Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 103:22
Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
22. Bless Jehovah, all ye his works,
In all places of his dominion:
Bless Jehovah, O my soul.
The ‘Song of the Three Children’ is a noble expansion of this theme. In the last line the Psalmist returns to the point from which he started. In creation’s universal hymn of praise he would fain bear his part, however humble.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Bless the Lord, all his works – All that he has made, animate and inanimate, intelligent and brute. It is not uncommon to call on the inanimate creation to join with intelligent beings in praising God. Compare Psa 148:1-14. The same thing is often found in the Paradise Lost, and in fact occurs in all poetry.
In all places of his dominion – Wherever he reigns, on earth, or in heaven; here or in distant worlds.
Bless the Lord, O my soul – Ending the psalm as it began, and with the additional reason derived from the fact that the universe is called on to do it. As one of the creatures of God; as a part of that vast universe, the psalmist now calls on his own soul to unite with all others – to be one of them – in praising and blessing the Creator. He desired thus to unite with all others. His heart was full; and in a universe thus joyous – thus vocal with praise – he wished to be one among the immense multitudes that lifted their voices in adoration of the great Yahweh.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 103:22
Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion.
The illimitable vastness of the universe
How does our conception of the universe differ from that of David? It differs, among other things, mainly because we know, and he did not know, of infinite time, peopled with innumerable existences, on infinite space, crowded with unnumbered worlds. To David the earth probably seemed comparatively a thing of yesterday. We know of ages when the earth may have been a nebulous mass; of ages more when it was certainly one tangled growth of gigantic vegetation; of ages more when it was trodden by huge and fearful lizards–dragons of the prime, tearing each other with lethal armour of incomparable deadliness. We look at a piece of chalk, and we know that to form it took the spoils of millions of living organisms; and the man sinks powerless before the effort to conceive the years which it must have taken, by ordinary processes, to build up the white ramparts of our coasts. Yes, the knowledge of the deeps which geology reveals, so far from rendering too dim for us, tends only to brighten for us the image of a Fathers love. We know that that Father is caring for us now, and geology has simply proved to us that He was caring for our race, it may be, a billion of years before it appeared upon our globe. But if science has thus widened for us the horizons of time, still more illimitably has it widened for us the horizons of space; still more completely has it annihilated mans self-importance about his race, and about the globe on which he lives. To the ancients, for instance, the world was a very centre of all things, and a very image of immovable stability. To us it is an insignificant speck in the heavens of no material importance, and with no centrality about it; and, so far from being fixed, we know that it is rolling, with incessant revolution, on its own axis, whirling, at immense velocity, round the sun, spinning, as one has said, like an angry midge, in the abyss of its own small system, of which it is but one out of one hundred planets and asteroids, and of which the farthest of these planets rolls three hundred thousand millions of miles round the sun upon its sullen and solitary round. Again, to the ancients, and to David, the moon was but an ornament of the night, a silver cresset hung by Gods hand in heaven, to illumine the darkened earth. To us it is, indeed, this, and we thank God for it, and also for its services, unknown to our forefathers, of attracting the waters, and so causing to roll, from hemisphere to hemisphere, that great tidal wave which purifies the world. But we have also learnt with amazement what the moon is. We know that it is a small world, in structure like our own; but without atmosphere, without clouds, without seas, without rivers, rent with enormous fissures, scathed and scorched with eruptive violences, a burnt-up cinder, a volcanic waste, the wreck, for all we know, of some past home of existence, a corpse in nights highway, naked, fire-scathed, accursed; and if, in the complications of her silent revolutions,
She nightly, to the listening earth,
Repeats the story of her birth,
yet that story presents us with so blank a mystery, that it forces our acknowledgment that it may seem as if its one blank hemisphere was only turned to this earth and its science in mocking irony, as though to convince us, against our will, that what we know is little–what we are ignorant of immense. Then, once more, turn to the sun. The ancients saw its splendour; they felt its warmth; they thanked God for its glory. To David it was, as you know, as a bridegroom cometh forth out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a giant to run his course. It was thought a monstrous extravagance when one of the Greek philosophers said that it was a fiery mass, and another that it was about the size of Attica. But what is it to us? Look at the bas-relief of the tomb of Newton in Westminster Abbey, and there you will see the little genius weighing the sun, and the earth, and the planets on a steelyard. Yes, we know its weight; we know its distance; we know its revolution. We know even, of late years, by spectrum analysis, of what metals and gases it is composed. No human language can express its awfulness. That great orb, as we have discovered, bursts and boils with a horrible impetuosity, such as no human imagination can conceive; and yet this vast, portentous globe of fire is made to subserve the humblest purposes of man. Once more, for a moment, turn to the stars. Turn to the millions of stars in the Milky Way. Our sun is neither more nor less than just one, and one unimportant, star in that Milky Way. To David, when he said that the heavens declared the glory of God, only were known two or three thousand stars visible to the naked eye. To us are known somewhere about fifty millions. And, yet, I say again that the Christian is not in the least appalled by all this vastness. Space is nothing to that God who extends through all extent, and in the hollow of whose hand all those worlds lie as though they were but a single water-drop. But, by the telescope, better without it–
Man may see
Stretched awful in the hushed midnight,
The ghost of his eternity.
