1031 O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I'll bless his holy name! 2 O my soul, bless God, don't forget a single blessing! 3 He forgives your sins - every one. He heals your diseases - every one. 4 He redeems you from hell - saves your life! He crowns you with love and mercy - a paradise crown. 5 He wraps you in goodness - beauty eternal. He renews your youth - you're always young in his presence.
6 God makes everything come out right; he puts victims back on their feet. 7 He showed Moses how he went about his work, opened up his plans to all Israel. 8 God is sheer mercy and grace; not easily angered, he's rich in love. 9 He doesn't endlessly nag and scold, nor hold grudges forever. 10 He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve, nor pay us back in full for our wrongs. 11 As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. 12 And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins. 13 As parents feel for their children, God feels for those who fear him.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 103:1-13
Commentary on Psalm 103:1-5
(Read Psalm 103:1-5)
By the pardon of sin, that is taken away which kept good things from us, and we are restored to the favor of God, who bestows good things on us. Think of the provocation; it was sin, and yet pardoned: how many the provocations, yet all pardoned! God is still forgiving, as we are still sinning and repenting. The body finds the melancholy consequences of Adam's offence, it is subject to many infirmities, and the soul also. Christ alone forgives all our sins; it is he alone who heals all our infirmities. And the person who finds his sin cured, has a well-grounded assurance that it is forgiven. When God, by the graces and comforts of his Spirit, recovers his people from their decays, and fills them with new life and joy, which is to them an earnest of eternal life and joy, they may then be said to return to the days of their youth, Job 33:25.
Commentary on Psalm 103:6-14
(Read Psalm 103:6-14)
Truly God is good to all: he is in a special manner good to Israel. He has revealed himself and his grace to them. By his ways we may understand his precepts, the ways he requires us to walk in; and his promises and purposes. He always has been full of compassion. How unlike are those to God, who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to cease! What would become of us, if God should deal so with us? The Scripture says a great deal of the mercy of God, and we all have experienced it. The father pities his children that are weak in knowledge, and teaches them; pities them when they are froward, and bears with them; pities them when they are sick, and comforts them; pities them when they are fallen, and helps them to rise; pities them when they have offended, and, upon their submission, forgives them; pities them when wronged, and rights them: thus the Lord pities those that fear him. See why he pities. He considers the frailty of our bodies, and the folly of our souls, how little we can do, how little we can bear; in all which his compassion appears.