What Does Psalms 103:2 Mean?

The self-address continues with a warning against forgetfulness: bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits. The danger addressed in verse 2 is not unbelief but amnesia — the tendency of the human heart to allow awareness of what the Lord has done to fade, to cease actively remembering the specific acts of divine goodness. The benefits are not to be partially remembered or vaguely recalled; the "all" in do not forget all his benefits is emphatic. The entire range of divine benefit should remain in active memory. The following verses (3-6) will specify what those benefits are.

The synonymous parallelism repeats the bless-the-Lord-O-my-soul call of verse 1 (making a complete couplet across verses 1-2) and pairs it with the negative command: do not forget. Together the positive command and the negative warning describe the same requirement from the aspired condition (active blessing) and the danger to avoid (forgetting). Together they insist that the worship of verse 1 cannot be sustained without the practice of verse 2: blessing requires active remembrance, and amnesia is the death of blessing.

Deuteronomy 6:12's "take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" is verse 2's do-not-forget-his-benefits in its original covenant form: Israel in the land is warned that prosperity leads to forgetting. Luke 17:11-19's one-returning-leper who came back to give thanks is verse 2's remembering enacted: of the ten healed, nine forgot to return; the one who remembered gave thanks. Revelation 2:4-5's "you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen" is verse 2's warning applied to the NT community at Ephesus.