134 14 Habits of Highly Effective Disciples
it is both presumptuous and prideful to forget the Lord’s goodness and
mercy (note Psalm 23:6).
103:3 –5. The poet proceeds to specify five divine blessings. The psalm-
ist is mindful that it is the Lord who: 1. “forgives all your iniquity”; 2.
“heals all your diseases”; 3. “redeems your life from the Pit (a synonym
for Sheol and the grave)”; 4. “crowns you with steadfast love and mercy”;
and 5. “satisfies you with good as long as you live,” which, in turn, allows
“your youth [to be] renewed like the eagle’s” (compare Isaiah 40:31: “...
those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount
up with wings like eagles.. .”)
The singer extols God for the Lord’s forgiveness, healing, redemp-
tion, love, mercy, and goodness. We, too, do well to count our blessings,
naming them one by one. The decidedly personal and intimate relation-
ship of the psalmist with the Lord is precious and no less available to us.
Praising a Gracious God (Psalm 103:6–18)
103:6–15. At this point in the psalm, the writer’s focus grows increas-
ingly communal. The psalmist recalls and celebrates the grace and
guidance the Lord has given his people over the breadth of their history.
When oppressed (for example, under the yoke of Egyptian slavery or
exiled in Babylonian captivity), the Lord worked “vindication and jus-
tice” (103:6). To both Moses and Israel, God revealed himself through
his ways and acts (103:7).
The psalmist is mindful of the Lord’s unimpeachable, inimi-
table character and calls fellow worshippers to be no less aware. The
poet knows the Lord to be “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love” (103:8). What is more, the singer is sure that
Yahweh will not persist in accusing, being angry with, or punishing his
people (103:9–10). “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great
is his steadfast love toward those who fear [that is, worship and obey]
him.. .” (103:11).
So gracious and good is God, the psalmist exclaims, that the Lord
“removes our transgressions from us” “as far as the east is from the west”
(103:12). The Lord is like a compassionate father toward those who fear
him, knowing that people are “frail children of dust and feeble as frail”^3
(103:13 –14).