Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 103:3
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
3. The Psalmist may have had in mind Exo 15:26, “I am Jehovah that healeth thee”; and Deu 29:22, where the somewhat rare word for ‘diseases’ is used of the judgements with which the land is to be punished for Israel’s sins. The word need not be limited to bodily sickness, but may include all suffering. The removal of the punishment of sin is the proof of its forgiveness. Cp. Psa 85:1-3; Psa 147:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities – Pardoning all thy sins. That is, It is a characteristic of God to pardon sin, and I have evidence that he has done it in my own case, and this is a ground for praise. It is observable that this is the first thing in view of the psalmist – the first of the benefits which he had received from God, or the first thing in importance among his acts or his dealings, which called for praise. Properly considered, this is the first thing which calls for praise. That God is a merciful God – that he has declared his willingness to pardon sin – that he has devised and revealed a way by which this can be done, and that he has actually done it in our own case, is the most important matter for which we should praise him. When we understand all the things which most affect our welfare, and which enter most deeply into our happiness here and hereafter, we shall find that this is a blessing compared with which all other favors are comparative trifles.
Who healeth all thy diseases – Perhaps, in the case of the psalmist, referring to some particular instance in which he had been recovered from dangerous sickness. The word rendered diseases – tachalu’iym – occurs only in the plural form. It is translated sicknesses, in Deu 29:22; diseases, as here, in 2Ch 21:19; them that are sick, in Jer 14:18; and grievous (deaths) in Jer 16:4. It does not elsewhere occur. It is applicable to all forms of sickness; or in this place it may refer to some particular diseases with which David had been afflicted. We have several allusions in the Psalms to times when the authors of the psalms were afflicted with sickness. So in the Psalms of David. Compare Psa 6:2; Psa 38:7; Psa 41:8. The thought here is, that it is a proper ground of praise to God that he has the power of healing disease. All instances of restoration to health are illustrations of this, for whatever may be the skill of physicians, or the wise adaptation of means, healing virtue comes from God alone.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 103:3
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.
Forgiveness and healing
I. Forgiveness and healing are mens greatest needs.
1. Because without them there can be no upward spiritual progress. Mans course is downward until he is divinely forgiven and healed. The accumulating power of sin.
2. Because without them there can be no truly happy service for God.
3. Because without them, existence itself must ultimately become intolerable.
II. Forgiveness and healing are received from God.
1. He only has the right to forgive and heal.
2. He only has the power.
3. With God is the disposition to put forth His power and assert His right to forgive and heal.
III. Forgiveness and healing are, in the kingdom of grace, inseparably connected. Whom God forgives He heals (1Jn 1:9).
IV. Forgiveness and healing, when possessed, inspire deepest gratitude to their author. (W. Smith.)
The pardon of sin
First, we are blessed with the pardon of sin, and then we bless God for the pardon of sin.
I. Forgiveness is A primary blessing.
1. We never enjoy a mercy as a mercy from God till we receive the forgiveness of sins.
2. There are many mercies which are not given at all, and cannot be given, until first of all the pardon of sin has been bestowed. The application of the blood of sprinkling must be felt, the cleansing power of the atonement must be known, or the rest of the blessings of the covenant will never reach us.
3. And well may the Lord place this mercy first, because when it comes it ensures all the rest. The day-dawn is always followed by the clearer light.
4. The pardon of sin comes first, that it may be seen to be an act of pure grace. If any other blessing had preceded it, our legal spirits would have dreamed of merit and fitness: if any attainment had been reached by us before the forgiveness of sins was given, we might have been tempted to glory in self; but now we perceive that God forgives our sins before He heals our moral diseases, and therefore there is no room for pride to set her foot upon.
II. Forgiveness is a present blessing.
1. This privilege the believer has actually obtained. As many as have looked to Christ upon the cross are now justified by faith, and have peace with God. This is a matter of present fact, and not of mere hope.
2. This present mercy is perpetually bestowed–He still forgiveth our iniquity; there is perpetuity in it. At this very moment I may be mourning my sin, but God is forgiving it. Even in the holiest deeds we do there is still sin, but even then God is still forgiving.
3. This mercy of pardon is knowingly received. Nobody ever sings over uncertain blessings.
4. This present blessing is immediately efficient, for it secures us a present right to all that is involved in being pardoned. Then seek it at once.
