I love Yahweh, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.
Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called on Yahweh’s name: “Yahweh, I beg you, deliver my soul.”
Yahweh is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.
Yahweh preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.
Return to your rest, my soul, for Yahweh has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
I will walk before Yahweh in the land of the living.
I believed, therefore I said, “I was greatly afflicted.”
I said in my haste, “All people are liars.”
What will I give to Yahweh for all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation, and call on Yahweh’s name.
I will pay my vows to Yahweh, yes, in the presence of all his people.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 1 I have loved, because Jehovah will hear the…
1 I have loved, because Jehovah will hear the voice of my supplication. At the very commencement of this psalm David avows that he was attracted with the sweetness of God’s goodness, to place his hope and confidence in him alone. This abrupt mode of speaking, I have loved, is the more emphatic, intimating that he could receive joy and repose nowhere but in God. We know that our hearts will be always wandering after fruitless pleasures, and harassed with care, until God knit them to himself. This distemper David affirms was removed from him, because he felt that God was indeed propitious towards him. And, having found by experience that, in general, they who call upon God are happy, he declares that no allurements shall draw him away from God. When, therefore, he says, I have loved, it imports that, without God, nothing would be pleasant or agreeable to him. From this we are instructed that those who have been heard by God, but do not place themselves entirely under his guidance and guardianship, have derived little advantage from the experience of his grace.
The second verse also refers to the same subject, excepting that the latter clause admits of a very appropriate meaning, which expositors overlook. The phrase, during my days I will call upon him, is uniformly understood by them to mean, I, who hitherto have been so successful in addressing God, will pursue the same course all my life long. But it should be considered whether it may not be equally appropriate that the days of David be regarded as denoting a fit season of asking assistance, the season when he was hard pressed by necessity. I am not prevented from adopting this signification, because it may be said that the prophet employs the future tense of the verb אקרא, ekra. In the first verse also, the term, he shall hear, is to be understood in the past tense, he has heard, in which case the copulative conjunction would require to be taken as an adverb of time, when, a circumstance this by no means unusual among the Hebrews. The scope of the passage will run very well thus: Because he has bowed his ear to me when I called upon him in the time of my adversity, and even at the season, too, when I was reduced to the greatest straits. If any are disposed to prefer the former exposition, I will not dispute the matter with them. The subsequent context, however, appears to countenance the latter meaning, in which David commences energetically to point out what those days were. And, with the design of magnifying God’s glory according to its desert, he says that there was no way of his escaping from death, for he was like one among enemies, bound with fetters and chains, from whom all hope of deliverance was cut off. He acknowledges, therefore, that he was subjected to death, that he was overtaken and seized, so that escape was impossible. And as he declares that he was bound by the cords of death, so he, at the same the adds, that he fell into tribulation and sorrow And here he confirms what he said formerly, that when he seemed to be most forsaken of God, that was truly the proper time, and the right season for him to give himself to prayer.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13 He granteth that no pleasure is so great as…
He granteth that no pleasure is so great as to feel God’s help in our necessity, neither that anything more stirreth up our love toward him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–14 Psa 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath…
Psa 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice [and] my supplications.
Ver. 1. I love the Lord] Heb. I love, because the Lord hath heard, &c., Vex abrupta et ecliptica, an abrupt concise ecliptical expression, betokening an inexpressible, inconceivable passion, or rather pang of love, such as intercepteth his voice for a time, till recollecting himself, and recovering his speech, he becometh able to tell us, not only that he loveth, or is well satisfied ( Sat habeo. Tremel.), but also why he loveth, and is all on a light flame, as it were, viz.
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Because he hath heard my voice] Though but an articulate incondite voice: Lam 3:56, "Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry."
And my supplications] My prayers for grace, when better formed and methodized.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Heb. in my days; as long as I have…
Heb. in my days; as long as I have a day to live, as this phrase is used, 2Ki 20:19; Isa 39:8. Compare Job 27:6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10 In this part of the psalm we have,
In this part of the psalm we have,
I. A general account of David's experience, and his pious resolutions (Psa 116:1, Psa 116:2), which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it. 1. He had experienced God's goodness to him in answer to prayer: He has heard my voice and my supplications. David, in straits, had humbly and earnestly begged mercy of God, and God had heard him, that is, had graciously accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of his case, and granted him an answer of peace. He has inclined his ear to me. This intimates his readiness and willingness to hear prayer; he lays his ear, as it were, to the mouth of prayer, to hear it, though it be but whispered in groanings that cannot be uttered. He hearkens and hears, Jer 8:6. Yet it implies, also, that it is wonderful condescension in God to hear prayer; it is bowing his ear. Lord, what is man, that God should thus stoop to him!-2. He resolved, in consideration thereof, to devote himself entirely to God and to his honour. (1.) He will love God the better. He begins the psalm somewhat abruptly with a profession of that which his heart was full of: I love the Lord (as Psa 18:1); and fitly does he begin with this, in compliance with the first and great commandment and with God's end in all the gifts of his bounty to us. "I love him only, and nothing besides him, but what I love for him." God's love of compassion towards us justly requires our love of complacency in him. (2.) He will love prayer the better: Therefore I will call upon him. The experiences we have had of God's goodness to us, in answer to prayer, are great encouragements to us to continue praying; we have sped well, notwithstanding our unworthiness and our infirmities in prayer, and therefore why may we not? God answers prayer, to make us love it, and expects this from us, in return for his favour. Why should we glean in any other field when we have been so well treated in this? Nay, I will call upon him as long as I live (Heb., In my days), every day, to the last day. Note, As long as we continue living we must continue praying. This breath we must breathe till we breathe our last, because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we have continual occasion for it.
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II. A more particular narrative of God's gracious dealings with him and the good impressions thereby made upon him.
1. God, in his dealings with him, showed himself a good God, and therefore he bears this testimony to him, and leaves it upon record (Psa 116:5): "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. He is righteous, and did me no wrong in afflicting me; he is gracious, and was very kind in supporting and delivering me." Let us all speak of God as we have found; and have we ever found him otherwise than just and good? No; our God is merciful, merciful to us, and it is of his mercies that we are not consumed.
