To “bless the Lord” means to delight His heart by expressing love and gratitude for all He is and all He does. Parents are pleased when their children simply thank them and love them, without asking for anything. True praise comes from a grateful heart that sincerely wants to glorify and please the Lord. “All that is within me” means that all of our inner being is focused on the Lord—heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:28–31). It also means that we are prepared to obey His will after our praise has ended. The word “all” is found at least nine times in the psalm (1–3, 6, 19, 21–22), for the psalm is a call for total commitment to God. We give thanks to the Lord before we receive our food, and this is right, but the Jewish people were also to give thanks after they had eaten and to remember that the Lord had given them their food (Deut. 8:7–20). My immigrant Swedish relatives used to follow this practice. At least fourteen times in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses admonished the people to remember the Lord and what He did for them, and nine times he cautioned them not to forget. (See Deut. 32:18.) It was when the third generation of Jews came on the scene and forgot the Lord that the nation began to decay (Judg. 2:7—3:7).
David listed six special blessings from the hand of the Lord (vv. 3–5): forgiveness, healing, redemption, love, satisfaction, and renewal. The word translated “forgives” is used in Scripture only of God’s forgiveness of sinners (see vv. 10–12). The word for “iniquity” pictures sin as something twisted and distorted. Those who have trusted Christ have experienced God’s forgiveness (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 2:13). When you read 32 and 51, you learn that David knew something about God’s gracious forgiveness (and see vv. 10–12). God is able to heal every disease (Matt. 9:35), but He is not obligated to do so. Paul was not able to heal two of his friends (Phil. 2:25–30; 2 Tim. 4:20), and David’s own baby son died in spite of his fasting and praying (2 Sam. 12:15–23). The believer’s body will not be completely delivered from weakness and disease until it is redeemed and glorified at the return of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:18–23). In Scripture, sickness is sometimes used as a picture of sin and healing as a picture of salvation (41:4; 147:3; Isa. 53:10; Luke 5:18–32; 1 Peter 2:23–24).
The word redeem (v. 4) would remind the Jewish people of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt at the exodus (Ex. 12–15). The statement describes God rescuing someone about to fall into a pit, and “the pit” is a symbol of sheol (6:5; 16:10; 28:1), the world of the dead. David himself was often very near to death, so perhaps he had premature death in mind. David also knew something about crowns, but no crown he ever wore compared with God’s lovingkindness and compassion (tender mercies). These attributes also appear in verses 8, 11, 13, and 17. Believers should “reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5: nkjv; and see Rev. 1:1:6). We are seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:1–7), and He helps us to “reign in life.”
There is no satisfaction in this world, but we have satisfaction in Christ who is the Bread of Life (John 6:33–40) and the Good Shepherd who leads us into green pastures (23:2). (See 107:9; 145:16.) The word translated “mouth” is a bit of a puzzle since it is usually translated “ornaments” or “jewelry,” words that hardly fit this context. Some students interpret the word to mean “duration” or “years” (see ). No matter how old we become, God can satisfy the needs of our lives and the spiritual desires of our hearts. The legend about the physical renewal of the eagle is not what David had in mind in verse 5. Like most birds, eagles do molt and have what seems to be a new lease on life. But the picture here is that of the believer being strengthened by the Lord even in old age and able to “soar” like the eagle (Isa. 40:31; see 71:17–18; 92:14; 2 Cor. 4:16–18).