Psalms 103 · ESV Study Bible

Bless the LORD, O My Soul

PSALM 103 [†] y Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

2 y Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and z forget not all his benefits,

3[†] who a forgives all your iniquity,

who b heals all your diseases,

4[^][†] who c redeems your life from the pit,

who d crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who e satisfies you with good

so that your youth is renewed like f the eagle’s.

6[†] The LORD works g righteousness

and justice for all who are oppressed.

7[†] He made known his h ways to Moses,

his i acts to the people of Israel.

8[†] The LORD is j merciful and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9[†] k He will not always chide,

nor will he l keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us m according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11[†] For n as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his o steadfast love toward p those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west,

so far does he q remove our transgressions from us.

13[†] As r a father shows compassion to his children,

so the LORD shows compassion p to those who fear him.

14[†] For he knows our frame; [1]

he s remembers that we are dust.

15[†] As for man, his days are like t grass;

he flourishes like u a flower of the field;

16 for v the wind passes over it, and w it is gone,

and x its place knows it no more.

17[†] But y the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on p those who fear him,

and his righteousness to z children’s children,

18 to those who a keep his covenant

and b remember to do his commandments.

19[†] The LORD has c established his throne in the heavens,

and his d kingdom rules over all.

20[†] Bless the LORD, O you e his angels,

you f mighty ones who g do his word,

obeying the voice of his word!

21[†] Bless the LORD, all his h hosts,

his i ministers, who do his will!

22 j Bless the LORD, all his works,

in all places of his dominion.

k Bless the LORD, O my soul!

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalm 103. This is a hymn of praise, celebrating the abundant goodness and love of the Lord for his people. It is the first of four psalms reflecting on God’s dealings with his people from creation to exile. Psalm 103 introduces the sequence by recalling that Israel’s survival in the time of Moses was due to God’s steadfast love. It begins with each individual singer exhorting his or her own soul to bless the Lord, and then goes on to list the benefits that the soul should be careful not to forget. The crowning benefit is God’s enduring love to the descendants of the faithful, which leads the worshipers to exhort all the angelic hosts and all the material creation to join in blessing the Lord. These benefits come to the individual (“you” in vv. 3–5 refers to “my soul,” i.e., to me) but are not individualistic: he or she is a member of the community (vv. 6–14, thinking of the people of God), and he or she contributes to the progress of that community (vv. 17–18). As the notes will show, the psalm takes the Pentateuch story for granted, with evocations of Gen. 2:7; 17:7; Exodus 32–34. Christians enter into the joy of this psalm as they celebrate how the biblical story that has developed since that time has displayed even more of God’s goodness and kindness. Psalm 104, though not by David, is probably placed next to this one because it too begins and ends with “Bless the LORD, O my soul.” Psalm 145 is the other example of a Davidic psalm that is a sustained celebration of God’s goodness and benevolence.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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).

PSALM—NOTE ON 103:1–2 Bless the Lord, O My Soul, and Do Not Forget His Benefits. Each member of the worshiping congregation urges himself to bless the LORD, i.e., to speak well of him for his abundant generosity. Thus forget not all his benefits is a crucial step in blessing the Lord, and the body of the psalm lists these benefits in order to bring each singer to an admiring gratitude.

PSALM—NOTE ON 103:9 nor will he keep his anger forever. Cf. 30:5 and Mic. 7:18.

PSALM—NOTE ON 103:21 who do his will. Jesus echoes this in Matt. 6:10, teaching his followers to pray that God’s “will be done” with the same ready obedience shown by the angels (“in heaven”).

PSALM—NOTE ON 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).

PSALM—NOTE ON 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) of the faithful (Ex. 20:6).

PSALM—NOTE ON 103:19 His throne … his kingdom refers to God’s universal rule over all creation (see note on Psalm 93). The marvel of being God’s people is that the one whose kingdom rules over all offers the privilege of gratefully embracing his rule.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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).

PSALM—NOTE ON 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.

PSALM—NOTE ON 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).