(1.) Let us review David's experiences. [1.] He was in great distress and trouble (Psa 116:3): The sorrows of death compassed me, that is, such sorrows as were likely to be his death, such as were thought to be the very pangs of death. Perhaps the extremity of bodily pain, or trouble of mind, is called here the pains of hell, terror of conscience arising from sense of guilt. Note, The sorrows of death are great sorrows, and the pains of hell great pains. Let us therefore give diligence to prepare for the former, that we may escape the latter. These compassed him on every side; they arrested him, got hold upon him, so that he could not escape. Without were fightings, within were fears. "I found trouble and sorrow; not only they found me, but I found them." Those that are melancholy have a great deal of sorrow of their own finding, a great deal of trouble which they create to themselves, by indulging fancy and passion; this has sometimes been the infirmity of good men. When God's providence makes our condition bad let us not by our own imprudence make it worse. [2.] In his trouble he had recourse to God by faithful and fervent prayer, Psa 116:4. He tells us that he prayed: Then called I upon the name of the Lord; then, when he was brought to the last extremity, then he made use of this, not as the last remedy, but as the old and only remedy, which he had found a salve for every sore. He tells us what his prayer was; it was short, but to the purpose: "O Lord! I beseech thee, deliver my soul; save me from death, and save me from sin, for that is it that is killing to the soul." Both the humility and the fervency of his prayer are intimated in these words, O Lord! I beseech thee. When we come to the throne of grace we must come as beggars for an alms, for necessary food. The following words (Psa 116:5), Gracious is the Lord, may be taken as part of his prayer, as a plea to enforce his request and encourage his faith and hope: "Lord deliver my soul, for thou art gracious and merciful, and that only I depend upon for relief." [3.] God, in answer to his prayer, came in with seasonable and effectual relief. He found by experience that God is gracious and merciful, and in his compassion preserves the simple, Psa 116:6. Because they are simple (that is, sincere, and upright, and without guile) therefore God preserves them, as he preserved Paul, who had his conversation in the world not with fleshly wisdom, but in simplicity and godly sincerity. Though they are simple (that is, weak, and helpless, and unable to shift for themselves, men of no depth, no design) yet God preserves them, because they commit themselves to him and have no confidence in their own sufficiency. Those who by faith put themselves under God's protection shall be safe.
(2.) Let David speak his own experience. [1.] God supported him under his troubles: "I was brought low, was plunged into the depth of misery, and then he helped me, helped me both to bear the worst and to hope the best, helped me to pray, else desire had failed, helped me to wait, else faith had failed. I was one of the simple ones whom God preserved, the poor man who cried and the Lord heard him," Psa 34:6. Note, God's people are never brought so low but that everlasting arms are under them, and those cannot sink who are thus sustained. Nay, it is in the time of need, at the dead lift, that God chooses to help, Deu 32:36. [2.] God saved him out of his troubles (Psa 116:8): Thou hast delivered, which means either the preventing of the distress he was ready to fall into or the recovering of him from the distress he was already in. God graciously delivered, First, His soul from death. Note, It is God's great mercy to us that we are alive; and the mercy is the more sensible if we have been at death's door and yet have been spared and raised up, just turned to destruction and yet ordered to return. That a life so often forfeited, and so often exposed, should yet be lengthened out, is a miracle of mercy. The deliverance of the soul from spiritual and eternal death is especially to be acknowledged by all those who are now sanctified and shall be shortly glorified. Secondly, His eyes from tears, that is, his heart from inordinate grief. It is a great mercy to be kept either from the occasions of sorrow, the evil that causes grief, or, at least, from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow. When God comforts those that are cast down, looses the mourners' sackcloth and girds them with gladness, then he delivers their eyes from tears, which yet will not be perfectly done till we come to that world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Thirdly, His feet from falling, from falling into sin and so into misery. It is a great mercy, when our feet are almost gone, to have God hold us by the right hand (Psa 72:2, 23), so that though we enter into temptation we are not overcome and overthrown by the temptation. Or, "Thou hast delivered my feet from falling into the grave, when I had one foot there already."
2. David, in his returns of gratitude to God, showed himself a good man. God had done all this for him, and therefore,
(1.) He will live a life of delight in God (Psa 116:7): Return unto thy rest, O my soul! [1.] "Repose thyself and be easy, and do not agitate thyself with distrustful disquieting fears as thou hast sometimes done. Quiet thyself, and then enjoy thyself. God has dealt kindly with thee, and therefore thou needest not fear that ever he will deal hardly with thee." [2.] "Repose thyself in God. Return to him as thy rest, and seek not for that rest in the creature which is to be had in him only." God is the soul's rest; in him only it can dwell at ease; to him therefore it must retire, and rejoice in him. He has dealt bountifully with us; he has provided sufficiently for our comfort and refreshment, and encouraged us to come to him for the benefit of it, at all times, upon all occasions; let us therefore be satisfied with that. Return to that rest which Christ gives to the weary and heavy-laden, Mat 11:28. Return to thy Noah; his name signifies rest, as the dove, when she found no rest, returned to the ark. I know no word more proper to close our eyes with at night, when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long sleep, than this, Return to thy rest, O my soul!
(2.) He will live a life of devotedness to God (Psa 116:9): I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living, that is, in this world, as long as I continue to live in it. Note, [1.] It is our great duty to walk before the Lord, to do all we do as becomes us in his presence and under his eye, to approve ourselves to him as a holy God by conformity to him as our sovereign Lord, by subjection to his will, and, as a God all-sufficient, by a cheerful confidence in him. I am the almighty God; walk before me, Gen 17:1. We must walk worthy of the Lord unto all well-pleasing. [2.] The consideration of this, that we are in the land of the living, should engage and quicken us to do so. We are spared and continued in the land of the living by the power, and patience, and tender mercy of our God, and therefore must make conscience of our duty to him. The land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be thankful for; it is a land of opportunity, which we should improve. Canaan is called the land of the living (Eze 26:20), and those whose lot is cast in such a valley of vision are in a special manner concerned to set the Lord always before them. If God has delivered our soul from death, we must walk before him. A new life must be a new life indeed.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–14 I love the Lord,.... As the Messiah, David's antitype,…
I love the Lord,.... As the Messiah, David's antitype, did; of which he gave the fullest proof by his obedience to his will; and as David, the man after God's own heart, did, and as every good man does; and the Lord is to be loved for the perfections of his nature, and especially as they are displayed in Christ, and salvation by him; and for his works of creation, providence, and grace, and particularly for his great love shown in redemption, regeneration, and other blessings of grace, as well as for what follows.
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplication; in the original text the words lie thus, "I love, because the Lord hath heard", or "will hear"; and so read the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and so the Targum; and may be rendered, "I love that the Lord should hear me", so the Syriac and Arabic versions; nothing is more desirable and grateful to good men than that the Lord should hear them; but Kimchi and others transpose the words as we do, which gives a reason why he loved the Lord; because he heard his prayers, which were vocal, put up in a time of distress, in an humble and submissive manner, under the influence of the Spirit of grace and supplication, in the name of Christ, for his righteousness sake, and through his mediation; and such supplications are heard and answered by the Lord, sooner or later; and which engages the love of his people to him; see Psa 34:1. It may be applied to Christ, who offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, and was always heard; and for which he thanked his Father and loved him, Heb 5:7.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 7 This psalm is a solemn thanksgiving to God. Wherein…
This psalm is a solemn thanksgiving to God. Wherein the psalmist professes his love to God, for delivering him out of great straits and dangers, ver. 1-8. Prays for his future protection, and promises to praise him, and to walk holy before him, 9-19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 The psalmist praises God for his deliverance from thraldom,
PSALM CXVI
The psalmist praises God for his deliverance from thraldom,
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which he compares to death and the grave, 1-9.
