Outline of Chapter 103:

Inscription

       vv.    1–2        Introduction: Praise Jehovah

       vv.    3–5        The Good that God Does for Us

       vv.    6–12      God’s Judicial Approach to our Sins

       vv.   13–19      Ephemeral Man/Eternal God

       vv.   20–22      Praise Jehovah, a Refrain

Charts and Maps:

       Introduction    Bullinger’s Organization of Psalm 103

       v.      5           The Temporal and Eternal Implications of Vv. 3–5

I ntroduction: Psalm 103 is certainly a psalm of praise and celebration, as the first two and last three verses indicate, wherein the Piel imperative of bless or praise occurs 6 times. However, one of the amazing aspects of this psalm is the clear teaching of the gospel and God’s grace toward sinful man. It is clear to anyone with a brain that the New Testament—particularly in the book of John—that the mechanics of salvation are taught clearly and succinctly. In Romans, Ephesians and Galatians (as well as in other books), we find the theological approach to salvation—that is, why is it possible for God to save us. How can God spend eternity with us and still retain His perfect character? What we find in this psalm is a clear explanation that God, in His grace, will separate us from our sins; furthermore, it is made clear that we, in our human bodies, are both frail and ephemeral. We lack a justification as to why God can remove our sins from us; we are not given the mechanics of salvation—to believe in Jehovah God of Israel, known to us as Jesus Christ; however, we are given a very clear presentation of one aspect of salvation—that it is God’s grace, that it is undeserved, and that God deserves our praise for His graciousness.

We both begin and end this psalm with a call to praise God. At first, David speaks to his own soul, telling himself to praise and to celebrate the character and work of God (vv. 1–2); at the end of this psalm, he calls upon all of God’s creation to praise Him (vv. 20–22). Therefore, we would expect David to include why all of God’s creation should praise and celebrate God’s character and work. He speaks first simply to his own soul, listing several things which God has done and will do for him: (1) God pardons David’s iniquities, (2) God heals David’s diseases; (3) God purchases David’s life from the grave; (4) God places a crown of grace and mercy upon David’s head; (5) and God gives David great pleasure and satisfaction (vv. 3–5). All of these things which God does on behalf of David have temporal and eternal implications, which we will cover with a chart at the end of v. 5.

In vv. 6–14, we find that God performs righteous acts (which we may classify under the heading of duh); but following this statement (v. 6), we have the God is gracious and merciful toward us and that he will remove our transgressions far from us (vv. 8, 10–12). Today, we know how God is able to retain His perfection and his righteousness, yet still provide us with salvation; however, in this psalm, we are simply told that he does retain His perfect character and is still able to separate us from our sins. We are not given the mechanics in this psalm.

Then David discusses man in general—just how ephemeral man is: his days are like the flower of the field, which emerges and then dies, and there is nothing left behind to tell those who look out into the field that this flower was ever there (vv. 15–16). This is contrasted to God and His righteousness, which is shed upon generation after generation (again, the mechanics for obtaining this righteousness are not given; nor is the justification for God’s ability to bestow such righteousness).

Finally, God’s complete sovereignty is celebrated (v. 19) and all creation is called upon to praise and celebrate God’s character and person (vv. 20–22a). Then David ends this with the refrain, Praise Jehovah, O my soul! Not an unusual approach to poetry and song, David ends this psalm as he began it.

The NIV Study Bible approaches the division of this psalm differently. The major division, vv. 6–19, are six couplets divided into two equal parts (vv. 7–12, 13–18) and framed by vv. 6 and 19. The first half is God’s compassion toward His people as sinners and the second is God’s compassion toward His people as frail mortals. Such a division is valid and their approach caused me to go back and reevaluate my own outline (which division I changed slightly).

Several psalms are divided into 22 verses, to match the 22 Hebrew letters (e.g., Psalm 33, 34, 103). In a true acrostic psalm, each verse begins with successive letter of the alphabet (that is, the first verse begins with aleph, the second with bêyth, etc.). Psalm 103 is not a true acrostic psalm, as Psalm 34 is. Psalm 119, by the way, is an acrostic psalm because each section begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Barnes remarks: The psalm is exceedingly regular in its structure and composition; beautiful in its language and conceptions; adapted to all times and ages; fitted to express the feelings of gratitude to God for deliverance from trouble, and for the manifestation of his mercy; fitted to elevate the soul, and to fill it with cheerful views. These circumstances have made it a favourite psalm as a vehicle of praise in all ages. It is, moreover, eminently fitted to express the feelings of the soul in view of the redeeming love and mercy of God; the goodness of God in the forgiveness of sin through a Saviour; and his tender compassion for his people as a Father; and it is, therefore, one to which the Christian oftener turns than to almost any other of the psalms as expressive of the deep and grateful feelings of his heart.

J. Vernon McGee: This psalm looks forward to a new day; in fact, it looks beyond the Millennium into eternity where it will find the fullness of fulfillment. To the past the nation of Israel turned to this psalm, today the godly Israelites turns to this psalm, and in the future, he will also turn to this psalm. Individual believers today find it a real source of strength and light. It is a psalm of thanksgiving for things, and a psalm of praise for Person—that Person is Christ.

As we begin our examination of this psalm, I want you to keep the Lord Jesus Christ foremost in your mind. This psalm describes the attributes of God; this psalm tells how God deals with us in grace—and all of this is manifest in Christ’s public ministry on this earth.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                [A Psalm] of David.

CEV                                       [By David.]

JPS (Tanakh)                        Of David.

NASB                                    A Psalm of David.

REB                                       For David

The Septuagint                      To [or, of] David

TEV                                       The Love of God [Hebrew title: By David.]

Young's Literal Translation    By David

What is the gist of this verse? The inscription here, which is found in the Hebrew, simply gives us the name of the author of this psalm.

Translation: By David. I must admit that, for many years, this particular way of listing a psalm was rather irritating. Everywhere else, the lâmed preposition means to, for, with reference to. Only in these psalms do we really find this preposition used differently; or, so it seems. However, I have had an interest in music for years, and many musicians, when they describe their creative process, often speak of the song already being there and they just happened to find it; or that the song just sort of came to them. This is really the connotation we have here. The Holy Spirit has brought this psalm to David. The Holy Spirit has laid this psalm at David’s doorstep. David felt a burden to create, to write, and the Holy Spirit brought this to him. This psalm is about David’s own personal experience, as are most of his psalms, but David, using the lâmed preposition rather than the bêyth preposition, recognizes that God the Holy Spirit has brought this to him. It was not dictated by God the Holy Spirit, but David is recognizing that it is through and by God that he is inspired and guided to write this psalm.

Introduction: Praise Jehovah

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                Bless — affectionately, gratefully praise — the Lord, O my soul, and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name!

CEV                                       With all my heart I praise the Lord,

and with all that I am I praise his holy name!

God’s Word™                         Praise the Lord, my soul!

Praise his holy name, all that is within me.

JPS (Tanakh)                        Bless the Lord, O my soul,

all my being, His holy name.

NASB                                    Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

NJB                                        Bless Yahweh, my soul,

from the depths of my being, his holy name.

NLT                                Praise the Lord, I tell myself;

with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

The Septuagint                      Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all within me [bless] His Holy Name.