III. Forgiveness is a personal blessing. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Our Lord is a blessed God to forgive anybody, but that He should forgive me is the greatest feat of His mercy. A good brother wrote me the other day, Mercy had reached its zenith when it saved me. He thought so of himself, and we may each one think the same of his own case. But may we know this personally? saith one. I answer, Yes.
1. Some of us know that God has forgiven us, because we have the character which He describes as being forgiven. In repentance, in confession of sin, in forsaking sin, and in faith in our Lord Jesus, we have the marks of pardoned sinners, and these marks are apparent in our souls.
2. Moreover, if you have any doubt about whether the Lord forgives you now, it will be well for you to make sure that you accept His way of salvation. It is by faith in His dear Son.
3. We know that we are at this moment forgiven, because we at this moment give to the Lord Jesus Christ that look which brings forgiveness.
IV. Forgiveness is a perfect blessing. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. He does not remove the great ones, and leave the little ones to rankle; not the little ones, and leave one great black one to devour us, but all of them He covers and annihilates with the effectual atonement made by His dear Son. Now, I want you to obtain this pardon as a complete thing. Do not rest till you have it: you will never know true peace of mind until it is yours.
V. Forgiveness is a priceless blessing. Though it could not be purchased by a life of holiness or by an eternity of woe, forgiveness has been procured. This pardon which is freely preached to-day to all who believe in Jesus hath been purchased, and there is He that procured it, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, a man like unto ourselves, but yet equal with the ever-blessed One. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The disease of sin, and its remedy
I. Why sin is called a disease.
1. As it destroys the moral beauty of the creature (Gen 1:31; Gen 6:5; Psa 38:7; Lam 4:1).
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).
4. As it deprives men of sound reason (Isa 5:20).
5. As it leads to death (Rom 6:1).
II. The variety of sinful diseases to which we are subject (Mar 7:21-23; Rom 1:29; Gal 5:19).
III. The remedy by which God heals these diseases.
1. His pardoning mercy through the redemption of Christ (Isa 53:5; Rom 3:23).
2. The sanctifying influences of grace (Eze 36:25; Heb 10:16).
3. The means of grace (Eph 4:11-13).
4. The resurrection of the body (1Th 4:16).
5. The ease of an ignorant, insensible sinner is very deplorable.
6. The case of a real Christian is very hopeful.
(1) His sinful disease is radically healed.
(2) The completion of his cure is certain.
7. The glory of Christ, as the Physician of souls, is great indeed. (The Study.)
Forgiving mercy
I. Forgiveness is the crown of Gods benefits (verses 2, 3). Think of all Gods common daily mercies, and all Gods special care and blessing, and then show why, in view of this life and the next, His forgiving seems to be the best blessing of all.
II. Forgiveness is the first of many new benefits (verses 4, 5). When God forgives, He follows on to give temporal blessings. His providences wait on His mercies. Illustrate in Job, and in David.
III. Forgiveness takes even the remembrance of sin away. See figures in (verses 11, 12, 13). They help us to realize how complete Gods forgiveness is. He remembers our sins no more against us for ever. Show how true this is of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Then we may well be happy in our forgiving, merciful God, and sing psalms of praise to Him. Only let us always remember that Gods forgiving us is made to depend on our forgiving others. (Robert Tuck, B.A.)
The great Physician
I. Disease itself affords us one of our richest luxuries. It is impossible to describe, to one who has not known the joy of a timely release from the fierceness of disease, the exquisite enjoyments of such an hour. And in this we see the goodness of God. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. There may remain still great weakness, and much, that in other circumstances, would be called distress; but this is all forgotten amid the luxury of a temporary release, and a hope still better.
II. We see Divine goodness in the efforts that nature makes to effect her own cure. By nature I mean the unseen operation of His hand who healeth all our diseases; I mean God Himself, operating by certain laws which He has indented upon every part of our frame. The cure is effected without a miracle, but not without the finger of God. David, when diseased, was cured like other men, by the laws of matter, and by human means; still he takes occasion to bless and praise Jehovah as Him who healeth all our diseases.