The exercises through which he had passed, 10, 11.
His gratitude for these mercies, and resolution to live to
God's glory, 12-19.
NOTES ON PSALM CXVI
This Psalm is also without a title, and its author is unknown. It appears to have been written after the captivity, and to be a thanksgiving to God for that glorious event. The psalmist compares this captivity to death and the grave; and shows the happy return to the promised land, called here, The land of the living. The people recollect the vows of God which were upon them, and purpose to fulfil them. They exhult at being enabled to worship God in the temple at Jerusalem.
The Syriac, which abounds in conjectural prefaces, supposes this Psalm to have been written on the occasion of Saul coming to the mouth of the cave in which David lay hidden; but spiritually taken, it relates to the bringing of a new people, the Gentiles, to the Christian faith. In a few MSS. this Psalm is joined to the preceding. Many think it relates wholly to the passion, death, and triumph of Christ. Most of the fathers were of this opinion.
Verse 1. I love the Lord because he hath heard] How vain and foolish is the talk, "To love God for his benefits to us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!" Whether pure or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its Creator. We love him, said the holiest of Christ's disciples, because he first loved us; and the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the increased sense we have of our obligation to him. We love him for the benefits bestowed on us. Love begets love.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12 Psa 116:1-2. I love the Lord — Hebrew, I…
Psa 116:1-2. I love the Lord — Hebrew, I love, because the Lord hath heard my voice. “The soul, transported with gratitude and love, seems, at first, to express her affection without declaring its object, as thinking that all the world must know who is the person intended. Thus Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre, though no previous mention had been made of Jesus, says to one, whom she thought to be the gardener, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, &c. Joh 20:15. And ought not the love of God to be excited in all our hearts by the consideration, that when we were not able to raise ourselves up to him, he mercifully and tenderly inclined and bowed down his ear to us?” — Horne. Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live — Hebrew, בימי אקרא, bejamai ekra, in my days, that is, as long as I have a day to live, as this phrase is used 2Ki 20:19; Isa 39:8.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–14 I love the Lord - The Hebrew rather means,…
I love the Lord - The Hebrew rather means, “I love, because the Lord hath heard,” etc. That is, the psalmist was conscious of love; he felt it glowing in his soul; his heart was full of that special joy, tenderness, kindness, peace, which love produces; and the source or reason of this, he says, was that the Lord had heard him in his prayers.
Because he hath heard ... - That is, This fact was a reason for loving him. The psalmist does not say that this was the only reason, or the main reason for loving him, but that it was the reason for that special joy of love which he then felt in his soul. The main reason for loving God is his own excellency of nature; but still there are other reasons for doing it, and among them are the benefits which he has conferred on us, and which awaken the love of gratitude. Compare the notes at 1Jo 4:19.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 116
Psalms 116
1 I love the Lord, because he hath heard
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My voice and my supplications.
2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me,
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
3 The sorrows of death compassed me,
And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord;
O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yea our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserveth the simple:
I was brought low, and he helped me.
7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul;
For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.
8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death,
Mine eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore have I spoken:
I was greatly afflicted:
11 I said in my haste,
All men are liars.
12 What shall I render unto the Lord
For all his benefits towards me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord
Now in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the eight of the Lord
Is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, truly I am thy servant;
I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid:
Thou hast loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord
Now in the presence of all his people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.
Praise ye the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—This is not a psalm of complaint (Hupfeld), but the song of thanksgiving of an Israelite rescued from death. It is interspersed with fragments of his yearnings, reflections, complaints, and prayers in that time of peril. It is penetrated also by the refrain-like utterance, gradually and ever more richly unfolding itself, of a vow to proclaim with praises, now after his deliverance, the name of Jehovah, whom he had invoked in his distress; and this he would do as long as he should live, before the whole people, and in the place of God’s worship in Jerusalem. Neither the peculiar nature of this distress, nor the position occupied by the author, nor the time of composition, is discoverable. The Psalm however, by the strong Aramaic coloring of the linguistic forms, set off as they are with all kinds of ornaments (Delitzsch), as well as by its numerous passages borrowed from Psalms composed before the exile, is proved to belong to a late period. A division into two distinct psalms, Psa_116:1-19, (Sept. and others) is not justified by the character of the poem. [Perowne: “The Psalm is an evidence of the truth and depth of the religious life in individuals after the return from the Exile, for there is little doubt that it must be assigned to that period. Many words and turns of phrases remind us of earlier Psalms, and especially of the Psalms of David. His words must have laid hold in no common degree of the hearts of those who were heirs of his faith, and have sustained them in times of sorrow and suffering, and nothing would be more natural than that later poets would echo his strains, and mingle his words with their own when they poured forth their prayers and praises before God.”—J. F. M.].
Psa_116:1-3. I love. The explanation: It is dear to me, that is: I am glad or like to see, I rejoice, that thou, etc., (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Luther, Geier, De Wette, Hitzig), is possible only if we assume an imitation of the Greek, and so descend to a very late period. It is more natural to suppose that the object is omitted, for the same anomaly occurs also in Psa_116:2; Psa_116:10, and therefore characterizes the style of the Psalmist. This object is naturally Jehovah, not grammatically but logically (Kimchi, Calvin, Grotius, Stier, Hengst., Del.), and therefore it is not necessary to transpose that word (Hupfeld). The change also in Psa_116:3, by which מְצָדֵיnets (Hupfeld) is put for מְצָרֵיoppressions, straits, [E. V.: pains] is not demanded, although on account of the affinity with Psa_18:2, it is not to be utterly slighted.
[Psa_116:5. Perowne: “Instead of saying directly, ‘Jehovah answered me,’ he magnifies those attributes of God, which, from the days of His wonderful self-revelation to Moses (Exo_34:6), had been the joy and consolation of every tried and trusting heart. Psa_116:7 : The deliverance vouchsafed in answer to prayer stills the tumult of the soul. The rest is the rest of confidence in God.”—J.F.M.]
