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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 103

1 By David. Praise the Lord, O my soul. With all that is within me, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the Lord, O my soul. Do not forget all his kind deeds. 3 He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases,⁠ 4 who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s.⁠ 6 The Lord does what is fair, and executes justice for all the oppressed. 7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts to Moses, his deeds to the Israelites. 8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love.⁠ 9 He does not always accuse and does not stay angry. 10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve. 11 For as the skies are high above the earth, so his loyal love towers over his faithful followers. 12 As far as the eastern horizon is from the west, so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions from us. 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers. 14 For he knows what we are made of; he realizes we are made of clay. 15 A person’s life is like grass. Like a flower in the field it flourishes, 16 but when the hot wind blows, it disappears, and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew. 17 But the Lord continually shows loyal love to his faithful followers and is faithful to their descendants, 18 to those who keep his covenant, who are careful to obey his commands. 19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven; his kingdom extends over everything. 20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his, you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees and obey his orders.⁠ 21 Praise the Lord, all you warriors of his, you servants of his who carry out his desires. 22 Praise the Lord, all that he has made, in all the regions of his kingdom. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 103:8

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 103 repeats language from Exodus 34 that describes God as compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger, showing how this early creed became a lasting expression of divine character in Israel’s poetry, liturgy, and prayers.

Passages

Exodus 34:6

Hebrew Bible
4 So Moses cut out two tablets of stone like the first; early in the morning he went up to Mount Sinai, just as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone. 5 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the Lord by name. 6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, 7 keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” 8 Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Psalm 103:8

Hebrew Bible
6 The Lord does what is fair, and executes justice for all the oppressed. 7 The Lord revealed his faithful acts to Moses, his deeds to the Israelites. 8 The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love. 9 He does not always accuse and does not stay angry. 10 He does not deal with us as our sins deserve; he does not repay us as our misdeeds deserve.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Let us return to Sarah, who may be described as “theologically skilled”. The first blessing has its closest templates within the Tanakh, in Psalm 119 / 118:12 and in 1 Chronicles 29:10 which have their equivalent in the Hebrew formula being used and extended up to present time in the Jewish prayers on different occasions ... If we compare those occurrences mentioned above to our text in the book of Tobit, Sarah adds in GI after “Blessed are you, o Lord” only ὁ θεός μου (“my God”), so she makes the address more personal as she speaks to her God. GII varies with (“Blessed are you, merciful God!”). This way Sarah addresses God as a “compassionate” one ... Usually the Hebrew (“gracious, friendly”) is the base for the Greek (“pitiful, merciful, compassionate”; 12x: Exodus 22:26; 34:6; 2 Chronicles 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17, 31; Psalm 86:15; 103:8; 111:4; 112:4; 116:5; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2), 3x (Proverbs 11:17; 20:6; 28:22) and only once (Jeremiah 3:12) or (Psalm 145:8) ... With this phrase she expresses her positive attitude towards God, who sympathizes with needy people and on whom she sets her hope ..."
Renate Egger-Wenzel, “Sarah's Grief to Death (Tob 3:7–17),” in Ancient Jewish Prayers and Emotions, ed. Stefan C. Reif and Renate Egger-Wenzel (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015), 193–219.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 103:8

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