TEV                                       Praise the Lord, my soul!

All of my being, praise his holy name!

Young's Literal Translation    Bless, O my soul, Jehovah,

And all my inward parts—His Holy Name.

What is the gist of this verse? David speaks to his own soul, and commands his soul to praise or celebrate Jehovah God. In the second half of the verse, there is an ellipsis, where David speaks to his inner being, again telling himself to praise or celebrate Jehovah God.

Translation: Celebrate Y^ehowah, my soul... When one invokes blessing or a celebration or a praise of God, this celebration occurs on the inside. This is why David speaks to his soul and tells his soul to celebrate Jehovah.

This verse begins and ends with this phrase, as does Psalm 104 (although Psalm 104 adds a hallelujah at the end).

As Bullinger points out, the soul is used for the will, affection, or desire, which are its operations and effects. The words my soul can simply express the idea of myself.

Translation: ...and [celebrate] His sacred Name, all [that is] within me. The Name of God is His reputation and character; and the inner being of David—his soul and spirit—are to praise and celebrate Who and What God is.

References to God’s holy Name can be found throughout the psalms. In Psalm 32:21, we read: For our heart rejoices in Him because we trust in His holy name. Psalm 105:3: Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek Jehovah be glad. Psalm 145:21: My mouth will speak the praise of Jehovah and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever. God’s name is His character and being, and what the Old Testament saints trusted in, as there was no cross.

Barnes: The soul of man was made to praise and bless God; to enjoy his friendship; to delight in his favour; to contemplate his perfections. It can never be employed in a more appropriate or a more elevated act than when engaged in his praise. Who should we praise in the alternative? Other men? Lucifer? Ourselves? Barnes continues concerning the phrase all that is within me: All my powers and faculties; all that can be employed in his praise: —the heart, the will, the affections, the emotions. The idea is, that God is worthy of all the praise and adoration which the entire man can render.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                Bless — affectionately, gratefully praise — the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits,...

CEV                                       With all my heart I praise the Lord!

I will never forget how kind he has been.

The Emphasized Bible           Bless, O my soul, Yahweh,

And forget not all his dealings: — ... [Rotherham footnotes the word dealings with: “Dealings” is not only more exact than “benefits,” but is here the more expressive word; since, in the enthusiasm of his gratitude, the Psalmist may have felt that all the divine “dealings” formed a fitting subject for praise. ]

God’s Word™                         Praise the Lord, my soul

and never forget all the good he has done:...

JPS (Tanakh)                        Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and do not forget all His bounties.

NASB                                    Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget none of His benefits.

NJB                                        bless Yahweh, my soul,

never forget all his acts of kindness.

NLT                                Praise the Lord, I tell myself,

and never forget the good things he does for me.

The Septuagint                      Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his praises;...

TEV                                       Praise the Lord, my soul,

and do not forget how kind he is.

Young's Literal Translation    Bless, O my soul, Jehovah,

And forget not all His benefits,...

What is the gist of this verse? We are to celebrate the person of Jehovah and to recognize all that He has given us.

Translation: Celebrate Y^ehowah, my soul... Again, the one who is tied to God by relationship is to celebrate this relationship to Him.

Translation: ...and forget not any of His benefits. One of the things which is common to too many believers is that we do not realize all that God has given us. He applies a little pressure or a little testing, all of the time retaining for us great blessings, and we often forget these blessings and the benefits associated with Him. David here warns not to forget and disregard the benefits of relationship to God. Moses often reminded Israel of what God had done for them: “Guard yourselves, so that you do not forget Jehovah Who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” (Deut. 6:12; see also Deut. 8:11). In fact, in Deut. 6:10b–11, we have a list of the benefits that Israel enjoyed in their relationship with God.

The most obvious benefit is our salvation. It is because of our relationship to God, and not because of anything that we have done, that we will spend eternity in fellowship with God. This means no more sorrow, no more pain, no more tears; the old things will pass away (see Rev. 21:4). God sees to it that our daily needs are met; and often, he adds on additional blessing besides. This does not mean that you live the perfect life with everything that you have ever desired; it does mean that God looks out for us and takes care of us. Barnes: We will find, when we reach the end of life, that all which God has done, however dark and mysterious it may have appeared at the time, was so connected with our good as to make it a proper subject of praise and thanksgiving. A personal note: I was not thrilled that, upon graduation, I could not find a job in my field in the area where I lived. I eventually had to move 2000 miles away to the city place that was my third choice (of three cities), and take a job at a school which was my second choice of the schools where I applied. In retrospect, I cannot imagine it happening in any other way. There are still occasions where this or that happens to me, and I say to myself, “That was messtup!” But God knows what He is doing. I may not see the purpose for what God does in my life, but He does.

We should not understand this verse out of context, or just think that this was a nice thing that David said about God. What David will do in the next three verses is give us a list of the things which He has done for us.

McGee comments: When I read this psalm, I recognize that the best I can do just doesn’t quite make it. My soul goes out to Him but not like it should. My friend, I want to put up a warning signal. There is a real danger today of going to church, observing the ritual, and parroting pious platitudes. This is the thing God warned His people about in Isaiah 29:13, “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” It is nothing more than lip service. There is no submission to God’s Word and His demands. They just follow the precepts of men. We see this in Judaism and Romanism; and it is pretty easy for Protestants to pint a finger at them and say, “Look how dead their religion is!” My friend, how dead is your church and your personal worship? Oh, if only my praise could be pure and from the depths of my heart! That is what I long for and what we should all long for. There is a lot of chanting and ritualism today in church. It is easy to say that liberalism rejects all of the great truths of God’s Word, but if we simply go to church and mouth these truths, it can also be said of us, “Men worship Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.” This psalm says, “All that is within me, bless his holy name.” The flesh cannot do this. I am going to make a confession to you: I can’t worship the Lord like I want to. Do you know why? This old flesh of mine can’t rise to that level. It is only by the Holy Spirit that you and I can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

The Good That God Does for us

Here is how others have handled this verse:

CEV                                       The Lord forgives our sins, heals us when we are sick,...

God’s Word™                         He is the one who forgives all your sins,

the one who heals all your diseases,...

JPS (Tanakh)                        He forgives all your sins,

heals all your diseases.

NASB                                    Who pardons all your iniquities;

Who heals all your diseases;...

NJB                                        He forgives all your offences,

cures all your diseases.

REB                                       He pardons all my wrongdoing

and heals all my ills.

The Septuagint                      ...Who forgives all your transgressions,

Who heals all your diseases.

Young's Literal Translation    He forgives all my sins

and heals all my diseases.

Young's Updated LT              Who is forgiving all your iniquities,

Who is healing all your diseases,...

What is the gist of this verse? God forgives us our sins and He heals us from our sicknesses (the latter phrase will require some explaining).

Translation: The One forgiving your every transgression [or, all of your transgressions]... When understanding any portion of Scripture, it is imperative to examine the context and to note to whom anything is being written (if there is a specific audience for a given passage). Here, the specific audience is David; he tells his own soul to celebrate his relationship with Jehovah God (vv. 1–2). At the end of v. 2, David noted that there were benefits to this relationship that we ought not to forget. The first of these is the fact that God forgives us every one of our transgressions. This is not applicable to everyone; David applies it to himself, and we may therefore apply it to believers in general.

