In the first part of our look at Psalm 103, we considered its bookends, gleaning wise counsel from the instruction both at the beginning of the psalm and at the end to command our hearts to worship the Lord. Our hearts are prone to wander, to leave the God we love, and to look in hope to the recesses of our inmost selves, as though within every person hidden wisdom dwells and only needs to be drawn out. Yet this is foreign to the testimony of Scripture, which calls our hearts “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer 17:9). The advice we find in the body of Psalm 103 is instructively opposed to the counsel of the world, as it guides us not to look inward for aid but rather to order our hearts to look on Christ, rendering the Lord faithful praise.
As we look at the main body of the psalm, we find a means of commanding our hearts. We are called to take every thought captive to Christ, consciously recalling his wonderful works as a remedy for our idolatrous forgetfulness. So that we may command our praise, we must direct our minds to recall the wondrous works of the Lord—his unfailing faithfulness to his people broadly and particularly to us as individuals.
Memory is a tricky thing. Time erodes the sharpness of our memories, dulls our emotions, and wipes away days, months, and even entire years from our minds. There are a lot of downsides to having a smartphone in your pocket all day, but there is one aspect I am fond of. My phone will give me a pop-up about once a day with a photograph that I took, and a caption underneath says, “Take a look at your memories from this day.” If I click on it, my screen will be flooded with images from many years gone by. My daughter just turned six, and on her birthday, I went for it. I saw pictures of my wife and me while we were still dating and male-pattern baldness was a concern only for other people. I saw another from two years after that; we had just been married and were traveling on our honeymoon across the country, hiking in the mountains of upstate New York. Then another photo from my first deployment, and then the first photo of our child, sprawled out under a warming light in the NICU. What the photos did not show, but what nevertheless overwhelmed my memory, were the many nights spent in tears and groanings before the Lord, pleading with him for the very child that lay quietly in that photo. Forgetfulness is among the noetic effects of the fall. For this reason, the inspired Word instructs us to view photographs, as it were, memories from this day over the years, that we would remember the faithfulness of God and prime our hearts to pour out grateful praise.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. (Ps 103:2–4)
Here is the first and chief reason that God deserves your praise, the best example of his goodness toward us who believe—he has forgiven your iniquity, he has redeemed your very life. As Jesus brings out the best wine for the height of celebration, so here the sweetest truth is brought to the people of God to lift our hearts. “Do not forget this,” David says, “the Lord has delivered you from sin and death!” There are many other blessings that demand our gratitude, but one that stands above them all: “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col 2:13–14).
Do you find this a difficult blessing to remember? Despite the surety with which I believe this and cling to Christ by faith, I often think or act as if this were not true. Reminders of my previous sins cloud my memory, fear and anxiety impair my spiritual vision, and the supreme divine act of redemptive grace is obscured. When I was a new Christian, I remember thinking how simple, even obvious, the command of 2 Timothy 2:8 is. There, Paul instructs Timothy to “remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel.” Remember Jesus Christ? This seemed to me so obvious. How could I forget my Redeemer? But as my faith has grown and years have gone by, the goodness and urgency of this command are manifest: Remember Jesus Christ, slain for your sin, raised for your justification, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, interceding for me right now. You who are in a dark season of the soul, remember: Jesus was counted a sinner that you may be counted righteous. You who are weary and heavy laden in sin, remember Christ, who drank the cup of divine wrath down to the dregs. You who wonder if God could love someone as sinful as you, remember Jesus Christ, who received the full punishment you deserved and was received into heaven as a sure sign of your acceptance before God.
To David, the Christ had not yet been revealed, and yet there is a beautiful tapestry of the divine plan of redemption for him to meditate on. “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel” (Ps 103:7). The Lord delivered Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, causing his long-concealed plan of exodus to come to life. If you just look a page or two further in your Bible, you see this in Psalm 105:9–17, where God remembers
the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,
which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant. . . .
He summoned a famine on the land. . . .
He had sent a man ahead of them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
But because Joseph preceded Israel, rising to favor in the court of Pharaoh, Israel survived the famine. “He sent Moses, his servant” to the land after Israel was enslaved, and Yahweh
turned their waters into blood. . . .
He gave them hail for rain. . . .
“Then he brought out Israel with silver and gold,” watching over their escape, spreading
a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light, by night.
They asked and he brought quail,
and gave them bread from heaven. . . .
He opened the rock, and water gushed out. (Ps 105:26, 29, 32, 37, 39–41)
Do you see the record of sovereign graciousness to the church, my soul? Are you listening? The picture painted for us in the Old Testament is one of heavenly faithfulness despite all obstacles that opposed it, even the repeated sinful backslidings of God’s people, who rejected his sovereignty time and time again.
Scripture emphasizes this last part: Israel is so often faithless, but the faithlessness of man cannot nullify the faithfulness of God (Rom 3:3–4). The psalmist sings in one accord with Paul,
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. . . .
