Psalm 103:17 NKJV
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To such as keep His covenant,
And to those who remember His commandments to do them.
The Mercy That Bridges Eternity
My Notes
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.” Psalm 103:17–18 (NKJV)
Have you ever looked at a wildflower in mid-summer? One day it’s vibrant and beautiful, and the next, a hot wind blows over it, and it’s completely gone. If we are honest, our lives can feel a lot like that. We are fragile. We worry, we age, and our days on this earth fly by in what feels like a blink.
But right when we start to feel small and temporary, Psalm 103 drops a beautiful, game-changing word into our hearts: “But.”
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting…”
This isn’t a vague niceness. It is covenant mercy—steadfast, promised, secured in God’s own unchanging character. He set His love on His people before time, and He will not grow tired of keeping His promises after time as we know it ends. When you fear the Lord with a childlike, trusting reverence, you are not clinging to Him harder than He clings to you. His mercy meets you where you are and carries you further than you can go.
When the text says His mercy is “from everlasting,” it means it didn’t start the day you finally got your act together. God loved you and chose you from the depths of eternity past. And when it says “to everlasting,” it guarantees that His grace will never run out in your future. You cannot out-sin, out-weary, or exhaust the deep ocean of God’s grace. Death itself isn’t a cutoff point for His love; it’s just the doorway into its full realization.
David points out exactly who this beautiful reality belongs to: to those who fear Him. This isn’t a terrifying, shaking-in-your-boots kind of fear. It’s a beautiful, filial fear—the deep reverence of a child who loves their Father so much they would hate to disappoint Him. When we look up to heaven with that kind of respectful awe, His gaze of parental love never leaves us.
How does that look practically? The text tells us it looks like two things:
- Keeping His Covenant: We live a life of faith. We grab hold of His promises like a priceless treasure and refuse to let go, recognizing that He is our true portion.
- Remembering to Do Them: We live a life of practical obedience. It’s not just about having a great memory for scripture trivia or talking a good theological game. It’s about letting His word rule our daily actions. True godliness doesn’t pick and choose which commandments are convenient; it simply seeks to follow the Master.
And there’s more: His righteousness reaches “to children’s children.” God’s faithfulness outlives us. He weaves grace into family lines, discipling the future through our present obedience. This does not mean automatic blessing apart from faith; Scripture ties the promise to “such as keep His covenant” and “remember His commandments to do them.” But it does mean your everyday faithfulness—trusting Christ, obeying in ordinary ways—becomes a runway for the next generation to land on grace.
Remember this: God’s mercy will outlive your life. Death cannot shrink it. Weakness cannot drain it. Sin, confessed and forsaken, cannot exhaust it. From God’s eternal counsel to your eternal future in Christ, mercy has the first word and the last.
Key Takeaways
- God’s mercy is eternal: without beginning or end, grounded in His unchanging character.
- Filial fear matters: humble, trusting reverence positions us to receive what God delights to give.
- Covenant faith shows up as obedience: remembering God’s commands in order to do them.
- Grace runs downstream: your present faithfulness can bless “children’s children.”
- Mercy outlives you: even death can’t abridge what God has pledged in Christ.
Cross References (NKJV)
Exodus 34:6 — “And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,”
Malachi 3:6 — “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”
Psalm 100:5 — “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.”
Deuteronomy 7:9 — “He keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
Acts 2:39 — “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Ephesians 1:11 — “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,”
Jude 21 — “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”
Prayer
Abba, when I look at how fast time goes, it’s easy to feel small and temporary. But Your word reminds me today that Your mercy is completely limitless. Thank You for loving me before the world even began, and thank You that Your grace will never run dry. Teach me what it really means to live in holy, loving awe of You. Help me to not just memorize Your words or talk about them, but to actually do them in my daily life. I want to hold tightly to Your covenant today. And Lord, I pray for my family. I pray for the generations to come. Let the legacy of my life be a deep path of faith that my children and grandchildren can walk in. Keep them close to You, and let them experience the same everlasting mercy that has rescued me. I pray for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Things to Think About
- Where do I feel most “like grass” right now—fading, fragile, limited—and how does God’s everlasting mercy meet me there?