Now, as to forgiveness of sins—this is not some New Testament concept which Jesus inserted into the believer’s life, or some doctrine which Paul concocted; the forgiveness of sins has always been an integral part of Scripture. God told Moses about His own character in Ex. 34:6b–7a: “Jehovah Elohim is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in grace and truth. I preserve grace for thousands and forgive iniquity, sin and transgressions; yet these will not remain unpunished.” It may be that many ancient theologians read this passage and wondered, “God here clearly forgives sins and iniquities; but then it says that these things will not go unpunished. How do we make sense of this?” It is clear to us today—Jesus took upon Himself the penalty for our sins—there were no sins left unpunished; however, we are, because He took upon Himself our punishment, forgiven. Our very relationship with God is dependent upon past, present and future sins being forgiven. For additional Old Testament Scripture on forgiveness of sins, see Psalm 86:5 130:3–4, 8 Isa. 43:25.

Translation: ...the One healing all of your diseases. Okay, at first this phrase gave me pause. God does not heal each and every believer of each and every disease. Since we all die, it is reasonable to figure that not all Christians simply die in their sleep. Many times, it is the result of a disease of some sort. So, what about this verse? Again, the key is context. David is speaking to himself, to his own soul. Up until that point in time, God had healed David of every disease (compare Psalm 30:2). Throughout Scripture, we will see that God continues to heal David of his diseases until he does die of old age. Therefore, we cannot take this verse as a promise to each and every believer. Obviously, God will punish some believers in time with disease when they are out of fellowship. God will test other believers. However, this is true, in context, that God had healed and would continue to heal all of David’s diseases (one may contrast this with Saul, who was plagued by mental disease throughout the latter portion of his life).

We should also allow a wider definition for diseases; not because it would suit our sensibilities, but because that would be in line with other passages. In Ex. 15:26, God warns Israel, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of Jehovah your God and do what is right in His sight, and listen to His commandments, and keep all of His statutes, I will place none of the diseases on you which I have placed on the Egyptians; for I, Jehovah, am your Healer.” God intentionally placed upon the Egyptians plagues and illnesses, because they stood in opposition to Him. In Jer. 30:17a, God promises Israel deliverance from captivity, saying, “For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds.” In this passage, the healing refers to the regathering and restoration of Israel. Finally, throughout the gospels, Jesus heals person after person of this and that disease; He certainly acted out of compassion and to show that He is the Messiah; however, there is a meaning in these healings which is not to be lost: the healing of the body is an indication that God, in eternity future, will heal both the body and soul completely.

I should insert here a point that Barnes makes: the healing of disease can take many forms; we are not restricted to miraculous cures by the touch of Jesus. This can easily include the cure of a physician, through whose hands, God works. There are some religions which take it as a lack of faith to see a doctor about this or that physical ailment. Certainly, you should pray concerning your own sickness and it is a bonus if others do so as well. That does not mean, however, that you should never seek the help of a physician. Luke was a doctor and nowhere in Scripture is his vocation belittled. Furthermore, when you seek a physician, this does not mean that the time for prayer has past. All visits and procedures should be accompanied by prayers and supplications.

Interestingly enough, forgiveness of sin and the healing of sickness will be tied together in Isa. 33:24, where the eternal state of Zion and its residents are discussed: And no resident will say, “I am sick.” The people who live there will be forgiven their iniquity. This passage also points toward eternity for a full understanding of the forgiveness of sin and the healing of disease. When a paralytic was brought before Jesus to be healed, the first thing that Jesus said to him was, “Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.” (Matt. 9:2b). The remainder of this passage is quite interesting, as the attendant scribes think to themselves that this forgiveness offered by our Lord is blasphemy. Jesus then asks them, “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up and walk’?” And then Jesus tells the paralytic to get up and walk (see Matt. 9:2–8). Therefore, we should expect for the forgiveness of sin to be tied closely to the healing of our diseases (compare also Isa. 53:5 Jer. 17:14). As St. Peter wrote to us: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were reconciled (or, healed) (I Peter 2:24).

McGee interprets this is being applicable to eternity and that the diseases healed include the removal of spiritual diseases. I believe that he is half-right in this conclusion and Isa. 33:24 would support this notion (And no resident will say, “I am sick.” The people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity). Let’s keep this phrase in mind when examining the remainder of the context: (1) God pardons our iniquities, something which must occur in time and in eternity (v. 3a); (2) God redeems our lives from the grave or the pit (v. 4a); (3) God crowns us with grace and mercy (v. 4b); and (5) He satisfies us with good things (v. 5a). So, we may reasonably assume that the phrase in question has both temporal and eternal implications. The temporal implications—that God has healed David of all his diseases—has been discussed. However, in eternity, all of us will have resurrection bodies, bodies which are perfect and free from disease and aging. In fact, let me be very specific: if you worked outside and had the sort of body that converted most of what you ate into muscle, and if you took your body during its physical peak years (late 20's or early 30's), that will be the appearance of your resurrection body, as we will have a body just like His. At least, that is a reasonable theory, given I Cor. 15:35–49.

What we cannot do is look down on those who suffer from this infirmity or that. This psalm does not guarantee that we will all enjoy perfect health in time. The Apostle Paul, whose life and works are head and shoulders above any of ours, suffered from an eye disease for most of his life (and apparently all of his spiritual life). McGee points to Fanny Crosby and John Milton, who were both blind all of their lives. There was nothing wrong with these people because they suffered those infirmities. Again, we must take this passage in its context—David is speaking to his own soul—and also realize that this context has eternal considerations, which are the most important.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption; Who beautifies, dignifies and crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies.

CEV                                       ...and protects us from death.

His kindness and love are a crown in our heads.

God’s Word™                                the one who rescues your life from the pit,

the one who crowns you with mercy and compassion,...

JPS (Tanakh)                        He redeems your life from the Pit,

surrounds you with steadfast love and mercy.

NAB                                       Delivers your life from the pit,

surrounds you with love and compassion,...

NASB                                    Who redeems your life from the pit;

Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion.

NJB                                        he redeems your life from the abyss,

crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;...

NLT                                He ransoms me from death

and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.

REB                                       He rescues me from death’s pit

and crowns me with love and compassion.

The Septuagint                      Who redeems your life from corruption; Who crowns you with mercy and compassion;...

TEV                                       He keeps me from the grave

and blesses me with love and mercy.

Young's Updated LT              Who is redeeming from destruction [of] your life,

Who is crowning you—kindness and mercies,...

What is the gist of this verse? Jehovah God is said to pay for our lives, so that we are not thrown into the pit. He is also said to crown us with grace and mercy.

Translation: The One redeeming your life from the pit;... We find a parallel to this verse in Psalm 49:15, which reads: But God will purchase my soul from the power of Sheol; for He will receive me. Sheol, by the way, is the dwelling place of the dead. Our very lives condemn us to being subject to Sheol. Psalm 34:22: Jehovah redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who take refuge in Him will be judged guilty. See also Psalm 56:13 Isa. 43:1.

