Attributed commentary excerpt
Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 103:11
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Commentary on the Old Testament
C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
The ingenious figures in Psa 103:11. (cf. Psa 36:6; Psa 57:11) illustrate the infinite power and complete unreservedness of mercy (loving-kindness). הרחיק has Gaja (as have also השׁחיתו and התעיבו, Psa 14:1; Psa 53:2, in exact texts), in order to render possible the distinct pronunciation of the guttural in the combination רח. Psa 103:13 sounds just as much like the spirit of the New Testament as Psa 103:11, Psa 103:12. The relationship to Jahve in which those stand who fear Him is a filial relationship based upon free reciprocity ( Mal 3:11). His Fatherly compassion is ( Psa 103:14) based upon the frailty and perishableness of man, which are known to God, much the same as God's promise after the Flood not to decree a like judgment again ( Gen 8:21). According to this passage and Deu 31:21, יצרנוּ appears to be intended of the moral nature; but according to Psa 103:14, one is obliged to think rather of the natural form which man possesses from God the Creator (ויּיצר, Gen 2:7) than of the form of heart which he has by his own choice and, so far as its groundwork is concerned, by inheritance ( Psa 51:7). In זכוּר, mindful, the passive, according to Bצttcher's correct apprehension of it, expresses a passive state after an action that is completed by the person himself, as in בּטוּה, ידוּע, and the like. In its form Psa 103:14 reminds one of the Book of Job Job 11:11; Job 28:23, and Psa 103:14 as to subject-matter recalls Job 7:7, and other passages (cf. Psa 78:39; Psa 89:48); but the following figurative representation of human frailty, with which the poet contrasts the eternal nature of the divine mercy as the sure stay of all God-fearing ones in the midst of the rise and decay of things here below, still more strongly recalls that book. Psalms 103:15
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