What happensPermalink
David exhorts himself to bless the Lord, citing five specific benefits to remember. He recalls God’s faithfulness to the entire nation in Moses’s time and extols God’s compassion, forgiving our sins in His steadfast love. He contrasts man’s short life with God’s eternal kingdom, and he ends by calling all Creation to join him in blessing God.
Why it mattersPermalink
This psalm’s central theme is God’s forgiveness of iniquity, directly citing Exodus 34:6–7, where God showed Himself to Moses and proclaimed His steadfast love. Psalm 103 begins a sequence of four psalms reflecting on God’s historical dealings with Israel, culminating in Psalm 106, which closes Book 4 by acknowledgeing both God’s faithfulness and Israel’s failures.
Key versePermalink
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.