Bible Commentaries

Hymn in Honour of God the All-Compassionate One

To the “Thou wilt have compassion upon Zion” of Psalm 102:14 is appendedPsalms 103, which has this as its substance throughout; but in otherrespects the two Psalms stand in contrast to one another. The inscriptionלדוד is also found thus by itself without any further addition even beforePsalms of the First Book (Psalm 26:1, Ps 35, Ps 37). It undoubtedly does not restmerely on conjecture, but upon tradition. For no internal grounds whichmight have given rise to the annotation לדוד can be traced. The form of thelanguage does not favour it. This pensive song, so powerful in its tone, hasan Aramaic colouring like Ps 116; Psalm 124:1-8; Psalm 129:1-8. In the heaping up ofAramaizing suffix-forms it has its equal only in the story of Elisha, 2 Kings 4:1-7, where, moreover, the Kerîthroughout substitutes the usualforms, whilst here, where these suffix-forms are intentional ornaments ofthe expression, the Chethîbrightly remains unaltered. The forms are 2ndsing. fem. (ēchi) for (ēch), and 2nd sing. plur. (ājchi) for (ajich). The i without the tone which is added here is just the one with which originally the pronunciation was אתּי instead of אתּ and לכי for לך. Out of the Psalter (here and Psalm 116:7, Psalm 116:19) these suffix-forms (echi) and (ajchi) occur only in Jeremiah 11:15, and in the North-Palestinian history of the prophet in the Book of Kings. The groups or strophes into which the Psalm falls are Psalm 103:1, Psalm 103:6, Psalm 103:11, Psalm 103:15, Psalm 103:19. If we count their lines we obtain the schema 10. 10. 8. 8. 10. The coptic version accordingly reckons 46 CTYXOC, i.e., στίχοι .

In the strophe Psalm 103:1 the poet calls upon his soul to arise topraiseful gratitude for God's justifying, redeeming, and renewing grace. Insuch soliloquies it is the Ego that speaks, gathering itself up with thespirit, the stronger, more manly part of man (Psychology, S. 104f.; tr. p. 126), or even, because the soul as the spiritual medium of the spirit and ofthe body represents the whole person of man (Psychology, S. 203; tr. p. 240), the Ego rendering objective in the soul the whole of its ownpersonality. So here in Psalm 103:3 the soul, which is addressed, represents thewhole man. The קובים which occurs here is a more choice expressionfor מעים (מעים): the heart, which is called קרב êáô åthe reins, the liver, etc.; for according to thescriptural conception (Psychology, S. 266; tr. p. 313) these organs of thecavities of the breast and abdomen serve not merely for the bodily life, butalso the psycho-spiritual life. The summoning בּרכי is repeated per anaphoramThere isnothing the soul of man is so prone to forget as to render thanks that aredue, and more especially thanks that are due to God. It therefore needs tobe expressly aroused in order that it may not leave the blessing with whichGod blesses it unacknowledged, and may not forget all His acts performed(גּמל = גּמר) on it (גּמוּל, ñìåe.g.,in Psalm 137:8), which are purely deeds of loving-kindness), which is theprimal condition and the foundation of all the others, viz., sin-pardoningmercy. The verbs סלח and רפא with a dative of the object denote the bestowment of that which is expressed by the verbal notion. תּחלוּאים (taken from Deuteronomy 29:21, cf. 1 Chronicles 21:19, from חלא = חלה, root הל, solutum, laxum esse) are not merely bodily diseases, but all kinds of inward and outward sufferings. משּׁחת the lxx renders ἐκ φθορᾶς (from שׁחת, as in Job 17:14); but in this antithesis to life it is more natural to render the “pit” (from שׁוּח) as a name of Hades, as in Psalm 16:10. Just as the soul owes its deliverance from guilt and distress and death to God, so also does it owe to God that with which it is endowed out of the riches of divine love. The verb עטּר, without any such addition as in Ps 5:13, is “to crown,” cf. Psalm 8:6. As is usually the case, it is construed with a double accusative; the crown is as it were woven out of loving-kindness and compassion. The Beth of בּטּוב in Psalm 103:5 instead of the accusative (Psalm 104:28) denotes the means of satisfaction, which is at the same time that which satisfies. עדיך the Targum renders: dies senectutis tuae, whereas in Psalm 32:9 it is ornatus ejus; the Peshîto renders: corpus tuum, and in Psalm 32:9 inversely, juventus eorum. These significations, “old age” or “youth,” are pure inventions. And since the words are addressed to the soul, עדי cannot also, like כבוד in other instances, be a name of the soul itself (Aben-Ezra, Mendelssohn, Philippsohn, Hengstenberg, and others). We, therefore, with Hitzig, fall back upon the sense of the word in Psalm 32:9, where the lxx renders τάς σιαγόνας αὐτῶν , but here more freely, apparently starting from the primary notion of עדי = Arabic (chadd), the cheek: τὸν ἐμπιπλῶντα ἐν ἀγαθοῖς τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν σου (whereas Saadia's (victum) (tuum) is based upon a comparison of the Arabic (gdâ), to nourish). The poet tells the soul (i.e., his own person, himself) that God satisfies it with good, so that it as it were gets its cheeks full of it (cf. Psalm 81:11). The comparison כּנּשׁר is, as in Micah 1:16 (cf. Isaiah 40:31), to be referred to the annual moulting of the eagle. Its renewing of its plumage is an emblem of the renovation of his youth by grace. The predicate to נעוּריכי (plural of extension in relation to time) stands first regularly in the sing. fem.

