Psalms 103:8-17

8 The LORD is 1merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 2He will not always chide, nor will he 3keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us 4according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For 5as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his 6steadfast love toward 7those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he 8remove our transgressions from us.
13 As 9a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion 10to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame;[a] he 11remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like 12grass; he flourishes like 13a flower of the field;
16 for 14the wind passes over it, and 15it is gone, and 16its place knows it no more.
17 But 17the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on 18those who fear him, and his righteousness to 19children's children,

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Psalms 103:8-17 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.

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Cross References 19

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or knows how we are formed
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.