Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 103:7
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
7, 8. Psa 103:7 a is a reminiscence of Moses’ prayer, “make known to me, I pray, thy ways” (Exo 33:13), and Psa 103:8 is quoted from the revelation of Jehovah’s character which was the answer to that prayer (Exo 34:6). It is often referred to, e.g. Psa 86:15; Psa 145:8; Joe 2:13; Neh 9:17; &c. God’s ‘ways’ and ‘doings’ here mean His methods of dealing with men, and this quotation gives a summary of them.
Render Psa 103:8,
Jehovah is full of compassion and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He made known his ways unto Moses – This is another ground of praise – that God had revealed his will; that this had been done in an indubitable manner to Moses; and that these revelations had been recorded by him for the instruction and guidance of his people. The word ways here means his laws; his methods of administration; the principles on which he governs mankind, and the conditions on which he will save people. There is no higher ground of gratitude to God than the fact that he has given a revelation to mankind.
His acts unto the children of Israel – His methods of doing things have been made known to them; and his acts – his interpositions – have been in their favor.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 103:7
He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.
A twofold revelation, and a twofold attainment
I. A twofold Divine revelation. There is an obvious distinction between ways and acts. Acts are deeds; ways are methods. A mans acts are the results and representatives of his ways. A mans ways indicate the leading principle, spirit, and style of his life. His acts are not always consistent with his ways.
1. God reveals His ways. The universal, immutable, and eternal principles that guide Him in all His operations in the spiritual world are clearly laid down in the Book. The laws He gave to Moses reveal His ways, and so does the biography of His blessed Son in a still sublimer measure.
2. God reveals His acts. His acts are recorded in the Bible: creative acts–governing acts–redeeming acts–acts of justice and of mercy. His acts should be studied in order to reach the higher knowledge of His ways.
II. A twofold theological intelligence. Moses, on Sinai, received the eternal principles that regulate the Infinite in all His operations with man. The children of Israel down in the desert only saw His acts. They understood not the laws of His providence, and the grand purposes of His heart. There is a great distinction between these two kinds of knowledge.
1. One is far more profound than the other. The outward acts of God, as recorded in this Book, may be easily ascertained and detailed in fluent and accurate speech. But to understand His ways, to penetrate the region of principles, and to have an insight into the method of Divine operations, is a difficult work. This requires not only an inductive study of the Holy Book, but exalted feelings of devotion. The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear Him.
2. One is far more valuable than the other. It is more valuable to the possessor. The man who is only conversant with the mere acts of God will often be filled with confusion by providential events. One act will apparently contradict another, but he who understands the ways, the grand purposes and principles of God, will not be easily confused. It is more valuable, too, in qualifying us for usefulness. The man who is acquainted with mere details may repeat Bible anecdotes, and be popular. The man who has some knowledge of eternal principles can alone instruct souls.
3. One is far more uncommon than the other.
(1) In nature the millions observe the acts of God. They hear His thunder; they witness His lightning. They see His operations in heaving oceans and revolving worlds. But only one here and there understands His ways, and these are our men of science.
(2) In human history, numbers are conversant with the leading facts of human history. They know the acts of this statesman and that, this warrior and that, this nation and that; but the ways of God, the great principles with which He governs man are known only by a few–the philosophic historians.
(3) In redemption, the leading facts of Christs life are familiar to most in Christendom; but His ways, His grand principles, and sublime purposes, how few know anything about! (Homilist.)
