Title. - A Psalm of David. - Doubtless by David; it is in his own style when at its best, and we should attribute it to his later years when he had a higher sense of the preciousness of pardon, because a keener sense of sin, than in his younger days. His clear sense of the frailty of life indicates his weaker years, as also does the very fulness of his praiseful gratitude. As in the lofty Alps some peaks rise above all others, so among even the inspired Psalms there are heights of song which overtop the rest. This one hundred and third Psalm has ever seemed to us to be the Monte Rosa of the divine chain of mountains of praise, glowing with a ruddier light than any of the rest. It is as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, and its golden fruit has a flavour such as no fruit ever bears unless it has been ripened in the full sunshine of mercy. It is man's reply to the benedictions of his God, his Song on the Mount answering to his Redeemer's Sermon on the Mount. Nebuchadnezzar adored his idol with flute, harp, sacbut, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music; and David, in far nobler style, awakens all the melodies of heaven and earth in honour of the one only living and true God. Our attempt at exposition is commenced under an impressive sense of the utter impossibility of doing justice to so sublime a composition; we call upon our soul and all that is within us to aid in the pleasurable task; but, alas, our soul is finite, and our all of mental faculty far too little for the enterprise. There is too much in the Psalm for a thousand pens to write, it is one of those all-comprehending Scriptures which is a Bible in itself, and it might alone almost suffice for the hymn-book of the church.

Division. - First the Psalmist sings of personal mercies which he had himself received, Psalm 103:1-5; then he magnifies the attributes of Jehovah as displayed in his dealings with his people, Psalm 103:6-19; and he closes by calling upon all the creatures in the universe to adore the Lord and join with himself in blessing Jehovah, the ever gracious.

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 103:1. - "The Saints blessing the Lord." See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 1,078.

Psalm 103:1. -

I. We should bless the Most High himself. It is possible to fail to bless him, while we praise his gifts, his word, his works, his ways.

II. We should bless him individually, "My soul." Not merely the family through the father, nor the people through the pastor; nor the congregation through the choir; but personally.

III. We should bless him spiritually: "soul." Not only with organ, voice, offering, works, &c.

IV. We should bless him unreservedly, "All that is within me."

V. We should bless him resolutely, David preached self-communion, self-encouragement, and self-command. - W. Jackson.

Psalm 103:1. - Here is,

I.-Self-converse, "Oh my soul?" Many talk freely enough to others, but never talk to themselves. They are strangers to themselves - not on speaking terms with themselves - take no interest in their own souls - are dull and melancholy when alone.

II.-Self-exhortation, "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Thy Creator, thy Benefactor, thy Redeemer.

III.-Self-encouragement, "All that is within me" - every faculty of my mental, moral and spiritual being; with ten strings - every chord in motion. No need for one faculty of the soul to say to another, "know the Lord, for all shall know him from the least even unto the greatest." - G. R.

Psalm 103:1 (First clause, and Psalm 103:22, last clause). - Personal worship the Alpha and Omega of religion. - C. Davis.

Psalm 103:2. - Inquire into the causes of our frequent forgetfulness of the Lord's mercies, show the evil of it, and advise remedies.

Psalm 103:3. -

I. Forgiveness is in God, "There is forgiveness with thee." It is his nature to forgive as well as to punish sin.

II. It is from God. None can forgive sin but God. None can reveal forgiveness but God.

III. It is like God, full, free, and everlasting - "all thine iniquities." - G. R.

Psalm 103:3. - "Who healeth all thy diseases."

I. Why is sin called a disease?

1. As it destroys the moral beauty of the creature.

2. As it excites pain.

3. As it disables from duty.

4. As it leads to death.

II. The variety of sinful diseases to which we are subject. Mark 7:21-23; Galatians 5:19, &c.

III. The remedy by which God heals these diseases.

1. His pardoning mercy through the redemption of Christ.

2. The sanctifying influences of grace.

3. The means of grace.

4. The resurrection of the body. - From "The Study," 1873.

Psalm 103:3 (last clause). - Our diseases by nature, our great Physician, the perfect soundness which he works in us, results of that soundness.

Psalm 103:3, Psalm 103:4, Psalm 103:5. - Mercy's Hexapla.

I. Three curses removed.

1. Guilt put away.

2. Corruption cured.

3. Destruction averted.

II. Three blessings bestowed.

1. Favours that can gratify.

2. Pleasures that can satisfy.

3. Life that can never die.

Or

I.((Psalm 103:3) Pardon.

