Psalms 103:14-16

14 For 1He Himself knows our frame; He 2is mindful that we are but 3dust.
15 As for man, his days are 4like grass; As a 5flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 When the 6wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its 7place acknowledges it no longer.

Psalms 103:14-16 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 7

  • 1. Isaiah 29:16
  • 2. Psalms 78:39
  • 3. Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:7
  • 4. Psalms 90:5; Isaiah 40:6; 1 Peter 1:24
  • 5. Job 14:2; James 1:10, 11
  • 6. Isaiah 40:7
  • 7. Job 7:10; Job 8:18; Job 20:9

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. I.e. what we are made of
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