III. The great variety of specifics found in every part of the creation, for the various diseases of men, speak the Divine goodness. Probably there is not a plant or shrub that grows but yields us either food or medicine. The severest poisons are, at length, in many instances, considered the safest and speediest remedies. The mineral and vegetable kingdoms are constantly pouring their treasures into the chamber of distress. And there seems an almost inexhaustible variety. Hence they furnish a specific for every disease. Now in all this how good is God! He could have sent the plague without the remedy, the poison without the antidote. It would be our shame if we could withhold our praise, and yet live in a world so full of the glory of God, where every plant, and shrub, and mineral speaks His praise, and every disease yields to the specific He prescribes.
IV. It still is true that it is God who healeth all our diseases. But for that wisdom which He has given to man, physicians could never have known the nature or the virtue of those plants and minerals which are their appointed remedy. And His blessing makes the means effectual. Remarks.
1. A period of recovery from sickness should be a season of praise.
2. The life that God has made His care should be devoted to Him.
3. We see why many have praised the Lord upon the sick bed. It is not a place so destitute of comforts as many have supposed.
4. The subject will lead us to reflect with the psalmist on the wondrous mechanism of our natures. (D. A. Clark.)
Divine healing
The Almighty is over and over again presented as the source of strength, and as the supreme cause of health. Not without reason is He termed Jehovah that healeth; and various are the references to His healing mercies (Exo 15:26; Jer 17:14; Jer 30:17; Psa 147:3; Isa 30:26). Also, when Jesus appeared as the Messiah fulfilling the hopes of the Hebrews, He healed the broken-hearted, bound up wounds and gave sight to the blind. The direct agency of the highest of all beings is brought out in the case of the woman who for twelve years had suffered and had spent her living on physicians, and only found relief when she touched the border of Christs garment (Luk 8:41). In this example we have only another version of Abrahams prayer (Gen 20:17). Now, however men may argue, the scientific mind is at one with the Bible. Life in all its phases is a mystery. While conditions and aspects of its beginnings and development have been fixed and determined, birth and death defy explorers, and that which fluctuates between the two–disease–is hardly less obscure. God the ultimate healer will be more fully recognized as science attains to its maturity. To Him, then, should the honour be attributed when we are restored from the bed of languishing and pain. That is His due. The tribute was paid Him by the ancients in adorning the altars with votive offerings, and a similar practice obtained in the Middle Ages, and in some countries has been continued to this day. I have seen altars in Europe burdened with models of the limbs and organs that have been healed by Divine mercy. It would be well for Christians in their prayer-meetings to tell how God has helped their bodies as well as their souls. Were we to speak more in His praise we would encourage more to look to Him for restoration. But His being the healer does not preclude the use of means in overcoming disease. These means may be infinitely varied and may border on the inscrutable, but they are real just the same. When it is said a virtue went out of Christ to cure the woman, that influence was the means employed, and though inexplicable, may at least suggest to thought the transmission of something from God when the sick are made whole. That certain states of feeling are remedial agencies, that they who rouse such feelings are useful, that cherished beliefs will operate on the body, and that moral improvement has in itself a curative value, is becoming more and more apparent. Xavier, who found Simon Rodriguez sick at Lisbon, chronicles the feel that the joy excited in the patient broke up the fever; and Melanchthon was operated on in a similar way by the appearance of Luther. Mr. Herbert Spencer illustrates the great power of mind over body, when he shows how intense feeling brings out great muscular force. Dr. Berdoe has shown us a gouty man throwing away his crutches and running to escape an infuriated animal. I have never doubted that the mind can affect in a wonderful way the sick. The story of the Prince of Orange at the siege of Buda, 1625, sending for mock medicine for his troops dying of scurvy is well known. He brought into camp a decoction of camomile, wormwood and camphor, which he gave out as so precious a medicine that a drop or two in a gallon of water would suffice. The restoration of the men to health was due to imagination, not physic. And the same may be said of cures wrought at the hands of monks or pious souls in the past, and at the shrines of Lourdes and Old Orchard in the present. It will not do to ascribe a desire to deceive to all the so-called miracle workers. While impositions are discernible, still many were sincere, and God evidently used their sincerity to His own glory. The cures wrought by the Jansenists at