Psalm 103:1-2
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:
Charles Spurgeon
“Bless the Lord O my soul.” Soul music is the very soul of music. The Psalmist strikes the best keynote when he begins with stirring up his inmost self to magnify the Lord. He soliloquizes, holds self-communion, and exhorts himself, as though he felt that dullness would all too soon steal over his faculties, as, indeed, it will over us all, unless we are diligently on the watch. Jehovah is worthy to be praised by us in that highest style of adoration which is intended by the term bless—”All thy works praise thee, O God, but thy saints shall bless thee.” Our very life and essential self should be engrossed with this delightful service, and each one of us should arouse his own heart to the engagement. Let others forbear if they can: “Bless the Lord, O MY soul.” Let others murmur, but do thou bless. Let others bless themselves and their idols, but do thou bless the LORD. Let others use only their tongues, but as for me I will cry, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”
“And all that is within me, bless his holy name.” Many are our faculties, emotions, and capacities, but God has given them all to us, and they ought all to join in chorus to his praise. Half-hearted, ill-conceived, unintelligent praises are not such as we should render to our loving Lord. If the law of justice demanded all our heart and soul and mind for the Creator, much more may the law of gratitude put in a comprehensive claim for the homage of our whole being to the God of grace. It is instructive to note how the Psalmist dwells upon the holy name of God, as if his holiness were dearest to him; or, perhaps, because the holiness or wholeness of God was to his mind the grandest motive for rendering to him the homage of his nature in its wholeness. Babes may praise the divine goodness, but fathers in grace magnify his holiness. By the name, we understand the revealed character of God, and assuredly those songs which are suggested, not by our fallible reasoning and imperfect observation, but by unerring inspiration, should more than any others arouse all our consecrated powers.
“And forget not all his benefits.” Not so much as one of the divine dealings should be forgotten, they are all really beneficial to us, all worthy of himself, and all subjects for praise. Memory is very treacherous about the best things; by a strange perversity, engendered by the fall, it treasures up the refuse of the past and permits priceless treasures to lie neglected, it is tenacious of grievances and holds benefits all too loosely. It needs spurring to its duty, though that duty ought to be its delight. Observe that he calls all that is within him to remember all the Lord’s benefits. For our task, our energies should be suitably called out. God’s all cannot be praised with less than our all.
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Enduring Word
Bless the LORD: David did not mean this in the sense that a greater person bestows a blessing on a lesser person. God is infinitely greater than man, and man could never give a blessing to God. David meant this in the sense that it blesses and honors God when His creatures praise Him and thank Him appropriately. (Guzik)
Bless the LORD, O my soul: David called upon his soul to bless Yahweh. It was as if David looked at his soul and understood that it was not praising God enough. He called upon his soul to do more. (Guzik)
All that is within me, bless His holy name: David also understood that worship had to be more than superficial; it had to be offered as completely as possible. He wanted everything within to praise God. He set his heart in tune as well as setting his instruments in tune.
i. We often praise and thank God halfheartedly – or less! David called for everything within him (all that is within me) to give honor and praise to God. (Guzik)
ii. All that is within me: “What a rebuke to much of what passes for praise in our assemblies. We come to church, but we leave our minds at home. We hear of God’s grace, but our hearts have been hardened by a critical and carping spirit.” (Boice)
iii. “The singer addresses himself. He realizes that he has power over himself, that he is able to give or to withhold that which is due to God.” (Morgan)
iv. “The one value of these opening words is that they show us that worship is not involuntary, automatic. It calls for the coordination of all our powers…. The sanctuary is not a lounge, a place of relaxation. We should enter it with all the powers of personality arrested, arranged, dedicated. Then we may render a service of praise that is worthy and acceptable.” (Morgan)
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: In the pattern of Hebrew poetry, David used repetition for emphasis. He then added an important idea – that this praise and honor to God should be given unto Him for rational reasons, not on the basis of mere emotion or excitement. True benefits are given by God unto His people, and we must not forget them. Instead, we should use the remembrance of those things as reasons to praise.
i. 2 Chronicles 32:25 describes a king who did forget God’s benefits, at least for a time: But Hezekiah did not repay according to the favor shown him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore wrath was looming over him and over Judah and Jerusalem. (Guzik)
ii. “Thanksgiving cannot be sincere and hearty, unless a man bear impressed upon his mind, at the time, a quick sense of ‘benefits’ received.” (Horne)
iii. “Praise is the response of awe for God while reflecting on what the Lord has done for the people of God throughout the history of redemption, for creation at large, for the community, and for oneself.” (VanGemeren)
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Barnes
Verse 1
Bless the Lord, O my soul – The word “bless,” as applied to God, means to praise, implying always a strong affection for him as well as a sense of gratitude. As used with reference to people, the word implies a “wish” that they may be blessed or happy, accompanied often with a prayer that they may be so. Such is the purport of the “blessing” addressed to a congregation of worshippers. Compare Numbers 6:23-27. The word “soul” here is equivalent to mind or heart: my mental and moral powers, as capable of understanding and appreciating his favors. The soul of man was “made” to praise and bless God; to enjoy his friendship; to delight in his favor; to contemplate his perfections. It can never be employed in a more appropriate or a more elevated act than when engaged in his praise.
