EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries
Psalms 103:1-22
Gordon Churchyard
The Love of God
Psalms 103
Jesus said, "Your Father in heaven knows everything that you need". (Matthew 6:32)
(Heaven is the home of God.)
Psalms 103
(This is a psalm) of David.
v1 I say to myself, "*Praise the *LORD!
Everything that is in me, *praise his *holy name!’
v2 I say to myself, "*Praise the *LORD!
And never forget any of the good things that he has given you!’
v3 (I say to myself) He *forgives all your *sins.
He makes you well again when you are ill.
v4 He *redeems you from the *Pit.
His kind love and *mercy are special things that he gives to you.
v5 He gives you the good things that you want.
So, you become strong again as a young *eagle.
v6 The *LORD does *righteous and fair things
for all *oppressed people.
v7 He showed Moses his plans
and (he showed) the *Israelites what he was going to do.
v8 The *LORD likes (people) and is very kind.
He is slow to get angry and has a lot of kind love.
v9 He will not always say that we are wrong.
He will not always be angry.
v10 We do wrong things.
He does not *punish us for them as much as he should.
v11 The sky is high above the earth.
So his kind love is great to those people that love him.
v12 As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he taken our *sins from us.
v13 As a father is kind to his children,
so the *LORD is kind to people that are afraid of him.
v14 Because he knows (how he) made us,
he remembers that we are only *dust.
v15 The life of a man is as short as (the life of) grass!
He lives as short a time as the (wild) flowers in a field!
v16 The wind blows over it and it dies!
Nothing remembers it any more.
v17 But the kind love of the *LORD
will always be with those that are afraid of him.
And his *righteousness will be with their children’s children.
v18 (They will be) with those (people) that do what they have agreed (to do).
(They will be with those people) that remember to obey his rules.
v19 The *LORD has built his *throne in *heaven.
He is king over everything.
v20 *Praise the *LORD, you (who are) his *angels.
You are strong and powerful.
You do what he tells you (to do) and you obey his word.
v21 *Praise the *LORD, all (you) his armies (in *heaven).
(You are) his servants that do what he wants you (to do).
v22 Everything that he has made
and (everything) that he rules over, *praise the *LORD!
I say to myself, *praise the *LORD!
The Story of Psalms 103
Bible students believe that David wrote this psalm when he was an old man. It tells us 7 times to praise the *LORD, (tell him that he is very great). The *LORD is the *covenant name for God. A covenant is when two groups of people agree. Verses 17 and 18 of the psalm tell us about the covenant, or what God and his people have agreed to do.What Psalms 103 means
Study the psalm in three parts:• Verses 1 – 5: David must *praise the *LORD.
• Verses 6 – 18: the love of the *LORD to his *covenant people.
• Verses 19 – 22: the *angels must *praise the *LORD.
In the first part, David tells himself to *praise the *LORD. The *Hebrew words mean "my *soul, *praise the *LORD". (Hebrew is the language that David spoke.) Our soul is the part of us that lives after our bodies die. It is "everything that is in us", (verse 1). We are to *praise the *LORD's holy name. The *LORD's name means the *LORD himself. He is holy because he has never done anything that is wrong. Read the notes on "he is holy" in Psalms 99 in this set of psalms.
In verse 3 David wrote "He (the *LORD) *forgives all your *sins". As he is talking to himself, he means "the *LORD *forgives all my *sins". Our sins are the wrong things that we do when we do not obey God’s rules. When we ask him, God will always forgive our *sins. That means he will not punish (hurt) us because we have broken his rules.
As verse 4 says, "He *redeems you from the Pit". The Pit was a place in Sheol. Sheol was where the *Jews believed that dead people went. (Jews are people who were born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.) The Pit was the worst bit of Sheol. It was a very bad place. But David believed that when God *forgives us, "he redeems us from the Pit". This means that he stops us going there! Instead of going to a bad place when we die, we go to where God is. That is a very good place. We call it *heaven. God does this because of his mercy. This means that he is kind to us when he should punish (hurt) us.
When David knew all this, he felt strong again. He felt as a young eagle feels. An eagle is a large bird. It flies high in the sky, and feels strong and free. When God *forgives us, we will feel as David felt!
In verses 6 - 18, David talks about the *covenant people. These people have agreed to love and obey him because he has agreed to be their God. He is a righteous God, verse 6. This means that he always does what is right. He took his oppressed people from Egypt to the land of Israel. The Egyptians had oppressed the *Jews. This means they were cruel to them, they were not kind. They made them work very hard and gave them very little. But the *LORD told Moses his plan, (verse 7). He took the Israelites (the *Jews) away from Egypt.
The *LORD did this because:
• he is kind, verses 8 - 12,
• and is as a father to his people, verses 13 - 16.