St. Midard, by the UItramontanes at La Galette and Lourdes, and by Father Ivan at St. Petersburg, have been neither few nor slight. A curious instance of the power of mind we have in what was known as the cure of the Kings evil by royal touch. Charles II touched nearly 100,000 persons, and many were healed. And coming nearer to our own time we find William III, while practising the same act, offering a different prayer: God give you better health and more sense. Among curative agencies a very high rank must be assigned to the moral and the spiritual. When a man abstains from demoralizing habits, excessive feeding and drinking, the effect will be discernible in his appearance. While the cure is like that wrought by sanitation, back of it is the ideal of a pure manhood. When the spiritual is supreme, and Christians have little time to think of themselves or of their cares, and when they are fully occupied with celestial visions, they usually keep well and hearty. At such times we understand the text: Thou art the health of my countenance and my God. But among the means owned of God are we to class what is known as material remedies? St. Ambrose insisted that the precepts of medicine are contrary to celestial science, watching or prayer; only it must be remembered that this was maintained as necessary to the efficacy of relics as remedial agencies. Calstadt for different reasons sympathized with Ambrose. He declared that whoso shall fall sick shall use no medicine or physic, but commit his case to God, praying that His will may be done. To which Luther made answer: Do you eat when you are hungry? And as only an affirmative reply could be given, he continues: Even so you may use physic, which is Gods gift just as meat and drink is, or whatever else we use for the preservation of life. When Jesus says that they who are whole need not a physician, but they who are sick, He lends His countenance to the medical science. We find medicine distinctly recognized in the following places: (Pro 17:22; Jer 30:13; Jer 46:11; Eze 47:12). Paul commends to Timothy a little wine for his stomachs sake and his infirmities. He does not regard it as an invalidation of faith in God to use a remedy. Neither did Isaiah (2Ki 20:7). When Ezekiel beholds the vision of Holy Waters, he says the leaf of the tree which grows on either side of the river shall be for medicine. Here is a distinct recognition of medicinal virtues in nature. Why should the balm of Gilead be praised, why should the mollifying quality in ointment be referred to by Isaiah, if all such means reflected on and were inimical to Divine healing? The case of Asa, who sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians (2Ch 16:12) is sometimes adduced against this supposition. But his error did not lie in employing doctors, but in trusting to them. Had he shown in his sickness the same discrimination he evinced in his attack on Ethiopia, when he cried out (2Ch 19:11), he might have overborne disease as he did his foe in the field. If God is the supreme healer what line of conduct should we, especially Christians, pursue? Surely we ought to do all in our power to provide for the comfort and recovery of the afflicted. It is written (Psa 41:8) that God will make all his bed–the sick mans–in his sickness. But that surely does not mean that we are not to make it too. The hand of God is precious to smooth our pillow; and a wife or daughters or mothers is not an unnecessary second. We want to carry the spirit of Christ into our contact with disease. With that came more humanitarianism in the past. Establishments for the cure of the sick appeared at an early day in the east; the Infirmary of Monte Cassino and the Hotel-Dieu were opened at Lyons in the sixth century, and in the seventh the Hostel-Dieu in Paris; and it is to the credit of Napoleon III that while he was building the Opera House in Paris, he was rebuilding, on a magnificent scale, the hospital of that sacred name. In this department wonderful has been the progress. We have everything apparently new from such institutions to the Ambulance Corps and the Genevan Cross. But more and more should these arrangements be permeated with the Christ spirit. This faith in God as the Divine Healer should lead to prayer for the sick. Many answers have come to us. I can testify to as many notable instances of recovery from disease as perhaps any other minister. And yet we must never forget that Jesus, overcome by agony, trembling on the verge of death, while praying for deliverance, exclaimed, Thy will be done. Complete reconciliation and harmony with God is worth more than a few years, more or less, of existence in the world. The devout soul will realize that He is healing all its diseases, and that the final health of the body can only come through the collapse of death leading to the glorious resurrection. But until then, I expect, in proportion as God is exalted, by faith and science the approach of that time when sickness shall largely disappear, and when (Isa 65:20). And when that season comes health and holiness, both, under God, the product of human agencies, shall preserve the race, and the burden of earths anthem be: Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. (G. C. Lorimer, D.D.)
