Psalms 103:15–18, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Psalms 103:15–18
Bless the LORD who forgives and remembers dust: Brief human days and enduring covenant love
Human days are field flowers the wind does not remember
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Book IV has already prayed this grass in Psalm 90. Here it returns inside blessing. Flourishing is real and brief. The place that knows the flower no more is ordinary forgetting. The lines do not scorn human beauty; they refuse to treat it as the lasting thing.
Covenant love is the thing that runs from everlasting to children's children
But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
The but sets enduring mercy against gone flowers. Fear, covenant-keeping, and remembered commandments that are done describe the people this mercy is praised toward. The contrast is not a bargain that buys long life, wealth, or exemption from the wind. Children's children are a horizon of faithfulness, not a fertility guarantee.
How this should shape us
Do not build your hope on remaining impressive. Keep the commandments you remember in actual deeds, and let covenant mercy be the durable good rather than a flower that the wind already forgot.
Teach it back
Explain Psalms 103:15–18 in your own words. Name the poetic voice and movement, trace its place in Psalm 103 and Book IV, identify one exact source control or uncertainty, and reject one use the passage does not authorize.
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Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Psalms 103:15–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 103:15–18
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 103:15–18.
Official NET Bible Psalm 103 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 103:15–18
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Enter the Bible Psalms course, Summary, Outline, Introductory Issues, and Theological Themes; applied to Psalms 103:15–18
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 103 for Psalms 103:15–18
Sources for This Section
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Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 103:15–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 103:15–18
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 103:15–18.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 103 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 103:15–18
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Summary, Outline, Introductory Issues, and Theological Themes; applied to Psalms 103:15–18
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 103 for Psalms 103:15–18
Open NETS Psalms ↗