# Psalm 103 - Calvin



## jaybird0827 (Jul 27, 2006)

Last night I was preparing the monthly Psalmody calendar email to our congregation. I always try to select one of the Psalms that will be sung during the month and include some brief thoughts that I hope people will find edifying. One such Psalm for August is Psalm 103.

First, the Psalm

*Psalm 103* 

_A Psalm of David_

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; 
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. 
6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. 
7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel. 
8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 
9 He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. 
10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 
11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 
13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. 
17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; 
18 To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. 
19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all. 
20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. 
21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. 
22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

_A.V._

Here is what John Calvin wrote, taken from his commentary. 



> "œBy this psalm every godly man is taught to give thanks to God for the mercies bestowed upon himself in particular, and then for the grace which God as vouchsafed to all his chosen ones in common, by making a covenant of salvation with them in his law, that he might make them partakers of his adoption. But the Psalmist chiefly magnifies the mercy by which God sustains and bears with his people; and that not on account of any merit or worth of theirs, for they only deserve to be visited with severe punishment, but because he compassionates their frailty. The psalm is at length concluded with a general ascription of praise to God."



[Edited on 7-27-2006 by jaybird0827]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 27, 2006)

Psalm 103 was the last psalm sung by James Renwick before he was executed, according to John Howie in _Scots Worthies_.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 27, 2006)

Robert McWatty Russell in _The Psalms in Worship_, ed. John Naugher, describes Psalm 103 as "the pearl of the Psalter."


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Jul 27, 2006)

Andrew Bonar:



> How often have saints in Scotland sung this Psalm in days when they celebrated the Lord's Supper! It is thereby specially known in our land. It is connected also with a remarkable case in the days of John Knox. Elizabeth Adamson, a woman who attended on his preaching, "because he more fully opened the fountain of God's mercies than others did," was led to Christ and to rest, on hearing this Psalm, after enduring such agony of soul that she said, concerning racking pains of body, "A thousand years of this torment, and ten times more joined", are not to be compared to a quarter of an hour of my soul's trouble. She asked for this Psalm again before departing: "It was in receiving it that my troubled soul first tasted God's mercy, which is now sweeter to me than if all the kingdoms of the earth were given me to possess."


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## jaybird0827 (Jul 28, 2006)

What a testimony!


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