([A Psalm] of David.) Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name!
David does not open this psalm by speaking to God, and not to other people either. He turns and speaks to himself, ordering his own inner life to bless the LORD. Commentators hear the line as one man's private song and as the voice of a whole restored nation. They also ask what makes such praise possible at all.
The call is not to a passing feeling but to everything the psalmist has, directed at God under His covenant name.
The psalmist calls on his soul, with all its powers, to praise Jehovah — the eternal, unchangeable, covenant-God. Love showing itself in "all His benefits" wakes the soul to praise Him. Yet even in the middle of its joy, the soul feels how weak and changeable the creature is. It has had plenty of proof of that, set against His faithfulness.
One writer pictures the singer at the altar of incense, certain of salvation, looking back and forward from there.
In Psalm 103 a poor sinner stands, in spirit, at the golden altar with his incense of praise. That is, he stands in the full certainty of salvation. From that happy place he looks over the past and future dealings of the same Lord. This is the Lord who had blessed him like this in all His works and ways, both in creation itself and among His people.
That certainty is not cheap. Another writer traces the song back to David's experience in Psalm 51, and names what comes first before a heart can sing like this.
David had passed through the experience of Psalm 51. After that he could praise and worship God with a joyful heart, in the strains of Psalm 103. So God's majesty, holiness, and truth stood firm. Sin was judged in the light, the conscience cleared, the heart made happy, full communion restored, and the soul established in grace. The tears may have been more bitter than myrrh, but the results are sweeter than honey.
David brings nothing of his own to this song. The mercy behind it runs past all measuring.
When God has done it, there is nothing left to do but light the censer of praise and send it back to God who has done it. David could praise, not about David, but about God. I have done nothing, he would say, nothing but failure; but You have done it all. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!" … Man's widest reach would be a poor measuring rod for mercy that runs from everlasting to everlasting. … Because His mercy is like this, it lays a practical claim on the heart: "Bless His holy name."
One writer asks whose voice this really is, and where the forgiveness behind it comes from.
No doubt the Spirit of Christ leads these praises, for His praise shall be of Jehovah in the great congregation. But the psalm speaks in the name of all Israel. They have forgiveness and mercy through the tender compassions and mercy of Jehovah. … Now Jehovah owned them with loving-kindness and tender mercies. All their sins were utterly removed from them.
The psalm opens with one person and ends the same way. In between, it widens out to everything God has made.
It begins with the individual, as always. It follows the forgiveness of all iniquities with the healing of all diseases. … It is not only that Jehovah's mercy is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. His throne also stands firm in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. So His angels, His hosts, and all His works are to bless Jehovah everywhere, as his own soul did — and so it ends.
A soul that needs this order can also forget God.
The psalmist calls on his own soul to bless the Lord, and all that is within him. Being so greatly blessed, how could God's people ever forget His benefits? And how can we today forget the great blessing with which God has blessed the Church of God? Sadly, we know our own memories are too short about these things. May the Lord stir us to a greater appreciation of our many spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord!
- Bless — with all of you. The call is to the soul with all its powers, not to a mood; nothing inside is exempt.
- Bless — from solid ground. This praise rises from full certainty of salvation. It comes the hard way: sin judged, conscience cleared, communion restored.
- Bless — for His doing, not yours. "I have done nothing but failure; You have done it all." The only offering left is the praise itself.
- Bless — with a whole nation, led by Christ. The Spirit of Christ leads this song, and it speaks in the name of all Israel, whose sins are all removed.
- Bless — until everything joins. It starts with one soul and ends with angels, hosts and all His works, because His kingdom rules over all. So refuse the short memory.
Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits
In Psalm 103 David turns and speaks to his own soul. Verse 2 repeats the call and adds a warning: praise lives on memory. Why must a heart that has received so much hear the command twice?
Praise starts with a man speaking to his own soul. One writer notes that David had nothing of his own to show — only failure:
Then comes the burst of praise from Psalms 103, 104, 105 — all praise from earth. When God has done it, there is nothing left to do but light the incense of praise and send it back up to God who has done it. David could praise, not about David, but about God. I have done nothing, he would say, nothing but failure; but you have done it all. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name." When we can speak of nothing else, we can speak of God.
The second call is not repetition for its own sake. It admits something about the one praising:
The psalmist calls on his soul, with all its powers, to praise Jehovah — the eternal, unchangeable, covenant God. Love showing itself in "all His benefits" wakes the soul to praise Him. Yet even in the middle of its joy, the soul sees how weak and changeable the creature is. It has had abundant proof of this, set against His faithfulness: "forget not all His benefits."
Forgetting is not harmless. It shows up in how we face the next trial.
Forgetting is one of the dangers on a disciple's path. How quickly Israel forgot the hardships of Egypt and their great deliverance! They started grumbling and crying, "we shall die in the wilderness". But are we not in the same danger? We quickly forget the answered prayers of yesterday. We forget the help found in personal need or in shared trials. And we dishonour our Lord through "little faith". May we not join in the prayer of David, "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits" (Ps. 103:2)?