And all that is within me … – All my powers and faculties; all that can be employed in his praise: the heart, the will, the affections, the emotions. The idea is, that God is worthy of all the praise and adoration which the entire man can render. No one of his faculties or powers should be exempt from the duty and the privilege of praise.
Verse 2
And forget not all his benefits – Any of his favors. This refers not to those favors in the aggregate, but it is a call to remember them in particular. The word rendered “benefits” – גמול gemûl – means properly an act, work, doing, whether good or evil, Psalms 137:8; and then, “desert,” or what a man deserves “for” his act; “recompense.” It is rendered “deserving” in Judges 9:16; benefit, as here, in 2 Chronicles 32:25; “desert,” Psalms 28:4; “reward,” Psalms 94:2; Isaiah 3:11; Obadiah 1:15; “recompense,” Proverbs 12:14; Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 59:18; Isaiah 66:6; Jeremiah 51:6; Lamentations 3:64; Joel 3:4, Joel 3:7. The proper reference here is to the divine “dealings,” – to what God had done – as a reason for blessing his name. His “dealings” with the psalmist had been such as to call for praise and gratitude. What those “dealings” particularly were he specifies in the following verses. The call here on his soul is not to forget these divine dealings, as laying the foundation for praise. We shall find, when we reach the end of life, that all which God has done, however dark and mysterious it may have appeared at the time, was so connected with our good as to make it a proper subject of praise and thanksgiving.
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John Gill
Verse 2.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,…. Which is repeated to show the importance of the service, and the vehement desire of the psalmist, that his soul should be engaged in it:
and forget not all his benefits; not any of them; the least of them are not to be forgotten, being such as men are altogether unworthy of; they flow not from the merit of men, but from the mercy of God; and they are many, even innumerable; they are new every morning, and continue all the day; and how great must the sum of them be, and not one should be forgotten; and yet even good men are very apt to forget them; as the Israelites of old, who sung the praises of the Lord, and soon forgot his works: the Lord, knowing the weakness of his people’s memories, has not only, under the Gospel dispensation, appointed an ordinance, to be continued to the end of the world, to commemorate a principal blessing and benefit of his, redemption by his Son; but has also promised his Spirit, to bring all things to their remembrance; and this they should be concerned for, that they do remember what God has done for them, in order both to show gratitude and thankfulness to him, and for the encouragement of their faith and hope in him.
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Matthew Henry
David is here communing with his own heart, and he is no fool that thus talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good. Observe,
I. How he stirs up himself to the duty of praise, v. 1, 2.
1. It is the Lord that is to be blessed and spoken well of; for he is the fountain of all good, whatever are the channels or cisterns; it is to his name, his holy name, that we are to consecrate our praise, giving thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.
2. It is the soul that is to be employed in blessing God, and all that is within us. We make nothing of our religious performances if we do not make heart-work of them, if that which is within us, nay, if all that is within us, be not engaged in them. The work requires the inward man, the whole man, and all little enough.
3. In order to our return of praises to God, there must be a grateful remembrance of the mercies we have received from him: Forget not all his benefits. If we do not give thanks for them, we do forget them; and that is unjust as well as unkind, since in all God’s favors there is so much that is memorable. “O my soul! to thy shame be it spoken, thou hast forgotten many of his benefits; but surely thou wilt not forget them all, for thou shouldst not have forgotten any.”
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Benson
All that is within me, bless his holy name — Let all my thoughts and affections be engaged, united, and raised to the highest pitch in and for this work. Forget not all his benefits — In order to our duty, praising God for his mercies, it is necessary we should have a grateful remembrance of them. And we may be assured we do forget them, in the sense here meant by the psalmist, if we do not give sincere and hearty thanks for them.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 103:1-2
1 MY soul, a praise thou the Lord, & all that is within me, praise his holie Name.
2 My soul, praise thou the Lord, and forget not his benefits.
a He wakens his dullness to praise God, showing that both understanding and affections, mind & heart are too little to set forth his praise.
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“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
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