Psalms 103:17 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Psalms 103:15–18
• Psalms 103:1–22

Read Psalms 103:17 with 103:15–18 and 103:1–22. Read alone, “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon…” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 103:15–18, the individual voice carries the movement “Brief human days and enduring covenant love” as part of “Bless the LORD who forgives and remembers dust.” Its hymn form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Psalms 103:15–18 continues “Compassion, justice, and remembered dust” within Psalm 103 by carrying “Brief human days and enduring covenant love.” The turn from “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust” to “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth” explains why this movement occurs here. Within that relationship, Psalm 103:17 turns the movement by contrasting what precedes it with “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that….”