Psalms 103:1-6

1 Praise the Lord, my soul! All my being, praise his holy name!

2 Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget how kind he is.

3 He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.

4 He keeps me from the grave and blesses me with love and mercy.

5 He fills my life with good things, so that I stay young and strong like an eagle.

6 The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed and gives them their rights.

Psalms 103:1-6 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]. [Probable text] my life; [Hebrew unclear.]