The NIV Study Bible unfortunately has the footnote that redeems means the same as delivers. These two terms are related theologically, and might even be seen as opposite sides of the same coin; however, they are not synonymous terms. In the case of the word redeems, we have mechanics: Jehovah God pays or purchases our lives from the pit. There is some exchange of money of some sort (which Thieme terms coin of the realm). Delivers is the result of this purchase. A simple analogy to clear up the difference between these two words: you put a dollar into a coke machine and purchase a coke; when it comes out, you drink it. You can drink the coke because you purchased the coke. Purchase and drink are not synonyms; one merely is the result of the other.

We have studied the Doctrine of Sheol back in Job 7:9.

In this half of v. 4, David continues with the list of reasons why we should celebrate Jehovah God. In the ancient world, the pit simply referred to either a hole dug in the ground designed to capture animals; a cistern [which could be filled with mud]; an underground prison; or to a sepulcher (grave). By the time of the New Testament, it came to mean corruption and was so translated from the Hebrew into the Greek. Our mortal lives are condemned to corruption; in fact, to eternal corruption; to the eternal grave. God is here said to have redeemed (or, purchased) us from that corruption.

At that time, it was unclear as to what to coin of the realm was. What did our Lord use to purchase us from the pit? We are all born deserving of death; our lives are a continual compiling of more reasons why we should not enjoy any sort of fellowship with God. As each day ends, we have committed more and more sins; we have developed more and more distance between ourselves and God. Yet David tells us here that God has purchased us from the grave or the pit. In Psalm 22, also written by David, we have the cross—we have the suffering of our Lord, which paid for our lives. We deserved infinite death, and Jesus took upon His body the death and hell that we deserved.

Did anyone in the Old Testament have a complete Christology developed in their own minds? I doubt it. They all had pieces of the puzzle, which the New Testament puts together so handily. However, no one fully knew what was to come and just exactly who our Lord would be. David would have recognized Jesus; he would have been one of his flock during the time of Jesus, as he was during his own time; but he did not fully grasp every detail of the cross and its significance.

The question I have heard is, why isn’t the gospel as perspicuous in the Old Testament as it is in the New? The typical answer that I have heard is, it is. And this position seems to make sense, if one does not examine it too closely. After all, the most careful examinations of the cross are found in the Old Testament: Psalm 22 and Isa. 53, with a reasonable analogy to the theology in Gen. 22. However, I doubt that anyone from Old Testament could have sat down and given us a clear theology of the cross, of the first advent of our Lord, or what was to come. There is a reason for this. First of all, let’s touch on salvation. When you believed in Jesus Christ, you knew precious little about Christology and soteriology; you were taught the cross and that Jesus paid for your sins, but you did not have a full and complete understanding of that doctrine; and you were saved based upon the very small amount of faith that you had in the very little that you knew. Old Testament believers were not unlike you—they trusted in Jehovah Elohim. They did not have everything put together, but they trust in the One who had redeemed them and forgave them for the sins they committed. They did not know how all of this was accomplished—in fact, with respect to the cross, they knew even less than we know at our own salvation. But salvation is not based upon the quantity of information that we know, it is based upon what Jesus did for us on the cross and the minuscule amount of faith that we place in Him.

Now that I have made it clear that the gospel is not as perspicuous in the Old Testament as it is in the New (at least, not to Old Testament believers), and now that I have explained why it is not necessary for Old Testament saints to have a complete grasp of Christology and soteriology, let me tell you why no Old Testament saint had a complete picture in his head of what was to come in the first advent: the cross was explained in shadow form in the Old Testament, so clearly that we can look back at Psalm 22 and Isa. 53 and recognize that God taught the suffering of our Lord in the Old Testament. However, to Old Testament believers (and unbelievers, of course), there was a veil—a veil which was lifted in the New Testament. Our Lord—His teachings, his very short ministry, and His death on the cross—tell us exactly what all those passages were speaking of. The reason for this is simple: the greatest student of the Old Testament was Satan. He knew Scripture backward and forward. He knew Psalm 22, Gen. 22, and Isa. 53—Satan is a genius and he memorized those verses along with the entire Old Testament. However, he was unable to put it altogether in his own mind. Satan did much of the footwork in the gospels to crucify Jesus. He was the motivating factor, both in Judas and in the hearts of the scribes, pharisees and Sadducees. Satan did not grasp that God the Father would pour out on God the Son all of the sins that we deserve punishment for. He did not realize that was the key to the salvation of mankind. Had he known that, had he been able to figure out that, Satan’s attacks upon our Lord would have taken on a different and more subtle twist. Instead of being hated and persecuted, he would have inspired the pharisees to do what religious leaders do today—they would have patronized our Lord, but they would not have physically persecuted Him. However, even with a full and complete knowledge of the Old Testament, Satan did not realize what the first advent was all about, and he vented his complete hatred for all that is holy upon the Lord, and became complicitious in all that led up to the cross. The Old Testament had to present the gospel in shadow form, so that we could look back and recognize how clearly it was taught, and yet still appreciate that Old Testament saints never completely grasped the most fundamental doctrines of soteriology. This was all done so that the greatest enemy of God—Lucifer—would act in such a way as to bring our Lord to the cross. Even in his genius, he did not know realize what he was doing when he orchestrated the illegal trials and illegal execution of our Lord. He was merely venting his hatred, and God the Father used his actions in order to judge our sins in the body of His Son on the cross.

Translation: ...[and] the One crowning you [with] grace and compassion. This is more than making our lives filled with grace and compassion. We have a crown with indicates grace and compassion from God. It should be obvious that from this psalm so far that David understood salvation and God’s purchase of our souls from death (recall that David is still speaking to his soul, as noted by the use of the 2^nd person feminine singular suffix).

Barnes comments: The idea here is not merely that God is the source of these blessings, but that there is something of beauty, of dignity, of honour, as in the conferring of a crown or garland on any one...God shown mercy to him [David],—evinced compassion [and mercies],—and these were so abundant that they might be said to be the crown or ornament of his life.

We have a parallel verse in Psalm 5:12: It is You who blesses the righteous man, O Jehovah; You surround him with grace as a shield.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

CEV                                       Each day that we live, he provides for our needs

and gives us the strength of a young eagle.

God’s Word™                         the one who fills your life with blessings

so that you become young again like an eagle.

JPS (Tanakh)                        He satisfies you with good things in the prime of life, [Meaning of Heb. uncertain]

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

NASB                                    Who satisfies our years with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.

NKJV                                     Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

NLT                                He fills my life with good things.

My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

The Septuagint                      Who satisfies your desire with good things;

[so that] your youth is renewed like the eagle.

TEV                                       He fills my life with good things,

so that I stay young and strong like an eagle.

Young's Updated LT              Who is satisfying with good your desire,

Renew itself as an eagle does your youth.

What is the gist of this verse? God saturates and satiates the soul of David with good things.