So what are the benefits? One writer names them by the two titles this psalm gives to God:
In Psalm 103 he blesses Jehovah as the Forgiver and Healer of His people. In Psalm 104 he blesses Him as the glorious Creator. In Psalm 105 he blesses Him as faithful to His covenant with the fathers, and to His promises.
One writer shows the same pair — pardon and healing — given together in a single scene:
His first words to the paralysed man were not words of healing but of pardon. Had their spiritual sight been clear, they would have recognised that Psalm 103:3 had come true before their eyes: "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases". Every tongue would then have exclaimed, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits."
The psalm also looks ahead to a coming age when praise will meet no obstacle.
This psalm shows it beautifully. Unhindered praise will rise from the hearts of those redeemed and blessed in the millennium. The psalmist calls on his own soul to bless the Lord, and all that is within him. Being so greatly blessed then, how could they ever forget His benefits? And how can we today forget the great blessing with which God has blessed the Church of God? Sadly, we know our own memories are too short about these things.
Remembering benefits can go wrong in a second way — the gifts can crowd out the One who gave them.
To trust in prosperity, in earthly riches, is a danger for most believers, if not all. How much greater the folly of trusting them now, when our true riches are shown to be heavenly and not earthly! To boast of spiritual gifts and attainments as if we had gained them by our own skill offends the Lord even more. He alone gives as it pleases Him. It is to put God's blessings and favours in the place of God Himself. If the perishable things of this life are His gift, how much more the spiritual and eternal! Forget not all His benefits, but bless the Lord.
- Remember — the double call speaks to a heart that is weak and changeable. Memory is the fuel praise runs on.
- Benefits — the psalm names them: forgiveness and healing. It calls the Lord the Forgiver and Healer of His people.
- Fulfilled — Jesus pardoned the paralysed man and healed him. The psalm came true in front of witnesses.
- Forgotten — forget yesterday's answered prayers, and today you show "little faith". That dishonours the Lord.
- Blessed — the last danger is keeping the gifts and losing the Giver. Bless the Lord Himself, not only His benefits.
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases;
In Psalm 103 the singer tells his own soul not to forget what God has done, and his list opens with two gifts: pardon for every sin, and cure for every sickness. So when does God give both, and does He promise health to everyone He forgives?
Commentators find this verse acted out in the Gospels, in one meeting between Jesus and a paralysed man.
It is worth seeing how this connects with Christ in the Gospels. The Lord is the One who forgives and heals. This is just what the Lord does with the paralysed man. It was an example of how God governs and deals with man. He healed the paralysis, and besides, He forgave the sins. They say, "Who is this who forgives sins also?" He proved that He was the Lord who forgave them and healed their diseases.
Many readers take the second half of the verse as a picture of spiritual sickness. One writer rejects that reading.
The 103rd Psalm illustrates most beautifully Israel's coming praise. It is not only "who forgives all your iniquity," but also "who heals all your diseases." People usually read the diseases in this psalm as a picture of something spiritual, but that is incorrect. They are diseases of the body. The Son of Man did this for one paralysed man while He was here in humiliation. When He comes again, exalted, He will do it for the whole nation and for others on the earth in that coming age of glory.
One writer sets the verse in a day still to come, and finds a prophet saying the same about Jerusalem.
The fruits of sin, whether sickness or death, could be removed, and sins forgiven. This is in harmony with Psalm 103:3, which will be sung on a coming day: "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." Then, too, the bright forecast of the prophet about Jerusalem will come true: "And no inhabitant will say, 'I am sick'; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity" (Isaiah 33:24).
Does pardon carry a cure with it today? One writer answers with a question of his own.
But can we say that "who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases" is the way the Lord deals now with Christians? Where He forgives a person's iniquities, does He necessarily heal all their diseases? But here it is clear that the Lord had in view the cure of bodily diseases joined with the forgiveness of sins, in the same people and at the same time. When will this be? When God takes the government of the world into His own hands. When the One who was crucified is glorified — not only in heaven, but here below — the outward world, the body of man, and especially God's own people Israel, will feel the effect at once. We can take the spirit of the Psalms, so far as they apply to our condition now. But let us not forget: much in the Psalms does not apply to us.
Why then does God leave His people ill? One writer answers that He is training them.
True, He does heal now at times, but still He allows sickness to affect His people. Then the healing will not only be complete, but connected also with forgiveness. Some people think the grand thing is to have faith in God's power. He has only to speak, and the worst disease can be healed easily; but He is training us. Sometimes He sends sickness to prevent, sometimes to correct. We ought to have faith in His love as well as in His power, and in His wisdom too. Have faith in God, not simply in His power.
One writer adds that the Christian has even more than the pardon in this verse.