Psa_116:10-11. The words of Psa_116:10 are in 2Co_4:13, after the Sept., employed to express the sense: ἐπίστευσα, διὸ ἐλάλησα. But this does not compel us to give the same translation here (Luth. and others, Hengst.), and to understand the words as a confession expressive of belief in the mercy and help of God, and to refer the other member of the verse to the circumstances or consequences of that confession. The words and their connection are obscure. The second member is most simply viewed as expressing what is spoken. It is not admissible to take כִּי as meaning even if or although (Rosenmüller, De Wette). To explain it as equivalent to: than that (Hitzig) would make the poet say, that his trust was greater than that he could declare it. But this thought would then be very obscurely expressed. It is better to explain: I have believed and do believe henceforth, when I speak, that is, have to speak, must speak (Delitzsch). Psa_116:10 would then contain the result of what was experienced, and Psa_116:11 would recall the time when he, abandoned by all those from whom he expected assistance and help, experienced the truth and faithfulness of God. [Dr. Moll accordingly renders: I trust, when I must say: “I am greatly bowed down,” I said in my terror: “all men are liars.” The following rendering with its accompanying exposition, taken from Dr. Alexander, seems to me to be the best, because it gives substantially the same idea as that conveyed in the citation made, and because it adopts the most frequent meaning of כִּי: “I believed, for (this) I speak: I was afflicted greatly. I must have exercised faith, or I could not thus have spoken. The Sept. version, retained in the New Testament (2Co_5:13), clothes the same idea in a different form, I believed, therefore have I spoken. It was because his faith enabled him to speak, so that his speaking I was a proof of faith.—I said in my terror all mankindkind are false. The form of expression in the first clause is borrowed from Psa_31:23. But instead of being a confession of error, it is here rather a profession of faith. The proposition; all mankind are false, i.e., not to be trusted or relied upon, implies as its complement or converse that therefore God alone is to be trusted. See the same contrast stated more explicitly in Psa_118:8, and comp. Psa_62:9-10; Psa_108:13; Psa_146:3-4.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_116:13-14. The figure of the cup of salvation, or the cup of deliverance, is perhaps taken from the cup of thanksgiving for the deliverance from Egypt, drunk at the paschal meal. Psa_116:18, especially, favors this view. The allusion made by Gesenius and Hupfeld to the fact that among the Arabs the cup was the symbol of fortune, does not explain the lifting up of this cup in connection with the proclamation and praise of God’s name. [Perowne: “Many see in the words an allusion to the cup of blessing, at the Paschal meal (Mat_26:27), and this would accord with the sacrificial language of Psa_116:14; Psa_116:17. It is true that there is no evidence of any such custom at the celebration of the Passover in the Old Testament, but, as the custom existed in our Lord’s time, the only question is, as to the time of its introduction. If it was introduced shortly after the Exile this Psalm may very well allude to it.” Dr. Moll renders the whole verse, “I will raise the cup of salvation, and proclaim the name of the Lord.” E. V. renders “call upon the name.” Probably both senses are included, according to the remark of Delitzsch that the expression is the usual one for invoking and proclaiming publicly God’s name. Psa_116:14 b (as likewise 18b) should be translated: “Let me (do so) in the presence of all his people.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_116:15-16. Psa_116:15 is said to have been sung by Babylas, bishop of Antioch, when he was being led forth to death under the emperor Decius. The Apostolical Constitutions, 6:30, recommend the chanting of the same verse, along with others from the Psalms, at the funeral solemnities of those who have died in faith (Augusti, Denkwürdigkeit, 9:563). [In Psa_116:16 a. the true rendering is: Ah now Jehovah!2 for I am thy servant. Alexander: “The expression of entreaty at the beginning has reference to something not expressed, though easily supplied, namely, permission thus to express his gratitude. ”–J.F. M.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Our love to God is essentially a reciprocal love, as being a grateful return for the love actually bestowed upon us (1Jn_4:19; Psa_18:2), and is expressed in the readiness, exhibited by those whom He has delivered, to devote themselves to His name while they live, to invoke and proclaim Him all their days, whether by praying, thanking, confessing, or instructing, and to fix their whole trust and all their hopes upon God alone, and no longer upon men.
2. It reflects no dishonor upon one who has been blessed and saved, to recall his former temptations, cares, and complaints, as well as the misery and distress which he endured, and his natural helplessness. It rather tends to the salvation of himself and others, if he, before God, and in the Church, calls this weakness to remembrance with humility, and thankfully confesses what God has done for his soul. It helps, at the same time, to fix him more firmly in a state of grace, and serves as a defence against the danger of relapsing into his former weakness.
3. When we earnestly endeavor to pay our vows to the Most High, we must bear in mind, that we have not the power to return His benefits. And when we reflect how far our practice falls below our obligations, we are not to infer that we are released from our responsibility, but are to be urged to employ only the more zealously and conscientiously, the means of salvation and grace which God affords in the Church and in the ordinances of her service. We are strongly encouraged to this by the assurance that God has an earnest care over our lives, and that they have a value in His sight; that, therefore, He keeps watch over His chosen, and protects His saints, in order that they, as His servants, should serve Him, for their own salvation, for His glory, and for the building up of the Church.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
God bestows upon us so many blessings that none of us can return them to Him; and He asks nothing in exchange but our love.—If we love God sincerely, we will trust in Him implicitly in our times of need, will give Him thanks for His help, and serve Him in His Church.—It is not equally well with us at all times; but we are blessed indeed if we, with God’s help, have happily overcome the evil days, not merely of earthly calamity and outward danger, but also of spiritual weakness and inward trial.—Our life has a value in God’s sight. Do we employ it to His praise?—Wouldst thou come to thy rest? Cling always to God with simplicity of heart.
Starke: Who would be saved from despair when the tempest rages in the poor conscience, if God would not deliver?—He who can pray in distress and trials has gained half the victory; but this it is hard to do.—Childlike simplicity has powerful protection from God, and therefore also have believing souls.—Far from the world is rest; far from God is unrest.—We can never learn better what men are than in times of great distress, when we most need their help.—If the death of God’s saints is precious in His sight, He will know the right time to avenge it on those who have poured out their blood as water.—The true application of redemption consists in a life spent in obedience to God, in His kingdom, and in His service.
Selnecker: God’s love to me and mine to Him are here brought together.—Believing, the confession of our belief, and suffering, are mutually connected.—Frisch: Receive with thanksgiving what you must else receive whether you are thankful for it or not. Remember (1) that this cup comes from the hand of the Lord; (2) that it has been filled for many saints and beloved ones of God before you; (3) that it is not dealt out at random, but that all that you are to drink has been carefully measured; (4) that it is not a cup of wrath or intoxication, but rather a cup of salvation; (5) that, after the cup of affliction, comes the cup of rejoicing.—Stier: A joyful testimony to the confidence of God’s saints in Christ, who die and yet live.—Tholuck: A sincere prayer of gratitude is to the Lord the most pleasing sacrifice.—Guenther: It is a wonderful mystery in the relationship in which men stand to God as His children, that the more they give thanks, the more they have to be thankful for, and thus receive the more good.—Diedrich: We have all been raised from death and hell by God’s mercy helping us; therefore do we love and praise Him, and find described in this Psalm our own experience.—Lean much on God’s help, and thou wilt learn what He is; avail thyself of it much, yea, even to the utmost; have recourse to Him in order that thou mayest be purified and quickened, and thou wilt experience who and what kind of a God He is.—Taube: All true thanksgiving and songs of praise have their final result in an upright walk before the Lord. If the feet stand again upright through Him, they should also run in His ways, and walk according to His precepts and laws.
[Bp. Patrick: The very bonds which Thou hast loosed shall tie me faster to Thee.
