Psalms 103:12-22

12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

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

18 of those who keep His covenant, who remember to observe His instructions.

19 The Lord has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the Lord, [all] His angels of great strength, who do His word, obedient to His command.

21 Praise the Lord, all His armies, His servants who do His will.

22 Praise the Lord, all His works in all the places where He rules. My soul, praise the Lord!

Psalms 103:12-22 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