Verse 3. “Who forgiveth all thine iniquities: who healeth all thy diseases.” Many-sided is the character of our heavenly Father, for, having forgiven as a judge, he then cures as a physician. He is all things to us, as our needs call for him, and our infirmities do but reveal him in new characters.
In me is only ill,
My ill but draws his goodness forth,
And me he loveth still.”
God gives efficacy to medicine for the body, and his grace sanctifies the soul. Spiritually we are daily under his care, and he visits us, as the surgeon does his patient; healing still (for that is the exact word) each malady as it arises. No disease of our soul baffles his skill; he goes on healing all, and will do so until the last trace of taint has gone from our nature. The two alls of this verse are further lessons for all that is within us praising the Lord.
Verse 4. “Who redeemeth thy life from destruction.” From his earliest days, the psalmist was the child of Providence. Many were the hairbreadth escapes, and the wonderful deliverances which he experienced. The jaw of the lion, the paw of the bear, at various times threatened to terminate his existence, and at others the ruthless hand of man. The same God who delivered him from the sword of Goliath, rescued his life from the javelin of Saul. The mighty God who covered his head in the day of battle, delivered him at one moment, from the lords of the Philistines, saved him at another out of the hands of the men of Keilah and again preserved to him his life and throne from the unnatural rebellion of his own son. Well therefore, might the psalmist stir up his soul and all that is within him to bless the Lord with most fervent gratitude who by so many signal deliverances, had “redeemed his life from destruction.”
Verse 5. “Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed as the eagle’s.” By the renovating power of His Spirit, God restores the soul from decrepitude, to the health and strength of a young eagle; so that it can ascend up on high and contemplate the splendour of the Sun of Righteousness. Thus, at the day of the resurrection, clothed anew with salvation and glory, the body likewise shall arise from earth and fly away as an eagle towards heaven to begin an immortal life and be for ever young.
Verse 8. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” If the one end of mercy were not the beginning of another, we were undone.
Verse 10. “He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.” Why is it that God has not dealt with us after our sins? It is because he has dealt with another after our sins. Another who took our sins upon him; of whom it is said, that “God chastened him in his fierce wrath;” and why did he chasten him, but for our sins? Gracious God, thou art too just to take revenge twice for the same sins; and therefore, not having turned thy fierce wrath upon him, thou wilt not turn it upon us too. Having rewarded him according to our iniquities, thou wilt now reward us according to his merits.
Verse 12. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” When sin is pardoned, it is perfectly pardoned. The east and the west are the greatest distance in the world; the terms can never meet together. When sin is pardoned, it is never charged again; the guilt of it can no more return than east can become west, or west become east.
Verse 13. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” The father pitieth his children that are weak in knowledge, and instructs them; pities them when they are forward, and hears with them: pities them when they are sick, and comforts them: when they are fallen, and helps them up again when they have offended, and upon their submission, forgives them. In the same way, “The Lord pitieth them that fear him.”
(To be continued)