Psalms 103:5-15

5 Who satisfieth thine old age with good [things]; thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

6 Jehovah executeth righteousness and justice for all that are oppressed.

7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

8 Jehovah is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness.

9 He will not always chide, neither will he keep [his anger] for ever.

10 He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his loving-kindness toward them that fear him.

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

13 As a father pitieth [his] children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear him.

14 For himself knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth:

Psalms 103:5-15 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]. Or 'adornment,' or 'mouth.'
• [b]. Lit. 'righteousnesses and judgments.'
• [c]. Or 'doings.' 'exploits:' so Ps. 66.5; 78.11; 105.1.
• [d]. Lit. 'so has prevailed.'
• [e]. Enosh, 'mortal man:' see Ps. 8.4; 9.20; 144.3.