place and the Lord first; that is the only way of satisfaction. Do not measure your mercies by other people’s; measure them by the footrule of your deserts. When we measure our mercies by our deserts, then we are lost in wonder, love, and praise.
M. G. Pearse, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 161.
Psa 103:2
I. Man stands in a continued relation to the past.
II. Man is called upon to reason from the past to the future.
III. This call to reason from the past to the future is an incidental illustration of the unchangeableness of God. What He was, He will be.
Application: (1) The atheism of anticipation should be corrected by the reverent gratitude of retrospection. (2) He who reviews the past thankfully may advance to the future hopefully. (3) Nothing forgotten so soon as “benefits.”
Parker, Pulpit Analyst, vol. i., p. 503.
References: Psa 103:2.-G. S. Barrett, Old Testament Outlines, p. 137; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 191. Psa 103:2, Psa 103:3.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 14. Psa 103:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv., No. 1492; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 152.
Psa 103:3-5
I. He “forgiveth all thine iniquities.” Thine iniquities are in-equities. There is nothing just or right in thee. He forgiveth thee thine evil nature, and He forgiveth all its evil fruit. And His forgiveness, like His power, fulfils itself in works.
II. He “healeth all thy diseases.” Corruption and disease have a spiritual origin. The Divine art of healing therefore lies in the forgiveness of sin. Remove the in-equities of the soul, and universal healing comes in. Christ healeth all thy diseases by forgiving all thine iniquities.
III. He “redeemeth thy life from destruction.” As righteousness, peace, and eternal life are an indissoluble unity, so are iniquity, misery, and destruction. Therefore He who forgiveth our iniquities redeems our life from destruction. The removal of all in-equity from our spiritual nature is not only the removal of all disease, but of the ground of disease; and the removal of all disease and of the ground of disease is redemption from death.
IV. “He crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.” The Lord our God is more than a Redeemer. He does not pardon His criminals and then dismiss them. He pardons them and receives them into His house; He makes them all children: and all His children are His heirs, and all His heirs are princes, and all His princes are crowned.
V. “He satisfieth thy mouth with good things.” All the capacities of the immortal nature shall be filled, and the fulness shall be a fulness of good. “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him.”
VI. And then the crown of crowns. His youth is renewed like the eagle’s, not once renewed, to sink again into the frailty and dulness of age, but ever and evermore renewed, by the ceaseless communication of life from the source of life. Eternal life will be nothing less than joyous progression towards the perfection of youth.
J. Pulsford, Quiet Hours, p. 231.
Psa 103:5
How may we recover in manhood, but in a wiser way, what was noble in our youth-recover our manifold interests, our poetic feeling towards the history of man and nature, our ideal of the goodness, truth, and love of man?
I. The restoration of manifold interests. Youth teaches us diversity, the first entrance into middle age concentration; in later life we ought to combine both, to recover the interests of the one and to retain the power of the other. I think one can do it best by the means of two great Christian ideas. One is that, as God has called us to perfection, we are bound to ennoble our being from end to end, leaving no faculty untrained. The other is that as Christ lived for man’s cause, so should we. The first will force you to seek for manifold interests in order to make every branch of your nature grow; the second will lift you out of the monotonous and limited region of self into the infinite world of ideas. An infinite tenderness and grace belongs to every work whose highest aim is the aim of Christ-the good of man. Life then becomes delightful, even of passionate interest; and the whole of being unfolds like a rose-full of colour, scent, and beauty.
II. Restoration of poetic feeling. In the old dreamland we can never live again, but we may live in an ideal and yet a true world; we may restore the poetry of youth to our life in its relation both to man and nature. (1) As to the first, there is no idea which will so rapidly guide us into a larger and more imaginative view of the history of man as the great Christian thought, which we owe to Christ, that all the race is contained in God; that all are bound together into unity in Him; that as all are children of one Father, so all are brothers, existing in and for the good of one another. (2) Again, in our relation to nature, we can get back what we have lost. There are different paths to this recovery, but none lead to it more directly and rapidly than the true conception of God. Once we have realised the thought of one Divine will as the centre of the universe, we can no longer abide in the realm of unconnected facts. We hear no longer isolated notes, but the great symphony of nature-two or three themes infinitely varied, and the themes themselves so subtly connected in idea that all together they build up a palace of lovely and perfect harmony. This is the restoration in a truer form of the ideal majesty and the poetic feeling of our youth.
S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life, p. 351.
References: Psa 103:5.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 328. Psa 103:6, Psa 103:7.-G. W. McCree, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 94. Psa 103:9.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1171.
Psa 103:9, Psa 103:13
I. In the mind of the psalmists there was nothing contradictory between faith in God as a righteous Judge and faith in God as being longsuffering and of great kindness. They did not think of God as divided between His sense of justice and His love of mercy, because they understood that mercy was never forgotten in His judgments. They felt that His judgments were the truest mercies both for themselves and for the world at large. So deep was their conviction of the blessedness of God’s judgments that some of their most joyous strains are those in which they proclaim God as coming to judge the world in righteousness.
II. The text shows the fatherly character of God. He is our Father because He created and preserves us; He is our Father because He rules us by the stern yet loving discipline of His righteous judgment; He is our Father because He is full of love, and forgiveness, and tender, fatherly pity, knowing our frame and remembering that we are dust.
III. Here then is a proof of the Divine source whence the inspirations of the psalmists came. They knew God as their Father because the Spirit of adoption was speaking to their hearts.
G. Forbes, The Voice of God in the Psalms, p. 149.
References: Psa 103:11.-Sermons for Sundays, Festivals, and Fasts, 1st series, p. 292. Psa 103:12.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1108.
Psa 103:13
(with Heb 2:17; Heb 4:15)
The thought which I desire, by the comparison of these texts, to suggest is this: how the compassion of God for men disclosed in the Old Testament has grown in the New into the fellow-feeling of Christ. We have not lost our Father’s pity; we have gained a Brother’s sympathy.
I. Both halves of revelation agree in giving impartial prominence to two aspects of God’s moral attitude towards us: to His aspect of displeasure towards the sinner as identified with his sin and His aspect of grace towards the sinner as separable from his sin. But looking only to the gracious or favourable side of the Divine character, I am struck by this, that in those Old Testament writings which make most of the kindlier and milder attributes of Jehovah the grand quality on which everything is made to rest is His pity. The inconceivable vastness of that interval which divides God from men was ever present to the devout Hebrew. It was across this gulf of contrast that Hebrew piety always represented Jehovah as regarding man. He beheld them creatures of yesterday, small, and frail, and evil, evanescent and sorrowful. He pitied them. Very beautiful to think of is this tender turning of the great Divine heart toward such as we are, and the waking up of pity at each new sight of our pitiable mood. Whatever the Old Testament discloses of Divine kindness to men, of gentle forbearance, and enduring, watchful care, and abundant forgiveness, and healing helpfulness, seems all of it to be the condescension of One who is too great to be anything else than nobly pitiful.
II. There is no doubt whatever that some souls, fed on such views of God as these, did grow up to a spiritual stature quite heroical. True greatness of soul is near of kin to a manly lowliness of soul, and he who frankly and profoundly worships Him who is alone noble enough for worship will find himself ennobled.
III. At the same time, the characteristic tendency of Old Testament saints to look at the Divine goodness as coloured by His pity, and as having a constant reference to His distance above His creatures, implied an imperfect appreciation of His love. Love has not done its best when from above it pities us who are below. One better thing it had to do; and at last, when the world was ripe to bear it, love came and did it. Love when it is perfect vanquishes what it cannot obliterate: the distinctions of high and low, of great and small. It refuses to be separated from its loved one. Down from His height of serene, compassionate Divinity, therefore, love drew the Eternal Son of God, to become a Brother of the men whose Father He was. God has entered into a new relation to humanity. He has, what once He had not, a fellow-feeling, that fellow-feeling which springs from the touch of kinship. In brief, to the paternity of God has been added the fraternal tie.
IV. There are three directions in which actual experience must be held to modify even the compassions of the Most Merciful. (1) It gives such knowledge of every similar sufferer’s case as no mere spectator can have. (2) By His incarnation Christ has put Himself on our own level. He has abolished at His own choice the gulf which parted us. He is our Equal; He is our Fellow. (3) A chord which has been once set in unison with another vibrates, they say, when its fellow is sharply struck. God has set His heart through human suffering into perpetual concord with human hearts. Strike them, and the heart of God quivers for fellowship. It is the remembrance of His own human past which stirs within the soul of Christ when, now from His high seat, He sees what mortal men endure. An echo from an unforgotten passion answers back to all the cries and sighs that go daily up from men and women who to this hour on earth must toil, and weep, and pray, and agonise, and die.
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 138.
I. Jesus made Deity attractive. He presented Him in such a fashion that human love humanly expressed could give itself to Him. The incarnation of God translated theology out of metaphysics into the physical, brought the apprehension of it within the scope of those senses that feed the soul. Pity, tenderness, courtesy of manner, sweetness of speech, patience, bravery, humility, faith, hope-these in Jesus were revealed as Divine, as God in the flesh, as Deity brought nigh.
II. There is nothing so fine in its influence or so sweet in its expression as the authority of love. We yielded loving obedience to it when we were children, as we heard its words from the mouth of mother and father. We never doubted their right to speak it. We never thought it was unnecessary. No more should we when God commands us. God is father and mother to us. His commands are wishes in our behalf, suggestions to us, entreaties, prayers, and whatever else is natural for love to feel and do for those it calls its own. This idea of the commands of God gives the mind a right standpoint from which to see the face and to hear the advice of that heavenly Fatherhood which is over us all in its solicitude, anxiety, and deathless love.
