Psalms 103

Psalms 103:6-18

The psalmist, 1. Stirs up himself and his own soul to praise God, ver. 1, 2. for his favour to him in particular, ver. 3-5. to the church in general, and to all good men, to whom he is and will be just, kind, and constant, ver. 6-18. and for his government of the world, ver. 19. 2. He defers the assistance of the holy angels, and all the works of God in praising him, ver. 20-22.

¶ A psalm of David.

a PC. civ. 1. 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 benefits. 3.

b Ibid. curr. 3. Who forgeteth all thine iniquities: who healed all thy diseases. 4. Who redeemeth thy life from destruction: who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies. 5. Who fastiseth thy mouth with good things: so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

c. 1-5. When God opens our hearts to a real discovery of what he is to us, and hath done for us, we shall be overwhelmed with wonder, and filled with thanksgiving. Thus the psalmist, and with him every living servant of God.

1. Stirs up his soul to the grateful work of praise. Bless the Lord, O my soul; proclaim his goodness and grace; and all that is within me, let every faculty be engaged, and every nerve extended, to bless his holy name, so worthy to be praised. Bless the Lord, O my soul; delay not, nor be suggest in the service; and forget not all his benefits, the least so infinitely beyond our defects, and yet so great and numberless, that they are more than we are able to express. Note, (1.) It is good often to commune with our own hearts, and stir them up to the needful work of gratitude. (2.) God deserves our heart, our whole heart; and every faithful soul grieves that he does not more universally surrender it to his blessed service. (3.) We are strangely apt to forget God’s benefits, and have much reason to be deeply humbled at all times, that we are so unduly affected with the sense of them, and so little thankful for them.

2. He enumerates a variety of particulars, for which his soul was bound to bless and praise God. [1.] Who forgiveneth all thine iniquities: great, numberless, aggravated as they have been, he forgives them through Jesus, freely, fully, eternally; so that they shall never rise up again to accuse, or condemn us, in an hour of death or a day of judgment. [2.] Who hasteth all thy diseases, sunk under a complication of miseries is the fallen

spirit; diseased in every faculty; fatally sick, beyond the power of human medicine to recover; but there is balm in Gilead, and a physician there. He who is able to forgive all our sins, can heal all our spiritual maladies by the power of his effectual grace; and every redeemed soul feels this, in a measure, by blessed experience, and praises the divine physician. [3.] Who redeemeth thy life from destruction. Eternal ruin, because of our sins, awaited us, and hell yawned ready to receive the guilty wretch; but Jesus interposed, paid the immense realism, stayed us from going down to the pit, and opened the gates of life and immortality to the loft and perishing. For this great redemption praise the Lord, O my soul! [4.] Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies; with all the infinite blessings contained in the everlasting covenant, that, like a royal diadem, adorn the brows of every redeemed soul. [5.] Who fastiseth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Good things of a temporal nature, health, prosperity, long life, and juvenile vigour, even to old age. Good things of a spiritual nature, satisfying the hungrings and thistings of the heart with those rich supplies of righteousness and grace in Jesus, that enable us with vigour, delight, and zeal, to run the way of God’s commandments; and when coldness and decay would creep upon us, he renews our strength; so that in the liveliness and activity of our souls, even in old age, we mount up with wings as eagles, Isa. xl. 31.

6. The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. 7. He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. 8. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 9. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11. For as the heaven is high above the earth: so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12. As far as the east is from the west: so far hath he removed our187 questions from us. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children: so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 14. For he knoweth our frame: he remembeth that we are shift. 15. As far man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. 17. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him: and his righteousness unto children’s children: 18. To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Not only his own mercies excited the psalmist’s praises, but he felt the kindness shown to others as done to himself.

1. He praises God for his general care over the poor and oppressed, v. 6. whose patron he was ever found, and whose wrongs, sooner or later, he would vindicate.