Translation: The [One] satisfying [or, saturating] your accessories with good things. This is a rather tough call, as to its meaning, which I appreciated more when I found that even Barnes was at a loss here. Ornaments is modified by the 2^nd person feminine singular suffix, which refers back to the soul of the psalmists, who is speaking to his own soul (v. 1). Therefore, the key is not necessarily the parallel word found in the second half of this verse, but it the context in general. In context, David is speaking to his own soul. Therefore, when he says that God satisfies your accessories or your ornaments, we may reasonably understand this as referring the to accessories or ornaments of the soul. Now, obviously, a soul does not have physical ornaments. However, a soul can be multi-faceted (in fact, a soul would be, just by definition). All of these facets of the soul are filled or satiated or saturated with good things.

Let’s approach this a Thieme would: the soul of man (actually, technically, the heart) is made up of several facets. There is the frame of reference, where one has an overall understanding of doctrine, including those things which may not seem to be immediately applicable when first heard. For instance, in salvation, you were originally just interested in how does this affect me? The way that God achieved our salvation and the fact that He maintained His entire character may have not made much difference to us, but we wrote down the pertinent points anyway. Now, when other things are taught to us, they all begin to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. This frame of reference are the pieces of the puzzle which begin to come together as one learns more in the Christian life. David certainly had a frame of reference filled with doctrine, which would come under the heading of good things.

The soul has a memory center, which can provide us with wonderful moments. I can think back on times with my family or times as a teacher or times with friends which fill my soul with great recollections. These are the good things spoken of in this verse.

Vocabulary and categorical storage: as doctrines are built upon doctrines, and as certain ideas and relationships are given names, our vocabulary increases (which increases our ability to think). Few believers appreciate this. In fact, their thinking is sloppy, illogical and emotional. They are unable to make fine distinctions. Hell, they are unable to make obvious distinctions. For the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even the division of the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow, and is able to evaluate the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12). Scripture draws lines, makes distinctions, and carefully distinguishes between this and that. As we increase our vocabulary and categorical storage, we increase our own ability to do so. Let me give you a quick and easy example. The tongues crowd. There are those believers who are unable to distinguish between churches where there is some enthusiasm and churches where people “get the ghost.” They may even be jealous of the excitement and enthusiasm that they see in some charismatics; and believe that we can fellowship with them as with other believers. The problem here is that such a person is unable to distinguish between enthusiasm (primarily a function of the personality) and speaking in tongues. When vocabulary is increased and when the various categories of doctrine start to come together, one can recognize that the tongues crowd is the third largest Christian cult (the first and second being the Roman Catholics and their alter egos, the Greek Orthodox). However, also, as these increase, your appreciation for what God has done and designed increases as well.

Finally, we have the conscience. As a new believer, there are a lot of sins that we disregard or give little thought to. Therefore, we find ourselves falling out of fellowship often, as we begin the Christian life by allowing the world (our background and early teaching) to define sin for us. As we increase in our knowledge of God’s Word, we also see an increase in our understanding of right and wrong. We don’t fall to pieces because someone is a homosexual, and then spend a significant portion of our day gossiping about said homosexual. Certainly, homosexual acts are sinful; but then, so is gossiping. An increase of the ornaments of the soul—the saturating of the soul with doctrine—also increases our understanding of sin and we tend to be more concerned with our own behavior and we give those around us a break.

We have several parallel passages of God satisfying the believer in Psalm 107:9 145:16 (in the former, it is the believer’s thirst which is satisfied and in the latter, it is the desire of every living thing).

Translation: You renew [or, refresh] your youth like the eagle. The morphology of this verb is rather confusing. All of the 2^nd person suffixes have referred to the soul of David, the writer of this psalm. Suddenly, we have a reference to a masculine singular noun, who is being addressed (this could be the 3^rd person feminine singular in morphology). What we would like to see is either the 2^nd person feminine singular or the 3^rd person masculine singular forms here; either of which makes perfect sense (in the former, the soul acts upon itself, as the Hithpael would imply (the Hithpael is the reflexive of the Piel); and the latter would be God acting upon the soul (which is incongruous with the Hithpael, but otherwise reasonable). I will assume that this is a reference to the soul acting upon itself. Our soul—our mentality, conscience, our frame of reference—becomes tired. We cannot take in, for instance, 6 or 8 hours of doctrine a day. It’s just too much. However, when the soul is saturated with doctrine, it renews itself; it becomes youthful. The analogy is to the powerful eagle, who flies until it becomes tired; it rests and renews itself, and has the strength to fly great distances again. Here, the soul is said to renew its youthfulness. That is, the soul renews its vigor and youthfulness and interests. The mind of some older people atrophies, and, as a result, there are a plethora of mental problems which can set in. However, if the mind is kept active in the study of God’s Word, it will renew itself. It will strengthen itself like a muscle. Youth is simply a metonym for personal strength.

Our verse again reads: You renew [or, refresh] your youth [or, strength] like the eagle. In Isa. 40:31, we have a parallel verse: Those who wait for Jehovah will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary. In the book of Job, Elihu speaks for God, and reveals the afterlife to Job and his three companions, which is an exact parallel to our own passage: “Then let Him [God] be gracious to him [Job, and, by application, to any believer] and say, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit [because] I have found a ransom.’ Let his flesh become fresher than in youth and let him return to the days of his youthful vigor.” (Job 33:24–25). In two short verses, from one of the oldest books in the Bible, we have the ransom of the cross, the deliverance from the pit, and the resurrection body all alluded to, as well as being a perfect parallel to the passage we are examining. Paul gives us a slightly different perspective in I Cor. 4:16: Therefore, we do not loses heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

In the next section, the psalmist will leave his rather narrow examination of God’s grace to him and apply this grace to all mankind.

God’s Judicial Approach to Our Sins

Here is how others have handled this verse:

CEV                                       For all who are mistreated, the Lord brings justice.

God’s Word™                         The Lord does what is right and fair

for all who are oppressed.

JPS (Tanakh)                        The Lord executes righteous acts

and judgments for all who are wronged.

NASB                                    The Lord performs righteous deeds

And judgments for all who are oppressed.

NLT                                The Lord gives righteousness

and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

NRSV                                    The Lord works vindication

and justice for all who are oppressed.

REB                                       The Lord is righteous in all he does;

he brings justice to all who have been wronged.

The Septuagint                      The Lord executes mercy and judgment for all that are injured.

TEV                                       The Lord judges in favor of the oppressed

and gives them their rights.

Young's Literal Translation    Jehovah is doing righteousness and judgments

For all the oppressed.

What is the gist of this verse? David makes it clear that God is One Who does that which is righteous and just, and that this justice extends to even those who are oppressed (that is, those who often do not find justice in this life).

Translation: Y^ehowah [is] a maker of righteous [acts]... This portion of v. 6 is directly tied to the second half. In this world, there are those who are oppressed, exploited, and taken advantage of, which is the masculine plural, Qal passive participle of ׳âshaq (ק ַש ָע) [pronounced ģaw-SHAHK]. There are those who are honest, hard-working and poor who get the shaft from our judicial system, their employers, and from other people in general. God sees to it that, at least occasionally, that they receive what is right; that they get their just reward. In eternity, every man is evaluated justly. Ultimately, no one gets away with anything and all injustices are righted.