His range of vision being widened from himself, the poet now in Psalm 103:6 describes God's gracious and fatherly conduct towards sinful and perishingmen, and that as it shines forth from the history of Israel and is known andrecognised in the light of revelation. What Psalm 103:6 says is a common-placedrawn from the history of Israel. משׁפּטים is an accusativegoverned by the עשׂה that is to be borrowed out of עשׂה (so Baer after the Masora). And because Psalm 103:6 is the result of an historicalretrospect and survey, יודיע in Psalm 103:7 can affirm that whichhappened in the past (cf. Psalm 96:6.); for the supposition of Hengstenbergand Hitzig, that Moses here represents Israel like Jacob, Isaac, and Josephin other instances, is without example in the whole Israelitish literature. Itbecomes clear from Psalm 103:8 in what sense the making of His ways known ismeant. The poet has in his mind Moses' prayer: “make known to me now Thyway” (Exodus 33:13), which Jahve fulfilled by passing by him as he stood inthe cleft of the rock and making Himself visible to him as he looked afterHim, amidst the proclamation of His attributes. The ways of Jahve aretherefore in this passage not those in which men are to walk in accordancewith His precepts (Psalm 25:4), but those which He Himself follows in thecourse of His redemptive history (Psalm 67:3). The confession drawn from Exodus 34:6. is become a formula of the Israelitish faith (Psalm 86:15; Psalm 145:8; Joel 2:13; Nehemiah 9:17, and frequently). In Psalm 103:9. the fourth attribute (ורב־חסד) is made the object of further praise. He is not only long (ארך from ארך, like כּבד from כּבד) inanger, i.e., waiting a long time before He lets His anger loose, but when Hecontends, i.e., interposes judicially, this too is not carried to the full extent(Psalm 78:38), He is not angry for ever (נטר, to keep, viz., anger,Amos 1:11; cf. the parallels, both as to matter and words, Jeremiah 3:5; Isaiah 57:16). The procedure of His righteousness is regulated not according toour sins, but according to His purpose of mercy. The prefects in Psalm 103:10 state that which God has constantly not done, and the futures in Psalm 103:9 whatHe continually will not do.

