Psalms 103:5

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

Who satisfieth thy mouth. The Hebrew for "mouth" [ `edyeek (H5716)] is the same as in Psalms 32:9, where see note. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Arabic translate, 'thy desire;' Syriac, 'thy body.' The usual meaning is 'beauty' or 'ornament' (Ezekiel 7:20). So the soul, the glory of the man (Psalms 57:8), is said here to be satisfied or fully filled by God with good things; or rather, as the Syriac version, the body, whose "youth is renewed like the eagle's," is meant. The body is man's outward beauty, as the soul is the inward. In contrast stands his previous weakened and withered appearance of body, in Psalms 102:3. However, in favour of the soul being meant (Hengstenberg), cf. Psalms 107:9, "He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness;" Psalms 63:5; also Isaiah 58:11.

So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's - i:e., as the eagle casts her feathers and becomes bald like young ones, and then is covered with new feathers. Other birds also moult. But the eagle is selected as the emblem of vigour: whence the Greek proverb, 'The eagle's old age is as good as the lark's youth.' Hengstenberg thinks the latter point alone is referred to, not the moulting, and translates, 'thy youth is renewed like (i:e., so as to be as strong as) the eagle.' So in Isaiah 40:31: cf. Lamentations 5:21. Scripture knows nothing of the fable which subsequently spring up of the eagle renewing its youth in old age.