- In what specific ways has God’s mercy been new to me this week? Write two or three snapshots.
- If someone watched my life for a week, what would they learn about the fear of the Lord?
Proverb for Today
The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart. Proverbs 20:27 NKJV
Daily Scripture
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. Mark 8:34-35 NKJV
Closing
“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
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Summary of Commentaries:
These commentaries show how much we’re all human and how God’s love, called hesed (covenant love), is always the same and never changes. This endless mercy starts with choosing us and goes all the way to making us into what the Lord wants us to be. But here’s the thing: this promise is only for those who really worship and have a filial fear of the Lord. They have to keep their faith by following God’s rules and doing what’s right in everyday life. When they do this, they create a lasting legacy for their children.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.” Blessed but! How vast the contrast between the fading flower and the everlasting God! How wonderful that his mercy should link our frailty with his eternity, and make us everlasting too! From old eternity, the Lord viewed his people as objects of mercy, and as such chose them to become partakers of his grace; the doctrine of eternal election is most delightful to those who have light to see it and love wherewith to accept it. It is a theme for deepest thought and highest joy. The “to everlasting” is equally precious. Jehovah changes not; he has mercy without end as well as without beginning. Never will those who fear him find that either their sins or their needs have exhausted the great deep of his grace. The main question is, “Do we fear him?” If we are lifting up to heaven the eye of filial fear, the gaze of paternal love is never removed from us, and it never will be, world without end.
“And his righteousness unto children’s children.” Mercy to those with whom the Lord makes a covenant is guaranteed by righteousness; it is because he is just that he never revokes a promise or fails to fulfill it. Our believing sons and their seed forever will find the word of the Lord the same: to them will he display his grace and bless them even as he has blessed us. Let us sing, then, for posterity. The past commands our praise and the future invites it. For our descendants, let us sing as well as pray. If Abraham rejoiced concerning his seed, so also may the godly, for “instead of the fathers shall be the children,” and as the last Psalm told us in its concluding verse, “the children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.”
“To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” The parents must be obedient, and the children too. We are here bidden to abide by the covenant, and those who run off to any other confidence than the finished work of Jesus are not among those who obey this precept; those with whom the covenant is really made stand firm to it, and having begun in the Spirit, they do not seek to be made perfect in the flesh. The truly godly keep the Lord’s commands carefully—they “remember” they observe them practically—”to do them”; moreover, they do not pick and choose, but remember “his commandments” as such, without exalting one above another as their own pleasure or convenience may dictate. May our offspring be a thoughtful, careful, observant race, eager to know the will of the Lord, and prompt to follow it fully, then will his mercy enrich and honor them from generation to generation.
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Enduring Word
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting: This is true of God’s mercy and of God Himself, the source of mercy. His hesed – covenant love, loyal kindness – endures from all ages to all ages. Those who fear Him receive the benefit of this everlasting mercy, as do their children’s children. (Guzik)
i. “God’s love does not alter with our alterings, or change with our changes. Does the mother’s love fluctuate with the moods of her sick babe?” (Meyer)
ii. “There never was a time when He did not love you. His mercy is from everlasting; nor a time when He will love you less – it is to everlasting.” (Meyer)
To such as keep His covenant: These promises of everlasting love and mercy are given with conditions. The promises are made to those who fear Him, to those who keep His covenant, and those who remember His commandments to do them. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
But the mercy of the Lord – The favor of the Lord; or, his loving-kindness.
Is from everlasting to everlasting – Is from the eternity past to the eternity to come. It had its foundation in the eternal decrees of God; it has its security in his purpose that where it is conferred, it shall not be withdrawn. It had no beginning; it will have no end. There never was a period in the past when it was not the purpose of God to save his people; there never will be a period in the future when it will be said that his saving mercy has ceased. It would be difficult to think of a statement which would at the same time, in so few words, confirm at once the doctrine of the divine decrees, and the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. If either of these doctrines is denied, then what is here stated by the psalmist is not true: if the doctrine of the divine decrees is denied, then his purpose of mercy had a beginning, and is not “from everlasting”; if the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is denied, then his mercy has an end, and is not “to everlasting.”