Matt. Henry: As long as we continue living, we must continue praying; this breath we must breathe till we breathe our last; because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we shall have occasion for it.—God’s people are never brought so low but that the everlasting arms are under them, and they cannot sink who are thus sustained.—Quiet thyself and then enjoy thyself: God has dealt kindly with thee, and thou needest never fear that He will deal hardly with thee.—I know no word more proper to close our eyes with at night, when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long sleep, than this: Return unto thy rest, O my soul.—The land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be thankful for: it is a land of opportunity, which we should improve. If God has delivered our soul from death, we must walk before Him. Our new life must be a new life indeed.
Barnes: What does not the world owe, and the cause of religion owe, to such scenes as occurred on the death-beds of Baxter, and Thomas Scott, and Halyburton, and Payson!—J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[2][אָגָה (here for אָנָּא). In regard to its composition and intensity of expression, see Ewald Gr. § 262, Boettcher, § 967, B. It is unnecessary to assume that the לְ in the last word of the verse is the sign of the accusative. It is often assumed as an imitation of the Aramaic without the least necessity, as by Hupfeld in Psa_73:18, where see the addition. It is better to regard the noun to which it is joined as the indirect object. See Green, Gr. § 272, 2, a. For the other view see Ewald, § 277 e.—J. F. M.].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 1. I love the Lord—Hebrew, I love, because Jehovah…
1. I love the Lord—Hebrew, I love, because Jehovah will hear, etc. The object of “love” is not expressed, but logically determined to be He who answers prayer, as if the author’s eye was on Deu_6:5. The future form of the verb will hear, is more comprehensive than the preterit, because it expresses now a settled confidence in God for all coming time, while the recent answer takes the past tense.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14 1. Lit. I love, because Jehovah heareth my voice,…
1. Lit. I love, because Jehovah heareth my voice, even my supplications: an unusual, but not impossible, form of expression for I love Jehovah, because he heareth &c. Cp. 1Jn_4:19 (R.V.), “We love, because he first loved us.” Again in Psa_116:2 (I will call), and Psa_116:10 (I believed) the Psalmist employs verbs in a peculiar manner without an expressed object.
I love is a reminiscence of Psa_18:1, though the Heb. word there is different. My voice, (even) my supplications is (if the text is sound) a slight variation from the usual phrase the voice of my supplications (Psa_28:2; Psa_28:6; Psa_31:22; Psa_130:2; Psa_140:6).
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The P.B.V. I am well pleased that the Lord &c. is linguistically questionable and less forcible.
1, 2. Answered prayer demands lifelong love and gratitude.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13 (1) I love the Lord.—Besides this rendering, where Jehovah…
(1) I love the Lord.—Besides this rendering, where Jehovah is supplied as an object, this poet being given to use verbs without an object (see Psa_116:2; Psa_116:10), there are two other possible translations.
1. I have longed that Jehovah should hear, &c—For this meaning of the verb to love see Jer_5:31, Amo_4:5; and for the construction see Psa_27:4-6. So the Syriac and Arabic versions.
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2. I am well pleased that Jehovah hears (or will hear).—So LXX. and Vulg.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–14 A PSALM of thanksgiving on deliverance from an imminent…
A PSALM of thanksgiving on deliverance from an imminent peril, placed in the mouth of an individual, but possibly intended for liturgical use on some occasion of a national deliverance. Hengstenberg regards it as composed for use at a festival service shortly after the return from the Captivity. Others adhere to the old Hebrew tradition, which ascribed it to Hezekiah, and considered it to have been written on the occasion of his deliverance from death, as narrated in Isa 38. Many resemblances are traced between the phraseology of the psalm and expressions attributed to Hezekiah in Isa 37 Isa 38.
Vers. 1, 2. An introduction, in which the writer declares his love to God, and his resolution to call on him continually, on ac count of his having been delivered from an imminent peril.
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I love the Lord, because he hath heard; literally, I love, because the Lord (Jehovah) hath heard. The object of this love is not expressed, but can only be Jehovah. Still, the grammatical construction is unusual, and has caused the suggestion of an emendation. For ytbha Professor Cheyne would read ytnmah as at the beginning of ver. 10. My voice and my supplications; literally, my voice, my supplications the latter expression being exegetical of the former.
Vers. 1-19. Danger and deliverance.
It is probable that the danger to which the psalmist was exposed was due to a very serious illness, threatening to end in death. It is certain that this is the most common danger we have to confront now. We look, therefore, at
I A RECURRING EVIL IN OUR MORTAL LIFE SICKNESS. With so complicated a structure as the human frame, and so intricate a system as that which has to be kept in working order, if we are to be in perfect health, it is no marvel that there should be frequent disorder within. And though improved sanitary conditions and the advance of physiological and medical science are favorable to health and long life, yet the increasing artificiality and luxuriousness of our age are counteracting forces; so that it may be fairly questioned whether serious sickness, in more varied forms than ever, is not as often a recurring feature of life as it was in the psalmist"s day.
II ITS COMMON ATTENDANTS. These are:
1. Pain; to which no reference is made in the text, though it may be included in "trouble and sorrow" (ver. 3).
2. Dependence; being so reduced that the feet would fall (ver. 8) without help from a friendly hand; the strong man, accustomed to sustain others, is brought down in a few days, or even hours, to depend on the ministry of the servant or the child.
3. Displacement. The must serious "trouble" (ver. 3) which worries and perplexes the busy man is found in being laid aside from his activities; it is nothing less than "sorrow" to him to feel that his work is undone, and that he does not know how provision is to be made for his home. Many and bitter are the tears (ver. 8) of anxiety and distress.
4. The apparent approach of death. (Ver. 3) How bitter to the soul is the vision of death, when it comes in the midst of life, is well exemplified in the grief of Hezekiah; (Isa 38) so also Epaphroditus. (Php_2:25-27) It is not the bodily sufferings endured at death which men fear; it is the departure from kindred and friends, the laying down of work and leaving a happy sphere of usefulness, the going away from so much that is fair and good, leaving the light and joy and hope that our soul has loved below. Even to him who is looking for so much that is better beyond, this deep feeling of regret is not unnatural or unbecoming.
5. Despondency. (Vers. 10, 11) As with the psalmist, so is it often with us: when the strength is feeble, the spirits are low; we are distrustful; we begin to doubt those in whom we did confide; we come, hastily and without ground, to unfavorable conclusions; we think we are forgotten, ill-treated, abandoned.
III ITS ALWAYS PRESENT AND MOST PRECIOUS REFUGE. "Then called I upon the Name of the Lord," etc. (ver. 4). Him whom we are apt to overlook in the light, we remember when the shadows fall. To him who, though unperceived, is ever at our right hand we gladly turn, when human helpers and our own resources fail us. God is "our very present Help in trouble." We are sure of his pity, and we may ask for the exercise of his power. We know that he who is interested in the flowers of the field and the birds of the air (Mt 6) will not suffer one of his own children to die until his hour has fully come; that "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (ver. 15). Who shall estimate the measure of comfort and relief which afflicted humanity has found in submission to the will and prayer for the succor of the heavenly Friend!
