Psalm 103
Of David.
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
One of the most familiar psalms is not really a prayer but a declaration of who YHWH is and what he has done for the psalmist. It is a summons to worship beginning with the psalmist himself and moving to all of creation. The addressee in the first verse is the author as he tells himself to worship YHWH. The word for worship is not actually used here, rather the word barakah, to bless. The word worship suggests kneeling or prostrating oneself before another in submission, but the word bless suggests an offering of praise and a showing of favor. David summons his soul and his inmost parts to bless the holy name of YHWH (“the name” is another way of saying “the person”). He’ll summon his soul three times in the first two verses, providing a lesson for us. Perhaps the first person we need to speak to in prayer is not the LORD, but ourselves. We need to invite ourselves to ponder the greatness of God and complete an inventory of his goodness before we begin asking him for stuff. I’ve been serving the church in worship leadership for decades, but I don’t know if I’ve really gotten this right. I approach prayer much too casually and routinely. Think about the person to whom you are speaking before you make demands on him. First make demands on yourself. How can we bless God? Does he need our blessing? Isn’t God the one who blesses us (the lesser person is blessed by the greater)? We bless him as a child blesses his parents -- by obeying, by showing affection and gratitude, by serving Him, by offering words of praise. Worship originates in the soul, our inmost beings long for union with God, and worship is the outlet for that. So speak words of blessing to God today. Not because He needs them to complete something about himself and not that he’s starving for affirmation. Bless the LORD because your soul needs to do so, to affirm from the deepest part of you the reality of God in your life and all of its implications.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
The self-talk continues in verse 2 where the psalmist tells the deepest part of himself a third time to bless YHWH. These positive commands are followed by one negative admonition: don’t forget. Which could just as easily be stated in the positive form: remember. Remember all of YHWH’s benefits. In the next three lines, the word “all” is repeated three times to indicate totality. Remember the totality of YHWH’s benefits to you. So as you bless YHWH, remember how He has blessed you. This remembering in fact will stir you in your worship. “Remembering” in the Bible is more than recalling something to mind. It implies action (like remembering your anniversary). Bring the blessings of YHWH to the forefront of your mind so that you actively worship him. The first of six benefits are stated succinctly. YHWH forgives all your iniquity and heals all your diseases. For clarification, the word “all” means “all”. Let that sit for a while. He forgives all you sin, not in part, but the whole. There are at least two implications of God’s complete forgiveness. First, you can and should forgive yourself. God already has, so there’s no reason why you can’t forgive yourself. Second, forgive everyone else who has wronged you. If God can forgive them, surely you can as well. Are you better than God? Do you know something He doesn’t? Lay aside any bitterness and gracelessness in your heart and forgive. This is what God has done for you. Live in the freedom that comes from God’s forgiveness. The second benefit is that YHWH heals all your diseases. This one is controversial. Forgiveness we can believe because it can’t be overtly seen. Disease is something else. Plenty of good, believing, God-fearing people have succumbed to disease. How can the psalmist say that YHWH heals all your diseases, when clearly he doesn’t? It makes me question the meaning of the word all. This could be interpreted in the general sense that YHWH’s people were not inflicted with the same lifestyle diseases that the nations experienced because they were Torah-observant (following dietary, hygiene, and laws protecting marriage -- all of which can be linked to longer, healthier life). Or perhaps like all of us, the psalmist had become ill and recovered multiple times. From childhood, all of us have gotten sick over and over again, and our bodies have this capacity to fight infection and recover. The way that God designed our immune systems to fight disease internally and then collectively through herd immunity is pretty amazing and a cause for thanks. Finally, there is also the fact that God heals us from the ultimate disease: death. Not that we will never die, but that we are promises to live in his presence forever (Psalm 16:10-11).