Revelation by action
God has revealed Himself to man. Nothing can be more reasonable. Can it be that a supreme intelligence would create intelligent subjects of His government and children of His family, and have no further communication with them? Intelligence creating intelligence, revelation is inevitable. But how did God reveal Himself to man? When I was a very little child, I supposed that He had revealed Himself in a book, and that the self-revelation was limited to the book. I wish to insist that God, in revealing Himself to humanity, does not limit Himself to a book; but that God made known His ways unto individuals, His doings unto nations, and that His revelation was a revelation chiefly by action, a revelation on the plane of human activity, in vast historic unfoldings, through long centuries, on a colossal scale and with deep incisions. He did not write, He wrought. And man wrote. God wrought deeds to make words possible, to give significance to words; but His revelation was primarily a revelation in action. He made known His ways unto Moses. Glance for a moment at that wonderful scene recorded in the Book of Exodus, where Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh. Pharaoh demanded a sign, and Aaron, in obedience to Moses command, cast his rod upon the ground and it became a living serpent. At Pharaohs command his magicians cast their rods to the ground, and they became living serpents. But Aarons rod swallowed up their rods. And then began a series of marvellous deeds which made the people of Israel and the people of Egypt acknowledge that the finger of God was there. The outcome was that the children of Israel were delivered from bondage and taken into the wilderness, where through many years they were guided by the God who had delivered them. Thus God made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. From the Old Testament let us go to the New. Jesus Himself never wrote a book, a sermon, an essay. He went about doing good. His words were the explanation of the things He did, and the things that God did in nature and in providence. When John sent his disciples to Jesus, they asked the question, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? His first answer was–silence. Then He touched the eyes of the blind man, and he saw; He touched a lame man, and he walked; a leper, and he was cleansed; a deaf man, and he heard; and, pointing to the son of the widow of Nain, who the day before had been rescued from his bier and restored to his mother, He said, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; the poor have good tidings preached to them. Thus He made known His ways, His doings to the children of men. As in the time of Moses and in the time of Jesus, so in all history has God manifested Himself as Lord of nature, who works His will on the material and with the forces He has created. And is He bound to any one mode or order of action because of the nature He has created? See the fountain breaking loose upon the top of the mountain, pouring forth its water! Following the laws of nature, these waters work their way through the yielding soil to the edge of the mountain, and then fall over in a succession of fine cascades to the plain below, where, winding their way through the sand, they join the river and pass to the sea. We say that this movement is a work of nature. Is there any other way of doing with the water that springs from the mountain than that which we have observed? Certainly. Even a man can do something other and better with this stream on the mountain. As proprietor of the land he proceeds to dig, regulate, guide, and carry for a mile along the brow of the hill the waters that break from the fountain. He then causes the stream to descend in waterfalls down the mountain-side, and then in artificial channels, crossed by rustic bridges, here and there, expanding into little lakelets, and now confined in narrow limits, he brings the stream to the river and to the Sea. Thus there are at least two ways of using the same elements in nature. Nature does one thing if left to herself. Mans ingenuity and power can make nature do another thing without violating a law of nature. Can God do with His own resources what man can do with Gods resources? And why should there not be action in the realm of human history that is not simply a product either of nature or of man? And why may we not encounter in the records of human history marvels of which we are compelled to say, Lo! God hath wrought this. I once listened to a rendition of a concerto by Rubinstein where Rubinstein himself took part. Before the artist himself appeared, Thomass orchestra delighted the great audience with Rubinsteins music. Although I did not see him I heard his music. After a little while he came in and took his place at the piano while his own music was going on. After a while he touched the keys himself; and, accompanying his own music rendered by other performers, he swept from the instrument strains of exquisite harmony that held the multitude spellbound. The same artist produced indirectly the music he had composed through the orchestra that rendered it, and directly through the instrument under his fingers. Can God do such things with His universe? Through all the ages His purposes have gone rolling on in harmony with His wisdom, in display of His power, in manifestation of His goodness; but there came a time when on the plains of Palestine One walked the earth, the incarnation of wisdom and love and power, and went about doing good to the children of men. In the light of this law of revelation by action, let us look at the life of Jesus. He came to reveal God