The Power of God’s Forgiveness in Psalm 103:9-10

January 6, 2025

Psalms, Study

bible, faith, forgiveness, god, jesus, Psalms

Psalm 103:9-10

He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

Charles Spurgeon

Verse 9.

“He will not always chide.” He will sometimes, for he cannot endure that his people should harbor sin in their hearts, but not forever will he chasten them; as soon as they turn to him and forsake their evil ways he will end the quarrel. He might find constant cause for striving with us, for we have always something in us which is contrary to his holy mind, but he refrains himself lest our spirits should fail before him.

“Neither will he keep his anger forever.” He bears no grudges. The Lord would not have his people harbor resentments, and in his own course of action, he sets them a grand example. When the Lord has chastened his child he has done with his anger: he is not punishing as a judge, else might his wrath burn on, but he is acting as a father, and, therefore, after a few blows he ends the matter, and presses his beloved one to his bosom as if nothing had happened; or if the offense lies too deep in the offender’s nature to be thus overcome, he continues to correct, but he never ceases to love, and he does not suffer his anger with his people to pass into the next world, but receives his erring child into his glory.

Verse 10.

“He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Else had Israel perished outright, and we also had long ago been consigned to the lowest hell. We ought to praise the Lord for what he has not done as well as for what he has wrought for us; even the negative side deserves our adoring gratitude. Up to this moment, at our very worst estate, we have never suffered as we deserved to suffer; our daily lot has not been apportioned upon the rule of what we merited, but on the far different measure of undeserved kindness. Shall we not bless the Lord? Every power of our being might have been rent with anguish, instead of which we are all in the enjoyment of comparative happiness, and many of us are exceedingly favored with inward joy; let then every faculty, yea, all that is within us, bless his holy name.

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Enduring Word

He has not dealt with us according to our sins: David knew the slow anger and abounding mercy of God personally. He knew that his sins (and the sins of his people) deserved much greater judgment or discipline than they had received. (Guzik)

i. “Why is it that God hath not dealt with us after our sins? Is it not because he hath dealt with another after our sins? Another who took our sins upon him.” (Baker, cited in Spurgeon)

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Barnes

Verse 9

He will not always chide – Rebuke; contend; strive; for so the Hebrew word means. He will not always contend with people, or manifest his displeasure. See the notes at Isaiah 57:16; notes at Psalms 78:38-39. This implies that he may chide or rebuke his people, but that this will not be forever. He will punish them; he will manifest his displeasure at their sins; he will show that he does not approve of their course, but he will show that he “loves them,” and does not seek their ruin.

Neither will he keep his anger forever – The words “his anger” are supplied by the translators, but not improperly. The meaning is the same as in the former member of the sentence. He will not cherish hatred when the object of the chastisement is accomplished. It is not his character to retain anger for its own sake, or for any personal gratification.

Verse 10

He hath not dealt with us after our sins – All may say this, and this “is” a ground of thanksgiving and praise. It is a matter for which we should render unceasing praise that God has not done to us as our sins deserved. Who of us can fail to stand in awe and to tremble when we think what God “might” have justly done to us; what sufferings he “might” have brought upon us, which would have been no more than we have deserved; what pain of body, what distress of mind, what anguish of bereavement – what sorrow, danger, sickness, losses – we “might” have suffered before the point would be reached at which it could be said that we were suffering more than a holy and just God might properly inflict on us.

Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities – That is, he has not inflicted suffering on us that could be regarded in any proper sense as a just retribution for what we have done; or, so that it could properly be said that the one fairly “measured” the other.

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John Gill

Verse 9

neither will he keep his anger forever; though he does with the wicked, yet not with his own people; that endures but for a moment, and is rather seeming than real; and what does appear is soon turned away; he does not retain it long, he is quickly pacified towards them for all they have done, and smiles again upon them, Micah 7:18.

Verse 10

nor rewarded us according to our iniquities; had he, if every transgression had received its just recompense of reward, they must have been sent to hell; the lake burning with fire and brimstone must have been their portion; the wages of sin is eternal death: the reason why God deals not with nor rewards his people according to the due desert of their sins is because Christ has bore them, and the chastisement of them, and made satisfaction to divine justice for them; see Ezra 9:13.

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Matthew Henry

He is not long angry; for (v. 9) he will not always chide, though we always offend and deserve chiding. Though he signify his displeasure against us for our sins by the rebukes of Providence, and the reproaches of our own consciences, and thus cause grief, yet he will have compassion, and will not always keep us in pain and terror, no, not for our sins, but, after the spirit of bondage, will give the spirit of adoption. How unlike are those to God who always chide, who take every occasion to chide, and never know when to cease! What would become of us if God should deal so with us? He will not keep his anger forever against his own people but will gather them with everlasting mercies, Isa. 54:8; 57:16.

We have found him so; we, for our parts, must own that he has not dealt with us after our sins, v. 10. The scripture says a great deal of the mercy of God, and we may all set to our seal that it is true, that we have experienced it. If he had not been a God of patience, we should have been in hell long ago; but he has not rewarded us after our iniquities; so those will say who know what sin deserves. He has not inflicted the judgments which we have merited, nor deprived us of the comforts which we have forfeited, which should make us think the worse, and not the better, of sin; for God’s patience should lead us to repentance, Rom. 2:4.

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Benson

He will not always chide — Or contend by his judgments with sinners but is ready to be reconciled to them, namely, upon their repentance, as is manifest from innumerable texts, and from the whole scope and design of the Scriptures. Neither will he keep his anger forever — The word anger, though not in the original, is necessarily understood here, as it is also Jeremiah 3:5, and in many other places. He hath not dealt with us after our sins — He hath punished us less than our iniquities have deserved.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 103:9-10

9 He wil not alwaie f chide, neither keep his anger for ever.

10 He hath not g dealt with us after our sinnes, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

f He shows first his severe judgement, but so soon as the sinner is humbled, he receives him to mercy.

g We have proven by continual experience, that his mercy has ever prevailed against our offenses.

“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.”