4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Having removed sin and disease, YHWH gives us the ultimate blessing, redeeming us from the pit. The pit is literally a hole in the ground but figuratively may refer to a dark place where you are trapped. Ultimately it may refer to death -- the darkest place from which you cannot escape. Yet in YHWH, there is redemption from the pits that we find ourselves in. For some it is the pit of addiction and brokenness. For others it may be depression and anxiety or a horrible situation that one finds themselves in. There are seasons in life that are “the pits”, and yet God redeems them, lifting us out and teaching us something through it. When YHWH pulls us from the pit he places a crown of steadfast love and compassion on our heads, honoring us after rescuing us. We wear his love and mercy as a crown of honor, recognizing that we are redeemed by His grace. Next, he satisfies us with good. This line is literally, “He satisfies your ornaments/years with good.” It’s the typical word for jewelry, but here it is thought to refer to one’s life, perhaps the best years of one’s life. If it’s a reference to your prime years, it would be that season of marriage, children, and work -- of doing the things that God does: creating life in the context of a relationship, training his children, and managing the world. In short, the psalmist is thanking YHWH for his good life. If those prime years of life are thirsting for good, God satisfies that thirst. Following up on the idea of satisfying hunger, the final line of this six line group describes the renewal of strength that YHWH provides. The psalmist employs the metaphors of youth and the eagle. The reference to youth makes sense in light of the previous line referring to the prime of life. The sense may be that even in the prime of life, YHWH makes you feel young again. Sure there are things you can no longer do physically, but you can be young and strong in heart. The metaphor of an eagle points to strength that enables one to soar above it all, to escape, to gain perspective with a “bird’s eye view” perspective on the world, to sit at the top of the food chain without any fear, to achieve great heights with minimal effort by taking advantage of the power of the wind (spirit). The metaphor is rich and is a fitting conclusion to this short list of blessings that come from YHWH.
6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.
7 He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.
The psalmist continues his inventory of God’s benefits, reflecting on how YHWH has worked on behalf of others. He works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Righteousness means “that which is true and right” and justice may also be translated “judgment”. The psalmist understands that God is fair, and even when the world seems unfair, particularly to the oppressed, God is still at work, ensuring that there will be ultimate justice. Perhaps it is in the sense that while the oppressor seems to have the upper hand in life, there is an internal cost and an eternal cost. Internally there is the disorder of sin that is nurtured and allowed to free reign when we use our power to exploit others. Eternally there is the prospect of a final judgment after death where we pay for our sins in the afterlife. It’s not fashionable to believe there is an actual hell these days, but Jesus taught it as fact, and if God truly works righteousness and justice, there must be some type of final judgment for the oppressor. For the oppressed God is working for justice for them through his people, through good men and women who have been redeemed and share in YHWH’s just nature. Certainly one aspect of being Christ-like is the pursuit of justice for the oppressed. Next the psalmist remembers YHWH’s revelation of himself to humanity, beginning with Moses and then the people of Israel. This is a reference to the law and history of God’s chosen people. What a blessing it is to have the mind of God in writing for our own reading and understanding. While much of the world walks in darkness, there is a book that lamps our feet and lights our path. On its pages we read of the history of how God interacted with his people over time. We gain wisdom from its eternal truths, and we are corrected and guided by its instruction. Most importantly we receive the gospel through this written word. We encounter Jesus, God in the flesh, and we are converted and transformed by love.
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Verses 8-10 may be at the heart of this psalm. The case can be made that everything else is a derivative of this central truth about the nature of God. YHWH is benevolent. There are four positive statements and four stated in the negative (in verses 9-10). Stated positively, YHWH is merciful, gracious, slow to anger and rich in steadfast love. These are all similar in meaning and are often used interchangeably in the psalms for variety. These are words of both feeling and action. Merciful and gracious indicate empathy and compassion. Slow to anger suggests patience and forbearance. God has a long fuse. Rich in steadfast love suggests unending commitment to love and faithfulness. YHWH has a lot of patience and a lot of love. This essential nature of God is manifested in his actions. The psalmist experienced this as God’s favor in the circumstances of his life. We do the same but we also experience it through Jesus. We are confident of God’s patience, steadfast love because it was demonstrated to us in the cross. We are sure of God’s empathy, that he actually suffers with us, because he suffered on the cross. The psalmist didn’t have these assurances, but he believed them by faith. This is what the ancients were commended for (Hebrews 11). If they had such faith in the steadfast love of God before Christ embodied it, how much more should we trust in the lovingkindness of God? This is not meant to be a rationale for willful sinning. God forbid! (Romans 6) Rather it is meant to convert us to love God so completely that sin is out of the question. Paul wrote of God’s unlimited patience with him, the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:16). Give thanks today for God’s grace and compassion. Remember all his benefits. He is not a harsh taskmaster like the gods of this world that promise you freedom and deliver slavery.
9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
The four positive statements of God’s love are balanced by four negative statements in these two verses. This is what God will not do. First, He will not always strive or contend with us. Conflict is not his default. There are some people that just rub you the wrong way every time because they are always on you, always negative. Some may feel that God is this way, but that is not the case. Yes, he contends with us as a parent contends with a child (more about that later in the psalm). But he is not always on our case. Second, he doesn’t stay angry at us forever when we disobey. He’s not one to hold a grudge against us. Again, we know exactly what this feels like in human relationships. An unwillingness to let something go is a habit that destroys relationships. It’s not that God is a pushover and we can do whatever we want and he just smiles and nods. No, there is contention, there is anger, but it is not permanent. Third, he doesn’t treat us according to our sins (literally “according to our sins, do us). Justice demands that sin be punished. Fairness demands that the guilty suffer for what they have done. We all want to see this in the criminal justice system when we consider how people are victimized by criminals. God doesn’t ignore the sin, rather he takes it upon himself. The punishment that brought us peace was placed on Him. We deserve it, but he takes it instead. Finally, he doesn’t pay us back based on our iniquities, our violations of his moral and just law that result in disharmony in our relationships with God and others. Again, we all want justice. In all the stories we love, the hero wins and the bad guys loses. In this story, we are the bad guys and we win because the hero takes our place and receives what we deserve. David is writing 1,000 years before Christ and describes exactly the kind of transaction that took place on the cross. He trusted in God’s grace even though there was no means at the time to experience it and satisfy the demands of justice. If you ever have doubts about the reality of these words, of God’s promises of forgiveness, remember that Jesus is the guarantor of the truth of these verses. We don’t experience forgiveness because we just feel like it. We can be absolutely confident of it because of the historical event of the cross.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
The psalmist supplies two metaphors to help us grasp the extent of God’s love. The first appeals to the vertical dimension of space, the distance from the earth to the heavens. This is the measure of God’s steadfast love to those who fear him. The ancients believed that the heavens were beyond the clouds, beyond the blue sky that held back the rainwater. The heavens were the domain of the gods, who moved the sun, moon, and stars across the circle of the sky. It wasn’t that the distance was great as in the number of miles to travel but that it was simply impossible to get there -- no planes, helicopters or rockets could get you there. It was simply beyond human ability to reach and so it might as well have been infinite. That’s how great God’s love is for those who worship him. The word “great” here is usually translated “strong” as in David’s “mighty men.” It’s not just that God’s love is measureless, it is also strong, powerful, mighty, and effective in transforming us. Modern observations tell us that the universe is about 93 billion light years across and 13.8 billion years old. We can’t even imagine what a billion years is, let alone a light year. The point is that God’s strength is immensely greater than our imagination, so there is no need to doubt His capacity to love us strongly and sufficiently. The second metaphor is based on the horizontal dimension, as far as the east is from the west. Travel east as far as you can and you’ll never reach west. Travel west as far as you can and you’ll never reach east. These are also infinite measures. This is the distance that God separates you from your sin. Your lawbreaking is removed so far from you by the grace of God that you will never encounter it again. If God can remove our transgressions that far away from us, surely we can forgive ourselves. And surely we can forgive those who trespass against us. I don’t know how David experienced the love of God in his day, before Jesus, when all that he had was the promise of God and the performance of rituals of sacrifice. He conceived of a being so gracious as to wipe away all barriers between himself and the rebellious people he created. I don’t know the basis for that other than revelation. God told David this truth about His nature, and David believed it. Then Jesus came along 1,000 years later and proved it beyond doubt.
This is in contrast to another god in the ancient near east. In an Egyptian hymn to Amun-Re the deity is praised for his judgment of the guilty. As a result of the god’s discernment the guilty are assigned to the east and the righteous to the west (IVP OT Background commentary). YHWH doesn’t separate the righteous from the guilty. We are all guilty. He separates the guilty from their sin.
13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.
14 For he knows our frame; [Or knows how we are formed] He remembers that we are dust.
The next metaphor for God’s love is that of a father and his children. It is relational and fully understandable because everyone has a father and a mother. Parents are meant to be models of the nature of God to children. Much of a child’s conception of the nature of God is derived from their relationship with mom and dad, for good and bad. A good father shows compassion to his children, remembering how fragile they are, how formable they are. God knows how we are formed because he formed us from the dust. Psalm 139 gives us greater detail of that moment when God put each of us together inside our mother’s womb and carefully crafted our bodies and minds the way we wished. He takes all this into consideration when he disciplines us as his children. Good parents must discipline, using rewards and punishments to shape the character of their children. There are trends in parenting that suggest we let children raise themselves, to let them discover who they are rather than telling them who they are. The result is a great deal of confusion. As a result boys think they are girls and girls think they are boys, and parents think the compassionate thing to do is to affirm the delusion. Because parents fear their children’s rejection, they are tempted to lower their expectations for behavior because they don’t want to risk angering them. Hebrews 12 goes into greater detail about how God disciplines us for our good, and while this is painful at times, it is a sign of God’s compassion that he cares enough about us to shape us through pain. Don’t hesitate to show compassion to your children by disciplining them. They may not receive it as compassion, but ultimately they will be grateful. The Bible presents a paradoxical view of the nature of man. On the one hand, we are dust, and on the other we are dearly loved children. Both are true. As the song says, “You make beautiful things out of the dust.”
15 As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
The psalmist employs two additional metaphors to describe the nature of man in comparison to God. Not only are we like dust, but our days are like grass and we flourish like flowers, both emphasizing our transitory nature. Grass is seasonal. In Israel the land greens with the spring and autumn rains and turns brown in the summer heat. In the scope of time and human history, even the longest lived human beings are like grass, seasonal at best. There’s no getting around it, no matter how much money or scientific knowledge you possess. Long life is just not in the cards for us, so coming to terms with that reality is important. Flowers are beautiful, and the root of the Hebrew word is “shiny”. The phrase is literally, “he flowers like a wildflower”. Like the grass, wildflowers bloom for a season and then they are gone. Babies bring smiles and joy but eventually they grow up into adults and pass on, replaced by the generation behind. The warm winds of summer dry the land and the flowers complete their short life cycle, dropping seed for the next generation. Once the flower has withered and dropped to the ground, no one recognizes that it was there. Consider this fact when you pass a cemetery, many (most?) of the people who are buried there are forgotten. They may have descendants, but none of the living have personal recollections of them. It is as if they never existed. This sobering truth should cause us to do at least two things. First, make sure that we are making the most of the life that we have been given. Flower and bring life and beauty into the world. Like a seed that falls to the ground, reproduce yourself in others. Second, make sure you invest in the relationship that will outlast your mortal body, that is, your relationship with the Eternal One. Lay up treasure in heaven and place your trust in the One who promises to receive you into glory.
17 But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children,
18 to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.
In contrast to the dust, grass, and wildflowers that represent mankind, YHWH is from everlasting to everlasting, without beginning or end. And thus the steadfast nature of his love and the goodness of his righteousness may be experienced by all people at all times. The idiom for children’s children is literally “sons of sons”. Generation after generation from the beginning of recorded history have known the faithfulness and goodness of YHWH and this will always be. The blessings of God’s love and goodness are promised to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. In one of the many contrasts in this psalm, the word “remember” is what YHWH does for us (remembers we are dust) and what we do for him (remember to do his commandments). Remembering means doing something, acting upon the recollection, and bringing that which is remembered to the forefront of one’s attention. Some want to believe in a God that has no covenant and commandments. They live by a law unto themselves, crafted around their own self-understanding, doing whatever they want and calling it good. But one aspect of God’s righteousness is that he has eternal standards of morality. His just law doesn’t change with the times or our self-understanding. It is what it is. We might as well call it reality. So the promise of God’s love and goodness is reserved for those who live within the boundaries of God’s commandments and participate in covenant relationship with him. A covenant was a binding promise of relationship between two parties, confirmed through the shedding of blood. It is not small thing to vow allegiance to YHWH, but when we do, the blessings of love and righteousness are extended to us and to our descendants for generation after generation.
19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!
The psalm concludes with a strong assertion of YHWH’s sovereignty followed by a summons to worship. Having affirmed God’s nature of steadfast love throughout the psalm, the psalmist states this ultimate reality: YHWH rules over all things from heaven. First, he established his throne in the heavens. This suggests power and permanence. “The heavens” are one of the places where man cannot go. So we’ve gone to the moon and we’ve sent probes to the planets and beyond. Big deal. It doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the vast expanse of the universe in which God is present and over which he rules. YHWH has established his throne in the heavens. He exists and rules beyond space and time, both outside of our incomparably large universe and within every molecule of it. His kingdom, rule, and authority are absolute. As Kuyper famously said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” One of the implications of this reality is that everything in God’s kingdom has an obligation to worship. It is the proper and right response to a sovereign and benevolent God. So the first ones to be called upon to express their worship are his mighty angels, gloriously majestic and powerful beings who obey YHWH absolutely. In fact, this is stated twice for emphasis. They do God’s word, obeying (listening to) the voice of God’s word. Sometimes we think, well that’s easier for the angels to obey since they can see God. They have no doubts about his reality (as humans might have), so that’s not fair to compare them to us and our lack of obedience. That may be true, but angels still have free will as the fall of Satan and his angels demonstrates. It’s possible to be in the very throne room of God and still say “no”. As James reminds us, even the demons believe, and they tremble. Apparently the temptation of pride is always with us as long as we have a free will. And we must have a free will in order to truly love God. Being forced to love and worship him is not love, it’s coercion. And so the psalmist invites the angels to worship because even they have the capacity to worship themselves in place of YHWH. Don’t say, “I would believe in God if I could just see him”. That may not be enough if your will is not changed.
21 Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!
The summons to worship continues with three more groups addressed. The mighty angels have already been summoned, and next the psalmist calls upon the “host of heaven”, God’s ministers who do his will. His servants. The IVP Old Testament Backgrounds commentary has this to say about the “host of heaven”. “The “host of heaven” in the ancient Near East referred to the assembly of the gods, many of whom were represented by celestial bodies (whether planets or stars). The Bible sometimes uses the phrase to refer to the illegitimate worship of these deities (see comment on Deut 4:19). On other occasions, the phrase is used for Yahweh’s angelic council (see comment on 2 Chron 18:18). A third type of usage treats the term as a reference to rebel angels (perhaps in Is 24:21; commonly in the intertestamental literature). Finally, it can refer simply to the stars, with no personalities behind them (Is 40:26). In the ancient Near East the major decisions were all made in the divine council. There the gods would consult with one another and share their information and opinions. The familiar picture of a heavenly throne surrounded by the divine assembly is well known from the Ugaritic texts (most notably the epic of Keret), though this Canaanite council is made up of the gods of the pantheon. Examples occur also in the tenth-century building inscription of Yehimilk from Byblos and the Karatepe stele of Azitawadda. In the Akkadian Enuma Elish it is the assembly of the gods that appoints Marduk as their head. Fifty gods made up this assembly with seven in the inner council. In Israelite belief the gods were replaced by angels or spirits—the sons of God or the heavenly host. Yahweh is often portrayed as the “Lord of Hosts”—the commander of the heavenly armies.” This suggests that some of the angels are “throne angels”, hanging out in the presence of God, his counsel (although God needs no advising). It is meant to mirror what happens in human government where a king has final authority but is surrounded by advisors. Other angels are “serving angels”, functioning to carry out God’s will. An example would be the angel of the Lord assisting Israel in battle or an angel coming to announce a message to Zechariah, Mary or Joseph (Luke 1, Matthew 1). After the throne angels and the serving angels, all of the works of God are invited to join the worship. Unable to form words, every atom of creation is testament to God’s genius and his rule. He has established all the laws of physics and quantum mechanics to hold all the worlds he has made together. His divine blueprint for creation is followed to the letter, providing order and unfathomable beauty across the cosmos. The very existence of the universe is tacit praise to YHWH. And so the psalmist concludes where he began (an example of the poetic device of inclusio). He summons himself to worship. He speaks to his soul and commands its worship. It is the only fitting response to the sovereign lover of our soul.