III. In the future we shall grow into this love as trees grow to their leaves and their blossoms. We are human now, but we are learning to be Divine. The creeds may not help us; but the loving and the forgiving, the bearing and the fighting, the weeping and the laughing, will. Our day will come after night, and our calm after storm. We are men and women now; we shall be angels by-and-bye: and what are angels but men fully grown and women to whom all possible whiteness and sweetness has come? Our Father will give us new names when we are grown enough to look like Him.
W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 397.
I. Upon the three grounds of creation, property, and unity we base the parental tenderness of God. And if once that fact be established, there are two things which become impossible for ever. (1) The one impossibility is that God should ever feel contempt for us. Pity is a respectful feeling; real pity never despises: it always acts delicately. (2) The other impossibility is that God should ever feel any unkindness towards us.
II. Notice one or two of the characteristic features which mark a father. (1) Anticipation. We have an amazing history yet to learn of what has been the anticipatory character of God’s love to us. (2) Patience. Of all the marvels of God, the greatest marvel is His longsuffering. If you ask the secret of this wonderful endurance of God, how it is that He has borne all the insults and all the irritation which we all have been continually giving Him, the answer lies in the deep principle of parental character. (3) God’s pity is not a weak pity; it is not a morbid pity; it is not a pity that cannot punish. He does punish His own children; in this world He punishes them more severely than other men.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 186.
References: Psa 103:13.- Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1650; J. Baillie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 230.
Psa 103:13-14
I. There is no evidence to be derived of the existence of pity in any overruling Deity as far as the laws of nature reveal the Divine character. As we rise from the lower to the higher organised animals, there does begin to be a very distinct manifestation of affection. Among men the feeling of pity is first disclosed in a very clear way. We are prepared to believe that the analogy of this line of development continues, and that in angels it is as much superior to what it is in the highest men as in the highest men it is superior to what it is in the lowest; and we are prepared to believe that above angels and all supernal beings, in God Himself, it takes on a grandeur and dignity, utterly inconceivable to men and commensurate with the infinite-ness of God’s own nature.
II. If we look at human society as an organisation, we shall find that it does not fitly serve as an analogue of the Divine nature. As a ruler, man cannot have pity. Government was not meant for purposes of restoration. It was meant to be a restraining, guiding, penal institution.
III. Above all other places, it is in the family and in the individual heart that we find the full disclosure of pity, or a state of sympathy and helpfulness in view of another’s suffering. If one would gain the clearest ideas of the scope and nature of pity, he must study it in the family. There we see: (1) that love inflicts pain. (2) Where suffering is inflicted by a wise and loving parent, the object of it is not to avenge a wrong done to the parent. (3) Pity is consistent with penalty.
In view of these statements, I remark: (a) Pity on the part of God will not prevent the infliction of penalty among transgressors. (b) Those who are suffering the just consequences of their sins are not on that account excluded from God’s pity. (c) All who are striving to live aright in this world, although they are far from successful, may be comforted in the thought that there are more who sympathise with them than they know or dream.
H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 3rd series, p. 326.
References: Psa 103:13, Psa 103:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 941. Psa 103:15.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 185.
Psa 103:15-16
Man’s reason is his distinctive privilege; but it has one melancholy result: it makes him know his own weakness and mortality. Other creatures are only aware of evil when they actually come upon it, and after the moment of terror are tranquil and careless, as before. Man has evil allotted to him, with all the aggravation of its prospect and approach-the long-sustained and harassing pains of doubt and apprehension, fears going and returning. His melancholy foresight creates a perpetual war; and he lives within a circle of enemies, and sustains his life as in a besieged city. He may be conscious of strength, but his enemies are strong too; and they are many, and he is one.
I. This is more especially the effect of the gift of reason on the subject of death. On other points it only reveals to us our insecurity; here it reveals to us the end of our existence itself as far as this world is concerned. No sooner is man born than he foresees his death; he is made a prophet in spite of himself. The soul which God has given him is a prophetic one. Such being the effect of the gift of reason on this subject, and such our particular privilege and trial, how do men meet it?
II. Worldly men take one view of this, and say that such a looking forward and such a prophetical tone of mind with respect to death is not natural, because it leads to such results. And as a counterbalance to, and remedy for, such presages they take refuge in the matter-of-fact sensation of life which belongs to us. They throw themselves deliberately and systematically upon this worldly instinct, in order to counterbalance the true prophetic nature of the soul and prevent it from acting, in order to deaden the sense of futurity and annihilate the other world to their minds.
III. Now what is the Scripture way of dealing with the subject of death? It does not allow it to be thus put aside. It makes us view it with steady, calm eye and keep it before us. It tells the soul to reckon beforehand, to see, to prepare; it lengthens its sight: it fixes its aim. Foresight was given us that we might be, not paralysed, indeed, and rendered motionless, but sobered and chastened in the exercise of our active faculties, that we should feel that very check of which worldly men are impatient, for they would fain while they do live be going to live for ever in their imagination.
J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 258.
Reference: Psa 103:15-19.- Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 536.
Psa 103:20-22
These verses contain or imply an answer-the unvarying answer of Holy Scripture-to the question which is ever recurring, which perplexed wise and anxious heathen men, and still puts itself at one time or another to each of us-the question, I mean, What is the object of man? for what end do we, the human race or the individuals who make it up, find ourselves here on earth? Various are the answers which men have given and give. To please himself, to find happiness, to search farther and farther into knowledge, to perfect the race-each of these has been said to be the end of man. The Bible carries us high above these selfish answers. It lifts our eyes upwards from earth to the glorious order of the heavens, and to Him that sitteth thereon; and, with the Psalmist in the text, we learn to look upon man as part of a mighty universe, his voice but one note in a wondrous harmony of praise, his course but one among many orbits of obedient service, his race but one among countless orders of beings, reaching upwards to the highest angels, reaching downwards to the lowest creature that hath breath, to whom there is but one task, end, and function: the service of God their Maker. Consider in detail the bearing upon our daily life of this great thought, that our life and all its parts must not merely be consistent with, but be, a sacrifice of service offered to Almighty God in Jesus Christ.
I. Although service and worship may in heaven blend in one, yet as heat, which science shows to be only a form of motion, is for practical purposes a thing distinct from it, so the devout adoration of Almighty God must be distinct from those duties of daily business in which He bids us actively serve Him. And doubtless it is of the two the more heavenly. The things of earth which we treat in daily life do, although we handle them in His name and for His sake, yet soil our hands and engross our faculties. In devotion we turn from them to be alone with God, or rather, in company with a worshipping universe, to look towards God alone.
II. You come out from these more sacred parts of your time to do your daily work and live your worldly life. This too must be made the service of God. To remember that this must be done will enable you to do it. The thought will overshadow your lives with a sense of responsibility. Our Lord’s parable of the talents entrusted to the servants may deepen this sense. Whatever powers creatures have-much more such a creature as man, created once by God, re-created in Jesus Christ-are talents to be employed, laid out at interest, for their God.
E. S. Talbot, Keble College Sermons, p. 1.
Psa 103:22
I. The text consists of two sentences: the first, the Psalmist’s exhortation to others; the second, a precisely similar exhortation to himself: “Bless ye the Lord.” His hand is upon his harp; he is weaving a spirit-stirring anthem, and he summons every creature within sound of his voice to join in the song of rapture and thankful adoration. But why does he not proceed with the lofty chant? Why die the notes away as though there were a sudden check in the poetic fervour? Was it not that David felt how paralysing it was to summon others to praise God, how easily such a summons might be taken in proof that the heart of the speaker was beating with thankfulness though all the while it might be cold and indifferent, with little sense of the Divine goodness and little endeavour to magnify the Lord? Therefore, probably, it was that the Psalmist paused to examine and exhort himself. The necessity for self-examination increases at precisely the same rate with activity in disseminating spiritual good, for at precisely the same rate does the probability increase that we shall take for granted our share in that good, and yet all the while be suffering it to slip from our grasp.
II. Consider how this danger may be guarded against. How shall the guide who feels his mind deadening to the influence of the natural landscape, through the frequency of inspection and the routine of describing it to strangers-how shall he prevail keeping his mind alive to the beauties of the scene, the wonders and splendours which crowd the panorama? Let him not be satisfied with showing that panorama to others; let him not look at it merely in his professional capacity; but let him take frequent opportunities of going by himself to the various points of view, that he may study it under all possible aspects. No other advice need be given to the spiritual guide, whose office is that of teaching others the Gospel, and whose danger therefore is that of growing cold to the Gospel itself. The more we engage in teaching others, the more tenacious should we be of seasons of private meditation and self-examination.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2156.
Reference: Psa 103:22.-F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 305.
Psalm 103
The Praise of Israel
1. The benefits of full salvation (Psa 103:1-7)
2. Merciful and gracious (Psa 103:8-18)
3. His throne and His kingdom (Psa 103:19-22)
This is the well-beloved Psalm, because Gods people love it for its precious and beautiful expressions, telling out the full salvation of our Saviour Lord and the gracious compassion which He manifests towards His own. But we must not overlook the prophetic aspect, which but few believers have recognized. It is really the hymn of Praise which will be sung by redeemed and restored Israel. Theirs will be a whole-souled praise. Their iniquities are forgiven, their diseases are healed, their life is redeemed from the pit, they are crowned with lovingkindness and tender mercies. Their youth is renewed like the eagles (Isa 40:28-31), which will be fulfilled then. And then the riches of mercy towards His beloved people! His Throne and His kingdom are seen in the closing verses and everything blesses Him.
All His Benefits
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities;
Who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies:
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.Psa 103:1-5.