This is how Israel will be forgiven later on (compare Psalm 103:3). So the Lord here proves His authority to forgive, by healing the paralysed man's disease... The man was to know, in his relationship to God, that his guilt was gone. Through infinite grace, we are entitled to more than even this; for we have the righteousness of the accepted man in God's presence.
What does pardon leave behind in the person forgiven? One writer lists the results.
God's majesty, holiness, and truth have been upheld. Sin has been judged in the light, the conscience cleared, the heart made happy, full communion restored, and the soul established in grace. The tears may have been more bitter than myrrh, but the results are sweeter than honey.
- Forgiven — one Lord does both. Jesus pardoned the paralysed man and then healed him, doing what this psalm credits to the Lord.
- Healed — the diseases are real illnesses of the body, not a picture of inner trouble; the cure is as literal as the pardon.
- Together — the psalm's hope is a day when forgiveness and health reach the same people at the same time.
- Not yet — that is not how God deals with believers now. Pardon is certain; health is not.
- Trusted — meanwhile God may send sickness to prevent or correct, and asks for faith in His love and wisdom, not only in His power.
Who redeemeth thy life from the pit, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies;
Psalm 103 lists what the soul must never forget. This verse names two of those gifts: a life bought back from the pit, and a head circled with love. Writers read it two ways. It is the song of a nation rescued at the end of its long trouble. It is also the language of any person whose sins have been dealt with. The older translations they quote read "loving-kindness and tender mercies" where the ESV has "steadfast love and mercy."
The psalm has already named forgiveness and healing. This verse adds rescue from the pit, which older translations call destruction. One writer sees a whole nation lifted out of it.
Now at last, the nation redeemed from destruction renews its life. The righteous judgment of the Lord will end the long centuries of oppression the Jew has suffered under the rule of the Gentiles. That oppression came as the result of their rejection of their Messiah.
One writer follows this word across Scripture. It covers the body, the inheritance and the nation, and it always has a price behind it.
Divine power has another use, still future, that is also called redemption. Romans 8 uses the word of "our body," raised or changed at Christ's coming. It uses the word the same way of the possession He has bought, "our inheritance." This power of His glory rests on His work as well as on His person. The same principle governs the very frequent use of the word in the Psalms and Prophets for the future deliverance of Israel for His kingdom on earth. See Ps. 103:4, Ps. 106:10, Isa. 43:1... All of it, however, rests on His blood-shedding. The return from Babylon was an outward sample and pledge.
"Crowns" is not only honour placed on the head. The word behind it means a ring drawn around a person. Older translations of Psalm 5:12 keep that picture with the word "compass."
The word "crownest" might be rendered "encircled for protection" or "compassed about," and is given that way in Psalm 5:12 — "For You bless the righteous, O LORD; You cover him with favour as with a shield."
The crown is made of loving-kindness and tender mercies. One writer traces them to God's own nature, and names who receives them.
They have forgiveness and mercy through the tender compassions and mercy of Jehovah. As for man, he is like grass; and the people had been like grass and had withered (Isa. 40). But the mercy of Jehovah is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, the obedient ones. So it all comes from His goodness, and from His faithfulness too, which springs from the very nature and name of Jehovah — but it comes to the obedient ones, the godly remnant. Now Jehovah owned them with loving-kindness and tender mercies. All their sins were utterly removed from them.
Many read this psalm for comfort today. One writer says most readers miss a second layer: it is also a song for the future.
This is the well-loved psalm. God's people love it for its precious and beautiful expressions. It tells out the full salvation of our Saviour Lord and the gracious compassion He shows towards His own. But we must not overlook the prophetic aspect, which few believers have recognised. It is really the hymn of praise that redeemed and restored Israel will sing... God has forgiven their iniquities, healed their diseases, redeemed their life from the pit, and crowned them with loving-kindness and tender mercies.
Praise like this has a history behind it. One writer traces the joy of Psalm 103 back to the confession of Psalm 51.
David had passed through the experience of Psalm 51. After that, he could praise and worship God with a joyful heart in the strains of Psalm 103... So God's majesty, holiness, and truth stood firm. Sin was judged in the light, the conscience cleared, the heart made happy, full communion restored, and the soul established in grace. The tears may have been more bitter than myrrh, but the results are sweeter than honey.
- Redeemed — God buys the life back from the pit. The word always points beyond rescue to a price: "All of it, however, rests on His blood-shedding."
- Crowned — the crown is a circle, not just an ornament. The same word means "encircled for protection," so love and mercy ring the redeemed round like a shield.
- Made of mercy — the crown is woven from God's own tender compassion. It comes from His goodness and His faithfulness, never from the head that wears it.
- Sung by the restored — writers hear in it the coming song of a nation. Sins forgiven, diseases healed, oppression ended.
- Learned in confession — the man who sings it had first written Psalm 51. A cleared conscience and restored communion turn bitter tears into praise.