Psalms 103:11-13 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As the heaven, &c., so great is his mercy So much above our deserts and expectations, and above the mercy which one man shows to another; toward them that fear him Which clause he adds here, as also Psalms 103:17-18, to prevent men's mistakes and abuses of God's mercy, and to overthrow the vain hopes which impenitent sinners build thereon. As far as the east, &c., so far hath he removed our transgressions The guilt of our sins, from our persons and consciences. The sense is, He hath fully pardoned them so as never to remember them more. Like as a father pitieth, &c. No father can be more indulgent and tender hearted to his returning children, than the Lord is to those who so reform, by his chastisements, as to fear afterward to offend him. Thus, in these three verses, “we are presented with three of the most beautiful, apposite, and comforting similitudes in the world. When we lift up our eyes, and behold around us the lofty and stupendous vault of heaven, encircling, protecting, enlightening, refreshing, and cherishing the earth, and all things which are therein, we are bidden to contemplate, in this glass, the immeasurable height, the boundless extent, and the salutary influences of that mercy which, as it were, embraced the creation, and is over all the works of God. Often as we view the sun arising in the sea, and darkness flying away before his face toward the opposite quarter of the heavens, we may see an image of that goodness of Jehovah, whereby we are placed in the regions of illumination, and our sins are removed, and put far away out of his sight. And, that our hearts may, at all times, have confidence toward God, he is represented as bearing toward us the fond and tender affection of a father, ever ready to defend, to nourish, and to provide for us, to bear with us, to forgive us, and receive us in the paternal arms of everlasting love.” Horne. “One would think it impossible,” says another eminent divine, “if daily experience did not convince us to the contrary, that human creatures should be regardless of such love, and ungrateful to so solicitous a benefactor! For my own part, I cannot conceive it possible for any heart to be unaffected or uninfluenced by such a composition as this before us.”