to forgive · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
iniquities
עֲוֹנֵ֑כִי'a.vo.Ne.khi
H5771
perversity · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
healeth
הָ֝רֹפֵ֗אha.ro.Fe'
H7495
properly · definite article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
diseases
תַּחֲלֻאָֽיְכִיta.cha.lu.'A.ye.khi
H8463
a malady · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear…
Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his strip…
Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Psalms 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
Psalms 41:3-4 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Psalms 147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Mark 2:10-11 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)
James 5:15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 103:1-5
David is here communing with his own heart, and he is no fool that thus talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good. Observe,
I. How he stirs up himself to the duty of praise, Psa 103:1, Psa 103:2. 1. It is the Lord that is to be blessed and spoken well of; for he is the fountain of all good, whatever are the channels or cisterns; it is to his name, his holy name, that we are to consecrate our praise, giving thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 2. It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is within us. We make nothing of our religious performances if we do not make heart-work of them, if that which is within us, nay, if all that is within u…
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,.... The psalmist explains here what he means by benefits, and gives a particular enumeration of them; and begins with the blessing of pardon, which is a special and peculiar benefit; it is according to the riches of divine grace, and the multitude of tender mercies; without which all outward blessings signify nothing; and, without a sense of this, a man is not in a suitable and proper frame to bless the Lord; and this being the first benefit a soul sensible of sin, its guilt and is concerned for, and seeks after; so enjoying it, it is the first he is thankful for: this is rightly ascribed to God; for none can forgive sins but he; and what he forgives are n…
Psalm 103:1-5
A Psalm of David. [162]
1. Bless Jehovah, O my soul! and all my inward parts, bless his holy name. 2. Bless Jehovah, O my soul! and forget not any of his benefits: 3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 4. Who redeemeth thy life from the grave; who crowneth [163] thee with mercy and compassions; 5. Who satisfieth [or filleth] thy mouth with good: thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's. [164]
1. Bless Jehovah, O my soul! The prophet, by stirring up himself to gratitude, gives by his own example a lesson to every man of the duty incumbent upon him. And doubtless our slothfulness in this matter has need of continual incitement. If even the proph…
The Church Fathers
Who heals all your infirmities. Our soul has many infirmities. As many sins, so many infirmities. Indeed, there was also that woman in the Gospel, who for eighteen years had a spirit of infirmity, and could not lift her head upright... See what he says. When someone has a spirit of infirmity, he is bent over, he looks downward, he gazes at the earth, he cannot see heaven.
If you did not wish to be contentious, I think you would now see how correctly we understand what you are trying to explain differently. When the prophet said, "who forgives all your faults"—something that is done by the remission of all sins—he immediately added "who heals all your diseases." He wants us to understand the evils with which the saints will never finish their internal warfare until those evils are healed or, as far as possible in this life, progressively diminished. Not even when the virtue of chastity stands unshaken is there no sickness by which the flesh lusts against the spirit. When there is no sickness, the spirit does not lust against it, because it lusts in order at least by not consenting to obtain health, since it is unable to do so by not fighting. We are speaking of that whose resistance to us we perceive within us; if an alien nature, we must get rid of it; if our own, it must be healed. If we say it is an alien nature and must be gotten rid of, we agree with the Manichaeans. Let us, then, confess it is our own nature that must be healed, and thus we shall at the same time be clear of Manichaeans and Pelagians.
He is the Beginning, O God, in which you made heaven and earth. In this wonderful way you spoke and created them in your Word, in your Son, who is your strength, your wisdom and your truth.Who can understand this mystery or explain it to others? What is that light whose gentle beams now and again strike through to my heart, causing me to shudder in awe yet firing me with their warmth? I shudder to feel how different I am for it: yet in so far as I am like it, I am aglow with its fire. It is the light of Wisdom, Wisdom itself, which at times shines on me, parting my clouds. But when I weakly fall away from its light, those clouds envelop me again in the dense mantle of darkness that I bear for my punishment. For "my strength ebbs away for very misery," so that I cannot sustain my blessings. And so I shall remain until you, O Lord, who "have pardoned all my sins," also "heal all my mortal ills." For you will "rescue my life from deadly peril, crown me with the blessings of your mercy, content all my desire for good, restore my youth as the eagle's plumage is restored." "Our salvation is founded on the hope of something," and in endurance we await the fulfillment of your promises. Let those who are able listen to your fulfillment of your promises. Let those who are able listen to your voice speaking to their hearts. Trusting in your inspired words, I shall cry out, "What diversity, Lord, in your creatures! What wisdom has designed them all!" The Beginning is Wisdom, and Wisdom is the Beginning in which you made heaven and earth.
Dictionary and topics
Disease · 16:12; — 16:12;
Pardon · Should lead to: Praising God — Should lead to: Praising God
Praise · Is due to God on account of: Pardon of sin — Is due to God on account of: Pardon of sin
Sickness · God: Heals — God: Heals
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In the strophe Psa 103:1 the poet calls upon his soul to arise to praiseful gratitude for God's justifying, redeeming, and renewing grace. In such soliloquies it is the Ego that speaks, gathering itself up with the spirit, the stronger, more manly part of man (Psychology, S. 104f.; tr. p. 126), or even, because the soul as the spiritual medium of the spirit and of the body represents the whole person of man (Psychology, S. 203; tr. p. 240), the Ego rendering objective in the soul the whole of its own personality. So here in Psa 103:3 the soul, which is addressed, represents the whole man. The קובים which occurs here is a more choice expression for מעים (מעים): the heart, which is called קרב…
Ps 103 This psalm celebrates the Lord’s perfection, compassion, forgiveness, and goodness.
103:1-6 The psalmist offers praise for the Lord’s goodness.
103:1-2 Let all that I am praise the Lord: Pss 103 and 104 each open and close with this commitment (103:1-2, 22; 104:1, 35; see also 146:1).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 103:3
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Here David begins his list of blessings received, which he rehearses as themes and arguments for praise. He selects a few of the choicest pearls from the casket of divine love, threads them on the string of memory, and hangs them about the neck of gratitude. Pardoned sin is, in our experience, one of the choicest boons of grace, one of the earliest gifts of mercy, —in fact, the needful preparation for enjoying all that follows it. Till iniquity is forgiven, healing, redemption, and satisfaction are unknown blessings. Forgiveness is first in the order of our spiritual experience, and in some…
