Psalm 103 - Part 1 "Bless the Lord, O My Soul!" KJV

 

Psalm 103:1-11 A Psalm of David – Commentary by Dennis Edwards

103:1 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

The Bible tells us that “whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with all your might,” Ecclesiastes 9:10a. The first and great commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” Matthew 22:37. In Mark we find a little addition: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment,” Mark 12:30. As David has expressed, we should love and praise God with “all that is within us,” with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

God’s word tells us over and over again to remember what the Lord has done for us in the past and to tell it to our children and grandchildren. “Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy son’s sons,” Deuteronomy 4:9.

“Not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof,” Joshua 23:14b. We need to count our blessings, and share the marvels God has done for us during our lives with our children and grandchildren!

Psalm 103:3 Who forgives all thine iniquities; who heals all thy diseases;

God had promised His people through Moses saying, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that heals thee,” Exodus 15:26. It is Jesus Christ that makes us whole, in body, heart, mind, and spirit, Acts 9:34.

Psalm 103:4 Who redeems thy life from destruction; who crowns thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

In Deuteronomy we read, “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all the nations of the earth; and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,” Deuteronomy 28:1-2.

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness,” Lamentation 3:22-23.

Psalm 103:5 Who satisfies thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The prophet Isaiah uses the same imagery about 250 years later. The Lord promises that those that spend time with God will be spiritually and physically strengthen.

“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint,” Isaiah 40:29-31.

“As thy days, so shall thy strength be,” Deuteronomy 33:25b.

Psalm 103:6 The Lord executes righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

Again, we find the same idea in Isaiah. “For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall,” Isaiah 25:4

God is on the side of the poor and meek. Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth,” Matthew 5:3&5. Apostle James wrote, “God resists the proud, but gives grace unto the humble,” James 4:6b. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saves such as be of a contrite spirit,” Psalm 34:18.

Psalm 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

In the next verses, as in the previous, the nature of God is revealed. His character is shown. We see how he works. He had already manifested his faithfulness to Moses and the children of Israel some three to four hundred years earlier from the time that King David is writing.

Psalm 103:8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.

When the Lord appeared before Moses on the top of Mount Sinai, He passed before Moses and said, “The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty,” Exodus 34:6-7a.

The Lord claims to be a God of mercy, love, and truth. He is a God of justice who will punish the guilty unrepented. Through his interaction with the children of Abraham, we can conclude that he indeed was and is as He claims.

Psalm 103:9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.

After the spies who spied out the land came back with an evil report, while Caleb withstood them, the Lord said the following:

“Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it: But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring unto the land whereunto he went; and his seed shall possess it,” Numbers 14:22-24.

Caleb was willing, obedient and believing, not doubting, murmuring and disobedient.

Psalm 103:10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

Again, David is meditating on the Lord’s mercy which David himself had experienced first-hand.  

Psalm 103:11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

In Isaiah we read, “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembles at my word,” Isaiah 66:2b. It is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of knowledge, Proverbs 1:7a. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate,” Proverb 8:15. It is good to fear the Lord. Solomon wrote, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man,” Ecclesiastes 12:13.

End of Part 1. To go to Part 2.