This psalm, with which we are all familiar from our childhood, shines in the firmament of Scripture as a star of the first magnitude. It is a song of praise, yet not the praise of an angel, but the praise of one who has been redeemed from sin and from destruction, and who has experienced that grace which, although sin abounds unto death, doth much more abound unto eternal life. It is the song of a saint, yet not of a glorified saint, but of one who is still working in the lowly valley of this our earthly pilgrimage, and who has to contend with suffering, with sin, and to experience the chastening hand of his Heavenly Father. And therefore it is that this psalm, after beginning upon the lofty mountain heights of Gods greatness and goodness, in which all is bright and strong and eternal, descends into the valley where the path is always narrow and often full of darkness and danger and sadness. But as the Psalmist lives by faith, and as he is saved by faith, so he is also saved by hope; and after having described all the sadness and all the afflictions and conflicts of this our earthly pilgrimage, he shows that even at this present time he is a member of that heavenly and everlasting Kingdom of which the throne of God is the centre, and where the angels, who are bright and strong, are his fellow-worshippers, and in which all the works which God has made will finally be subservient to His glory and be irradiated with His beauty. And thus he rises again, praising and magnifying the Lord and knowing that his own individual soul shall, in that vast and comprehensive Kingdom, for evermore be conscious of the life and of the glory of the Most High.
I
Bless the Lord
1. To praise God, to bless God, is only the response to the blessing which God has given us. God speaks, and the echo is praise. God blesses us and the response is that we bless God. And those five verses of praise in Psalms 103 are nothing but the answer of the believing heart to the benediction of Aaron, which God commanded should be continually laid upon the people. The Lord who is the God of salvation; the Lord, who has revealed His Holy Name as Redeemer; the Lord who, by His Spirit, imparts what the Father of love gives, what the filial love revealsthis is the Lord who is the object of the believers praise. For to praise God means nothing else than to behold God and to delight in Him as the God of our salvation. Singing may be the expression of praise, may be the helpful accompaniment of praise, but praise is in the spirit who dwells upon God, who sees the wonderful manifestation of God in His Son Jesus Christ, and the wonderful salvation and treasures of good things stored up in His beloved Son.
We commonly begin our prayers with a request that God will bless us; the Psalmist begins his prayer by calling on his soul to bless God! The eye of the heart is generally directed first to its own desires; the eye of the Psalmists heart is directed first to the desires of God! It is a startling feature of prayer, a feature seldom looked at. We think of prayer as a mount where man stands to receive the Divine blessing. We do not often think of it as also a mount where God stands to receive the human blessing. Yet this latter is the thought here. Nay, is it not the thought of our Lord Himself? I have often meditated on these words of Jesus, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness! I take them to mean: Seek ye first the welfare of God, the establishment of His Kingdom, the reign of His righteousness! Before you yield to self-pity, before you count the number of the things you want, consider what things are still wanting to Him! Consider the spheres of life to which His Kingdom has not yet spread, consider the human hearts to which His righteousness has not yet penetrated! Let your spirit say, Bless the Lord. Let the blessing upon God be your morning wish. It is not your power He asks, but your wish. Your benediction cannot sway the forces of the Universe; your Father can do that without prayer. But it is the prayer itself that is dear to Him, the desire of your heart for His hearts joy, the cry of your spirit for His crowning, the longing of your soul for the triumph of His love. Evermore give Him this bread!1 [Note: G. Matheson, Leaves for Quiet Hours, 213.]
If we want to know what it is to praise God, let us remember such a chapter as the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, where Paul blesses God who has blessed him with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and where he sees before him the whole counsel and purpose of the Divine election, of the wonderful, perfect, and complete channel of the purposes of God in the redemption which is in the blood of Jesus, and the wonderful object and purpose of the Divine grace, that we, united with Christ, should through all ages show forth the wonderful love of God. That is to praise God, when we see God and when we appropriate God as He has manifested Himself to us in Christ Jesus. And it is only by the light which comes from above, and by the wonderful operation of the Holy Ghost, that it is so wrought in the heart of the Christian, although it may be in silence, that his soul magnifieth the Lord and his spirit rejoiceth in God his Saviour.2 [Note: A. Saphir.]
2. Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. The Psalmist desires to bless God with all that is within him. He who succeeds in doing this offers to God an eloquent worship. Eloquence means speaking out, letting the whole soul find utterance. And the Psalm before us supplies us with a choice sample of the kind of worship made by David. In this Psalm, mind, heart, conscience, imagination, all come into play. The whole inner man speaks rightfully, thoughtfully, devoutly, musically, pathetically; and, as was to be expected, God is praised to some purpose.
The metrical version of the Psalm puts us in possession of the fuller meaning of this verse:
O thou my soul, bless God the Lord;
And all that in me is
Be stirred up his holy name
To magnify and bless.
How truly and with what fine knowledge of the soul of every spiritual man has this rendering caught the real point of that verse! And it is not this once only that the metrical psalm selects and emphasizes some word which we did not quite realize in the prose version. Here and there it may be that to our modish and sophisticated ears the psalms in metre may fail as poetry; but they never fail in spiritual discernment. They always take hold of the point, of the real business of the prose text. They always recognize the matters which really concern our souls; so that again and again the metrical psalm serves as a kind of commentary upon the prose, developing the finer sentiments, bringing out of the text certain beauties which we might never have become aware of, though we recognize them at once the moment they are set out for us. You see what I mean in this particular instance. The prose reads: Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. We might read those words again and again, feeling in each case that it is merely a devout utterance of the soul, having nothing individual or characteristic about it. But how the metrical version cuts down to the root of the idea! What a distinction, what a precise meaning, the metrical form gives to the prayer!
O thou my soul, bless God the Lord;
And all that in me is
Be stirred up his holy name
To magnify and bless.
It was pure spiritual genius to bring out that idea of stirring up all that is within our souls.1 [Note: J. A. Hutton, The Souls Triumphant Way, 23.]
II
Forget Not
If we would rightly praise God, we must keep ourselves from forgetfulness. Moses warns against this vice when he says: Beware lest thou forget the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments and his statutes, which I command thee this day, lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. In the Prophets the sad complaint re-echoes from the Lords mouth: Ye are they that forget my holy mountain.
One of the first stories I recall from my childhood was a story of the evil of forgetting God. I remember the very spot on which it was told to me. I feel the warm grasp of the hand which had hold of mine at the time. I see once more the little seaport town stretching up from the river mouth, with its straggling fisher town at one extremity, and at the other its rows of well-built streets and its town hall and academy. On this occasion we were standing on a high bank looking down on the beautiful shore at our feet. Across the tiny harbour, and along the shore on the other side of the river, is a very different scene. What one sees there is a dreary waste of sand. No grass grows there, no trees shadow it, no house stands upon it. It is a place forsaken and desolate. It has been a desolation longer than the oldest inhabitant can remember. But it was not always desolate. It was once a fair estate, rich in cornfields and orchards. A stately mansion stood in the midst of it, and children played in the orchards, and reapers reaped the corn. But the lords of that fair estate were an evil race. They oppressed the poor, they despised religion, they did not remember God. They loved pleasure more than God, and the pleasures they loved were evil. To make an open show of their evil ways they turned the day of the Lord into a day of rioting and drunkenness. And this evil went on a long while. It went on till the long-suffering of God came to an end. And then upon a Sunday evening, and in the harvest-time, when the corn was whitening for the reaper, the riot and wickedness had come to a height. The evil lord and his evil guests were feasting in the hall of the splendid house. And on that very evening there came a sudden darkness and stillness into the heavens, and out of the darkness a wind, and out of the wind a tempest; and, as if that tempest had been a living creature, it lifted the sand from the shore in great whirls and clouds and filled the air with it, and dropped it down in blinding, suffocating showers on all those fields of corn, and on that mansion, and on the evil-doers within. And the fair estate, with all its beautiful gardens and fields, became a widespread heap of sand and a desolation, as it is to this day.1 [Note: Alexander McLeod.]
III
All His Benefits
Of the benefits that David enumerates the first three are all negative: He forgives our sin, He heals the consequences of our sin, our diseases, He delivers us from destruction, the wages of our sin. But in the forgiveness of sin and in the healing of our diseases, in the deliverance from the devil and from everlasting hell, God gives Himself, He gives the whole fulness of His love, He elevates the soul into the very highest spiritual life; and therefore, the Psalmist continues, he who has been thus delivered out of destruction is a king, he is crowned with lovingkindness and with tender mercies, he is enriched and satisfied with good things; and not merely outwardly enriched, but there is a life given him which is unfading, the youth of which is perennial, continually renewing itself by the very strength of God.
1. The Psalmist sets himself to count up the benefits he has received from God. He has not proceeded very far when he finds himself to be engaged in an impossible task. He finds he cannot count the blessings he has received in a single day, how then can he number the blessings of a week, of a month, of a year, of the years of his life? He might as well try to count the number of the stars or the grains of sand on the seashore. It cannot be done.
St. Francis, dining one day on broken bread, with a large stone for table, cried out to his companion: O brother Masseo, we are not worthy so great a treasure. When he had repeated these words several times, his companion answered: Father, how can you talk of treasure where there is so much poverty, and indeed a lack of all things? For we have neither cloth nor knife, nor dish, nor table, nor house; neither have we servant nor maid to wait upon us. Then said St. Francis: And this is why I look upon it as a great treasure, because man has no hand in it, but all has been given us by Divine Providence, as we clearly see in this bread of charity, in this beautiful table of stone, in this clear fountain.1 [Note: E. Meynell, The Life of Francis Thompson (1913), 283.]
I was walking along one winters night, hurrying towards home, with my little maiden at my side. Said she, Father, I am going to count the stars. Very well, I said; go on. By and by I heard her countingTwo hundred and twenty-three, two hundred and twenty-four, two hundred and twenty-five. Oh! dear, she said, I had no idea there were so many. Ah! dear friends, I sometimes say in my soul, Now, Master, I am going to count Thy benefits. I am like the little maiden. Soon my heart sighssighs not with sorrow, but burdened with such goodness, and I say within myself, Ah! I had no idea that there were so many.2 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
2. But if he cannot remember them all, he may at least try not to forget them all. He may try to remember some of them. But this also is a hard task. For memory is weak, and the blessings are many and manifold. How can he help himself not to forget? How shall he help himself to remember those benefits which he values most highly? He sets himself to find helps to memory, helps not to forget. So he falls upon a plan which he finds to be most helpful, and which others ever since have found to be so. He takes those benefits which he desires not to forget, and he ties them up in bundles. And then, to make sure that he will not forget them, the Psalmist shapes the bundles of Gods benefits into a song. A song is the easiest thing of all to remember. So he shapes them into a song, which people can sing by the wayside as they journey, can carry with them to their work, and brood over in their hours of leisure.
