Embrace the Word for Friday, August 14, 2026

FOR AN AUDIO VERSION CLICK HERE

Psalm 103 is a Psalm of Praise. Psalm 103 is the second of two explicitly stated Davidic Psalms located in Book 4 of the Psalter. The superscription simply states: “Of David.” So, while we know David is the author of this Psalm, we cannot be sure of the exact historical context behind it being written. Psalms 103-106, the last four Psalms of Book 4, form a subunit as they each emphasize the praiseworthiness of the LORD. Each of these four Psalms share several common links, but Psalm 103 also shares a subunit with Psalms 101 and 102, along with common links. Perhaps most significant is the link between the assurance of Psalm 102, which promises that the LORD “will arise and have pity on Zion” (102:13), and the response of praise to the LORD found in Psalm 103. As Book 4 is moving toward a close, the hope of a new exodus from exile and a new return to the Promised Land is brighter and brighter. Such hope cannot but erupt in praise to the LORD for what He will do. Psalm 103 begins with David calling himself to bless the LORD (103:1-5), then he moves to call all of Israel to bless the LORD (103:6-16), before he concludes with a calling for all of creation to bless the LORD (103:19-22).

David opens with issuing instructions to his own soul to fittingly respond to the LORD: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (103:1-2). Twice—which is to underscore the urgent importance of attending to such matters—David commands his soul to bless the LORD. The soul is the core essence of what it means to be human. Mankind are embodied souls, and while there should never be a minimization or dismissal of the human body, the deepest operations of life—all of our thoughts, and feelings, and choices—originate in the soul. So David is calling on himself, from the deepest essence of his being, and “all that is within me,” to bless the LORD. When the LORD blesses us, it is as He discerns our need and responds; when we bless the LORD, it is as we discern His response to our need and we respond to Him. But in calling himself to bless the LORD, David is also calling all who read and recite this Psalm to bless the LORD. David wrote it to his own soul, but when we earnestly read it, we are calling upon our own souls to bless the LORD.

David called upon himself—all of himself—the deepest essence of himself—to bless the LORD for “all his benefits.” All of David in response to all that the LORD has done. David breaks down “all his benefits.” What follows is David providing greater details to a broad sampling of all that the LORD has done. Calling ourselves to bless the LORD is a significantly important way to handle ourselves. We should not let ourselves tell us what to do; we should tell ourselves what we ought to do. What that means is that what we should tell ourselves to do is what the LORD in His Word tells us to do. But while we are talking to ourselves, telling us what to do, we should also fill our souls with the reminders of all that the LORD has done for us. That is how David proceeds. He tells himself to bless the LORD and he reminds himself of how he had benefited from the LORD.

Expanding on the benefits, David declares that it was the LORD, “who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (103:3-5). Speaking to himself and to all who belong to the LORD, David highlights five things that the LORD does. The LORD “forgives,” “heals,” “redeems,” “crowns,” and “satisfies.” First, and foundational to the other benefits, the LORD “forgives” His peoples’ iniquity—all of it! Coming at the end of Book 4 of the Psalter, with its context being a nation in exile because of their covenant-breaking unbelief and disobedience, this news of forgiveness is great news of joyful hope. Building upon forgiveness, the rest of the benefits freely and fully flow. The LORD “heals.” The term “diseases” is also used in Deuteronomy 29:22 as a part of the curses due to disobedience. Certainly disease and sickness and every kind of illness was nonexistent before the fall of Adam. And while creation will not be disease-free until the eternal state, the grounds of forgiveness is also the grounds for the removal of all disease. The LORD “redeems” His people, “from the pit.” This is most likely a reference to death itself. Once again, what the LORD did to pardon His people, is also the basis for ending the reign of death. The LORD “crowns” His people. Perhaps the notion of crowning reflects ideas such as adorning with beauty and dignity. It is with nothing less than the steadfast love and mercy that the LORD’s people are crowned. Finally, the LORD “satisfies” His people with His own goodness. And such goodness in this context implies that the LORD renews the strength of His people as if they were still in their youth. A proper remembering of all the LORD’s benefits leads to a proper response of “all that is within me.”