to man that He might reveal man to himself. He did not come to startle our race by the wonders that He wrought. He did not come to depreciate nature as a revelation of God by simply showing that there were possibilities beyond nature. He did not come to stifle human research or to put a ban on human science and discourage human culture. He came to set forth before all the ages Gods holiness and love, the worth of man and his destiny and possibilities. See Him yonder hanging on that cross between heaven and earth, revealing by action Gods loathing of sin, His love of righteousness, and His boundless mercy. By His victory over death, as He emerged from the sepulchre, He demonstrated by action the power of the immortal life. By His ascent from the summit of Olivet into the visible heavens He revealed, as no literary or artistic production could ever have revealed, the fact of a realm of being beyond this. Reappearing in tongues of fire at Pentecost, He made known to men the fact of His presence and power on the earth for the ages to come. Thus He made known His ways and doings to humanity. In the light of this law of revelation by action let us look at the Scriptures. It is easy for us to fancy what a Divine book ought to be–how perfect and flawless, with no syllable in it that is not exact and Divine; a book completed in heaven and handed down to humanity. But this is not the Bible which we do have. We can easily see what would happen if the law of revelation by action through gradual processes be the Divine way of revelation. First, the Bible would be largely biographical; then, of course, historical; and gradually developed. It must be characterized by an all-pervading unity; there would be progressiveness in the unfolding of truth, and we should expect to get a fuller, larger, and worthier idea of God through Paul than through Moses, and through Pauls last writings than through Pauls earliest writings. If it was to be a revelation by action, it would take ages to produce it and ages to complete it. Its perpetuity would be guaranteed. It would be a trustworthy book if rightly interpreted. The human element would be present in it; for, if God revealed Himself through men, He would recognize the limitations of the man through whom He reveals Himself, and do the best He could with the material in hand, without violating the laws of nature or of man. In the light of this law of revelation by action let us look at the Christian life. When an individual soul receives the Divine truth and lives it out, he makes known to men by action the Divine truth he has received. Horace Bushnell has a great sermon entitled Every Mans Life a Plan of God. Chrysostom says, The true Shechinah is man. Give me a living man in whom God dwells, whose character is moulded by the Divine truth, whose spirit is possessed by the Divine Spirit, and whose life is under the Divine direction, and I will show you a version of the Scriptures that will be of immense value to the community in which that man dwells. You have read an essay about the sun. You have seen pictures of the sun, although artists are usually ingenious enough to give a landscape just before the sun rises or just after sunset. You have seen the sun reflected in a dewdrop as it trembles on the little twig. You have seen the sun embodied in the beauty of the flower. But there is still another embodiment of sunlight. It is when on a cold day I come to your house, and a man puts a huge piece of bituminous coal on the fire. Millions upon millions of years ago the sunlight was stored in that lump of coal, but now in your home it comes out again; and the flashing light, with its brightness and its warmth, is the old sunlight millions of years ago hidden, and now giving blessing to your household. So God by action has put into this book of Divine truth the energies of His grace. These in turn have been transferred by faith to the souls of earnest and obedient students, and they in their turn make known again by action the ways of God to men. The Christian is thus a living epistle, read and known of all men. Often in walking through the Palace of Versailles, where those fine historic paintings fill the wall, I have imagined the trembling of the canvas, and then the coming down to the floor of those pictured men and women, no longer dead, but living and walking as they did one hundred years ago and more. It is a great thing for people to get the ideas that are in the Book inwrought into personal character, so that ideas, growing into ideals, will become realities, and people whom you meet will seem more and more like the prophets and apostles of old. Thus may we walk among men, incarnations of the Divine truth, and work over again the works of God. Therefore, let Him have His way with you that He may make known to others through you His ways of grace, and power, and victory, and blessing. (J. H. Vincent.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. He made known his ways unto Moses] From the earliest part of our history he has been our protector and defence. His wonderful acts in behalf of the children of Israel are so many proofs of his mercy, power, and goodness; and so many reasons why we should now trust in him.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His ways; either,
1. His laws, which are oft called Gods ways. Or,
2. The manner and methods of his dealings with men, and especially with his people, called in the next clause his
acts; his merciful and gracious nature and providence, which is particularly called Gods way, Exo 33:13, compared with Psa 103:18,19, and with Exo 34:6,7, and which is here described in the following verses.