What follows forgiveness
At one of his mission meetings Gipsy Smith recently told a story about his own little ones who had played truant, and in trying to be stern he sent them to bed without any supper. He passed the rest of the evening tiptoeing about, listening, and wondering what the effect of the punishment would be. Finally, not hearing any sound, he made his way to the bedchamber. As he leaned over the bed, one of the little fellows said: Is that you, father? and sobbed out, Father, will you forgive me? Yes, my son, yes–yes, I will forgive you, for I love you. Then, father, take me down to supper. This was used by Gipsy Smith to point the lesson that once we are forgiven by our Heavenly Father, we have the blessedness of sharing intimate communion with Him. After the kiss of reconciliation the erstwhile prodigal breaks again the bread enough and to spare of his Fathers house. (Sunday Circle.)
Forgiveness possible
No debt need be carried forward to another page of the book of our lives, for Christ has given Himself for us, and He speaks to us all–Thy sins be forgiven thee. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christ forgiving sin
There is much need of asserting the great truth that God can forgive sin. Science is a teacher much honoured now, and science says that it is as impossible morally as physically to put things back where they were before; as impossible to restore a sinful heart as to make whole a broken shell. Under such teaching has grown up a modern religion whose god is fate, whose hope is dust for the body and nothingness for the soul, whose heaven is but to be an influence in others lives. The sect is not large, but skilful of speech in philosophy, poetry, fiction. One of them speaks through the hero of a tale: I hate that talk of people as if there was a way of making amends for everything. Theyd more need to see that the wrong they do can never be altered. Its well we should feel that lifes a reckoning we cant make twice over; theres no real making amends in this world, any more than you can mend a wrong subtraction by doing your addition right. And the age may need this lesson. We have been guilty of making sin too slight and punishment too soft. It is good, sing the old Eumenides in AEschylus, that fear should sit as the guardian of the soul, forcing it into wisdom–good that men should carry a threatening shadow in their hearts under the full sunshine; else how should they learn to revere the right? True, but God has thought it also good to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Far diviner is the message of Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, where the badge of sin and shame becomes the charmed symbol of a pure and helpful life. Nature knows nothing of forgiveness; science and conscience as well assure us it is impossible. They speak for their own realms, and truly. But, when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. How God takes care of the disaster wrought by our sin is one of the hidden things. That He will blot out our transgression as a thick cloud vanishes in the sun is His radiant promise. It is a forgiveness which not only enables us to enter heaven; it is heaven, or else, for our race, there were no heaven. God can forgive sins, and God alone; and Jesus is God with us forgiving sins and sending penitents away praising with a song that angels could not sing. (Christian Age.)
The greatness of Divine mercy
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Gods mercy is so great, that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God. As John Bunyan well says, It must be great mercy, or no mercy; for little mercy will never serve my turn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Pardon precedes crowning
We cannot expect God to crown a man with lovingkindness and tender mercies while still he is dead in sin, and lives in daily dread of a second death–a death eternal. A coronation for a condemned criminal would be a superfluity of inconsistency. To crown a hardened convict who lies in the cell at Newgate awaiting his execution, would be a cruel mockery. How could it be that God should wreathe a chaplet of favours for a man who has refused His mercy and wilfully abides under His wrath on account of unconfessed and unpardoned sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The need of a healer
Who healeth all thy diseases. Do you think that was necessary? If my Lord came to me and wiped out the guilt, annulled the debt, would not redemption be perfect? If you take sin into your life, all the powers are affected. Conscience is seared, the fineness of the judgment is lost, the river of the affections becomes foul, the will loses its erectness. I saw the Metropolitan Tabernacle a few days after the great fire there, and noticed that every one of the pillars in the building had received a wrench, a twist. When the fire of sin breaks out in my body every pillar of my life gets a wrench. (J. H. Jowett.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Who forgiveth] The benefits are the following,