Translation: ...and [correct] judicial verdicts to the exploited ones. Our judicial system has become a mess. Judges, in a grab for power, have decided that it is their business to make the laws, rather than to simply render accurate verdicts. I recall from my Freshman government class of two opposing results derived from the same law by two different judges. Essentially, one judge decided one way, which made the law say one thing; and, several years later, another judge took the same law and made it say the exact opposite, thus changing the result of the application of that law. The end results of judicial verdicts have become, in the United States, much more powerful than the laws which are twisted and turned to produce the outcome which suits that particular judge. Some examples: Row v. Wade; Fruit from the Poisonous Tree (had it not been 30 years since I took that class, I might recall more). Millions of dollars are rewarded by some courts essentially because juries feel sorry for the plaintiffs; even though there was no criminality or malfeasance involved on the part of the defendant (I have experienced that first hand). Furthermore, the innocent are often trapped because of their innocence and openness to talk and the guilty are often freed or given lighter sentences because they have higher criminals that they can bargain for or because they simply know how to work the system. God vindicates some on this earth; and He vindicates all in eternity (compare Psalm 9:8 146:7 Isa. 9:7).

Barnes comments: God sees that justice is done to the oppressed. [The oppressed are those who are oppressed by] harsh laws; by unjust governments; by slavery; by unrighteous decisions in courts; by the pride and power of wicked men. God is on their side. His law, His commands, His judicial decisions, His providential interpositions, are in their favor. This does not mean that is will be done at once; or that there will never be any delay; or that they may not suffer even for a long time, —for this occurs in fact; but the meaning is, that God has their true interest at heart; that at proper times, and whenever and wherever there are any dealings of his in the case, his acts are in favor of those that are oppressed; and that there will be sooner or later such interpositions in their behalf as shall entirely vindicate their cause.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                He made known His ways [of righteousness and justice] to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.

CEV                                       He taught his Law to Moses

and showed all Israel what he could do.

God’s Word™                                He let Moses know his ways.

He let the Israelites know the things he had done.

JPS (Tanakh)                        He made known His ways to Moses,

His deeds to the children of Israel.

NASB                                    He made know His ways to Moses,

His acts to the sons of Israel.

NLT                                He revealed his character to Moses

and his deeds to the people of Israel.

The Septuagint                      He made known his ways to Moses, his will to the children of Israel.

Young's Updated LT              He makes known His ways to Moses,

To the sons of Israel His acts.

What is the gist of this verse? God revealed a more complete understanding of His justice to Moses, via the Law, which Moses made known to the sons of Israel.

Translation: He makes known to Moses His ways... God taught Moses principles of His character to Moses. God spoke the Law to Moses, which Moses wrote down dutifully, and then presented to the sons of Israel. Moses was amazing in his complete obedience to God. There was only one occasion revealed in Scripture where Moses failed to act as God had told him to act. Often, I cannot seem to go a day without doing that which is wrong; Moses appeared to go for years without doing that which is wrong. His complete obedience and faith are amazing. Therefore, God did not have to do anything to Moses by way of actions to keep him in line. Once Moses got with the program (which did take some time), he stayed with the program.

This portion of v. 7 is witnessed to by pretty much the Law from Exodus through Deuteronomy, but Psalm 99:6–7 sum it up well: Moses and Aaron were among His priests; they called upon Jehovah and He answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud; they kept His testimonies, and the statute that He gave them.

Translation: ...and [He shows] His actions to the sons of Israel. On the other hand, the sons of Israel, particularly those two generations, were bundles of negative volition. They all believed God originally; however, their actions throughout the march to the Land of Promise were deplorable. God, on several occasions, revealed actions and deeds to them in order to get their attention and to get them on track again. He had done enough so that His Law should have been good enough for the sons of Israel; however, their negative volition and slave mentality was so great as to cause them to rebel against God again and again.

You may wonder why on earth God chose a people who were so negative towards Him; a people who, as a whole, would later reject His Son. The idea is this—in some ways, there has never been a people as unlovely and as undeserving as the Jews. In no way could we think that they ever deserved what God did on their behalf. In this, they are an object lesson to us. It does not matter how unlovely and how undeserving that we are—God will still have us. It doesn’t matter that we appear to everyone around us a loser in every respect—God will still have us. It does not matter how awful and how rebellious that we have been, nor does it matter how many and what sort of sins that we have committed—God is willing to forgive us. Jesus died on behalf of every man and we need only trust Him for our salvation. The Jews in all their negativity are our object lesson: He declares His words to Jacob and His statutes and His ordinances to Israel (Psalm 147:19). The principle is called grace—they don’t deserve it and we don’t deserve it.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

CEV                                       The Lord is merciful! He is kind and patient,

and his love never fails.

God’s Word™                         The Lord is compassionate, merciful, patient,

and always ready to forgive.

JPS (Tanakh)                        The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

NASB                                    The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

NJB                                        Yahweh is tenderness and pity,

slow to anger and rich in faithful love;...

NLT                                The Lord is merciful and gracious;

he is slow to get angry and full of unfailing love.

REB                                       The Lord is compassionate and gracious,

long-suffering and ever faithful;...

The Septuagint                      The Lord is compassionate and pitiful, longsuffering, and full of mercy.

Young's Updated LT              Merciful and gracious is Jehovah,

Slow to anger, and abundant in mercy.

What is the gist of this verse? God is merciful and gracious; He is slow to anger and has abundant mercy (which He is willing to shed upon us).

Translation: Y^ehowah [is both] merciful and gracious,... I think that the proper rendering of rachûwm is merciful rather than compassionate. Compassion implies that God has a knowledge of our circumstances and our inner character, and let’s us get by with stuff because he recognizes our deficiencies. You might see someone in need, someone who is sick, someone who is down and out, and you will feel compassionate toward them, regardless of how they got there. God does not function that way. God is perfect and He cannot have fellowship with imperfect beings. He is holy (set apart from all that is wrong, sinful and worldly), and cannot enjoy fellowship with those who are not set apart. So God does not look down on us and think to Himself, “That is really sad; I need to do something good for Charlie Brown today; he’s taken a lot of hard knocks.” Instead, mercy recognizes that we are totally undeserving of God’s grace, yet He gives us grace regardless.

Grace, to borrow from Thieme, is all that God is free to do for us on the basis of the cross. God gives us what we do not deserve and could never earn. God overlooks what we have done; He gives us what we do not deserve; none of this is based upon a human notion of compassion, but upon His Son’s work upon the cross.

Translation: ...slow [to] anger... Although the word aph literally means nostril, it also means anger, and is used much more often in that sense. God takes a long time to become angry with us. This is an anthropopathism; God does not get angry. However, it seems like when we sin, that often God does not discipline us right away (which is done for our own good because we are sons of God through Christ Jesus). In the Old Testament, God is said to be slow to anger if He did not lay on the discipline immediately.

From mid-Exodus through the book of Numbers, we have a study of God’s patience and longsuffering. Although the exodus generation witnessed the greatest miracles ever performed, up until the first advent of our Lord, they still complained, they still doubted God, and at every turn, were willing to return to their idolatrous ways.

Translation: ...and [having] much grace. This is easy to understand, although difficult to render word-for word. God is abundant in grace; He possesses and incredible amount of grace. David did not know exactly the reason; he did not have a complete and full understanding of soteriology (which is true of almost all Old Testament believers); but he believed in Jehovah God, and he recognized that saved him; and he recognized that the result was that God poured on a huge amount of grace upon him, which he did not earn and he did not deserve.