By tying the benefits up in bundles, and by shaping them into a song, the Psalmist earned for himself the undying gratitude of future generations. Specially has he earned for himself our gratitude, for he gave us a song which we sing in Scotland to-day, and have sung for more than three hundred years, when our religious emotions are at their highest and their best. We sing this song when the feeling of consecration has been renewed, widened, and deepened by communion with God at His table. I never was at a communion-time at which this song has not been sung, and no other song could do justice to the feelings of gratitude of the Lords people. So we sing, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth, who healeth, who redeemeth, who crowneth, and who satisfieth.1 [Note: James Iverach, The Other Side of Greatness, 121.]
i
Forgiveness
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities.
Note how the Psalmist begins. He begins with iniquity. Where else could a sinful man begin? The most needful of all things for a sinful man is to get rid of his sin. So the Psalmist begins here. This beginning is not peculiar to him, it is the common note of the Bible. In fact, we here come across one of the distinctive peculiarities of the Bible. We may read other literatures and never come across the notion of sin in them. Crimes, blunders, mistakes, miseries enough one may find, but sin as estrangement from a holy personal God who loves man and would serve him one never finds. But in the Bible we are face to face with sin from first to last. One chapter and a bit of another are given to the story of the making of the world and the making of man, and then the story of the entrance of sin is told, and the reader is kept face to face with sin in every part of it. In the gospel story we read at the outset: Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins; and in John almost the first word about Him is, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. It is characteristic of the Bible to keep its reader face to face with sin and its consequences, till he is stirred up to the effort to get rid of it.
Sometimes in business a man will say: There is a limit to everything. I have trusted such an one, and he has deceived me. I have forgiven him much, but now he has crossed the score, and I will have no more dealings with him. But it is only when men, in their own estimation, have got over that score that the heavenly business begins. Some minister comes from somewhere, to preach some day, and preaches the forgiveness of sins, and that is the beginning of the business; and at length the man finds Heaven for himself, and can say: He forgiveth all mine iniquities.2 [Note: A. Whyte.]
ii
Healing
Who healeth all thy diseases.
Once a prophet said, From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores. When we read these words, we are inclined to say they are Oriental figures of speech, exaggerated metaphors. If our spiritual vision were as keen as that of the prophet, we should find that he was speaking what he knew. Sin then makes disease, and Gods relation to disease is described as that of healing. In the Scriptures this relation is described so fully that it gives a distinctive name for GodJehovah the Healer. He not only forgives sin, He also so deals with the results of sin that He removes every trace of sin. He heals all our diseases.
The nineteenth century produced three famous persons in this country who contributed more than any of their contemporaries to the relief of human suffering in disease: Simpson, the introducer of chloroform; Lister, the inventor of antiseptic surgery; and Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. The second of the great discoveries completed the beneficent work of the first. The third developmentthe creation of nursing as a trained professionhas co-operated powerfully with the other two, and would have been beneficent even if the use of ansthetics and antiseptics had not been discovered. The contribution of Florence Nightingale to the healing art was less than that of either Simpson or Lister; but perhaps, from its wider range, it has saved as many lives, and relieved as much, if not so acute, suffering as either of the other two.1 [Note: Sir Edward Cook, The Life of Florence Nightingale, i. 439.]
iii
Redemption
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.
That is, God preserves the life that He saves. Here is first a life forfeited. That life is then saved by forgiveness. Then there is a life imperilled by disease, and saved by Gods healing. But that life is in a thousand dangers. Many seek after the young childthe Christ within usto destroy it. But God redeemeth thy life from destruction. How often God has saved some of us from impending ruin, He alone knows.
In my native town of Stirling workmen were blasting the castle rock near where it abuts upon a wall that lies open to the street. The train was laid and lit, and an explosion was momentarily expected. Suddenly, trotting round the great wall of cliff, came a little child going straight to where the match burned. The men shouted. That was mercy. But by their very shouting they alarmed and bewildered the poor little thing. By this time the mother also had come round. In a moment she saw the danger, opened wide her arms, and cried from her very heart, Come to me, my darling. That was Render mercy; and instantly, with eager, pattering feet, the little thing ran back and away, and stopped not until she was clasped in her mothers bosom. Not a moment too soon, as the roar of the shattered rock told.1 [Note: A. Grosart.]
I remember one who had been for a long time drifting towards an evil act which was certain to do more harm to others than to himself, but who had not as yet determined on flinging friends, society, work, good repute, his past and future, and God Himself, to the winds. The one thing that kept him back was a remnant of belief in God, in One beyond humanity, beyond the worlds laws of convention and morality. Nothing else was left, for he had, in the desire for this wrong thing, passed beyond caring whether the whole world went against him, whether he injured others or not. He was as ready to destroy all the use of his own life as he was careless of the use of the lives of others. But he felt a slow and steady pull against him. He said to himself, This is God, though I know Him not. At last, however, he determined to have his way. One day the loneliness and longing had been too great to be borne, and when night came he went down his garden resolved on the evil thing. This night, he said, I will take the plunge. But as he went he heard the distant barking of a dog in the village; the moon rose above a dark yew tree at the end of the garden, and he was abruptly stopped in the midst of the pathway. Something seemed to touch him as with a finger, and to push him back. It was not till afterwards that he analysed the feeling, and knew that the rising of the moon over the yew tree and the barking of the dog in the distance had brought back to him an hour in his childhood, when in the dusk he had sat with his mother, after his fathers death, in the same garden, and had heard her sayWhen thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. It was this slight touch that saved him from wrong which would have broken more lives than his own. It was God speaking; but it would have been as nothing to him, had he not kept his little grain of faith in God alive, the dim consciousness that there was One who cared for him, who had interest that he should conquer righteousness. Next day, he left his home, travelled and won his battle; and his action redeemed not only his own but anothers life.1 [Note: S. A. Brooke, The Ship of the Soul, 23.]
There is an old poem which bears the curious title of Strife in Heaven, the idea of which is something like this. The poet supposes himself to be walking in the streets of the New Jerusalem, when he comes to a crowd of saints engaged in a very earnest discussion. He draws near and listens. The question they are discussing is which of them is the greatest monument of Gods saving grace. After a long debate, in which each states his case separately, and each claims to have been by far the most wonderful trophy of Gods love in all the multitude of the redeemed, it is finally agreed to settle the matter by a vote. Vote after vote is taken, and the list of competition is gradually reduced until only two remain. These are allowed to state their case again, and the company stand ready to join in the final vote. The first to speak is a very old man. He begins by saying that it is a mere waste of time to go any further; it is absolutely impossible that Gods grace could have done more for any man in heaven than for him. He tells again how he had led a most wicked and vicious lifea life filled up with every conceivable indulgence, and marred with every crime. He has been a thief, a liar, a blasphemer, a drunkard, and a murderer. On his death-bed, at the eleventh hour, Christ came to him and he was forgiven. The other is also an old man, who says, in a few words, that he was brought to Christ when he was a boy. He had led a quiet and uneventful life, and had looked forward to heaven as long as he could remember. The vote is taken; and, of course, you would say it results in favour of the first. But no, the votes are all given to the last. We might have thought, perhaps, that the one who led the reckless, godless lifehe who had lied, thieved, blasphemed, murdered; he who was saved by the skin of his teeth, just a moment before it might have been too latehad the most to thank God for. But the old poet knew the deeper truth. It required great grace verily to pluck that withered brand from the burning. It required depths, absolutely fathomless depths, of mercy to forgive that veteran in sin at the close of all those guilty years. But it required more grace to keep that other life from guilt through all those tempted years. It required more grace to save him from the sins of his youth and keep his Christian boyhood pure, to steer him scathless through the tempted years of riper manhood, to crown his days with usefulness, and his old age with patience and hope. Both started in life together; to one grace came at the end, to the other at the beginning. The first was saved from the guilt of sin, the second from the power of sin as well. The first was saved from dying in sin. But he who became a Christian in his boyhood was saved from living in sin. The one required just one great act of love at the close of life; the other had a life full of loveit was a greater salvation by far. His soul was forgiven like the other, but his life was redeemed from destruction.1 [Note: H. Drummond, The Ideal Life, 149.]
iv
Crowning
Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
So far the Psalmist has been thinking of Gods action as it is defined in relation to sin. Now his thoughts take a grander flight, and he thinks of the Divine action when sin is taken out of the way, and no longer presents a barrier to the fellowship between God and His people. His words take on a finer meaning, and mould themselves into a more musical form. For he tries to represent the intercourse between God and the children of God, when sin is removed from between them. Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. These words are about the most musical and pathetic in the whole Bible, and they are as fine in meaning as they are in form.
God puts honour upon the brow of a forgiven man. He does not merely forgive, and that in a formal way, but, when He forgives, He crowns. He crowns me with the title of son, and He places the coronet of heirship upon my head, for if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Sweet picture this. Observe that it is not a crown of merit, for He crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies. This is the only crown that I can consent to wear.2 [Note: A. G. Brown.]