His acts; his marvellous and gracious works.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. waysof providence, c., asusual (Psa 25:4 Psa 67:2).
actsliterally,”wonders” (Psa 7:11;Psa 78:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He made known his ways unto Moses,…. The ways in which he himself walks, the steps and methods which he has taken to show forth his glory; his way in creation, and the order of it, as in Ge 1:1, for though, by the light of nature, it might be known that God created all things; yet, without a revelation from him, it could never have been known in what manner he made them, and the peculiar work of each of the six days, in which they were made; this was made known to Moses; as also his way in providence, which sometimes is in the deep, and past finding out: Moses was made acquainted with the methods of divine Providence, with many special instances of it, relating both to himself in his infancy and in riper years, and to the people of Israel in their march from Egypt to Canaan’s land; and the Lord likewise made known unto him his way of grace and mercy, life and salvation, by Christ, which he desired to show him, and he did, Ex 33:13. Christ was made known to him, as the seed of the woman that should break the serpent’s head, as God’s salvation, old Jacob waited for: he was shown him in the types of the passover lamb, the brasen serpent, and the rock in the wilderness, and in other things; the way of atonement, by the sacrifice of Christ, was made known to him through the sacrifices which he from God enjoined the people of Israel: hence he wrote of Christ, and of what he should do and suffer; and so fully, that the Apostle Paul said no other things than what he did, Joh 5:46 moreover, the Lord made known to him the ways in which he would have him and the people of Israel to walk; the way of his commandments, his statutes and ordinances; which were made known to him, to deliver to them, and was a peculiar favour, Ps 147:19,
his acts unto the children of Israel; his works, his wonderful works; his plagues on their enemies the Egyptians; his redemption of them out of the house of bondage; his leading them through the Red sea as on dry land; his feeding them with manna in the wilderness, protecting them from their enemies, bringing them into the land of Canaan, and settling them there; see Ps 78:11.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7 He hath made known his ways to Moses David now speaks in the name of the chosen people; and this he does very suitably, being led to it by the consideration of the benefits which God had bestowed upon himself. Convinced that it was only as a member of the Church that he had been enriched with so many blessings, he immediately carries back his contemplations to the common covenant made with the people of Israel. He, however, continues the same train of thought as in the preceding verse; for these ways, which he says had been shown to Moses, were nothing else than the deliverance wrought for the people until they entered the promised land. He selected this as an instance of God’s righteousness and judgment, surpassing all others, to prove that God always shows himself righteous in succoring those who are oppressed. But since this instance depended upon the Divine promise, he doubtless has an eye principally to it; his language implying that God’s righteousness was clearly demonstrated and seen in the history of the chosen people, whom he had adopted, and with whom he had entered into covenant. God is said to have made known his ways first to Moses, who was his servant and messenger, and afterwards to all the people. Moses is here represented as invested with the office to which he was Divinely appointed; for it was God’s will to be made known to the people by the hand and working of that distinguished man. The ways, then, and the doings of God, are his rising up with wonderful power to deliver the people, his leading them through the Red Sea, and his manifesting his presence with them by many signs and miracles. But as all this flowed from the free covenant, David exhorts himself and others to give thanks to God for having chosen them to be his peculiar people, and for enlightening their minds by the truths of his law. Man, without the knowledge of God, being the most miserable object that can be imagined, the discovery which God has been pleased to make to us in his Word, of his fatherly love, is an incomparable treasure of perfect happiness.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Moses.A direct reference to Exo. 33:13.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. His ways God’s “ways,” or methods, in redemption. The allusion is to Exo 33:13. It was not an objective revelation merely, but such a series of manifestations as well, as illustrated at once both the principles and the fact of his salvation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Ver. 7. He made known his ways unto Moses ] Even right judgments, true laws, good statute and commandments, Neh 9:13-14 . The Rabbis by ways here understand God’s attributes and properties (Middoth they call them), those thirteen proclaimed, Exo 34:1-35 , after that Moses had prayed, Exo 33:13 , “Show me thy ways”; and the next words favour this interpretation.
His acts to the children
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
ways: i.e. the reasons of His acts (esoteric) to Moses. acts: i.e. the acts (exoteric) visible to the People.
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
He made: Psa 77:20, Psa 105:26-45, Exo 19:8, Exo 19:20, Exo 20:21, Exo 24:2-4, Num 12:7, Deu 34:10, Neh 9:14, Isa 63:11, Isa 63:12, Joh 5:45-47, Act 7:35-60
his acts: Psa 78:5, Psa 147:19
Reciprocal: Exo 3:10 – General Psa 26:11 – and Eze 20:5 – and made Joh 9:29 – know
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
103:7 He made known his ways unto {e} Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
(e) As to his chief minister, and next to his people.