But yet, happily, perhaps, for us, simultaneously with this abyss of non-existence beyond man, God has revealed to us an infinitude of life below Him. Take an animalcula, and Pascal will tell you that, however small its body, it is yet smaller in its limbs, and there are joints in those limbs, veins in those joints, blood in those veins, drops in that blood, humour in those drops, vapour in that humour, and an abyss even below this–an immensity of invisible life; so that man, we say, is suspended between two infinities–an abyss of infinity below, and of nothingness above, him. He is a mean between the nothing and the all–nothing compared to the infinite, infinite compared to the nothing. Is not this, at least, a lesson of humility? Should it not compel man rather to contemplate in silence than to inquire with presumption? Such knowledge is too deep and wonderful for me; I cannot attain to it. What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou so regardest him? Here, for the Christian, at any rate, lies the solution of the dark enigma, the removal of the painful perplexity, the removal of the intolerable weight. Man is nothing in himself. He is as small, as mean, as abject as you please. He is but a fragment of the dust to which he shall soon return. Yes, but in himself nothing, in God man is every-thing–sacred, holy, sublime, immortal, a child of God, a joint-heir with Christ. What is vastness, then, to the Christian that it should appal him? It is nothing; it is less than nothing. It does not oppress or crush him. He is greater than those worlds. He is more immortal than all those clustered suns. They are, after all, but gas and flame; but he lives, and he is immortal, and he is created in the image of God. (Dean Farrar.)
Bless the Lord, O my soul—
The perils of the spiritual guide
In the two preceding verses the psalmist had similarly demanded that the Lords works should praise Him–Bless the Lord, ye His angels, etc. In our text, as though he would no longer invoke separately any order of being, or any department of creation, he summons the whole universe to join in the glorious work–Bless the Lord, all His works in all places of His dominion; and after this most comprehensive demand, is there anything else from which he can ask praise? Yes, he subjoins, bless the Lord, O my soul. It seems as if a sudden fear had seized the psalmist, the fear of by any possibility omitting himself; or, if not a fear, yet a consciousness that his very activity in summoning others to praise, might make him forgetful that he was bound to praise God himself. Alas! how possible, how easy, to take pains for others, and to be neglectful of oneself: nay, to make the pains we take for others the reason by which we persuade ourselves that we cannot be neglecting ourselves. Religion of all matters is that which will least bear to be handled professionally: in the mere way of business or occupation. If we once come to handle spiritual things as though they were objects of merchandise or topics for essays, if we come to speak of them with the language of barren speculation, so that the description of the tongue outruns the experience of the heart; alas for the condition of the minister! But it may be well that we consider a little more in detail how that danger may be guarded against, which it has been our endeavour to expose. 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 in 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 upon it merely in his professional capacity, but let him take frequent opportunities of going by himself to various points of view that he may study it under all possible aspects, now when the shadows of evening rest darkly on the water, now when the sunshine sleeps lovingly on the valley, now when the storm is abroad in its strength, now when the spring mantles hill and plain with its loveliness, and now when winter reigns in coldness and desolateness. Let him not be content with expounding the Bible, or with studying it with a view to his professional duties; let him be careful that he have his season of private meditation, when, like the guide, he may stand on Pisgah by himself, and for himself, not considering the scene with the eye of one who has to delineate the magnificent landscape, but rather with that of one who has to find in it a spot which he may call his own, and where he may fix his everlasting habitation. The more we engage in teaching others, in setting before others the blessings procured by the interference of Christ, the more tenacious should we be of seasons of private meditation and self-examination. For such seasons become then increasingly needful, lest we fancy our acquaintance with truth perfect, or our appreciation of it adequate, and thus shall we not only keep our own lamp well trimmed, but be more than ever fitted, by the blessing of God, to shed light on those who may be walking in darkness and the shadow of death. It is he who is daily schooling himself who is most likely to be instrumental in guiding others to God; the note struck within will produce the greatest vibration around; if I would waken an anthem of praise, I must first attune to thanks the chords of my own soul. (H. Melvill, B.D.)
.