1. Lovingkindness.Note how the translators of the Psalm have been constrained to tie two English words together in order to set forth the meaning of the original. These translators of the Bible were poets as well as scholars. They took the two words love and kindness and tied them together in order to shut out the weaker meanings of both, and from the union of them set forth a higher and better meaning than either alone could express. Love has always been recognized to be the strongest and best thing in the world of life, and in recent years it has come to even larger recognition. It really holds society together, is at the basis of family life, is the motive power of the highest activities of mankind. But while love is so and acts so, it may partake of the weakness or the selfishness of human nature. It may become fierce, jealous, regardless of the interest of the person who is its object. It may look at the person merely as belonging to itself, and fiercely insist on exclusive possession. No doubt ideal love would labour, toil, and spend itself for the good of the person loved. But all love is not ideal, and it may have more ferocity than kindness in it. So this fierce side of love is shut out, and only the ideal side is kept, and kept by uniting it with kindness. But kindness is apt to be weak, injudicious, and foolish. It is the kindness, perhaps, of a fond young mother who gives the baby whatever it desires, cloys it with sweets, or gives it unwholesome food because the child likes it, or, as George MacDonald suggests, gives the child a lighted candle because it cries for it. This foolish side of kindness is shut out by tying it to the firmer, wiser fact of love. So united, kindness becomes lovingkindness, and the two become, in their union, something higher and better than either of the two elements contained in it, when these are taken by themselves.
Another young friend writes: From such an array of beautiful characteristics as is called up by his name it is hard to choose the greatest, but his loving-kindness is the outstanding trait that not only those who knew him best, but those who came only casually into contact with him, will remember with tenderness. How he loved every one, especially those who were of the household of faith! How eagerly would he seek out, even when on holiday, the brother-minister, superannuated by affliction from active work, to encourage and help him by his sympathy, to cheer him with his humour and his jollity, to stimulate him with his wide and varying interests! And in what good stead that wonderful fund of quiet humour stood him through the days of pain and weakness and weariness through which Gods veteran passed, and from which he is now released! One revered him as a saint, but loved him as a man, a man who radiated such love as compelled a willing love in return.1 [Note: Love and Life: The Story of J. Denholm Brash (1913), 179.]
It is twenty-five years since I first had my attention drawn to this clause. I went to college then, and one day a minister gave me a tract, and told me, Take that and read it, and when you bring it back, tell me what you think of it. He said to meand he proved a sound prophetI may not live to see it, but you will see it. The lad that spoke these wordshis name will be heard wherever the English language is spoken,the name was Charles Spurgeon. It was a discourse on this wordHe crowneth me with lovingkindness and tender mercies. He had never been to college, and had taken none of your envied degrees that seem to stamp a man as a Master of Divinity. My friend said: I may not live to see it, but you will. A young man in his teens, not far up in the offices yet, Spurgeon was under twenty-one when he preached a sermon that made my old friend prophetic. When God takes a mans head out of the dustsaid this young fledgling Puritan preacherHe crowns it with a crown that is so heavy with His grace and goodness that he could not wear it were it not lined with the sweet velvet of His loving-kindness. Not a classic figure perhaps, but Spurgeons figure is graven on my memory while many a classic figure has faded away. Many a costly gift, given carelessly with lavish abundance, you have nearly forgotten: but one gift, given many years ago, you remember still. It was only a cup of cold water, perhaps, but given with a hand and with a look of loving-kindness. And when God crowns us with such love as this, when He smiles upon us, no wonder that it gladdens the heart so that a man never forgets it.2 [Note: Alexander Whyte.]
2. Tender mercies.Mercy in itself is one of the grandest things in human nature. It is not mere feeling, it is feeling in action. It is not mere sympathy or pity, it is sympathy made alive and active. It is not pity, it is pity going forth into action, to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort the sorrowful, to make the widows heart to sing for joy. But tender mercy is even more than mercy, great and good though the exercise be. It is mercy exercised in the most tender way. For mercy may be exercised in such a way as to wound the feelings of the person to whom you are merciful. You may intend to help your friend who has fallen into misfortune. He may have been blameworthy, his misfortune may have arisen from his want of thought, from his recklessness, or even from wrong-doing. You intend to help him, but you are annoyed with his conduct; you insist on showing him how foolish he was, how reckless was his conduct, how unprincipled was his motive, until he almost feels that he would be without the help if he could be free from the scolding. Or you are merciful to the person who asks you for help, but you fling the penny to him across the street. It is possible in this way to undo all the effects of a merciful action by the ungracious way in which it is done. Mercy according to our text is exercised tenderly. You help your friend, or come to the assistance of those who are in poverty and need, in such a way as to bind up their wounds, to cheer them, and to give them courage to begin the battle of life anew, though life heretofore has been all a failure. For the mercy which man shows to man interprets for man the tender mercies of God. After that interview with you, during which you entered into the sorrow of your friend sympathetically and tenderly, gave him of your wisdom, of your experience, of your means, he goes forth to the work of life again with a new outlook, with a firmer resolution to do well. He says to himself, It is a good, kind world after all, and there are good, kind people in it. I must show myself worthy to live in so good a world, and worthy of the help I have received. So tender mercies help, but they help in such a way as to bind up the broken-hearted, and to open a door of hope for those who have failed, and to give them courage to lift them above the feeling of despair.
Stern and unflinching in his denunciation of drunkenness, Ernest Wilberforce was tenderness itself in his dealings with the individual sinner. Few cases are more distressing or more difficult to deal with than those where a clergyman has fallen into habits of intemperance. The Bishops correspondence in one of them is lying before me as I write, marked throughout by the strong sense of justness and fairness which ever characterized him, yet compassionate and considerate, so far as consideration was possible. The facts were clear, and the unfortunate gentleman was induced to vacate his office without the scandal of judicial proceedings. But there were features which induced the Bishop to hope that, under happier auspices, he might yet do good and useful work in his chosen calling. Without any effort at minimizing the sad story, he succeeded in inducing an experienced parish priest in another diocese to give the transgressor a fresh start. The good Samaritan had no cause to regret his charity, and in writing to the Bishop he congratulated the clergy of Northumberland in having one set over them to whom they could appeal with perfect confidence in the hour of need. If ever, he wrote, I should be in a fix, I shall wish for such a friend as your Lordship.1 [Note: J. B. Atlay, Bishop Ernest Wilberforce, 162.]
v
Satisfaction
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle.
1. The word crowneth suggests something external, something coming to us from without, and after the crowning there may conceivably be some wants unsupplied, some needs of man which have not been met. But the note of Christianity is that no human needs are left unsatisfied. My God shall supply all your need. Satisfied with good, so that every need shall be metthis is the promise.
The thirst of the mind for truth, the thirst of the will and conscience for guidance, and the thirst of the heart for life are satisfied through Him who is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. If there were needs which He could not or would not satisfy, He would have told us of them.2 [Note: James Iverach, The Other Side of Greatness, 133.]
2. The Psalmist felt, as we often feel, that he had emerged from the very gulf of destruction; that he had been, as it were against his will, rescued from moral suicide; that all his life had been redeemed by God. Therefore he burst out into joy and thanksgiving! He who had been through grave sorrows; who had known sin, disease, even destruction; who might have cursed life and shrieked at what men call Fate; cries out in unfeigned and mistakable raptureit is a very outburst of songBless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. And in realizing this joyful victory of the moral and spiritual powers; in the resurrection of his spiritual being into strength; in the leaving behind him in its own grave of all that was dead in his past; in the great cry of his heart as he looked backI am not there, I am risenhis youth was renewed like the eagles! It was a great triumph; for his best life came back in a higher and a stronger way, with now but little chance of failure. He could again, like the eagle, look upon the sun, and love the upper ranges of the sky; again soar, but with steadier beat of wing than in youth; again possess the freedom he loved before disease and destruction had enslaved his plumes; again breathe the breath of immortal love; again in conscious union with God hear the great spheres in measured motion draw after the heavenly tune. And certainty was now with this victory, for he had known and found the Father of his spirit. The waters of his new life arose out of the fountain Life of God Himself, and he knew whence they came. There was now a source as well as a goal for his ideals, hopes, efforts, for the beauty he loved, and for universal joy. It was the Almighty Love and Life of loveliness Himself who was now in hima personal friend, redeemer, strengthener, exalter; who crowned him with lovingkindness and tender mercies. This is the true resurrection; this is the triumph of life.
The brilliant Princess Anastasia Malsoff (the Nancy Malsoff of the Russian Court) was one of those led to Christ by the Marchale, with whom she kept up a close friendship during the rest of her life. One of the Princesss letters is peculiarly interesting: I will see the Emperor in these days, she writes, and I will seek strength to speak to him. You see, my darling, speaking is not enough, one must in such a case pour out ones soul and feel that a superior force guides one and speaks for one. It turned out as she hoped. One night she was at the Palace in St. Petersburg. After dinner the Czar came and seated himself beside her. Soon they were deep in intimate conversation. She began telling him what her new-found friend in Paris had done for her. She talked wisely as he listened attentively. At length he said: But, Nancy, you have always been good, always right. No, she answered; till now I have never known the Christ. She has made Him real to me, brought Him near to me, and He has become what He never was beforemy personal Friend.1 [Note: J. Strahan, The Marchale (1913), 184.]
I shall be sorry, says Eckhart, the German mystic, if I am not younger to-morrow than I am to-daythat is, a step nearer to the source whence I came. And Swedenborg tells us that when heaven was opened to him he found that the oldest angels seemed to be the youngest.
Tis said there is a fount in Flower Land,
De Leon found it,where Old Age away
Throws weary mind and heart, and fresh as day
Springs from the dark and joins Auroras band:
This tale, transformed by some skilled trouvres wand
From the old myth in a Greek poets lay,
Rests on no truth. Change bodies as Time may,
Souls do not change, though heavy be his hand.
Who of us needs this fount? What soul is old?
Age is a mask,in heart we grow more young,
For in our winters we talk most of spring;
And as we near, slow-tottering, Gods safe fold,
Youths loved ones gather nearer:though among
The seeming dead, youths songs more clear they sing.2 [Note: Maurice Francis Egan.]
Literature
Brooke (S. A.), Christ in Modern Life, 351.