The ingenious figures in Psalm 103:11. (cf. Psalm 36:6; Psalm 57:11) illustrate the infinitepower and complete unreservedness of mercy (loving-kindness). הרחיק has Gaja (as have also השׁחיתו and התעיבו, Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:2, in exacttexts), in order to render possible the distinct pronunciation of the gutturalin the combination רח. Psalm 103:13 sounds just as much like the spirit of theNew Testament as Psalm 103:11, Psalm 103:12. The relationship to Jahve in which thosestand who fear Him is a filial relationship based upon free reciprocity(Malachi 3:11). His Fatherly compassion is (Psalm 103:14) based upon the frailty andperishableness of man, which are known to God, much the same as God'spromise after the Flood not to decree a like judgment again (Genesis 8:21). According to this passage and Deuteronomy 31:21, יצרנוּ appears tobe intended of the moral nature; but according to Psalm 103:14 , one is obliged tothink rather of the natural form which man possesses from God theCreator (ויּיצר, Genesis 2:7) than of the form of heart which hehas by his own choice and, so far as its groundwork is concerned, byinheritance (Psalm 51:7). In זכוּר, mindful, the passive, according toBöttcher's correct apprehension of it, expresses a passive state after anaction that is completed by the person himself, as in בּטוּה,ידוּע, and the like. In its form Psalm 103:14 reminds one of the Bookof Job Job 11:11; Job 28:23, and Psalm 103:14 as to subject-matter recalls Job 7:7,and other passages (cf. Psalm 78:39; Psalm 89:48); but the following figurativerepresentation of human frailty, with which the poet contrasts the eternalnature of the divine mercy as the sure stay of all God-fearing ones in themidst of the rise and decay of things here below, still more strongly recallsthat book.

The figure of the grass recalls Psalm 90:5., cf. Isaiah 40:6-8; Isaiah 51:12; that of theflower, Job 14:2. אנושׁ is man as a mortal being; his life'sduration is likened to that of a blade of grass, and his beauty and glory to aflower of the field, whose fullest bloom is also the beginning of its fading. In Psalm 103:16 בּו (the same as in Isaiah 40:7.) refers to man, who is compared to grass and flowers. כּי is ἐάν with a hypothetical perfect; and the wind that scorches up the plants, referred to man, is an emblem of every form of peril that threatens life: often enough it is really a breath of wind which snaps off a man's life. The bold designation of vanishing away without leaving any trace, “and his place knoweth him no more,” is taken from Job 7:10, cf. ibid. Job 8:18; Job 20:9. In the midst of this plant-like, frail destiny, there is, however, one strong ground of comfort. There is an everlasting power, which raises all those who link themselves with it above the transitoriness involved in nature's laws, and makes them eternal like itself. This power is the mercy of God, which spans itself above (על) all those who fear Him like an eternal heaven. This is God's righteousness, which rewards faithful adherence to His covenant and conscientious fulfilment of His precepts in accordance with the order of redemption, and shows itself even to (ל) children's children, according to Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:7; Deuteronomy 7:9: on into a thousand generations, i.e., into infinity.

He is able to show Himself thus gracious to His own, for He is the supra-mundane, all-ruling King. With this thought the poet draws on to the closeof his song of praise. The heavens in opposition to the earth, as in Psalm 115:3; Ecclesiastes 5:12, is the unchangeable realm above the rise and fall of thingshere below. On Psalm 103:19 cf. 1 Chronicles 29:12. בּכּל refers to everythingcreated without exception, the universe of created things. In connectionwith the heavens of glory the poet cannot but call to mind the angels. Hiscall to these to join in the praise of Jahve has its parallel only in Psalm 29:1-11 andPsalm 148:1-14. It arises from the consciousness of the church on earth that it standsin living like-minded fellowship with the angels of God, and that itpossesses a dignity which rises above all created things, even the angelswhich are appointed to serve it (Psalm 91:11). They are called גּבּרים asin Joel 3:11, and in fact גּבּרי כּח, as the strong towhom belongs strength unequalled. Their life endowed with heroic strength is spent entirely - an example for mortals - in an obedient execution of the word of God. לשׁמע is a definition not of the purpose, but of the manner: obediendo (as in Genesis 2:3 perficiendo). Hearing the call of His word, they also forthwith put it into execution. the hosts (צבאיו), as משׁרתיו shows, are the celestial spirits gathered around the angels of a higher rank (cf. Luke 2:13), the innumerable λειτουργικὰ πνεῦματα (Psalm 104:4, Daniel 7:10; Hebrews 1:14), for there is a hierarchia caelestis. From the archangels the poet comes to the myriads of the heavenly hosts, and from these to all creatures, that they, wheresoever they may be throughout Jahve's wide domain, may join in the song of praise that is to be struck up; and from this point he comes back to his own soul, which he modestly includes among the creatures mentioned in the third passage. A threefold בּרכי נפשׁי now corresponds to the threefold בּרכוּ; and inasmuch as the poet thus comes back to his own soul, his Psalm also turns back into itself and assumes the form of a converging circle.