Psalms 103:3-13

3 who ¹forgives all your iniquity, who ²heals all your diseases,

4 who ³redeems your life from the pit, who ⁴crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who ⁵satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like ⁶the eagle's.

6 The LORD works ⁷righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.

7 He made known his ⁸ways to Moses, his ⁹acts to the people of Israel.

8 The LORD is ¹⁰merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 ¹¹He will not always chide, nor will he ¹²keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us ¹³according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For ¹⁴as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his ¹⁵steadfast love toward ¹⁶those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he ¹⁷remove our transgressions from us.

13 As ¹⁸a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion ¹⁹to those who fear him.

Psalms 103:3-13 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. Exodus 34:7; Isaiah 33:24; Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5; [Luke 7:47]
• 2. Psalms 107:20; Psalms 147:3; Exodus 15:26; [Matthew 8:17]
• 3. See Psalms 56:13
• 4. [Psalms 5:12]
• 5. Psalms 107:9
• 6. Isaiah 40:31
• 7. Psalms 146:7
• 8. Exodus 33:13; [Psalms 25:4]
• 9. [Psalms 78:11; Exodus 34:10]
• 10. See Psalms 86:15
• 11. Isaiah 57:16
• 12. Psalms 30:5; Jeremiah 3:5, 12; Micah 7:18
• 13. Ezra 9:13
• 14. See Psalms 36:5
• 15. Psalms 117:2
• 16. ver. 13, 17; Luke 1:50
• 17. [Isaiah 38:17; Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:19]
• 18. Malachi 3:17
• 19. [See ver. 11 above]