This verse appears to be taken directly from Ex. 34:6b, which reads: “Y^ehowah, Y^ehowah God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in grace and truth.” This would be a point of interest, as it is much more rare for one Old Testament writer to quote another (even though the books of the Old Testament agree in doctrine). On the other hand, it is very common for the New Testament writers to quote the Old Testament. In any case, this is a common doctrine, expressed also in Num. 14:18 Neh. 9:7 Psalm 86:15 145:8 Joel 2:13 Jonah 4:2 Micah 7:18–19 Nahum 1:3 James 5:11.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                He will not always chide or be contending, neither will He keep His anger for ever or hold a grudge.

CEV                                       The Lord won’t always be angry and point out our sins;...

God’s Word™                         He will not always accuse us of wrong

or be angry └with us┘ forever.

JPS (Tanakh)                        He will not contend forever,

or nurse His anger for all time.

NASB                                    He will not always strive with us;

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

NJB                                        his indignation does not last for ever,

nor his resentment remain for all time;...

NLT                                He will not constantly accuse us,

nor remain angry forever.

The Septuagint                      He will not be always angry; neither will he be wrathful forever.

Young's Updated LT              Not forever does He strive,

Nor to the age does He watch.

What is the gist of this verse? Although God reasonably has a case against us; or even though He can reasonably find fault with us, He will not do so forever.

Translation: He will not find fault [with us] forever... We have a very careful parallelism here, although it is not easy to understand. The first statement is, however, which should allow us to correctly understand the second. The verb used is for someone filing suit or bringing a complain against another. God has a complaint against us; He has a contention with us. He does find fault with us. However, this will not go on forever. David recognizes that, even though God reasonably conducts a case against us, He will not do that forever.

However, we must bear in mind that this verse does imply that God will find fault for a period of time; He will rebuke His Own people for a short time (a short time by His reckoning, not ours). He may rebuke His people, but this will not be forever. He will punish them; He will manifest His displeasure at their sins; He will show that He does not approve of their course, but He will show that He loves them as well, and does not seek their ruin.

Translation: ...and He will not keep [a case against us] forever. By itself, this half of v. 9 means very little. Literally, it is and He will not keep forever. The obvious question is keep or guard what? Context is the key. God has a case against us; He has found fault with us; He has filed suit against us. He will not keep or guard this case against us forever. His anger is but for a moment, His grace is for a lifetime; weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy [greets] the morning (Psalm 30:5; compare Isa. 57:16 Jer. 3:5, 12).

Here is how others have handled this verse:

CEV                                              he doesn’t punish us as our sins deserve.

God’s Word™                         He has not treated us as we deserve for our sins

or paid us back for our wrongs.

JPS (Tanakh)                        He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

nor has He requited us according to our iniquities.

NAB                                       Has not dealt with us as our sins merit,

nor requited us as our deeds deserve.

NASB                                    He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

NJB                                        he does not treat us as our sins deserve,

nor repay us as befits our offences.

NLT                                He has not punished us for all our sins,

nor does he deal with us as we deserve.

REB                                       He has not treated us as our sins deserve

or repaid us according to our misdeeds.

The Septuagint                      He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor recompensed us according to our iniquities.

Young's Updated LT              Not according to our sins has He done to us,

Nor according to our iniquities

Has He conferred benefits upon us.

What is the gist of this verse? This verse implies that we deserve eternal punishment (or some kind of terrible punishment) for our sins and our iniquities. However, this verse states clearly that God does not act as our sins would dictate that He act; He does not reward (i.e., punish) us as our iniquities would require.

Translation: He has not done to us according to our sins... Again, we have a very carefully written parallelism, with the structure of the sentence and many of the words being exactly the same. What this does for us is, if we cannot figure out one side of the psalm, the other side will give us enough information so that we can. We are all deserving of eternal death; we all deserve punishment for our sins. There have been almost innumerable times that we have sinned, we knew it was wrong, and we just went ahead and did it. We have done this as believers and as unbelievers. God does not deal with us as these sins would require. The sins we have committed require discipline and eternal punishment. However, God does not deal with us according to what we deserve for committing these sins. David, when he wrote this psalm, understood God’s grace and its implications. As McGee concludes: My friend, if God would eal with us according to our sins and according to our iniquities, none of us would be saved.

Translation: ...and He has not recompensed us according to our iniquities. We should receive our just rewards for our behavior. Just because we have a sin nature, this does not mean that we are helpless. You cannot complain (or state the argument) that God cannot punish me for doing these things because God made me this way. We all have free will. Our free will can be remarkably resistant to our inner impulses and to outer influences. Therefore, a homosexual cannot say, God is love, God made me a homosexual, and therefore, it is right for me to commit homosexual acts. A Lothario cannot say, God is love, God made me attracted to women, and therefore, it is right for me to chase women. A drug addict cannot say, God is love, God made me an addict, and therefore, it is right for me to indulge myself with drugs (or alcohol). For every sin and every weakness and every flaw, God also provided free will. Each time that we sin according to our area of weakness, it is easier to fall into that sin again; however, each time, we still have free will and we can always exercise free will. Let’s see if I can give you a more common illustration. You are married, you have children, and you are tempted by a member of the opposite sex. If you think about this, you could be trading for you life, your marriage, your children, and the well-being of your spouse for a few hours of pleasure. A married alcoholic with children faces the same dilemma every time he (or she) is tempted to drink; a married drug addict with children is faced with the same dilemma each time he (or she) is tempted to use drugs. If you stop and give the temptation some thought, men and women time and time again, often with God’s help, do not succumb, even though they have a desire to give in to their lusts. They weigh out the short amount of pleasure against the vast amounts of pain which will be generated, not only in their own lives, but in the lives of those they are closest to, and they are able to engage their free will to act responsibly. My point in all of this is, we cannot blame God for being tempted and we cannot blame God for our succumbing to temptation. Therefore, on the basis of personal sins alone, apart from any other theological approach, we deserve eternal punishment, eternal separation from God, for our iniquities. However, David tells us here that God does not reward, or requite or recompense us according to our iniquities. God does not give us what we deserve (compare Ezra 9:13). For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23).

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great are His mercy and loving-kindness toward those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.

Barnes                                   For like the height of the heavens above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him.

CEV                                       How great is God’s love for all who worship him?

Greater than the distance between heaven and earth!

The Emphasized Bible           For <as the heavens are exalted over the earth>

His lovingkindness hath prevailed [Ginsburg thinks it should be “is exalted”] over them who revere him;...

God’s Word™                         As high as the heavens are above the earth—

that is how vast his mercy is toward those who fear him.

JPS (Tanakh)                        For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.

NAB                                       As the heavens tower over the earth,

so God’s love towers over the faithful.

NASB                                    For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear [or, revere] Him.

NLT                                For his unfailing love toward those who fear him

is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.

The Septuagint                      For as the heaven is high above the earth, the Lord has increased His mercy toward them that fear Him.

TEV                                       As high as the sky is above the earth,

so great is his love for those who honor him.

Young's Updated LT              For, as the height of the heavens is above the earth,

His kindness has been mighty over those fearing Him.