Brooke (S. A.), The Gospel of Joy, 67.
Brooke (S. A.), The Ship of the Soul, 16.
Brown (A. G.), in The Peoples Pulpit, No. 20.
Brown (C. G.), The Word of Life, 141.
Campbell (J. M.), Grow Old Along with Me, 19.
Cross (J.), Knight-Banneret, 292.
Drummond (H.), The Ideal Life, 145.
Hall (F. O.), Soul and Body, 73.
Hutton (J. A.), The Souls Triumphant Way, 23.
Iverach (J.), The Other Side of Greatness, 119.
Macmillan (H.), The Ministry of Nature, 321.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 213.
Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 270.
Morrison (G. H.), The Oldest Trade in the World, 103.
Myres (W. M.), Fragments that Remain, 89.
New (C.), The Baptism of the Spirit, 278.
Owen (J.), The Renewal of Youth, 1.
Pearce (J.), The Alabaster Box, 141.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, vii. 17.
Robinson (W. V.), Angel Voices, 137.
Selby (T. G.), The Unheeding God, 216.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xviii. (1872), No. 1078; xxv. (1879), No. 1492; xlix. (1903), No. 2860.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Evening by Evening, 152.
Voysey (C.), Sermons, xviii. (1895), No. 34; xxv. (1902), No. 44; xxvii. (1904), No. 10.
Christian World Pulpit, xxvii. 161 (M. G. Pearse); xxxvi. 218 (A. B. Bruce); xlix. 72 (J. Stalker); lxxv. 59 (J. Birch).
Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., viii. 10 (A. Whyte); ix. 175 (A. Saphir).
Weekly Pulpit, i. 582 (D. Dann).
am 2970, bc 1034
Bless: Psa 103:22, Psa 104:1, Psa 146:1, Psa 146:2, Luk 1:46, Luk 1:47
all that: Psa 47:7, Psa 57:7-11, Psa 63:5, Psa 86:12, Psa 86:13, Psa 111:1, Psa 138:1, Mar 12:30-33, Joh 4:24, 1Co 14:15, Phi 1:9, Col 3:16
holy name: Psa 99:3, Isa 6:3, Rev 4:8
Reciprocal: Gen 19:19 – and thou Gen 35:3 – who answered Gen 49:6 – O my soul Exo 16:32 – General Lev 7:12 – a thanksgiving Num 31:54 – a memorial Deu 26:7 – we cried Jdg 5:12 – Deborah Rth 4:14 – Blessed 2Sa 22:1 – David 1Ki 1:48 – Blessed 1Ch 29:10 – David blessed 2Ch 20:26 – blessed Neh 9:5 – bless Psa 9:1 – praise Psa 40:3 – praise Psa 62:5 – soul Psa 68:19 – Blessed Psa 96:2 – bless Psa 100:4 – be thankful Psa 104:35 – Bless Psa 128:1 – every one Psa 145:1 – extol thee Son 1:4 – remember Jer 4:19 – O my Dan 2:20 – Blessed Dan 2:23 – thank Dan 4:34 – I blessed Mic 6:5 – remember Mar 1:31 – ministered Luk 5:25 – glorifying Luk 13:13 – and immediately Luk 17:15 – General Luk 18:43 – followed Act 3:8 – praising Col 3:23 – whatsoever
The praise of the restored people.
[A psalm] of David.
1. There follows now the praise of the restored people. The psalmist calls upon his soul with all its powers to praise Jehovah, the eternal, unchangeable and covenant-God. Love manifesting itself in “all His benefits” awakes the soul to praise Him, while it realizes amid all its joy the weakness and inconstancy of the creature, of which in contrast with His faithfulness it has had such abundant proof: “forget not all His benefits.”
2. Jehovah is celebrated, first of all, in the salvation which He has effected for them. He is Saviour altogether: of the whole man, body and soul alike. Israel’s experience in the day contemplated will include in the fullest way that of bodily healing, such as accompanied the Lord’s ministry in her midst, miracles which are called therefore in the epistle to the Hebrews “powers of the world to come” (Heb 6:5), -more strictly, “of the coming age.” The bodily condition will then be the fitting sign of the spiritual, in a world from which the curse upon the ground even will be removed.
Nationally and individually, their life is now redeemed from destruction; and more, they find, more completely than Abraham their father, a renewal of youth. “As the days of a tree shall be the days of My people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isa 65:22).
Then the oppressed find a Judge of unfailing righteousness: the character in which Israel’s King is so often represented; -the tender assurance of how the pitiful eyes of the Almighty have been fastened upon human misery and wrong all the time that He endured it; as the prophet says with regard to Israel (Isa 63:9), “afflicted in all their affliction.” Now has come the time of interference and of setting right -the revelation of the God in whom men have not believed.
Yet these are ways long since in fact declared: “He made known His ways unto Moses, His doings unto the children of Israel.” The people saw what was outward; to him with whom God spake face to face, the inner principle was declared. Nor must we imagine that this was law merely. All Deuteronomy is witness of how far beyond this Israel’s law-giver was made to see; and the final prophecy and song with which this closes, clearly declare the ruin of man under law, the sovereign goodness which comes in at last for him. Thus the song of Moses will be the fitting accompaniment of the song of the Lamb in the mouth of the victorious multitude who stand, in the day to come, by the crystal sea (Rev 15:3).
3. Now we have Jehovah Himself put before us: “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in loving-kindness”; and this is how in fact He declared Himself to Moses (the cross-shadow of the law only being removed from it,) that “He can by no means clear the guilty” (Exo 34:6-7). Nay, “He will not perpetually contend, nor will He keep in mind for ever.” They have proved this now in their history, and can say, “He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us after our iniquities.” Thus He has manifested Himself, and glorified Himself before their eyes.
4. They expand this, therefore, in the fourth section; in which His mercy in view of the frailty of the creature is dwelt upon, and in eight verses traced as far as the new covenant, in the blessings of which they are now rejoicing. Supreme is He in mercy: high as the heavens are above the earth. East is no farther from the west than He has removed their transgressions from them. Nay, as a father’s tender mercy toward his children, such is His tender mercy toward those that fear Him. Then we are assured of the fount of infinite pity in Him who remembers that we are but dust; though under His government it is that man’s days can find their image in the flower of the field, which, if the wind roughly passes over it, is gone for ever out of its place.
“But Jehovah’s loving-kindness is from everlasting to everlasting upon those that fear Him; and His righteousness unto children’s children: to those that keep His covenant, and to those that remember His precepts to do them.” This should not sound legal: it is a principle that grace does not set aside, -which it would not be grace, in fact, to set aside. Grace affirms and fulfills it; for “sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law but under grace.” And thus the “covenant” here cannot be either the covenant of law which only “worketh wrath,” but must be that which as Abraham’s covenant makes them true children of Abraham; and which was given four hundred and thirty years before the law came in. Faith links men with this covenant, whether Jew or Gentile, and those who keep it are the circumcised in heart.
So only can we understand the utterance here, and realize the joyous assurance that rings through it. The “new covenant” is but the re-statement more fully, and in more precise application to the nation of Israel, of the old “covenant of promise” which God gave to Abraham; and in this direction apparently the numerical finger points. The grace and blessing here are both eternal.
5. Nothing remains, therefore, but the eternal praise to Him whom all His ways become, and to join with all intelligences, all His hosts -the forces that with sun and moon and storm and earthquake, do still His pleasure -while all His works, all created things in all places of His dominion; bless Him. Yea, “bless Jehovah, O my soul.”
Psa 103:1-3. All that is within me, bless his holy name Let all my thoughts and affections be engaged, united, and raised to the highest pitch in and for this work. Forget not all his benefits In order to our duty, praising God for his mercies, it is necessary we should have a grateful remembrance of them. And we may be assured we do forget them, in the sense here meant by the psalmist, if we do not give sincere and hearty thanks for them. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities This is mentioned first, because, by the pardon of sin, that which prevented our receiving good things is taken away, and we are restored to the favour of God, which ensures good things to us, and bestows them upon us. Who healeth all thy diseases Spiritual diseases, the diseases of the soul. The corruption of nature is the sickness of the soul: it is its disorder, and threatens its death. This is cured by sanctification. In proportion as sin is mortified, the disease is healed. These two, pardon and holiness, go together, at least a degree of the latter always accompanies the former: if God take away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy, he also breaks the power of it by renewing grace. Where Christ is made righteousness to any soul, he is also made sanctification to it in a great measure; for, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.
This is a psalm of David, written after some recent deliverance from sickness, or other affliction. The composition is the unfolding of the heart in gratitude to God, for personal and for national mercies. He calls not only on men, but also on angels to join the choir. The title, a psalm of David,
is supported by all the Versions.
Psa 103:3. Who forgivethwho healeth all thy diseases. Sins and afflictions are synonymous terms in Hebrew piety, and of frequent occurrence. Isa 38:17.
Psa 103:4. Who redeemeth thy life. Hebrews hagoel. The goal or near kinsman is the Redeemer. He who, forasmuch as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, himself also took part of the same. Heb 2:14.
Psa 103:5. Thy youth is renewed like the eagles. The Hebrew and the Arabic read, as the feathers of the eagle, which after moulting in the spring, and at a great age, renews its beautiful plumage as in youth. The gaities of youth, as a poet has said of Nestor, sometimes sport on the temples of an aged saint. See on Psa 92:12.
REFLECTIONS.
We here enter into a high sphere of psalmody and praise. The psalmist, impressed with recent mercies, and mercies of the richest kind, pours forth the effusion of his heart in sublime sentiments and beautiful language. Twice he summons all the powers of his soul to bless the Lord, as though they had languished in the duty, being vanquished by the weight of grace. When a man is labouring under pain, groaning with grief, and appalled with terror, he cannot but be deeply impressed with his situation; but after a recovery, (when carnal men forget the Lord) to be animated with these sentiments is a high mark of a regenerate soul.