IV ITS MERCIFUL REMOVAL. (Vers. 5-8) Recovery from illness, though a very ordinary and familiar thing, is a reason for reverent wonder. How is it that the organ which is impaired, after getting worse and worse and becoming less and less effective recovers its efficiency, and begins to do its proper work again? This we do not under stand. We can only say that the Divine Lord of our life has implanted recuperative powers within us which bring about recovery, and make us well and strong. We supply the ascertained conditions, but the unseen Hand does the work. God is the Healer of our sicknesses. It is not only piety, but truth, to say, "I was brought low, and he helped me" (ver. 6).
V THE GLADNESS AND GRATITUDE OF CONVALESCENCE, (Vers. 1, 2, 5, 7-9, 13, 14, 16-19) There is a tone of great gladness of heart perhaps we may detect some exuberance of spirit in this outpouring. Is not the affliction amply repaid by the joy of returning strength and the sense of newness of life and power. Let such gladness always rake the form of gratitude and praise; let it "lift up its eyes to heaven and say, Father, I thank thee." There should be:
1. Gratitude; the distinct reference of the good received to God himself, "Thou hast dealt bountifully with me" (vers. 7, 8).
2. Praise offered in the sanctuary as well as in the home (vers. 17-19).
3. Love. The hearing and answering of our prayer may well deepen our attachment to our loving and faithful Lord (ver. 1).
4. Reconsecration. (Vers. 2, 16) The best spiritual result of this experience of sickness and recovery is the solemn renewal of the vow by which we first yielded ourselves to the Person and the service of our Savior.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Ver. 1. "I love the Lord, because.
I WE MIGHT FILL UP THE TEXT IN MANY WAYS. As St. John does, "because God first loved us." Or because of what he is in himself. Or because of what he has done for us, is doing, and will do for us or for others dear to us. And there are other ways still.
II HOW IT IS FILLED UP. "Because he hath heard my voice," etc. God"s heating of our prayer is the reason given for loving him.
1. Now, can we say this? Not if we never pray. Not if we do not look out for the answers in the right way believing and in the place where they are to be looked for.
2. But many, like the psalmist, can say this.
III AND HOW REASONABLE IS THIS FILLING UP! It is fitting that we should "love the Lord, because," etc. If we think of the sad characteristics of our prayers. How unworthy! How slow we are to pray I What a number of desires we have! What unbelief mingles with them! How trivial! How impatient! How misused! What his answering of our prayers has cost!
CONCLUSION.
1. If he hears our prayer, he shall hear our praise, and we will hear his word.
2. And we will tell others of this. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver. 1. The various bases on which love rests.
A tradition associates this psalm with the serious sickness of Hezekiah. It may not be a trustworthy tradition. The Aramaisms of the language suggest that it belongs to the time of the restored exiles. It is a psalm of one who passed through a similar sickness to that of Hezekiah; and we are justified in illustrating the psalm from the experiences of the good king. The writer was evidently a man who had been brought through a sickness which had imperiled his life. He feels and sings as one who has just stepped up from the "border-laud." He is in the first flush of restored life, deeply feeling what God has done for him, and realizing a new personal affection for God, which is bringing to him a thrill of holy joy. Compare Hezekiah"s psalm on his recovery. One thing especially seems to be present to thought, and it is made the basis of new love. That restored life was a direct answer to prayer. It therefore indicated God"s personal interest in him. God loved him; and love surely begets love.
I GOD HEARING IS A BASIS OF LOVE. "He hath heard my voice and my supplications." Then God is a living Being; in his image we are made; and he is responsive to his children. Contrast the feeling of the heathen, who prays to the stone figure of his god. He can only vaguely fear or vaguely hope, for there is no response from the stone face; and if he gets what he asks he cannot associate it with the action of the god it is but a happy accident. We can only love living persons. We use the term "love" in a very secondary sense when we apply it to things. God hearing is God living; and the living God can be the Object of human love.
II GOD LOVING TO HEAR IS A FURTHER BASIS OF LOVE. "He hath inclined his ear unto me." Inclining the ear is a sign of disposition, even of personal feeling and regard. When we do not care for those who make requests of us, how short and sharp we are with them! When we have personal regard for them, how patiently we listen. How we bend down to attend to them! How we incline our car! The psalmist read personal interest and affection in that inclining of the Divine ear; and it was precisely fitting that he should respond to love with love.
III GOD"S ACTING ON WHAT HE HEARS BECOMES A FURTHER BASIS OF LOVE. He may incline his ear, and so show his interest in us, but go no further. Then he would but be like so many of our earthly friends, who sympathize with us, but can or will do nothing for us. For God to hear is for God to heed, and for God to heed is for God to bless and help. And new love to him is kindled as we experience his deliverances and salvations. From every man God asks worship. From his healed, restored, redeemed ones he asks the worship of love. R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-9. God the Deliverer.
I CELEBRATES A GREAT DELIVERANCE. (Vers. 3-8)
1. From threatened death. (Ver. 3)
2. From the pains of the unseen world or of death. (Ver. 3)
3. His whole nature is troubled and sorrowful. (Ver. 3)
II THE MEANS OR INSTRUMENTS OF HIS DELIVERANCE.
1. Prayer. (Vers. 1-4)
2. The goodness and mercy of Go d. (Vers. 5, 6)
III THE EFFECTS OF THIS DELIVERANCE.
1. An increase of love. (Ver. 1)
2. An increase of obedience to the Divine will. (Ver. 9)
3. A more untroubled rest in God the rest of faith. (Ver. 7) S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–14 This is a continuation of the Paschal Hallel, and…
This is a continuation of the Paschal Hallel, and therefore must in some measure be interpreted in connection with the coming out of Egypt. It has all the appearance of being a personal song in which the believing soul, reminded by the Passover of its own bondage and deliverance, speaks thereof with gratitude, and praises the Lord accordingly. We can conceive the Israelite with a staff in his hand singing, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, "as he remembered the going back of the house of Jacob to the land of their fathers; and then drinking the cup at the feast using the words of Ps 116:13, "I will take the cup of salvation." The pious man evidently remembers both his own deliverance and that of his people as he sings in the language of Ps 116:16, "Thou hast loosed my bonds"; but he rises into sympathy with his nation as he thinks of the courts of the Lord's house and of the glorious city, and pledges himself to sing "in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." Personal love fostered by a personal experience of redemption is the theme of this Psalm, and in it we see the redeemed answered when they pray, preserved in time of trouble, resting in their God, walking at large, sensible of their obligations, conscious that they are not their own but bought with a price, and joining with all the ransomed company to sing hallelujahs unto God.
Since our divine Master sang this hymn, we can hardly err in seeing here words to which he could set his seal, words in a measure descriptive of his own experience; but upon this we will not enlarge, as in the notes we have indicated how the Psalm has been understood by those who love to find their Lord in every line.