II. Purification. (Psalm 103:4)

III.Redemption.

IV. Coronation. (Psalm 103:5)

V. Plenty bestowed.

VI. Power renewed: - W. Durban.

Psalm 103:4 (first clause). - The Redemption of David's life from destruction.

I. His shepherd life.

II. His military life.

III. His persecuted life.

IV. His regal life.

V. His spiritual life. - W. J.

Psalm 103:4. - What is redeemed, and from what? Who are redeemed, and by whom?

Psalm 103:5. -

I. A singular condition - satisfaction.

II. A singular provision - good things.

III. A singular result - youth renewed.

Psalm 103:5. - "Rejuvenescence." See Macmillan's "Ministry of Nature," pp. 321-347.

Psalm 103:7. -

I. God would have men know him.

II. He is his own revealer.

III. There are degrees in the revelation.

IV. We may pray for increased knowledge of him.

Psalm 103:8. -

I. Mercy specified, "Merciful and gracious."

II. Mercy qualified, "Slow to anger." Mercy itself may be angered, and then how terrible is the anger.

III. Mercy amplified, "Plenteous in mercy." "He will abundantly pardon;" and he only knows what abundant pardon means. - G. B.

Psalm 103:9. -

I. What God will do to his people. He will sometimes chide - contend with them.

1. Providentially, by outward trials.

2. Experimentally, by inward conflicts.

II. What he will not do to them.

1. Not chide continually in this life.

2. Not chide in the least hereafter. "The days of their mourning shall be ended."

Psalm 103:10. - Work out the terrible supposition, show the reasons why it has not yet been actually so; then suggest that it may yet become a terrible fact, and exhort the guilty to seek mercy.

Psalm 103:11, Psalm 103:12, Psalm 103:13. - The height, length and depth of divine love.

Psalm 103:12. - "Plenary Absolution." See "Spurgeon's Sermons," No. 1,108.

Psalm 103:12. -

I. The union implied. Between man and his transgressions.

1Legally.

2Actually.

3Experimentally.

4. Eternally, in themselves considered.

II. The separation effected.

1. By whom? "He hath," etc.

2. How? By his own Son coming between the sinner and his sins.

III. The Re-union prevented. "As far," etc. When east and west meet, then, and not till then, will the re-union take place. As the two extremities of a straight line can never meet, and cannot be lengthened without receding further from each other, so it will ever be with a pardoned sinner and his sins. - G. R.

Psalm 103:13, Psalm 103:14. - "The Tender Pity of the Lord." See "Spurgeon's Sermons." No. 941.

Psalm 103:13, Psalm 103:14. -

I. Whom God pities; "them that fear him."

II. How he pities "as a father pitieth his children."

III. Why he pities; "for he knoweth our frame." He hath reason to know our frame, for he framed us, and having himself made man of the dust, "he remembers that we are dust." - Matthew Henry.

Psalm 103:14. -

I. Man's Constitution.

II. God's Consideration. - W. D.

Psalm 103:15. - Man's earthly career. His rise, progress, glory, fall, and oblivion.

Psalm 103:15-18. -

I. What man is when left to himself. "As for man," etc.

1. What here? His days are as grass, his glory as the flower of grass.

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 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:1

"Bless the Lord, O my soul." Soul music is the very soul of music. The Psalmist strikes the best key-note when he begins with stirring up his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion and exhorts himself, as though he felt that dulness would all too soon steal over his faculties, as, indeed, it will over us all, unless we are diligently on the watch. Jehovah is worthy to be praised by us in that highest style of adoration which is intended by the term bless - "All thy works praise thee, O God, but thy saints shall bless thee." Our very life and essential self should be engrossed with this delightful service, and each one of us should arouse his own heart to the engagement. Let others forbear if they can: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." Let others murmur, but do thou bless. Let others bless themselves and their idols, but do thou bless the Lord. Let others use only their tongues, but as for me I will cry, "Bless the Lord, O my soul." "And all that is within me, bless his holy name." Many are our faculties, emotions, and capacities, but God has given them all to us, and they ought all to join in chorus to his praise. Half-hearted, ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should render to our loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and soul and mind for the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a comprehensive claim for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace. It is instructive to note how the Psalmist dwells upon the holy name of God, as if his holiness were dearest to him; or, perhaps, because the holiness or wholeness of God was to his mind the grandest motive for rendering to him the homage of his nature in its wholeness. Babes may praise the divine goodness, but fathers in grace magnify his holiness. By the name we understand the revealed character of God, and assuredly those songs which are suggested, not by our fallible reasoning and imperfect observation, but by unerring inspiration, should more than any others arouse all our consecrated powers.