The first object which attracted Davids praise was a grateful recollection of Gods forgiving love. He was one of those honest men, who always connected his sufferings and his sins. Reason in a thousand cases is not able to trace this connection; yet a general acknowledgement of this kind is sanctifying, and sin is the first cause of misery and death. Hence the interior comforts of religion are never more welcome than in the day of affliction.
Pardon was connected with purity. God healed both body and soul at once; and the wounds of sin are the most disastrous and offensive. God heals our pride by making us humble and contented with out lot. He heals our concupiscence by purity of heart, and so of every other vice. The soul is brought nigh to God, it walks in close fellowship with him, and it will not, cannot offend him.
To pardon and grace the Lord often adds a multitude of temporal and spiritual favours. He not only redeems the body from dying, and the soul from hell, but he encircles the head with a garland of mercies, and renovates the constitution as the eagles, which frequently live to a hundred years. Thus the Lord executes judgment for the oppressed when they cry to him. His anger is lenient in its correction, and momentary in duration; and his mercy is rich above all estimation. It is high as heaven; it removes our sins as far as the east is from the west, and is exercised with the utmost paternal indulgence.
When a good man falls as the grass and the flower after the scythe, the Lord reserves all these mercies as the heritage of his children, provided they keep his covenant and do his commandments. What arguments are here addressed to us and our children, to serve and praise the Lord. No father is more paternal to an afflicted child, than the Lord is to his saints in the day of trouble.
Unable adequately to praise the Lord, but seeing he had his throne in the heavens, as well as on the earth, he invites the holy angels and all the obedient hosts above to bless his holy name, while his grateful soul should do its utmost to glorify him in a humble sphere.
CIII. A Hymn of Thanksgiving for Yahwehs Pardoning Love.The main theme is stated in Psa 103:6-14. Yahweh is just, He rights the oppressed, but above all He is considerate and ready to pardon sin. He acts like a father to His children.
Psa 103:1-5. The poet speaks from his own experience. He calls on his own soul to bless Yahweh. Here the singular is used: not so in Psa 103:6-14 (see above).
Psa 103:15-18. A mans life is short, but Yahweh continues His kindness to a pious mans descendants.
Psa 103:19-22. Thanksgiving, in which men and angels are to share, for Yahwehs almighty power.
Psa 103:3. diseases: to be taken literally. The cure of disease was the proof that Yahweh had forgiven sin.
Psa 103:5. mouth: meaning uncertain (see mg.). Thy desire (LXX) makes good sense but has no linguistic justification.
Psa 103:5 b also is of doubtful interpretation. It may refer to some forgotten myth about the eagle (or rather vulture). Otherwise we must accept the prosaic solution that the poet refers to moulting.
Psa 103:13. There is no real approach here to Mat 5:48. Here God is compared to a kindly father who knows the weakness of His children and does not expect too much from them. There God as Father demands perfection itself from His children, and lays on them a task which will continue for ever.
PSALM 103
Praise to Jehovah from restored Israel for the blessings into which they are brought in the ways of God.
(vv. 1-3) The psalmist calls upon his soul to praise the Lord for all the blessings into which the nation is brought. He presents a millennial picture of Israel blessed in their circumstances by the benefits of the Lord, with their sins forgiven and their diseases healed. In the days of His presentation to Israel, the Lord has forgiven sins and healed diseases, and thus, by putting forth the powers of the world to come, showed that the kingdom had drawn nigh. Alas! the King was rejected and for the time the blessedness of the kingdom was lost.
(vv. 4-6) Now at length, the nation redeemed from destruction renews its life. The righteous judgment of the Lord will end the long centuries of oppression to which the Jew has been subjected under the rule of the Gentiles, as the result of their rejection of their Messiah.
(vv. 7-12) The blessing of restored Israel will be brought about by the ways of God as made known to Moses. To Israel His outward acts were revealed; to Moses was revealed the principles on which God acted. These ways are now declared to the restored nation. In His ways God is merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. Thus He revealed Himself to Moses on the Mount (Exo 34:6-7). In accordance with these ways God had ever acted in the long history of the nation. Because of their sins God had to chasten them, yet, He will not always chide; neither will He keep His anger for ever.
Their sins and iniquities had become the occasion of showing that His mercy and grace is greater than man’s sin, even as the heaven is high above the earth. Thus it is seen that God is not indifferent to the sins of His people. He shows mercy to His people, but He deals with them on account of their sins and removes their sins as far as the east is from the west.
(vv. 13-16) In all these ways God had acted in tender condescension towards the God-fearing remnant, even as an earthly father pities his children. God remembered their frailty – that like a flower blown away by the wind, so His people if left to the storms of this world would be utterly destroyed and have no more place as a nation.
(vv. 17-18) In contrast to weak man, whose beauty flourishes like a flower, and is then withered by a storm of wind, the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and His righteousness unto children’s children. Neither the frailty of man nor the adverse wind of the enemy can change either the mercy or righteousness of the Lord. This mercy and righteousness is towards such as keep His covenant and do His commands. Is not this the unconditional covenant made with Abraham, under which the nation being brought into blessing can at last keep Jehovah’s commands (Rom 8:4)?
(vv. 19-20) The end of all God’s ways with man is to make manifest that His throne is established in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.
His kingdom displayed as over all calls for the praise of all, both in heaven and earth. Thus all spiritual beings are summoned to bless the Lord. All His hosts – every providential force in nature – are called to bless the Lord. All His created works are called to bless the Lord. And let every individual of the redeemed say, Bless the Lord, O my soul.
103:1 [[A Psalm] of David.] {a} Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name.
(a) He wakens his dulness to praise God, showing that both understanding and affections, mind and heart, are too little to set forth his praise.
Psalms 103
"The four psalms that close Book Four of the book of Psalms (90-106) emphasize praise to the Lord for several reasons: His benefits to His people (103), His care of His creation (104), His wonderful acts on behalf of Israel (105), His longsuffering with His people’s rebellion (106)." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 276.]
This popular Davidic psalm of individual thanksgiving reviews God’s mercies and expresses confident hope in His covenant promises. It contains no requests. Though there is no real connection between this psalm and the preceding one, this one expresses thanks for answered prayer, which Psalms 102 requested. It was the inspiration for H. F. Lyte’s popular hymn, "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven."
"This [Psalms 103] is perhaps the best-known and best-loved of all the hymns." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 160.]
1. Praise for God’s mercy to individuals 103:1-5
David called on himself to bless the Lord wholeheartedly because of all His many blessings. Note the many references to "all" and its equivalents in this psalm. Some groups of Christians (e.g., some Amish) give thanks to God at the end of their meals as well as at the beginning.
Psa 103:1-22
THERE are no clouds in the horizon, nor notes of sadness in the music, of this psalm. No purer outburst of thankfulness enriches the Church. It is well that, amid the many psalms which give voice to mingled pain and trust, there should be one of unalloyed gladness, as untouched by sorrow as if sung by spirits in heaven. Because it is thus purely an outburst of thankful joy, it is the more fit to be pondered in times of sorrow.
The psalmists praise flows in one unbroken stream. There are no clear marks of division, but the river broadens as it runs, and personal benefits and individual praise open out into gifts which are seen to fill the universe, and thanksgiving which is heard from every extremity of His wide dominion of lovingkindness.
In Psa 103:1-5 the psalmist sings of his own experience. His spirit, or ruling sell calls on his “soul,” the weaker and more feminine part, which may be cast down {Psa 42:1-11 and Psa 43:1-5} by sorrow, and needs stimulus and control, to contemplate Gods gifts and to praise Him. A good man will rouse himself to such exercise, and coerce his more sensuous and sluggish faculties to their noblest use. Especially must memory be directed, for it keeps woefully short-lived records of mercies, especially of continuous ones. Gods gifts are all “benefits,” whether they are bright or dark. The catalogue of blessings lavished on the singers soul begins with forgiveness and ends with immortal youth. The profound consciousness of sin, which it was one aim of the Law to evoke, underlies the psalmists praise; and he who does not feel that no blessings could come from heaven, unless forgiveness cleared the way for them, has yet to learn the deepest music of thankfulness. It is followed by “healing” of “all thy diseases,” which is no cure of merely bodily ailments, any more than redeeming of life “from the pit” is simply preservation of physical existence. In both there is at least included, even if we do not say that it only is in view, the operation of the pardoning God in delivering from the sicknesses and death of the spirit.
The soul thus forgiven and healed is crowned with “lovingkindness and compassions,” wreathed into a garland for a festive brow, and its adornment is not only a result of these Divine attributes, but the very things themselves, so that an effluence from God beautifies the soul. Nor is even this all, for the same gifts which are beauty are also sustenance, and God satisfies the soul with good, especially with the only real good, Himself. The word rendered above “mouth” is extremely difficult. It is found in Psa 32:9, where it seems best taken in the meaning of trappings or harness. That meaning is inappropriate here, though Hupfeld tries to retain it. The LXX renders “desire,” which fits well, but can scarcely be established. Other renderings, such as “age” or “duration”-i.e., the whole extent of life-have been suggested. Hengstenberg and others regard the word as a designation of the soul, somewhat resembling the other term applied to it, “glory”; but the fact that it is the soul which is addressed negatives that explanation. Graetz and others resort to a slight textual alteration, resulting in the reading “thy misery.” Delitzsch, in his latest editions, adopts this emendation doubtingly, and supposes that with the word misery or affliction there is associated the idea “of beseeching and therefore of longing,” whence the LXX rendering would originate. “Mouth” is the most natural word in such connection, and its retention here is sanctioned by “the interpretation of the older versions in Psa 32:9 and the Arabic cognate” (Perowne). It is therefore retained above, though with some reluctance.