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Ps 103:8)
And lest we be tempted to think that God harbors resentment toward us, as if we will creep around the halls of heaven nervous of discovery and expulsion, he goes further:
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us. (Ps 103:11–12)
Reaching his own linguistic boundaries, David reaches for a merism here, using two extremes to indicate totality. The words of men can hardly express how great our salvation really is; thus, the psalmist reaches for the infinite distance between heaven and earth and the inexpressible distance between east and west and says, “God’s love for you, Christian, is this big, this magnificent. The sin that once separated you from him has itself been separated from you, as far as east is from west.” This is what it means to be counted righteous before God. We are not sneaking into heaven by the skin of our teeth. No, the very righteousness of Christ, perfect in every way, always obedient, always faithful, always truthful, is given to you. Your sin—past, present, and future—is fully paid for. Oh, my soul, be awakened to hear and rejoice, the Lord, the King, has made you perfect in his sight!
As if anticipating what objections our redeemed but feeble hearts may conjure to this gospel, David sets his mind to proclaim the eternal excellencies of the Lord in contrast to our humanity. We are prone to imagine that God is like us, that he makes promises but does not or cannot fulfill them. The Word of God testifies in opposition:
He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass. . . .
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. (Ps 103:14–15)
Our days are like grass, “which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven (Matt 6:30),” but not so the ever-existing One.
We who are slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken and are stubborn of heart to receive the truth must recall our frailty in comparison with God. We must understand that this frailty is present not to demean us or to draw us to servile fear but to bolster his promises by his authority, character, and nature. Though our days are like the grass, the steadfast love of God is from one eternity to another. “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom 11:33). What good news is this, that God is not weak or bounded by time as I may faithlessly imagine! God is not a man, his plans do not fail, and he never loses the will to follow through as we do. And if that God is for us, “who can be against us?” “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised” (Rom 8:31, 34). Can anything or anyone stand at the wedding supper of the Lamb to object to the union between Christ and his bride, the church? No! The beloved people of Christ, sanctified by his blood once for all, are perfectly holy, free from every stain of sin. We may be dust, we shall one day die, but the sovereign plan of redemption cannot be thwarted by anything or anyone, for “the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him” (Ps 103:17). Again we see a merism, the bringing together of two extremes: My soul, consider that there was never a time when God did not love you, when God had not chosen you. If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you cling to him by faith. This is true of you: God chose you “before the foundation of the world. . . . In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph 1:4–6). Are you not yet convinced to lift up your hearts, to lift your voices? Does not your heart burn within you that this triune God is the one whom you were created to worship? Praise the Lord! Observe with all that is within you the steady drumbeat of memory, recalling his faithfulness to you.
Having written this, among the sweetest portions of poetry ever composed, David concludes the body of the psalm with a statement of the sovereignty and authority of God, the compassionate Father. The Lord who is king “has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps 103:19). He is the sovereign, the source of all life. In him we live and move and have our being. He is the giver of the law and the keeper of covenant. All this provides us an opportunity for even further gratitude because his love is not only from everlasting to everlasting, he is not only God and not a man whose promises will not fail, he has not only removed your sin from you as far as east is from the west, but he, the only king of all the earth, has established his throne, and the king whom he has set on Zion, his holy hill, is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 2:7–8 makes this clear:
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.”
This is King Jesus, seated on the throne, his name above every name that is named.
Christ is our king. He sits on the throne established in the heavens; he rules over all things. This is taught to us here to give us great confidence that the Lord has not created the cosmos and left it to run by itself. He actively rules over it. There is nothing outside his control. The Lord is not surprised by the sinfulness of men or by the wickedness of our spiritual enemies, as if the forces of the armies of the Lord could be caught unaware by the spiritual forces of evil. He has sovereignly foreordained whatever comes to pass. Finally, that Christ reigns should fill us with unspeakable confidence for this reason: The declarations of the Sovereign stand. When the king makes a judgment, when the king makes a request, it is done. There is no arguing, no bickering; it is over. Oftentimes it is easy to feel as though God will one day lose patience with me and withdraw his merciful hand, that one day there will be one sin too many for him to forgive. But King Jesus has received what he desired, the decree has been handed down, and there is no accusation Satan or our consciences can make that will sway the mind of the Lord. As Christ himself prayed in Gethsemane on the eve of his crucifixion to his Father, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me” (John 17:6). Christ desired to have you, Christian. He desired you, and the Father has given you to him, and you are being kept from the evil one, guarded through faith in a salvation ready to be revealed. Soul, remember this marvelous truth! Oh, all that is in me, bless the Lord.
©Seth Adams. All Rights Reserved.
You can find the whole series here.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Saturday Psalm Series
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025)
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Saturday Psalm Series
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Seth Adams
Seth Adams is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California, an honorably discharged naval officer, and now, the Associate Campus Minister of Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. His wife and three young children enjoy sanctifying one another, cheering when we all sit still during family worship, and looking for pheasants along the road during car rides.
More by Seth Adams ›