Psalms 103:7-17

7 He made his ways known to Moses; his wills to the sons of Israel (his deeds to the Israelites).

8 The Lord is a merciful doer, and merciful in will (The Lord is a giver of love, and a giver of mercy); long abiding, and much merciful.

9 He shall not be wroth [into] without end; and he shall not threaten [into] without end. (He shall not be angry forever; and he shall not threaten forever.)

10 He did not to us after our sins; neither he yielded to us after our wickednesses. (He did not do to us what we deserved for our sins; nor did he punish us for all our wickednesses.)

11 For by the highness of heaven from earth; he made strong his mercy on men dreading him. (For as high as the heavens be above the earth, is how strong his love is, for those who fear him/for those who revere him.)

12 As much as the east is from the west; he made [a]far our wickednesses from us.

13 As a father hath mercy on his sons, the Lord had mercy on men dreading him; (Like a father hath love for his sons and daughters, so the Lord hath love for those who fear him/for those who revere him;)

14 for he knew our making. He bethought that we be dust (He remembered that we be but dust),

15 a man is as hay; his day[s] shall flower out so as a flower of the field. (for a person's days be like the hay, or the grass; and he shall flower out like the flowers in the field.)

16 For the spirit shall pass in him, and it shall not abide; and it shall no more know his place. (For the wind passeth over it, and it shall not remain there long; and then its place shall know it no more.)

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from without beginning, and till into without end; on men dreading him. And his rightfulness is into the sons of sons; (But the Lord's love is without beginning, and without end; for those who fear him/for those who revere him. And his righteousness shall never fail the children of their children,)

Psalms 103:7-17 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.