John Calvin Commentary Psalms 103:4

"Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;" — Psalms 103:4 (ASV)

Who redeemeth thy life from the grave. The Psalmist expresses more plainly what our condition is before God’s curing our sicknesses—that we are dead and condemned to the grave. The consideration that the mercy of God delivers us from death and destruction ought, therefore, to lead us to prize it more highly.

If the resurrection of the soul from the grave is the first step of spiritual life, what room for self-boasting is left to man? The Prophet next teaches us that the incomparable grace of God shines forth in the very beginning of our salvation, as well as in its whole progress; and to further enhance the praise of this grace, he adds the word compassions in the plural number.

He asserts that we are surrounded with them; as if he had said, Before, behind, on all sides, above and beneath, the grace of God presents itself to us in immeasurable abundance, so that there is no place devoid of it. The same truth he later amplifies in these words, thy mouth is satisfied, by which metaphor he alludes to the free indulgence of the palate, to which we surrender ourselves when we have a well-furnished table; for those who have meager food scarcely dare to eat until they are half satisfied.

Not that he approves of gluttony in greedily devouring God’s benefits, as men give free rein to intemperance whenever they have great abundance; but he borrowed this expression from the common human custom, to teach us that whatever good things our hearts can wish flow to us from God’s bounty, even to perfect satisfaction.

Those who take the Hebrew word עדי, adi, for ornament, spoil the passage by a mere fancy of their own; and I am surprised how such a groundless imagination should have come into their minds, unless it can be explained by the fact that it is usual for men of a prying or inquisitive nature, when they want to show their ingenuity, to bring forward mere childish notions.

The Psalmist next adds, that God was constantly infusing new vigor into him, so that his strength continued unimpaired, even as the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 65:20), when discussing the restoration of the Church, says that a man of a hundred years old shall be like a child. By this manner of expression, he suggests that God, along with a very abundant supply of all good things, also communicates inward vigor to him, so that he may enjoy them; and thus his strength was, as it were, continually renewed.

From the comparison of the eagle, the Jews have taken the opportunity to invent, for the purpose of explanation, a mythical story. Although they do not know even the first elements of any science, yet they are so presumptuous that, whatever the subject matter, they never hesitate to try to explain it, and whenever they meet with anything which they do not understand, there is no figment so foolish that they do not bring forward, as if it were an oracle from God.

Thus, for expounding the present passage, they claim that eagles, every tenth year, ascend to the elemental fire, so that their feathers may be burned, and then they plunge themselves into the sea, and immediately new feathers grow on them. But we can easily gather the simple meaning of the Prophet from the nature of the eagle, as described by philosophers, and which is well-known from observation.

That bird continues fresh and vigorous, even to extreme old age, not weakened by years, and exempt from disease, until it finally dies of hunger. That it is long-lived is certain; but at last, its beak or bill grows so large that it can no longer take food, and, consequently, is forced to suck blood, or to nourish itself by drinking.

Hence the ancient proverb referring to old men who are addicted to drinking, The eagle’s old age; for necessity then compels eagles to drink much. But as drink alone is insufficient to maintain life, they die from hunger rather than fail from the natural decay of strength. Now we perceive, without the help of any invented story, that the genuine meaning of the Prophet is that as eagles always retain their vigor, and even in their old age are still youthful, so the godly are sustained by a secret influence from God, by which they continue to possess unimpaired strength.

They are not always, it is true, full of bodily vigor while in this world, but rather painfully drag on their lives in continual weakness; still what is said here applies to them in a certain sense. This unquestionably is common to all in general: that they have been brought out of the grave and have experienced God to be bountiful to them in innumerable ways.

If each of them were to reflect properly how much he is indebted to God, he would say with good reason that his mouth is filled with good things; just as David, in Psalm 40:5 and Psalm 139:18, confesses that he was unable to count the divine benefits, because they are more in number than the sands of the sea. If our own perverseness did not blind our understanding, we would see that, even in famine, we are provided with food in such a way that God shows us the manifold riches of His goodness.

With regard to the renewal of our strength, the meaning is that since, when our outward man decays, we are renewed to a better life, we have no reason to be troubled at the giving way of our strength, especially when He sustains us by His Spirit under the weakness and languishing of our mortal bodies.