2. He adores him for the peculiar favour ever shown to his Israel, [1.] In revealing to them his mind and will; committing to them his lively oracles; in all the divinely-infinited ordinances of his worship, which he delivered to Moses, instructing them in the way of salvation; and in all his acts of power and grace exerted for them, engaging their truth in him, and love towards him. [2.] In his patience and pardoning mercy shown to his people, notwithstanding their provocations. His nature is mercy, and his bosom the fear of tender compulsion, v. 8. Slow to anger, he bears long even with the vessels of wrath; and though provoked so greatly and so often by his own people, is ever ready to forgive: yet, when for our good he is compelled to chide, to visit our offences with the rod, and our sin with scourges, his paternal heart yearns over our sufferings; he is in haste to fall on the necks of his returning prodigals, and turn away from his wrathful indignation; to restore comfort to his mourners, and seal their pardon and peace with the kisses of his love, v. 9. Had we our defects indeed, we had long since lain down in everlasting burning; but far other have been his dealings with us, v. 10. His rich grace pardons our innumerable offences. High as the heavens are above the earth, so vast and boundless is his mercy; and far as the east is from the west, so far hath he put away our iniquities: they are forgiven, yea forgotten; sunk as a flower in the abyss of his infinite love, and never to rise up again, v. 11, 12. He knows our feeble frame, the weakness of our bodies, that would be crushed as the moth, if he laid for a moment his heavy hand upon us: the infirmity of our flesh, so impotent to good, so prone to evil; and therefore he pisses us, as the tenderest father the child of his love, v. 13, 14. Note, (1.) If God’s pity to us be so great, let us learn of him to exercise the like compulsion towards each other. (2.) They who have a real basis of their own defects, must ever stand amazed at themselves that they are

out

out of hell. (3.) God’s pardons are free, full, everlasting: the greatest dishonour we can these him, is to distrust his promises, and question his grace. [3.] In his unchangeable faithfulness. Man is the creature of a day, a worm of earth, frail as the withering grafs, and passing as the fading flower: one sharp blast dishevels all its beauty, and throws the ground with its ruins. So death dissolves our mortal frame, and passing into the unseen world, we are quickly forgotten in the dust: but God is to everlasting years the same, and his mercy towards his people enduring as his being. From everlasting he hath chosen them, to everlasting he will bless them; for not only through life will he be gracious to them, but in death he will be their comfort, extend his favour to their seed, and be in eternity their portion. Now, (1.) Nothing is a more humbling and predictable consideration, than the sense of our own vanity and mortality. (2.) God’s love towards his people is for ever: where once his mercy hath been shown, it will be everlasting mercy; for having loved his own, he loveth them unto the end.

3. The character of the people of God, towards whom this love and kindness is manifested, is set forth; or rather this mercy shewn them, engages their hearts to him. They fear him, v. 17, not with that fear that hath bondage, but with that filial fear which springs from the spirit of adoption. They keep his covenant; live upon the inestimably precious promises of it; make it all their salvation, and all their desire; and renouncing every other hope and confidence, depend alone on the complete fulfilment of it made in the person of their Redeemer, v. 18. And they with a remember his commandments to do them; faithful to their obligations, and desiring to approve themselves obedient children to the Father of Mercies.

4. The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens: and his kingdom ruleth over all. 20. “Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, herekning unto the voice of his word. 21. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. 22. Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Psalms 103:19-22

We have here,

1. God’s eternal kingdom and glory set forth as an engagement to universal adoration of him. In heaven his radiant throne is placed, prepared, or established, fixed and immovable, and his dominion universal; for his kingdom ruleth over all; angels, men, yea devils, and all in heaven, earth, and hell, are subject to his government, and must submit to his disposals.

2. A call to render to this glorious Jehovah the universal praise due unto his name. [1.] Let the brightest and noblest creatures lead the way, and angels and archangels, his waiting hosts, his attendant ministers, mighty in power to fulfil God’s high benefits, keep in attention to his commanding word, let them begin the long, and bless their great Creator. [2.] Let all the hosts of earth, the great congregation of the redeemed, unite their hearts and voices in his praise; especially his ministers of flame, whom he hath put in trust with his gospel, and sent to spread the knowledge of his grace and good will to men, v. 21. [3.] Let all his works speak forth his glory; the heavens above, with all their shining orbs; the world beneath, with every creature, animate or inanimate, that moves or grows, or dwells in air, earth, or sea, all, all must learn to bless and praise. [4.] Shall then my soul, O Lord, alone be solitary, and shout amidst the universal shout of thanksgiving? No; bless the Lord, O my soul! every day, still increasing, more constant, more enlarged, whistest life and breath endures, may my bosom swell with gratitude, my lips be filled with praise, the earnest and beginning of those unceasing praises which shall be my everlasting employment, and my unutterable joy in the regions of eternal bliss and glory.