Upon them that fear him – In respect to those who are his true worshippers, or his true people.
And his righteousness – His righteous purpose; or, his purpose in regard to their “becoming” righteous.
Unto children’s children – literally, “sons of sons.” That is, his purposes embrace the children and children’s children of the righteous; or, they are included in the covenant of mercy. See the notes at Acts 2:39. Compare Exodus 20:6.
To such as keep his covenant – To such as adhere to the arrangements of his covenant, or who are faithful on their part. God will be faithful to his part of the covenant, and where there is fidelity on the part of his people, the blessings implied in the covenant will be conferred on them and on their children. The promise is ample, and the fidelity of God is certain, but still it is true that in those promises, and in that fidelity, it is implied that his people on their part must be faithful also, or the blessings will not be bestowed. There are no promises of blessings to the unfaithful, nor have those who are unfaithful any reason to hope that they or theirs will be partakers of the blessings of the covenant of mercy. Our only hope that we or our children will be partakers of the blessings of the covenant is to be found in the fact that we ourselves are faithful to God.
And to those that remember his commandments to do them – Who do not “forget” his law. If they do forget it, they have no right to expect the blessing. Obedience and fidelity are our only reasonable grounds of expectation of the blessing of God.
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John Gill
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,…. In opposition to the frailty of man, the stability and duration of the mercy of God is observed. This reaches from one eternity to another; it is from everlasting in the heart of God: it appeared in the choice of the vessels of mercy; in the covenant of grace, which is founded upon it, and filled with it; every blessing of which flows from it, and therefore are called the “sure mercies of David.”
And his righteousness unto children’s children; not the essential righteousness of God, but rather his faithfulness in the performance of his promises, which he will not suffer to fail: the justifying righteousness of Christ is here meant; which is an everlasting one, and is unto and upon all them that believe, in all successive generations; which is meant by the phrase of “children’s children,” even the spiritual seed of Christ, the seed of the church, the seed of Israel; to all and each of which, in every age, the word of God comes, and his promises are fulfilled; and who are justified by and glory in Christ, their righteousness; and who are further described in the next verse, which shows that not the carnal seed of them that fear the Lord are meant.
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Matthew Henry
The description of those to whom this mercy belongs. They are such as fear God, such as are truly religious, from principle.
First, they live a life of faith; for they keep God’s covenant; having taken hold of it, they keep hold of it, fast hold, and will not let it go. They keep it as a treasure, keep it as their portion, and would not for all the world part with it, for it is their life.
Secondly, they live a life of obedience; they remember his commandments to do them, else they do not keep his covenant. Those only shall have the benefit of God’s promises that make conscience of his precepts. See who those are that have a good memory, as well as a good understanding (Ps. 111:10), those that remember God’s commandments, not to talk of them, but to do them, and to be ruled by them.
The continuance of the mercy which belongs to such as these; it will last them longer than their lives on earth, and therefore they need not be troubled though their lives be short, since death itself will be no abridgment, no infringement, of their bliss. God’s mercy is better than life, for it will outlive it.
First, To their souls, which are immortal; to them the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting; from everlasting in the councils of it to everlasting in the consequences of it, in their election before the world was and their glorification when this world shall be no more; for they are predestinated to the inheritance (Eph. 1:11) and look for the mercy of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, unto eternal life.
Secondly, to their seed, which shall be kept up to the end of time (Ps. 102:28): His righteousness, the truth of his promise, shall be unto children’s children; provided they tread in the steps of their predecessors’ piety, and keep his covenant, as they did, then shall mercy be preserved to them, even to a thousand generations.
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Miscellaneous Comments
“From everlasting to everlasting.” From everlasting, by predestination; to everlasting, by glorification: the one without beginning, the other without end.
—Bernard.
“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting.” No human benevolence is perpetually the same; but by experience we see that those who are kind today may be changed into tyrants tomorrow. Examples of this we have in the life of Nero and many other rulers. Therefore lest we should suspect the goodness of God to bear any similar character, it is said with inconceivable consolation, that it shall never cease, but is prepared for ever for all those who fear and serve God.
—Musculus.
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