Psalm 103:19

Psalm 103 opens with David speaking to himself: “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name” (Psalm 103:1). He goes on to the LORD’s benefits. The LORD forgives iniquities, heals diseases, redeems life from destruction, and crowns his people with lovingkindness and tender mercies (Psalm 103:3–5). Then David widens the view to Israel, to the LORD who executes righteousness for the oppressed, made known his ways unto Moses, and is merciful, gracious and slow to anger (Psalm 103:6–13). He also faces how short human life is, for our days are as grass, and we flourish as a flower of the field that the wind passes over and it is gone (Psalm 103:14–16).

Verse 19 comes after that picture of fading grass. Man’s days pass, and the LORD’s throne stands. The mercies of the first eighteen verses (Psalm 103:1–18) flow from a King whose rule is settled and reaches everywhere, so his faithfulness to his covenant rests on his authority over all things. Because he rules all, the psalm can then call all to praise him (Psalm 103:20–22). The verse is the hinge between God’s care for one person and his rule over everything.

“The LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, the personal name of Israel’s covenant God, the eternal, self-existent One who keeps his promises. “Hath prepared” is kûwn, a verb that means to establish, fix, make firm, set up or make ready. God himself has set his throne in place, on purpose, and it stays there. The verb is in the perfect tense, which speaks of an act completed with results that last. Earthly thrones rise and fall like the grass of verse 15, while this one is settled for good, as befits the God who “abideth faithful” even “if we believe not” (2 Timothy 2:13).

The throne, kiççêʼ, is a seat, stool or throne, and a king’s throne stands for his royal power, his authority and his judgment. It is the place from which God governs, gives his decrees and does justice. It is set “in the heavens”, shâmayim, a plural noun that in Hebrew speech names the dwelling place of God, above the earthly realm. Through Isaiah the LORD says, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool” (Isaiah 66:1).

The nations around Israel had kings of their own, and those kings often claimed a god’s authority or favour, and some claimed to be gods. Temples were built to house the throne of a god within its own land. Israel knew the LORD as its true King, which is why, when the people asked Samuel for a king, the LORD said, “they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). A throne in the heavens sits above every earthly ruler and every false god, and its reach crosses every border. For a people who often lay under powerful and hostile empires, this meant that their God held all nations and events in his hand, whoever rose or fell on earth.

“Kingdom” is malkûwth, which covers both the act of reigning and the realm a king reigns over. “Ruleth” is mâshal, to rule, and here it describes rule that is going on now. The LORD actively governs, directs and upholds what he has made. The word “all” takes in every creature, every nation and every event, things seen and unseen. The two halves of the verse fit together, with the first giving the seat of his authority and the second its reach.

Scripture says this again and again. David prayed, “thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all” (1 Chronicles 29:11). Nebuchadnezzar learned that “the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will” (Daniel 4:17). In Revelation a great multitude cries, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Revelation 19:6). Because his rule reaches everywhere, his good purposes will stand against every power on earth and in the unseen world.

Having declared that the LORD rules over all, the psalm calls first on those who stand nearest his throne. “Bless” is bârak, a root meaning to kneel, and by implication to bless God in adoration or to bless a person with good. Every good thing already comes from God, so to bless him is to honour him, adore him and declare how good and worthy he is. In Israel’s worship this was done by bowing low, in prayer and in song. The same verb opens verses 20, 21 and 22, and it is the verb of the psalm’s first line.

David speaks straight to the angels, as if they stood before him, and so the praise of his psalm reaches past the human world into heaven. Israel knew the angels, mal’akhim, as powerful agents of God and members of his heavenly court. They carried out his decrees, guarded his people and at times fought as his warriors. Scripture shows them already at their praise. Isaiah saw the seraphim above the LORD’s throne crying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1–3), and John heard the four beasts say day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8).

They “excel in strength”. The word behind “excel” is gibbôwr, a mighty one, a word used for warriors. These are beings of great power, and their strength is given them by God, which makes the God they serve all the greater. One angel of the LORD went out against the whole camp of the Assyrians in a single night (2 Kings 19:35).

All that strength goes into one thing: they “do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.” The verse moves from their power, to their obedience, to the word their obedience answers. “Word” is dâbâr, which means a word or speech, and in a separate sense a matter or thing. The angels listen to what God says, and they do it at once and in full. The God whose word made the world in Genesis 1 is the God whose word the angels wait on. Hebrews calls them “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).