Psa 104:1-35
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. Bless the Lord, all his works] Let every thing he has done be so considered as to show forth his praise.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.] Let me never forget my obligation to his mercy; for with tender mercies and loving-kindness has he crowned me. I will therefore be thankful unto him, and speak good of his name.
ANALYSIS OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD PSALM
There are three parts in this Psalm: –
I. The exordium, in which the psalmist invites his own soul to praise the Lord, Ps 103:1-2.
II. The narration, being a declaration of God’s benefits conferred on him and others, and the causes of those benefits, Ps 103:3-19.
III. The conclusion, in which he calls on all creatures to assist him in praising the Lord, Ps 103:20-22.
I. The exordium, –
1. Bless God. Think on the benefit, and praise the Benefactor.
2. Let the soul join in this. Let it be done heartily; lip – labour is little worth.
3. “All that is within me.” Every faculty, – understanding, will, memory, judgment, affections, desires, c.
4. “Bless Jehovah,” who gave thee thy being, and all thy blessings.
5. “Forget not his benefits.” Most forget their obligations both to God and man but ingratitude, which is the source of forgetfulness, is abominable.
6. “All his benefits.” Thou hast already for gotten many; forget no more. The word gemuley, signifies, literally, retributions or recompenses, as the Vulgate has well expressed it. And of what kind are these recompenses? Invariably good for evil; nor hast thou ever offered him one accent of praise that he has not compensated with a blessing of infinite value.
II. The narration. A declaration of benefits. 1. To himself. 2. To the Church. These were, – 1. Spiritual; 2. Temporal benefits.
First spiritual benefit – justification: “He forgiveth all thine iniquities.”
Second spiritual benefit – regeneration or sanctification: “Healeth all thy diseases.”
Third spiritual benefit – redemption from the first and second death, in consequence of being thus justified and sanctified.
Fourth spiritual benefit – glorification anticipated: “Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercy.” The crown comes from the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God; not from any merit in man.
The temporal benefits are, –
1. Abundance of the necessaries of life: “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things.”
2. Health and long life: “Thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” See the note on this passage.
The benefits to the whole Church are, –
1. Defence and deliverance: “The Lord executes judgment.”
2. Manifestation of his will: “He made known his ways,” c.
All these spring from the four attributes mentioned below, –
1. “He is merciful,” rachum, bearing a paternal affection to his intelligent creatures, especially to those who fear him.
2. “Gracious,” channun, the Giver of grace and favour for he who has a fatherly heart will give.
3. “Slow to anger,” erech appayim, long in nostrils, not hasty; not apt to be angry.
4. “Plenteous in mercy,” rab chesed, multiplying kindness. Gives abundantly from his own bounty, not according to our merit.
The effects of all these are, –
1. Because he is merciful: “He will not always chide.”
2. Because he is gracious: “He deals not with us after our sin.”
3. Because he is slow to anger: “He will not keep his anger forever.”
4. Because he is plenteous in mercies: His mercies surpass our sins as much as heaven surpasses the earth.
5. Because he is like a father: He “pities his children;” considers their frame, and makes all the allowance that justice mingled with mercy can make.
6. And as he is righteous – true, and faithful in performing his covenant, his mercy is everlasting to those that fear him.
But let it be remembered who they are that have a right to expect such blessings: –
1. “Those who fear him.”
2. “Those who keep his covenant.”
3. “Those who remember his commandments, and do them.”
That he is able to do all that he has promised, the psalmist marks his dominion: –
1. It is not circumscribed: “His throne is in heaven.”
2. It takes in all places and all nations. For “his kingdom ruleth over all;” he is King of kings, and Lord of lords.
III. The conclusion. For these benefits he invites all creatures to praise the Lord.
1. The angels, whom he describes, – 1. From their excellence: “Ye that excel in strength.” 2. From their obedience: “Ye that do his commandments.” 3. From their readiness and cheerfulness in it: “Ye that hearken to the voice of his words,” – who are ever ready, at the slightest intimation, to perform his will.
2. All the hosts or armies of God, – archangels, principalities, dominions, powers, thrones, c.
3. He invites all the creatures of God to praise him, whether animate or inanimate: “All creatures, in all places of his dominion.” This extends throughout immensity. For this there is the strongest reason – he made all – rules over all – “is in all places” with all – preserves all – moves all.
4. To show that he who calls upon others will not be backward himself to praise God as he began, so he concludes, with “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” Thus he had the high praises of God continually in his mouth.
And thus finishes this most excellent and inimitable Psalm. The old Psalter concludes thus: “Blysses to Lorde al his werks in ilk stede of his Lordschip: blisse my saule to Lorde. When men well lyfes, al thair werks blysses God. Fra blyssyng we cum forth to blyssyngs, gawe agayne, and tharein dwell we.”