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David Dickson has a somewhat singular division of this Psalm, which strikes us as being exceedingly suggestive. He says, "This Psalm is a threefold engagement of the Psalmist unto thanksgiving unto God, for his mercy unto him, and in particular for some notable delivery of him from death, both bodily and spiritual. The first engagement is, that he shall out of love have recourse unto God by prayer, Ps 116:1-2; the reasons and motives whereof are set down, because of his former deliverances, Ps 116:3-8, the second engagement is to a holy conversation, Ps 116:9, and the motives and reasons are given in Ps 116:10-13; the third engagement is to continual praise and service, and specially to pay those vows before the church, which he had made in days of sorrow, the reasons whereof are given in Ps 116:14-19."
Ver. 1. I love the LORD. A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare without the slightest hesitation, "I love the Lord." It was required under the law, but was never produced in the heart of man except by the grace of God, and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say "I love the Lord"; for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. The Psalmist not only knows that he loves God, but he knows why he does so. When love can justify itself with a reason, it is deep, strong, and abiding. They say that love is blind; but when we love God our affection has its eyes open and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic. We have reason, superabundant reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this case principle and passion, reason and emotion go together, they make up an admirable state of mind. David's reason for his love was the love of God in hearing his prayers. The Psalmist had used his "voice" in prayer, and the habit of doing so is exceedingly helpful to devotion. If we can pray aloud without being overheard it is well to do so. Sometimes, however, when the Psalmist had lifted up his voice, his utterance had been so broken and painful that he scarcely dared to call it prayer; words failed him, he could only produce a groaning sound, but the Lord heard his moaning voice. At other times his prayers were more regular and better formed: these he calls "supplications." David had praised as best he could, and when one form of devotion failed him he tried another. He had gone to the Lord again and again, hence he uses the plural and says "my supplications, "but as often as he had gone, so often had he been welcome. Jehovah had heard, that is to say, accepted, and answered both his broken cries and his more composed and orderly supplications; hence he loved God with all his heart. Answered prayers are silken bonds which bind our hearts to God. When a man's prayers are answered, love is the natural result. According to Alexander, both verbs may be translated in the present, and the text may run thus, "I love because Jehovah hears my voice, my supplications." This also is true in the case of every pleading believer. Continual love flows out of daily answers to prayer.
Whole Psalm. A Psalm of Thanksgiving in the Person of Christ. He is imagined by the prophet to have passed through the sorrows and afflictions of life. The atonement is passed. He has risen from the dead. He is on the right hand of the Majesty on High; and he proclaims to the whole world the mercies he experienced from God in the day of his incarnation, and the glories which he has received in the kingdom of his Heavenly Father. Yet, although the Psalm possesses this power, and, by its own internal evidence, proves the soundness of the interpretation, it is yet highly mystic in its mode of disclosure, and requires careful meditation in bringing out its real results. Its language, too, is not so exclusively appropriate to the Messiah, that it shall not be repeated and applied by the believer to his own trials in the world; so that while there is much that finds a ready parallel in the exaltation of Christ in heaven, there is much that would seem to be restrained to his condition upon earth. It therefore depends much on the mind of the individual, whether he will receive it in the higher sense of the Redeemer's glory; or restrict it solely to a thanksgiving for blessings amidst those sufferings in life to which all men have been subject in the same manner, though not to the same extent as Jesus. The most perfect and the most profitable reading would combine the two, taking Christ as the exemplar of God's mercies towards ourselves.
1. (Ps 116:1) Enthroned in eternity, and triumphant over sin and deathIChristam well pleased that my Heavenly Father listened to the anxious prayers that I made to him in the day of my sorrows; when I had neither strength in my own mind, nor assistance from men; therefore "through my days" through the endless ages of my eternal existencewill I call upon him in my gratitude, and praise him with my whole heart.
3. (Ps 116:3) In the troublous times of my incarnation I was encircled with snares, and urged onwards towards my death. The priest and ruler; the Pharisee and the scribe; the rich and the poor, clamoured fiercely for my destruction. The whole nation conspired against me. "The bands of the grave" laid hold of me, and I was hurried to the cross.
4. (Ps 116:4) Then, truly did Christ find heaviness and affliction. "His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He prayed anxiously to his Heavenly Father, that "the cup might pass from him." The fate of the whole world was in the balance; and he supplicated with agony, that his soul might be delivered.
5. (Ps 116:5) The abrupt breaking off in this verse from the direct narrative of his own sorrows is wonderfully grand and beautiful. Nor less so, is the expression "our God" as applied by Christ to his own disciples and believers. "I called, "he states, "on the name of the LORD." But he does not yet state the answer. He leaves that to be inferred from the assurance that God is ever gracious to the faithful; yea, "our God" the protector of the Christian church, as well as of myself"our God is merciful."
6. (Ps 116:6) Instantly, however, he resumes. Mark the energy of the language, "I was afflicted; and he delivered me." And how delivered? The soul of Christ hast returned freely to its tranquillity; for though the body and the frame perished on the tree, yet the soul burst through the bands of death. Again in the full stature of a perfect man Christ rose resplendent in glory to the mansions of eternity. The tears ceased: the sorrows were hushed; and henceforward, through the boundless day of immortality, doth lie "walk before Jehovah, in the land of the living." This last is one of those expressions in the Psalm which might, without reflection, seem adapted to the rescued believer's state on earth, rather than Christ's in heaven. But applying the language of earthly things to heavenly which is usual, even in the most mystic writings of Scripture nothing can be finer than the appellation of "the land of the living, "when assigned to the future residence of the soul. It is the noblest application of the metaphor, and is singularly appropriate to those eternal mansions where death and sorrow are alike unknown.
10. (Ps 116:10) This stanza will bear an emendation.
I felt confidence, although I said,
"I am sore afflicted."
I said in my sudden terror,
"All mankind are false." French.
It alludes to the eve of his crucifixion, when worn down with long watchfulness and fasting, his spirit almost fainted in the agony of Gethsemane. Still, oppressed and stricken as he was in soul, he yet trusted in Jehovah, for he felt assured that he would not forsake him. But, sustained by God, he was deserted by men, the disciples with whom he had lived; the multitudes whom he had taught; the afflicted whom he had healed, "all forsook him and fled." Not onenot even the "disciple whom he loved" remained; and in the anguish of that desertion he could not refrain from the bitter thought, that all mankind were alike false and treacherous.
12. (Ps 116:12) But that dread hour has passed. He has risen from the dead; and stands girt with truth and holiness and glory. What then is his earliest thought? Hear it, O man, and blush for thine oft ingratitude! I will lift up "the cup of deliverance" the drink offering made to God with sacrifice after any signal mercies receivedand bless the Lord who has been thus gracious to me. In the sight of the whole world will I pay my past vows unto Jehovah, and bring nations from every portion of the earth, reconciled and holy through the blood of my atonement.
