Psalms 103:13-17

13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

14 For He knows what we are made of, remembering that we are dust.^[a]

15 As for man, his days are like grass- he blooms like a flower of the field;

16 when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known.^[b]

17 But from eternity to eternity the Lord's faithful love is toward those who fear Him, and His righteousness toward the grandchildren

Psalms 103:13-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 103

\\<>\\. The Targum adds, ``spoken in prophecy,'' as doubtless it was, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Some think it was written by David, after a fit of illness, and his recovery from it, since he speaks of his diseases being healed, and his youth renewed; for which reason the Syriac interpreter suggests it was written in his old age; for he makes the subject of the psalm to be, ``concerning coldness which prevailed upon him in old age;'' but rather he wrote it when his heart was warm with a sense of the love of God, and spiritual blessings of grace flowing from thence; and in it celebrates and sings the benefits of New Testament times; and it is a psalm suitable to be sung by every believer, under a quick sense of divine favours: wherefore the above interpreter better adds, ``also an instruction and thanksgiving by men of God;'' whom the psalmist may very well be thought to personate, even in Gospel times; and much rather than the Jews in captivity, as Kimchi thinks.

Footnotes

• [a]. Gn 2:7
• [b]. Lit place no longer knows it