Psalms 103:11-14

11 For ¹as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his ²steadfast love toward ³those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he ⁴remove our transgressions from us.

13 As ⁵a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion ⁶to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame; ^[a] he ⁷remembers that we are dust.

Psalms 103:11-14 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.

Cross References

• 1. 103:11 See Ps. 36:5
• 2. 103:11 Ps. 117:2
• 3. 103:11 ver. 13, 17; Luke 1:50
• 4. 103:12 [Isa. 38:17; 43:25; Mic. 7:19]
• 5. 103:13 Mal. 3:17
• 6. 103:13 [See ver. 11 above]
• 7. 103:14 Ps. 78:39

Footnotes

• [a] 103:14 Or 'knows how we are formed'