Psalm 103

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his praises:

3 who forgives all thy transgressions, who heals all thy diseases;

4 who redeems thy life from corruption; who crowns thee with mercy and compassion;

5 who satisfies thy desire with good things: so that thy youth shall be renewed like that of the eagle.

6 The Lord executes mercy and judgment for all that are injured.

7 He made known his ways to Moses, his will to the children of Israel.

8 The Lord is compassionate and pitiful, long-suffering, and full of mercy.

9 He will not be always angry; neither will he be wrathful for ever.

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor recompensed us according to our iniquities.

11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, the Lord has so increased his mercy toward them that fear him.

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

13 As a father pities his children, the Lord pities them that fear him.

14 For he knows our frame: remember that we are dust.

15 As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so shall he flourish.

16 For the wind passes over it, and it shall not be; and it shall know its place no more.

17 But the mercy of the Lord is from generation to generation upon them that fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children;

18 to them that keep his covenant, and remember his commandments to do them.

19 The Lord has prepared his throne in the heaven; and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Bless the Lord, all ye his angels, mighty in strength, who perform his bidding, ready to hearken to the voice of his words.

21 Bless the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his that do his will.

22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.

Psalm 103 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.