1. Forgiveness of sin.
2. Restoration of health: “Who healeth all thy diseases.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Either,
1. Spiritual diseases, lusts or corruptions, which he subdues and purgeth out by his grace; as this phrase is used, Psa 41:4; Isa 6:10; 53:5. Or,
2. Corporal diseases or miseries, of which this word is used, 2Ch 21:18,19; Jer 14:18; 16:4.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. diseasesas penalinflictions (Deu 29:22; 2Ch 21:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,…. The psalmist explains here what he means by benefits, and gives a particular enumeration of them; and begins with the blessing of pardon, which is a special and peculiar benefit; it is according to the riches of divine grace, and the multitude of tender mercies; without which all outward blessings signify nothing; and, without a sense of this, a man is not in a suitable and proper frame to bless the Lord; and this being the first benefit a soul sensible of sin, its guilt and is concerned for, and seeks after; so enjoying it, it is the first he is thankful for: this is rightly ascribed to God; for none can forgive sins but he; and what he forgives are not mere infirmities, peccadillos, the lesser sins of life; but “iniquities”, grosser sins, unrighteousnesses, impieties, the most enormous crimes, sins of a crimson and scarlet die; yea, “all” of them, though they are many, more than the hairs of a man’s head; he abundantly pardons, multiplies pardons, as sins are multiplied, and leaves none unforgiven; original sin, actual sins, sins of heart, lip, and life, of omission and commission, all are forgiven for Christ’s sake: and the special mercy is when a man has an application of this to himself, and can say to his soul, as David to his, God has forgiven “thine” iniquities; for though it may be observed with pleasure, and it is an encouragement to hope in the Lord, that he is a forgiving God, and has forgiven others, yet what would this avail a man, if his sins should not be forgiven? the sweetness of the blessing lies in its being brought home to a man’s own soul: and it may be further observed, that this is a continued act; it is not said who has forgiven, and will forgive, though both are true; but “forgiveth”, continues to forgive; for as there is a continual virtue in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world, and in his blood to cleanse from all sin, so there is a continual flow of pardoning grace in the heart of God, which is afresh applied to the consciences of his people by his Spirit; and this is a blessing to be thankful for:
who healeth all thy diseases; not bodily ones, though the Lord is the physician of the bodies as well as of the souls of men, and sometimes heals the diseases of soul and body at once, as in the case of the paralytic man in the Gospel; but spiritual diseases, or soul maladies, are here meant; the same with “iniquities” in the preceding clause: sin is a natural, hereditary, epidemical, nauseous, and mortal disease; and there are many of them, a complication of them, in men, which God only can cure; and he heals them by his word, by means of his Gospel, preaching peace, pardon, and righteousness by Christ; by the blood, wounds, and stripes of his Son; by the application of pardoning grace and mercy; for healing diseases, and forgiving iniquities, are one and the same thing; see Isa 33:24, and this the Lord does freely, fully, and infallibly, and for which thanks are due unto him; and it would be very ungrateful, and justly resented, should they not be returned to him; see Lu 17:15.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Who forgiveth all thy iniquities He now enumerates the different kinds of the divine benefits, in considering which he has told us that we are too forgetful and slothful. It is not without cause that he begins with God’s pardoning mercy, for reconciliation with him is the fountain from which all other blessings flow. God’s goodness extends even to the ungodly; but they are, notwithstanding, so far from having the enjoyment of it, that they do not even taste it. The first then of all the blessings of which we have the true and substantial enjoyment, is that which consists in God’s freely pardoning and blotting out our sins, and receiving us into his favor. Yea, rather the forgiveness of sins, since it is accompanied with our restoration to the favor of God, also sanctifies whatever good things he bestows upon us, that they may contribute to our welfare. The second clause is; either a repetition of the same sentiment, or else it opens up a wider view of it; for the consequence of free forgiveness is, that God governs us by his Spirit, mortifies the lusts of our flesh, cleanses us from our corruptions, and restores us to the healthy condition of a godly and an upright life. These who understand the words, who healeth all thy diseases, as referring to the diseases of the body, and as implying that God, when he has forgiven our sins, also delivers us from bodily maladies, seem to put upon them a meaning too restricted. I have no doubt that the medicine spoken of has a respect to the blotting out of guilt; and, secondly, to the curing us of the corruptions inherent in our nature, which is effected by the Spirit of regeneration; and if any one will add as a third particular included, that God being once pacified towards us, also remits the punishment which we deserve, I will not object. Let us learn from this passage that, until the heavenly Physician succor us, we nourish within us, not only many diseases, but even many deaths.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Forgiveth.The first benefit to one who aims at the higher life is the knowledge of the Divine readiness to forgive and renew, and this, as Augustine remarks, implies a quick moral sense: Gods benefits will not be before our eyes unless our sins are also before our eyes.