The more we praise God, the more occasion we shall see to praise him, and the more spiritually minded we shall become. Praise proceeds from gratitude; gratitude from a sense of obligation; and both praise and gratitude will be in proportion to the weight of that obligation; and the weight will be in proportion to the sense we have of God’s great goodness and our own unworthiness. As the reader’s heart may be in a heavenly frame, I shall help him to express his feelings by the following inimitable verses, which express the substance of the preceding Psalm: –
From all that dwell below the skies
Let the Creator’s praise arise!
Let the Redeemer’s grace be sung
In every land, by every tongue!
Eternal are thy mercies, Lord!
Eternal truth attends thy word!
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till sun shall rise and set no more.
Praise GOD, from whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him, all creatures here below!
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
Praise FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST!
Amen and Amen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All his works in all places of his dominion; all creatures, both in heaven and earth, according to your several capacities.
Bless the Lord, O my soul; which thou hast special and abundant reason to do. Thus he ends the Psalm with the same words wherewith he began it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. all his workscreatures ofevery sort, everywhere.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion,…. Which some interpret of all his creatures, animate or inanimate, rational or irrational, throughout the whole world, which is all under his government; and who all of them, objectively, bless and praise the Lord, Ps 148:7. Or rather regenerate persons, his sons and daughters, the work of his hand, in each of the parts of the world where they live, are here called upon to bless the Lord; who, of his abundant mercy, hath begotten them again to a glorious inheritance: these are his workmanship in Christ; formed for himself, his service, and glory; and are under the highest obligations to show forth his praise.
Bless the Lord, O my soul: thus the psalmist ends the psalm as he begun it; not excusing himself by what he had done, nor by calling upon others to this service; knowing that this is constant employment for time and eternity; a work in which he delighted, and was desirous of being concerned in, now and for ever.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22 Bless Jehovah, all ye his works The Psalmist in conclusion addresses all creatures; for although they may be without speech and understanding, yet they ought in a manner to re-echo the praises of their Creator. This he does on our account, that we may learn that there is not a corner in heaven or on earth where God is not praised. We have less excuse, if, when all the works of God by praising their Maker reproach us for our sloth we do not at least follow their example. The express mention of all places of his dominion, seems to be intended to stir up the faithful to greater ardor in this exercise; for if even those countries where his voice is unheard ought not to be mute in his praise, how can we lawfully remain silent to whom he opens his mouth, anticipating us by his own sacred voice? In short, David shows that his design in recounting God’s benefits, and magnifying the extent of his empire, was to animate himself the more to the exercise of praising him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) All his works.Not only the heavens and their hosts, but
Earth with her thousand voices praises God.
Nor can the psalmist himself remain silent, but must repeat the self-dedication with winch he began his song.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. All his works All animate and inanimate creatures, the universe, as Psa 103:19. Bless the Lord, O my soul. The thrice “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” (see Psa 103:1-2,) answers to the thrice “Bless ye the Lord;” and, as if to place his own obligation above that of all other beings, he fitly begins and ends the psalm alike, with the same personal call, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” The psalmist herein furnishes an instructive example to all believers who have sought and found forgiving and accepting grace.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
THINK, my soul, while thou art perusing this psalm, if such were the calls of the Old Testament saints to bless Jehovah, what demands are now upon New Testament believers, to live in a frame of everlasting praise and thanksgiving for Jehovah’s unspeakable mercies in Jesus Christ. The highest knowledge those holy men of old had, concerning the mercies of redemption, were but shadows of good things to come, compared with what the souls of the redeemed have now to enjoy in substance in Christ Jesus. Abraham, who saw the day of Christ, saw it but afar off; and David, though by the eye of faith, he beheld his Son after the flesh, that should arise to sit upon his throne, and reign forever; yet, what could both, or all indeed, of those heroes of antiquity, who died in faith, not having received the promises, know of the Lord Jesus Christ, in comparison with the humblest of regenerated believers now, who know Christ, and are convinced of their union and interest in him, and live in him, and to him , as the Lord our righteousness?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 103:22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
Ver. 22. Bless the Lord, all his works ] Whether living or lifeless; for all thy works praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints bless thee, Psa 145:10 . Benedicite ter, ad mysterium Triadis, saith an interpreter.
Bless the Lord, O my soul
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dominion = sovereignty.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
all his works: Psa 145:10, Psa 148:3-12, Psa 150:6, Isa 42:10-12, Isa 43:20, Isa 44:23, Isa 49:13, Rev 5:12-14
bless the Lord: Psa 103:1, Psa 104:1, Psa 104:35, Psa 146:1
Reciprocal: Psa 108:2 – I myself Psa 145:21 – let all flesh Psa 148:10 – Beasts Zec 8:21 – I will