“For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.”
The affirmation 'For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him' employs cosmic imagery to express the immensity of God's merciful love. The comparison to the heavens above the earth suggests that God's hesed is as vast as the space between the highest realm and the earth, an incomprehensible distance and magnitude. The phrase 'toward those who fear him' qualifies the recipients of this mercy: those who stand in proper reverence before God. The conjunction 'fear' and 'love' suggests that dread and trust, awe and confidence, are not opposed but interdependent; to fear God properly is to open oneself to God's love. The use of comparative language ('as...so') suggests that the psalmic speaker is attempting to bridge the inexpressible: how can finite language capture infinite love? Yet the very attempt affirms that love is beyond measure and expression.
Church Fathers on Psalms 103:11
1. ...“Bless the Lord, O my soul! And all that is within me, His holy Name” Psalm 102:1. I suppose that he speaks not of what is within the body; I do not suppose him to mean this, that our lungs and liver, and so forth, are to burst forth into the voice of blessing of the Lord. There are lungs in our breast indeed, like a kind of bellows, which send forth successive breathings, which breathing forth of the air inhaled is pressed out into voice and sound, when the words are…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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