Their obedience is the pattern Jesus set before his disciples when he taught them to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). If beings so mighty hear God’s word and do it gladly, we who are made in his image and saved by his grace have every reason to do the same, though our obedience falls short of theirs.

Verse 21 widens the call from “his angels” to “all ye his hosts”. “Hosts” is tsâbâʼ, a word for an army or host, for war or a campaign, for service, and for the host of heaven, and it forms God’s title “the LORD of hosts”. Here it names the vast, ordered multitude of heavenly beings under God’s command. Scripture counts every one of them as a created servant of the one true God.

The second line calls them “ministers of his”. The Hebrew sharath is the word for serving, and it brings to mind the attendants of a royal court who carry out their king’s will with care and devotion. Israel knew earthly courts and armies, where loyal service was everything, and this verse sets the court of heaven before them. The two lines name the same company twice, once as an army and once as servants, in the parallel lines Hebrew poetry often uses.

They “do his pleasure”. “Pleasure” is râtsôwn, delight, desire, favour or good pleasure. What God delights in is what they carry out, and they do it willingly and gladly. Their service and their praise belong together, since doing his pleasure is itself how they bless him. So obedience is worship too, alongside the words of praise.

Psalm 148 makes the same kind of call to all creation to praise the LORD, and the whole of Psalm 103 moves toward this chorus of everything God rules, heaven and earth together.

Verse 22 reaches as far as the call can go: “Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion.” “Works” is maʻăseh, from the verb to do or make, and it means a deed, a work, a product or workmanship. It takes in everything God has made and done, from the stars to the smallest living thing. “Dominion” is memshâlâh, rule, authority and governing power. Every place, every sphere and every part of what exists lies within his rule, so every place is a place for his praise.

Other psalms say the same. “All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee” (Psalm 145:10). “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations” (Psalm 145:13). Through Isaiah God says of everyone called by his name, “I have created him for my glory” (Isaiah 43:7).

After the angels, the hosts and every work of God in every place, the psalm comes home to one man: “bless the LORD, O my soul.” These are the opening words of Psalm 103:1, so the psalm begins and ends on the same line, a frame that holds everything between. David speaks to his own inner being, as he did at the start, and calls all of it to praise.

The order matters. He has just called on the mightiest beings God made and on the whole of creation, and he speaks to his own soul last. The praise of angels and of all creation leaves his own praise as needed as ever, and it calls that praise out more strongly. The King who rules over all delights in the willing, personal praise of his people, and one soul’s voice has its own place in the chorus.

The New Testament shows this throne and this kingdom in Jesus Christ. By him were all things created, in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, and by him all things consist (Colossians 1:16–17). After his death, resurrection and ascension, God set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion”, and put all things under his feet (Ephesians 1:20–22). Jesus himself said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18). His present reign, mostly unseen, is the rule verse 19 describes at work, and it will be plain to all when he returns and every knee bows at his name (Philippians 2:9–11).

The angels of verse 20 serve him. Hebrews shows the Son “so much better than the angels” and gives God’s command, “let all the angels of God worship him” (Hebrews 1). Peter says that angels and authorities and powers have been “made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:22). Angels came and ministered to Jesus after his temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11), and in Gethsemane “there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43). The God whose word the angels obey made all things through the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1–3).

The hosts of verse 21 do God’s pleasure, and Christ did his Father’s will perfectly. He said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34), and “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). His life, death and resurrection carried out the mystery of God’s will, “according to his good pleasure”, to gather together in one all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:9–10). Through him God works in believers too, “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

The call of verse 22 is answered in John’s vision. He heard ten thousand times ten thousand angels round the throne, and then every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the sea, saying, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:11–13). The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world has reconciled sinners to God, so that by his Spirit they can bless the LORD alongside the angels.

These four verses set our lives under a throne settled in the heavens and a kingdom that rules over all. The God who forgives, heals and crowns with mercy in the first part of the psalm is the King of the angels and of every work of his hands, and his rule reaches every corner of the world and of our lives. His mighty angels hear his word and do it, his hosts delight to do his pleasure, and the whole creation shows his glory by being what he made it. Into that great chorus David brings one voice, his own, and the psalm ends there. Your praise belongs in that chorus too, because the King who receives the worship of heaven is glad to hear “Bless the LORD, O my soul” from you.