How should a man thus dealt with grow old? The body may, but not the soul. Rather it will drop powers that can decay, and for each thus lost will gain a stronger-moulting, and not being stripped of its wings, though it changes their feathers. There is no need to make the psalmist responsible for the fables of the eagles renewal of its youth. The comparison with the monarch of the air does not refer to the process by which the souls wings are made strong, but to the result in wings that never tire, but bear their possessor far up in the blue and towards the throne.
In Psa 103:6-18 the psalmist sweeps a greater circle, and deals with Gods blessings to mankind. He has Israel specifically in view in the earlier verses. but passes beyond Israel to all “who fear Him.” It is very instructive that he begins with the definite fact of Gods revelation through Moses. He is not spinning a filmy idea of a God out of his own consciousness, but he has learned all that he knows of Him from His historical self-revelation. A hymn of praise which has not revelation for its basis will have many a quaver of doubt. The God of mens imaginations, consciences, or yearnings is a dim shadow. The God to whom love turns undoubting and praise rises without one note of discord is the God who has spoken His own name by deeds which have entered into the history of the world. And what has He revealed Himself to be? The psalmist answers almost in the words of the proclamation made to Moses (Psa 103:8-9). The lawgiver had prayed, “I beseech Thee show me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee”; and the prayer had been granted, when “the Lord passed by before him,” and proclaimed His name as “full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” That proclamation fills the singers heart, and his whole soul leaps up in him, as he meditates on its depth and sweetness. Now, after so many centuries of experience, Israel can repeat with full assurance the ancient self-revelation, which has been proved true by many “mighty deeds.”
The psalmists thoughts are still circling round the idea of forgiveness, with which he began his contemplations. He and his people equally need it; and all that revelation of Gods character bears directly on His relation to sin. Jehovah is “long of anger”-i.e., slow to allow it to flash out in punishment-and as lavish of lovingkindness as sparing of wrath. That character is disclosed by deeds. Jehovahs graciousness forces Him to “contend” against a mans sins for the mans sake. But it forbids Him to be perpetually chastising and condemning, like a harsh taskmaster. Nor does He keep His anger ever burning, though He does keep His lovingkindness aflame for a thousand generations. Lightning is transitory: sunshine, constant. Whatever His chastisements, they have been less than our sins. The heaviest is “light,” and “for a moment,” when compared with the “exceeding weight of” our guilt.
The glorious metaphors in Psa 103:11-12 traverse heaven to the zenith, and from sunrise to sunset, to find distances distant enough to express the towering height of Gods mercy and the completeness of His removal from us of our sins. That pure arch, the top stone of which nor wings nor thoughts can reach, sheds down all light and heat which make growth and cherish life. It is high above us, but it pours blessings on us and it bends down all round the horizon to kiss the low, dark earth. The lovingkindness of Jehovah is similarly lofty, boundless, all-fructifying. In Psa 103:11 b the parallelism would be more complete if a small textual alteration were adopted, which would give “high” instead of “great”; but the slight departure which the existing text makes from precise correspondence with a-is of little moment, and the thought is sufficiently intelligible as the words stand. Between East and West all distances lie. To the eye they bound the world. So far does Gods mercy bear away our sins. Forgiveness and cleansing are inseparably united.
But the song drops-or shall we say rises?-from these magnificent measures of the immeasurable to the homely image of a fathers pity. We may lose ourselves amid the amplitudes of the lofty, wide-stretching sky, but this emblem of paternal love goes straight to our hearts. A pitying God! What can be added to that? But that fatherly pity is decisively limited to “them that fear Him.” It is possible, then, to put oneself outside the range of that abundant dew, and the universality of Gods blessings does not hinder self-exclusion from them.
In Psa 103:14-16 mans brief life is brought in, not as a sorrow or as a cloud darkening the sunny joy of the song, but as one reason for the Divine compassion. “He, He knows our frame.” The word rendered “frame” is literally. “formation” or “fashioning,” and comes from the same root as the verb employed in Gen 2:7 to describe mans creation. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.” It is also used for the potters action in moulding earthen vessels. {Isa 29:16, etc.} So, in the next clause, “dust” carries on the allusion to Genesis, and the general idea conveyed is that of frailty. Made from dust and fragile as an earthen vessel, man by his weakness appeals to Jehovahs compassion. A blow, delivered with the full force of that almighty hand, would “break him as a potters vessel is broken.” Therefore God handles us tenderly, as mindful of the brittle material with which He has to deal. The familiar figure of fading vegetation, so dear to the psalmists, recurs here; but it is touched with peculiar delicacy, and there is something very sweet and uncomplaining in the singers tone. The image of the fading flower, burned up by the simoom, and leaving one little soot in the desert robbed” of its beauty, veils much of the terror of death, and expresses no shrinking, though great pathos. Psa 103:16 may either describe the withering of the flower, or the passing away of frail man. In the former case, the pronouns would be rendered by “it” and “its”; in the latter, by “he,” “him,” and “his.” The latter seems the preferable explanation. Psa 103:16 b is verbally the same as Job 7:10. The contemplation of mortality tinges the song with a momentary sadness, which melts into the pensive, yet cheerful, assurance that mortality has an accompanying blessing, in that it makes a plea for pity from a Fathers heart.
But another, more triumphant thought springs up. A devout soul, full charged with thankfulness based on faith in Gods name and ways, cannot but be led by remembering mans brief life to think of Gods eternal years. So, the key changes at Psa 103:17 from plaintive minors to jubilant notes. The psalmist pulls out all the stops of his organ, and rolls along his music in a great crescendo to the close. The contrast of Gods eternity with mans transitoriness is like the similar trend of thought in Psa 90:1-17 and Psa 102:1-28. The extension of His lovingkindness to childrens children and its limitation to those who fear Him and keep His covenant in obedience, rest upon Exo 20:6; Exo 34:7; and Deu 7:9. That limitation has been laid down twice already (Psa 103:11-13). All men share in that lovingkindness and receive the best gifts from it of which they are capable; but those who cling to God in loving reverence, and who are moved by that blissful “fear” which has no torment, to yield their wills to Him in inward submission and outward obedience, do enter into the inner recesses of that lovingkindness, and are replenished with good, of which others are incapable.
If Gods lovingkindness is “from everlasting to everlasting,” will not His children share in it for as long? The psalm has no articulate doctrine of a future life; but is there not in that thought of an eternal outgoing of Gods heart to its objects some (perhaps half-conscious) implication that these will continue to exist? May not the psalmist have felt that, though the flower of earthly life “passed in the passing of an hour,” the root would be somehow transplanted to the higher “house of the Lord,” and “flourish in the courts of our God,” as long as His everlasting mercy poured its sunshine? We, at all events, know that His eternity is the pledge of ours. “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
From Psa 103:19 to the end, the psalm takes a still wider sweep. It now embraces the universe. But it is noticeable that there is no more about “lovingkindness” in these verses. Mans sin and frailty make him a fit recipient of it, but we do not know that in all creation another being, capable of and needing it, is found. Amid starry distances, amid heights and depths, far beyond sunrise and sunset, Gods all-including kingdom stretches and blesses all. Therefore, all creatures are called on to Bless Him, since all are blessed by Him, each according to its nature and need. If they have consciousness, they owe Him praise. If they have not, they praise Him by being. The angels, “heroes of strength,” as the words literally read, are “His,” and they not only execute His behests, but stand attent before Him, listening to catch the first whispered indication of His will. “His hosts” are by some taken to mean the stars; but surely it is more congruous to suppose that beings who are His “ministers” and perform His “will” are intelligent beings. Their praise consists in hearkening to and doing His word. But obedience is not all their praise; for they too, bring Him tribute of conscious adoration in more melodious music than ever sounded on earth. That “choir invisible” praises the King of heaven; but later revelation has taught us that men shall teach a new song to “principalities and powers in heavenly places,” because men only can praise Him whose lovingkindness to them, sinful and dying, redeemed them by His blood.
Therefore, it is no drop from these heavenly anthems, when the psalm circles round at last to its beginning, and the singer calls on his soul to add its “little human praise” to the thunderous chorus. The rest of the universe praises the mighty Ruler; he blesses the forgiving, pitying Jehovah. Nature and angels, stars and suns, seas and forests, magnify their Maker and Sustainer; we can bless the God who pardons iniquities and heals diseases which our fellow choristers never knew.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Hearkening unto the voice of his word.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
2. But the ever-flowing fountain of all these benefits and blessings is the love of God. And this love is manifested not merely as guardian love, beneficent kindness, sympathizing mercy, and helpful compassion, but is chiefly displayed as grace. In such exhibitions of His grace does God forgive the sins of men, deliver them from death, renew their natures, heal their infirmities, beautify their lives; and this without any merit or desert of their own. For it is a paternal mode of dealing which God manifests and exercises towards His people.
4. All this is most clearly recognizable in the dealings of God with His people. But they, on their side, have reason most strictly to fulfil these conditions. For Gods will and ways have been made known to them by Himself, and the covenant established by Him reminds them constantly, on the one hand, of their obligation to fulfil its duties, in order that His will may be performed on earth by those who fear Him, as it is by the angels in heaven, and, on the other, of the unchangeable willingness of the Highest to show compassion to man, who withers like the grass, and to make those who are His people well-pleasing in His sight.
5. The Church, accordingly, as it is the place of Gods worship, is also the soil for the training up of men as His servants and children. But the sphere of Gods dominion is far wider than His kingdom in Israel: it embraces heaven and earth. And therefore should the praise of this incomparable King resound through all departments of creation, and an accompaniment to the hallelujah of the Church follow in all places of His dominion.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DUTY OF PRAISING GOD FOR HIS MERCIES
Not doubting but that all of you must acknowledge your obligation to praise God, we will, as God shall enable us,
Moreover, if you have received no signal deliverances from sickness or danger, you have the more reason to adore your God, who has preserved you so long in the uninterrupted enjoyment of health and peace.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary