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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
103:3-19 The Benefits. The benefits all express God's steadfast love (vv. 4, 8, 11, 17) and mercy, as God explains his own name in Ex. 34:6-7. These include the personal and communal experience of God's forgiveness and constant care.
103:3 Heals often refers to curing someone from a physical sickness, but it can also be used as a metaphor for restoring the moral and spiritual life (e.g., Isa. 6:10; 53:5; Jer. 3:22; Hos. 14:4). Since it is in parallel with forgives, the metaphorical use may be intended here. Thus iniquity is like diseases, which weaken and corrupt; it is God's mercy that takes them away. These sentiments reflect David's own experience of God's forgiveness (cf. 2 Samuel 12; Psalm 51).
103:4-5 These verses speak of God's constant care and provision. redeems. See note on Isa. 1:24-28; see also note on Ps. 25:22. steadfast love and mercy. See note on 103:8-13. like the eagle's. The eagle is an emblem of strength, vitality, and youthful endurance (cf. Isa. 40:31).
103:6-14 The list of benefits shifts to a survey of how God has dealt with his people as a whole, in spite of their many provocations. The key is v. 8. The terms "us," "our," and "we" refer to the people; the verses focus especially on "those who fear" the Lord (vv. 11, 13), i.e., on those who take the covenant to heart (see note on vv. 17-18).
103:6 Righteousness and justice are the blessings of protection from those who might exploit or harm (cf. 33:5; 97:2; Deut. 16:18; Isa. 5:7). The Lord extends these blessings to all who are oppressed, but especially to his own people (cf. Ps. 146:7).
103:7 his ways. God's character as it governs his deeds (Ex. 33:13). his acts. These reveal his enduring commitment to his people, i.e., they express God's "ways." "Acts" can also be rendered "deeds" (see Ps. 9:11; 66:5; 77:12; Isa. 12:4).
103:8-13 Verse 8 is based on Ex. 34:6, where God proclaims his own name (the OT's fundamental confession of God's character); Ps. 103:9-13 expounds this further. The terms sins, iniquities (v. 10), and transgressions (v. 12) are names for what God forgives in Ex. 34:7a. Likewise steadfast love (Ps. 103:11) and shows compassion (v. 13; the word is related to merciful in v. 8) reveal that this is an application of Ex. 34:6-7.
103:11-13 These are three comparisons for the kindness of God toward his people, to show its abundance (v. 11; cf. 36:5), decisiveness (103:12), and enduring quality (v. 13).
103:13 God is a father to his people as a whole (Ex. 4:22-23), and to the particular faithful members (Prov. 3:12). Of course many human fathers fail to embody this idea; this image assumes that biblically informed people have an intuition of what fathers ideally should be like. But it also serves as a goal for faithful fathers: they will seek more and more to be the kind of father who shows compassion to his children.
103:14 he knows our frame. As the ESV footnote explains, this could also be "he knows how we are formed," which, together with we are dust looks back to Gen. 2:7. The Lord remembers the finiteness of the human perspective ("dust" is not eternal or omniscient), and he is patient with his people.
103:15-18 The song reaches its crescendo here: amid the shortness of human life (vv. 15-16), God's steadfast love for his faithful is everlasting (v. 17a), bestowing on them the privilege of nurturing those who will be his people in coming generations (vv. 17b-18). For the image of grass and flower for the transience of life, cf. 90:5 and Isa. 40:7; for other reflections on the shortness of life, cf. Ps. 102:3, 11. the wind passes over it, and it is gone. The wind dries out the plants in a dry climate.
103:17-18 the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. Cf. 25:6; 100:5. Those who fear him (103:11, 13) are the same as those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments; they are the faithful, who believe the promises and obey the commands (Ex. 19:5; Deut. 7:9; cf. John 14:15, 21; 15:10; Rev. 1:3; 3:8). The covenant of circumcision, which Abraham's descendants were to "keep," included the promise that the Lord would be God to both the offspring and their parents. This psalm goes beyond that, however: the faithful expect that God sets his saving love on their children's children. This is the crowning privilege that God gives to his faithful: though their lives are short and appear almost insignificant, they may still contribute to the future well-being of the people of God by their godly and prayerful parenting and grandparenting. Cf. also Ps. 100:5; 102:28; in Ex. 34:7a God keeps steadfast love for thousands (i.e., thousands of generations; cf. Deut. 7:9) for the faithful (Ex. 20:6).