David enlarges his call to give praise to the LORD as he broadens his scope to include what the LORD does for all of His people. While David has already shown his understanding of the LORD’s revelation to Moses in Exodus 34, he applies the outworking of God’s nature and character to address how the LORD deals with all of His people: “The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (103:6-8). The LORD is just and righteous; He is also merciful, gracious, and abounding in steadfast love. The LORD had revealed these truths to Moses and displayed these truths to all of Israel. The LORD rescues His oppressed people like He did from the hands of Pharaoh and the LORD shows undeserving kindness to His people with a warm affection. The LORD shows great patience toward His people as He maintains His loyal devotion to provide for and protect them. David further explains the LORD’s patience and loyal devotion: “He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever” (103:9). Once again, in the context of Book 4 of the Psalter, the fact that the LORD does not keep His anger toward His people forever, stresses that the chastisement of their exile will come to an end.

The basis for the LORD’s actions toward His people is rooted in the forgiveness that He supplies: “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (103:10). The LORD could repay His people for their sins. Such payment would entail His wrath, but the LORD does not. David proceeds to explain a bit more of just what the LORD does do with His people’s sins: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (103:11-12). The LORD forgives or cancels His people’s guilt from sin and its accompanying penalties, by removing His people’s sins from them. The imagery that the LORD provides is that the LORD removes His people’s sins from them as far away as possible—as far as the east is from the west—to two points that will never come together. Such an action is a sheer demonstration of God’s love—a love that extends higher than the heavens are above the earth. It is in the context—the accentuation of the LORD’s loving forgiveness, that a vital clarification is added in terms of exactly to whom the LORD extends His loving forgiveness: “those who fear him.” As David continues, he also stays with the importance of fearing the LORD: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him” (103:13). Adding to the descriptions of the LORD’s loving forgiveness is the kind mercy of a Father. Such compassion is fully directed toward “those who fear him.” We should not interpret this emphasis on rightly fearing the LORD to mean that merit is introduced into the acquisition of a Fatherly, loving, forgiveness. But we should realize that where the compassionate Father’s loving forgiveness is experienced, a proper fear of the LORD flows from such recognition.

David presses the Fatherly disposition of the LORD further as he states that the LORD knows His people: “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (103:14). The LORD compassionately sees the weakness and frailty of His people. He is ever aware of His people’s mortality: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more” (103:15-16). This contrasting the fragile state of mankind with the LORD: “But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments” (103:17-18). The LORD is from everlasting to everlasting. Thus, His love for His people exists in that same timeframe: forever. The LORD will only, always, and forever love His people and do right by them. As His people grasp the beautiful reality that they are the recipients of such love and righteousness, they rightly fear Him. And this fear is not merely conceptual; it concretely displays itself through seeking to keep covenant obligations and obey covenant precepts. What is implied here is that when the covenant obligations are not kept and the covenant precepts not obeyed, that a proper fear of the LORD will provoke repentance returning to keeping and obeying. With all that the LORD has done for His people, how could His people not desire to fear Him?

David closes in the way that He began, but with an even further expansion of the scope of who should bless the LORD: “Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!” (103:20-22). All that the LORD made—all creatures and all that exists are required to bless the LORD. And why should all of creation bless the LORD? Because the LORD is over all of creation: “The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (103:19). And David starts with himself: “Bless the LORD, O my soul!”

As we reflect on Psalm 103 we can consider how essential remembering is to the Christian life. Just as Israel flourished or floundered in connection with how they remembered or forgot the LORD and what He did for them, so too, life in the New Covenant either thrives or takes a tumble in relationship to remembering the Gospel. The Apostle Paul, in writing to a local church whom he introduced the message of the Gospel to some ten to fifteen years earlier, writes a word of reminder to them: “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain” (See 1 Corinthians 15:1-2). The Gospel message is never a message that Christians move past and onto something else. No, the Gospel message is to be remembered returning to its truths in all of its facets. Where the Gospel is hijacked or eclipsed or just simply forgotten, Christian growth and development wanes and weakens. We never moved beyond the Gospel, but we strive to let it get a deeper hold of us: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (See 2 Peter 3:18). The Christian life requires an ongoing review, rehearsal, recollection, and return to the truths surrounding who Jesus is, what He accomplished, and all that is now true for all who trust in Christ. We are to continually reflect on Christ and, “forget not all his benefits.”

That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, August 14, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, August 17, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 104.