What is the gist of this verse? A comparison is drawn between the unfathomable grace of God to the unfathomable distance between heaven and earth.

Translation: For as high as the heavens [are] above the earth,... We have a different sort of comparison here in Scripture than we might have made ourselves. The comparison is between the distance between heaven and earth and the strength of God’s grace. We have only in this past century began to see just how great the distance is between the outreaches of heaven and earth is. In fact, the distance is pretty much beyond our imagination. We can put it into words, we can ascribe numbers to it, we can design units around it, but it comes down to being unfathomable. This gives us a better clue as to what David means here—the distance from earth to the furthest heavens is unfathomable; just as God’s grace to us.

Translation: ...His grace has been greater [lit., been stronger] upon [or, is exalted over] those fearing Him. As high as heaven is above earth, God’s grace is even greater. Psalm 36:5–6 seems like a natural continuation of this verse: Your grace, O Jehovah, extends to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies; Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgements are like the deep; O Jehovah, you preserve man and beast.

Now note, there are various ways of referring to believers. We find the term believer in the New Testament; in the time period immediately following the Apostolic era, Christian designated those who are His. However, in the Old Testament, we have the verb yârê, which means to fear, to respect, to reverence.

Because of new age philosophy, we, as adults, have backed off giving our children any reason to fear us; the result is, just when these children think that they are invulnerable, they find themselves in juvenile hall or in jail with a permanent record, which does follow them all of their lives. The results to us as parents have been far more devastating, resulting in schools and streets and churches which are no longer safe havens.

Depending upon your age, you may never have known someone who inspired both fear and respect. I think back on one particular principal that I worked under as a teacher; he was a Senior principal, and he was tough and gritty and he applied discipline when necessary (which included swats); and yet he never was embarrassed to show his love for his students. The students respected him and they feared him. He could hold an assembly with 400+ students and no teachers, and they wouldn’t utter a peep. They showed tremendous respect and they also knew what their jackass behavior could result in. This is God as Israel knew Him. He revealed great love and grace to Israel; however, you did not mess around with His Truth and with His Law. His justice was equally strong; one example would be Korah and his followers, who were swallowed up in an earthquake. There were plagues in the desert wilderness which took thousands of lives when Israel strayed from God.

The parallelism here is a bit difficult to grasp. The comparison that is meant is, the heavens are far above and envelope the earth in a huge way. The earth is completely immersed in the heavens; similarly, believers are completely immersed in His grace.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Barnes (updated)                   Like the distance of the east from the west [or, like its being so far], so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

CEV                                       How far has the Lord taken our sins from us?

Farther than the distance from east to west!

God’s Word™                         As far as the east is from the west—

that is how far he has removed our rebellious acts from himself.

JPS (Tanakh)                        As east is far from west,

so far has He removed our sins from us.

NASB                                    As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

The Septuagint                      As far as the east is from the west has He removed our transgressions from us.

Young's Updated LT              As the distance of east from west

He has put far from us our transgressions.

What is the gist of this verse? God has removed our transgressions far from us (and therefore the punishment that we deserve).

Translation: As the distance [is] from the east to the west,... Again, we have a distance set up to parallel God’s dealings with us. Here, we are looking at the distance from the east to the west. For travelers at that time, going from where the sun arose to where it went down in the evening was pretty much as impossible to them as going to moon would have been. Some traveling and migration took place, but, generally speaking, they covered relatively short distances. No one today thinks much of traveling the distance from Egypt to Israel—it’s like going from one state in the United States to a bordering state; however, at that time, it was an arduous journey (which journey takes up most of the books of Moses).

It is an interesting choice here, east and west. Had the psalmist chosen north and south, then, when one heads north, he would eventually arrive at the north pole and, if he kept on going, he would be going south. However, when it comes to going east or west, there is no point at which going east becomes going west. If you go east, then you must stop and head in the opposite direction to go west. Therefore, this is a very apropos choice of compass directions.

Translation: ...[so] He has removed our violations from us. The parallelism is exactly as we had in the previous verse; the author David takes two things which are far from each other and compares this to what God has done with our sins. Our sins are as removed from us as the east is from the west. One of the reasons we study the Old Testament is that there are a lot of silly misconceptions about the doctrine of the Old Testament. Some think that the Israelites had to obey the Law in order to be saved; however, David makes it clear in this psalm that the key is not our good behavior, but that God removed our sins from us. Now, what is meant here is not the actual sins, but the natural penalty which would come from committing those sins. Our relationship to God is as if we were completely separate from our sins—and this is exactly what the New Testament teaches; the only difference is that the actual mechanics are given in the New Testament. Our sins were put on Christ; Jesus was punished for our sins; Jesus became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (I Cor. 5:21; see also Rom. 3:19–20 5:1, 8–11).

The sin that David is best known for was his adultery with Bathsheba and then causing her husband to die in battle. David spent no little time out of fellowship until Nathan the prophet approached him. Nathan gave David an analogy of a poor man with his ewe lamb and how it was stolen by a rich man. David was incensed against this rich man, until he found out that it was him. Then we have the very short confession of sin, followed by God’s forgiveness: Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Jehovah.” And Nathan said to David, “Jehovah also has caused your sin to be removed; you will not die.” (2Sam. 12:13). By the cross, our sins are ultimately removed from us. When it comes to temporal fellowship with God, when we sin, we confess that sin and God removes it from us—that sin is no longer a barrier to our fellowship with Him. Hezekiah has a similar bout with sin, and received from God complete and total forgiveness (see Isa. 38:17). Compare Zech. 3:9 Rom. 4:7. Because of this act of God, There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

Ephemeral Man/Eternal God

Here is how others have handled this verse:

The Amplified Bible                As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him — with reverence, worship and awe.

CEV                                       Just as parents are kind to their children,

the Lord is kind to all who worship him,...

JPS (Tanakh)                        As a father has compassion for his children,

so the Lord has compassion for those who fear Him.

NASB                                    Just as a father has compassion on his children,

So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

NJB                                        As tenderly as a father treats his children,

so Yahweh treats those who fear him;...

NLT                                The Lord is like a father to his children,

tender and compassionate to those who fear him.

The Septuagint                      As a father pities children, the Lord pities them that fear Him.

Young's Updated LT              As a father has mercy on sons,

Jehovah has mercy on those fearing Him.

What is the gist of this verse? To understand God’s compassion for us, the psalmist suggests that we examine the compassion of a father for his sons.

Translation: Just as a father has compassion for [his] sons,... As in the previous several verses, the psalmist is offering us another analogy. God’s treatment of us is similar to the treatment that a father gives his own sons.

This love of one’s son is a recurrent theme in Scripture. It begins with Abraham, who’s only son by Sarah is Isaac. God tells Abraham to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice, “...the son whom you love!” (Gen. 22:2b). We find this in the book of Zechariah, when Zechariah stares down the corridors of time to the crucifixion of our Lord, and he records the words of God: “And I will pour out on the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me Whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only begotten son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born.” (Zech. 12:10). We find this in the gospels, when God calls down from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased!” (Matt. 3:17b). Finally, we find this again in the epistles of Paul, where he writes: Since God did not spare His own Son, but He delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Rom. 8:32).