Diseases.Here chiefly in a moral sense, as the parallelism iniquity shows, even if the next verse, taken literally, implies an allusion to physical suffering as well.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Who forgiveth The chief blessing to a guilty soul. But this is not only an acknowledgment of the uniform readiness of God to forgive, (as Exo 34:6-7,) but a special confession of what God had done for him: and the freshness of David’s joy, and confession of pardon, and his repeated recurrence to the same thing, (Psa 103:8; Psa 103:10; Psa 103:12,) evidence some recent remarkable instance of this forgiving grace, which accords well with the date and authorship assigned in the introduction. Compare Psalms 23, 116. The same applies to the second clause of the verse. Compare Psalms 38
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 103:3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities Diseases were generally considered, under the Mosaic dispensation, as the punishment of iniquities; and therefore the healing of his diseases is mentioned as the consequence of the forgiveness of his sins. We cannot have a more full and satisfactory comment on this passage, than the frequent cures wrought by our Saviour on the bodies of men, emblematical of the cure of their spiritual diseases. See particularly the case of the paralytic, Mat 9:2; Mat 9:38.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Observe what motives the sacred writer adopts to awaken the soul to the praise and love of God: as if he had said, My soul, hast thou sinned? God in Christ pardons thy sins. Art thou diseased in body and soul, by reason of sin? God in Christ healeth all thy diseases. Art thou ruined and undone in all the circumstances of nature, by reason of the fall? It is God, in Christ, that redeemeth thy life from destruction, and crowneth thee with all that is needful for thee in grace. Art thou feeling decays, and is the – event of mortality hastening upon thee? God in Christ will renew thee, as the eagle is renewed in old age. Precious, precious salvation! And all eternally secured, and made certain, from a God in Christ. See, in confirmation, those scriptures: Isa 43:25 ; Exo 15:26 ; Isa 33:24 ; Exo 19:4 ; Isa 40:31 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Ver. 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ] David not only taketh upon him with a holy imperiousness, laying God’s charge upon his soul to be thankful; but intending to show himself good cause why to be so, he worthily beginneth with remission of sin, as a complexive mercy, and such as comprehendeth all the rest. He had a crown of pure gold set upon his head, Psa 21:3 ; but here he blesseth God for a better crown; Psa 103:4 , “Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness,” &c. And how was this crown set on his head but by forgiving all his iniquities?
Who healeth all thy diseases
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
forgiveth = passeth over. This verb, with its adjective and subs., is never used but of God. Literal. That is the Forgiver. Compare Psa 103:14 and note there.
iniquities. Hebrew. ‘avah. So some codices, with one early printed edition, Septuagint and Vulgate (plural); other codices read singular.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
forgiveth: Psa 32:1-5, Psa 51:1-3, Psa 130:8, 2Sa 12:13, Isa 43:25, Mat 9:2-6, Mar 2:5, Mar 2:10, Mar 2:11, Luk 7:47, Luk 7:48, Eph 1:7
healeth: Psa 30:2, Psa 38:1-7, Psa 41:3, Psa 41:4, Psa 41:8, Psa 107:17-22, Psa 147:3, Exo 15:26, Num 12:13, Num 21:7-9, Isa 33:24, Isa 53:5, Jer 17:14, Jam 5:15
Reciprocal: Exo 23:25 – I will take Exo 34:7 – forgiving 2Ch 30:20 – healed Psa 26:11 – and Psa 28:4 – the work Psa 32:5 – forgavest Psa 90:14 – satisfy Psa 107:20 – healed Psa 130:4 – But there Jer 30:17 – For I Eze 47:9 – for they Mic 7:18 – that Mal 4:2 – healing Mat 4:23 – healing Mat 15:30 – great Mar 5:29 – straightway Luk 5:21 – Who can Luk 6:17 – to be Luk 7:42 – he Phi 2:27 – but God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
103:3 Who {b} forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
(b) That is, the beginning and chiefest of all benefits, remission of sin.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God’s blessings that people enjoy as benefits include forgiveness of sins, healing from sickness, deliverance from death, enrichment of life, satisfaction, and rejuvenation. Eagles remain strong to the end of their lives. Likewise, God enables His people to remain spiritually vigorous until death.
"The expression your youth is renewed like an eagle’s may allude to the phenomenon of molting, whereby the eagle grows new feathers." [Note: The NET Bible note on 103:5.]