Psalms 103:3 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who forgiveth - The benefits are the following,

1. Forgiveness of sin.

2. Restoration of health: "Who healeth all thy diseases."

Psalms 103:3.Where the latter line only varies the expression of the former. And our blessed Savior reasons with the Jews on the same principle: "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?" Mark 2:9. See also Matthew 8:17; Isaiah 53:4. Qui locus Isaiae, 1 Peter 2:24, refertur ad remissionem peccatorum: hic vero ad sanationem morborum, quia ejusdem potentiae et bonitatis est utrumque praestare; et, quia peccatis remissis, et morbi, qui fructus sunt peccatorum, pelluntur. "Which passage of Isaiah has reference, in 1 Peter 2:24, to the remission of sins, and here to the healing of diseases, because both are effects of the same power and goodness; and because with the remission of sins was associated the removal of disorders, the fruits of sin." - Wetstein on Matthew 8:17.

That this prophecy was exactly fulfilled, I think we may gather from the history of this great event given by the prophet himself. It is plain that Hezekiah, by his treaty with Sennacherib, by which he agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, had stripped himself of his whole treasure. He not only gave him all the silver and gold that was in his own treasury and in that of the temple, but was even forced to cut off the gold from the doors of the temple and from the pillars, with which he had himself overlaid them, to satisfy the demands of the king of Assyria: but after the destruction of the Assyrian army, we find that he "had exceeding much riches, and that he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, "etc.2 Chronicles 32:27. He was so rich, that out of pride and vanity he displayed his wealth to the ambassadors from Babylon. This cannot be otherwise accounted for, than by the prodigious spoil that was taken on the destruction of the Assyrian army. - L. And thus, in the providence of God, he had the wealth which was exacted from him restored.

Psalms 103:3

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;