God made us, (verse 14), and he knows that he made us from dust. Dust is the small bits of the ground that we live on. To God, our lives are very short, just as the life of a flower seems short to us, (verse 15).
Verses 15 and 16 tell us about the *covenant. God’s righteousness (the good things that he does) will always be with his people. They will always obey him.
The psalm ends by telling the *angels to *praise God in *heaven. The angels are his servants in *heaven. Heaven is the home of God. His throne is the special seat that he sits on. All kings have a throne, and God is king over everything, (verse 19). "Built his throne in *heaven" means that God is king in *heaven. In verse 22 David says what he said in verse 1. I say to myself, *praise the *LORD!
Something to do
1. Read verses 1 - 5 with "me, my and I" instead of "you and your".2. Learn to say verse 2 by heart. (By heart means without looking at the words.)
3. Here are some lines from a famous Christian song. They use ideas from Psalms 103. Can you find which verses they use? The meanings of some of the words are in brackets ().
*Praise, my *soul, the King of *Heaven,
To his feet your tribute (*praises) bring,
Ransomed (*redeemed), healed (made well), restored (God’s friend again), *forgiven,
Who like you his *praise should sing?
Father-like he tends (helps) and spares (is kind to) us,
Well our feeble (weak) frame (body) he knows,
In his hands he gently bears (carries) us,
Rescues us (makes us safe) from all our foes (enemies).
*Angels, help us to adore (love) him,
You behold (can see) him face to face,
Sun and moon bow down before him,
Dwellers (people who live) all in time and space.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke when they wrote the Psalms of David.
Jew ~ someone who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
praise ~ words that say how great someone is; or, to say how great somebody is.
Lord ~ a name for God; it means he has authority, or "master"; Adonai in Hebrew. Look also at LORD below.
LORD ~ a special name for God that his people use. It is the covenant name of God. In Hebrew it is Yahweh or Jehovah. Look after Psalm 25 in Book 1 of the Psalms of David for more about the names of God.
Adonai ~ Lord or master (or better, my Lord or my master) in Hebrew.
Hebrew ~ the language that the Jews spoke when they wrote the Psalms of David.
covenant ~ what God and his people agreed.
Yahweh ~ the covenant name for God. Most Bibles translate it LORD with 4 capital letters. It means something like "I am" or "always alive".
Jehovah ~ how some languages say Yahweh, one of the names of God in Hebrew.
Jew ~ someone who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
like ~ as.
praise ~ words that say how great someone is; or, to say how great somebody is.
holy ~ very, very good; only God is really holy, the land where he lives with his people is also holy because he is there.
forgive ~ take away the results of sin. (But look in the notes on Psalm 85:2.).
sin ~ not obeying God, or what you do when you do not obey God.
sin ~ not obeying God, or what you do when you do not obey God.
redeem ~ buy back again, or save.
Pit ~ the worst bit of Sheol. (A pit is a hole in the ground.)
Sheol ~ where Jews said that you went when you died.
Jew ~ someone who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
mercy ~ being kind when you do not have to be kind.
eagle ~ a very large bird that eats other birds and small animals.
righteous ~ very good (only God is really righteous). God says that the people that love and obey him are righteous. Sometimes we say that they are "the righteous", meaning "righteous people". Look after Psalm 5 in Book 1 of the Psalms of David for more about the word "righteous".
oppressed ~ not been kind to, or people that the enemy have not been kind to and hurt.
Israelites ~ the same as Hebrews and Jews. They are the people of Israel.
Jew ~ someone who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
punish ~ hurt someone because they have not obeyed the rules.
dust ~ very small bits of the ground.
righteousness ~ what you have when you are righteous.
righteous ~ very good (only God is really righteous). God says that the people that love and obey him are righteous. Sometimes we say that they are "the righteous", meaning "righteous people". Look after Psalm 5 in Book 1 of the Psalms of David for more about the word "righteous".
throne ~ a special chair that a king sits on.
heaven ~ the home of God.
angels ~ spirits that live in heaven with God.
spirits ~ they are alive, but we cannot see them. Good spirits are usually called angels. Bad spirits do not live in heaven now, but in the air round us. Satan is their leader. They are the same as evil spirits, or demons.
heaven ~ the home of God.
Satan ~ the leader of the bad spirits. His other names are the Devil and Lucifer.
covenant ~ what God and his people agreed.
soul ~ the part of a person that we cannot see that is in us during our life, and lives after we die.
Jew ~ someone who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children.
heaven ~ the home of God.
angels ~ spirits that live in heaven with God.
spirits ~ they are alive, but we cannot see them. Good spirits are usually called angels. Bad spirits do not live in heaven now, but in the air round us. Satan is their leader. They are the same as evil spirits, or demons.
heaven ~ the home of God.
Satan ~ the leader of the bad spirits. His other names are the Devil and Lucifer.