Psalm 103:2

"Bless the Lord, O my soul." He is in real earnest, and again calls upon himself to arise. Had he been very sleepy before? Or was he now doubly sensible of the importance, the imperative necessity of adoration? Certainly, he uses no vain repetitions, for the Holy Spirit guides his pen; and thus he shews us that we have need, again and again, to bestir ourselves when we are about to worship God, for it would be shameful to offer him anything less than the utmost our souls can render. These first verses are a tuning of the harp, a screwing up of the loosened strings that not a note may fail in the sacred harmony. "And forget not all his benefits." Not so much as one of the divine dealings should be forgotten, they are all really beneficial to us, all worthy of himself, and all subjects for praise. Memory is very treacherous about the best things; by a strange perversity, engendered by the fall, it treasures up the refuse of the past and permits priceless treasures to lie neglected, it is tenacious of grievances and holds benefits all too loosely. It needs spurring to its duty, though that duty ought to be its delight. Observe that he calls all that is within him to remember all the Lord's benefits. For our task our energies should be suitably called out. God's all cannot be praised with less than our all.

Reader, have we not cause enough at this time to bless him who blesses us? Come, let us read our diaries and see if there be not choice favours recorded there for which we have rendered no grateful return. Remember how the Persian king, when he could not sleep, read the chronicles of the empire, and discovered that one who had saved his life had never been rewarded. How quickly did he do him honour! The Lord has saved us with a great salvation, shall we render no recompense? The name of ingrate is one of the most shameful that a man can wear; surely we cannot be content to run the risk of such a brand. Let us awake then, and with intense enthusiasm bless Jehovah.

Psalm 103:3

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities." Here David begins his list of blessings received, which he rehearses as themes and arguments for praise. He selects a few of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine love, threads them on the string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of gratitude. Pardoned sin is, in our experience, one of the choicest boons of grace, one of the earliest gifts of mercy, - in fact, the needful preparation for enjoying all that follows it. Till iniquity is forgiven, healing, redemption, and satisfaction are unknown blessings. Forgiveness is first in the order of our spiritual experience, and in some respects first in value. The pardon granted is a present one - forgiveth; it is continual, for he still forgiveth; it is divine, for God gives it; it is far reaching, for it removes all our sins; it takes in omissions as well as commissions, for both of these are in-equities; and it is most effectual, for it is as real as the healing, and the rest of the mercies with which it is placed. "Who healeth all thy diseases." When the cause is gone, namely, iniquity, the effect ceases. Sicknesses of body and soul came into the world by sin, and as sin is eradicated, diseases bodily, mental, and spiritual will vanish, till "the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick." Many-sided is the character of our heavenly Father, for, having forgiven as a judge, he then cures as a physician. He is all things to us, as our needs call for him, and our infirmities do but reveal him in new characters.

"In him is only good,

In me is only ill,

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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 our transgressions 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 remembereth that we are dust.

15 As for 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.

19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

continued...

20 Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening 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.

Psalm 103:20

"Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength." Finding his work of praise growing upon his hands, he calls upon "the firstborn sons of light" to speak the praises of the Lord, as well they may, for as Milton says, they best can tell. Dwelling nearer to that prepared throne than we as yet have leave to climb, they see in nearer vision the glory which we would adore. To them is given an exceeding might of intellect, and voice, and force which they delight to use in sacred services for him; let them now turn all their strength into that solemn song which we would send up to the third heaven. To him who gave angelic strength let all angelic strength be given. They are his angels, and therefore they are not loth to ring out his praises. "That do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." We are bidden to do these commandments, and alas we fail; let those unfallen spirits, whose bliss it is never to have transgressed, give to the Lord the glory of their holiness. They hearken for yet more commands, obeying as much by reverent listening as by energetic action, and in this they teach us how the heavenly will should evermore be done; yet even for this surpassing excellence let them take no praise, but render all to him who has made and kept them what they are. O that we could hear them chant the high praises of God, as did the shepherds on that greatest of all birth nights -

"When such music sweet

Their hearts and ears did greet

As never was by mortal finger struck;

Divinely-warbled voice

Answering the stringed noise,

As well their souls in blissful rapture took:

The air, such pleasure loth to lose,

With thousand echoes still prolongs each heavenly close."

Our glad heart anticipates the hour when we shall hear them "harping in loud and solemn guise," and all to the sole praise of God.

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