The language in these verses, as in the concluding part of the Psalm, is wholly drawn from earthly objects and modes of religious service, well recognized by the Jews. It is in these things that the spiritual sense is required to be separated from the external emblem. For instance, the sacramental cup was without a doubt drawn and instituted from the cup used in commemoration of deliverances by the Jews. It is used figuratively by Christ in heaven; but the reflective mind can scarcely fail to see the beauty of imagining it in his hand in thankfulness for his triumph, because "he has burst his bonds in sunder": the bonds which held him fast in death, and confined him to the tomb: the assertion that "precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints" specially includes the sacrifice of Christ within its more general allusion to the blood shed, in such abundance, by prophets and martyrs to the truth. In the same manner the worship of Jehovah in the courts of his temple at Jerusalem is used in figure for the open promulgation of Christianity to the whole world. The temple services were the most solemn and most public which were offered by the Jews; and when Christ is said to "offer his sacrifices of thanksgiving" to God in the sight of all his people, the figure is easily separated from the grosser element; and the conversion of all people intimated under the form of Christ seen by all. William Hill Tucker.
Ver. 1. I love. The expression of the prophet's affection is in this short abrupt phrase, "I love, "which is but one word in the original, and expressed as a full and entire sentence in itself, thus I love because the Lord hath heard, etc. Most translators so turn it, as if, by a trajection, or passing of a word from one sentence to another, this title Lord were to be joined with the first clause, thus(hwhy emvy yk ytbha), "I love the LORD, because he hath heard, "etc. I deny not but that thus the sense is made somewhat the more perspicuous, and the words run the more roundly; yet are they not altogether so emphatic. For when a man's heart is inflamed, and his soul lavished with a deep apprehension of some great and extraordinary favour, his affection will cause interruption in the expression thereof, and make stops in his speech; and therefore this concise and abrupt clause, "I love, "declareth a more entire and ardent affection than a more full and round phrase would do. Great is the force of true love, so that it cannot be sufficiently expressed. William Gouge, 1575-1653.
Ver. 1. I love the LORD. Oh that there were such hearts in us that we could every one say, as David, with David's spirit, upon his evidence, "I love the LORD"; that were more worth than all these, viz.; First, to know all secrets. Secondly, to prophesy. Thirdly, to move mountains, etc., 1Co 13:1-2, etc. "I love the LORD"; it is more than I know the Lord; for even castaways are enlightened, (Heb 6:4); more than I fear the Lord, for devils fear him unto trembling (Jas 2:19); more than I pray to God (Isa 1:15). What should I say? More than all services, than all virtues separate from charity: truly say the schools, charity is the form of all virtues, because it forms them all to acceptability, for nothing is accepted but what issues from charity, or, in other words, from the love of God. William Slater, 1638.
Ver. 1. I love the LORD, because, etc. How vain and foolish is the talk, "To love God for his benefits towards us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!" Whether pure or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its Creator. "We love him, "said the holiest of Christ's disciples, "because he first loved us; "and the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the increased sense we have of our obligation to him. We love him for the benefits bestowed on us. Love begets love. Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. He hath heard my voice. But is this such a benefit to us, that God hears us? Is his hearing our voice such an argument of his love? Alas! he may hear us, and we be never the better: he may hear our voice, and yet his love to us may be but little, for who will not give a man the hearing, though he love him not at all? With men perhaps it may be so, but not with God; for his hearing is not only voluntary, but reserved; non omnibus dormit:his ears are not open to every one's cry; indeed, to hear us, is in God so great a favour, that he may well be counted his favourite whom he vouchsafes to hear: and the rather, for that his hearing is always operative, and with a purpose of helping; so that if he hear my voice, I may be sure he means to grant my supplication; or rather perhaps in David's manner of expressing, and in God's manner of proceeding, to hear my voice is no less in effect than to grant my supplication. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 1. Hath heard. By hearing prayer God giveth evidence of the notice which he taketh of our estates, of the respect he beareth to our persons, of the pity he hath of our miseries, of his purpose to supply our wants, and of his mind to do us good according to our needs. William Gouge.
Ver. 1-2. The first emvy is more of an aorist. The Lord hears always; and then, making a distinction ygwa hjh. He has done it hitherto: adqa Therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live, cleaving to Him in love and faith! It should be noticed, in addition, that adq here is not simply the prayer for help, but includes also the praising and thanksgiving, according to the twofold signification of hwhy Mvk arq, in Ps 116:4, 13, 17; therefore, Jarchi very excellently says: In the time of my distress I will call upon Him, and in the time of my deliverance l will praise Him. Rudolph Stier.
Ver. 1-2. I love. Therefore will I call upon him. It is love that doth open our mouths, that we may praise God with joyful lips: "I will love the Lord because he hath heard the voice of my supplications"; and then, Ps 116:2, "I will call upon him as long as I live." The proper intent of mercies is to draw us to God. When the heart is full of a sense of the goodness of the Lord, the tongue cannot hold its peace. Self love may lead us to prayers, but love to God excites us to praises: therefore to seek and not to praise, is to be lovers of ourselves rather than of God. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 1, 12. I love. What shall I render? Love and thankfulness are like the symbolical qualities of the elements, easily resolved into each other. David begins with, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice"; and to enkindle this grace into a greater flame, he records the mercies of God in some following verses; which done, then he is in the right mood for praise; and cries, "What shall I render unto the Loud for all his benefits?" The spouse, when thoroughly awake, pondering with herself what a friend had been at her door, and how his sweet company was lost through her unkindness, shakes off her sloth, riseth, and away she goes after him; now, when by running after her beloved, she hath put her soul into a heat of love, she breaks out in praising him from top to toe. So 5:10. That is the acceptable praising which comes from a warm heart; and the saint must use some holy exercise to stir up his habit of love, which like natural heat in the body, is preserved and increased by motion. William Gumall.
Ver. 1-2.
1. Present"I love."
2. Past"He hath."
3. Future"I will."
Ver. 1-2. Personal experience in reference to prayer.
1. We have prayed, often, constantly, in different ways, etc.
2. We have been heard. A grateful retrospect of usual answers and of special answers.
3. Love to God has thus been promoted.
4. Our sense of the value of prayer has become so intense that we cannot cease praying.
Ver. 1-2, 9. If you cast your eyes on the first verse of the Psalm, you find a profession of love I love the Lord; if on the second, a promise of prayer I will call on the Lord; if on the ninth, a resolve of walking I will walk before the LORD. There are three things should be the object of a saint's care, the devotion of the soul, profession of the mouth, and conversation of the life: that is the sweetest melody in God's ears, when not only the voice sings, but the heartstrings keep tune, and the hand keepeth time. Nathanael Hardy.
Psalms 116:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14 I love the Lord, because He hath heard my…
Psa_116:1-19
I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications.
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Christian experience and its results
I. The psalm opens with a general declaration of gratitude to God, as the hearer of prayer (verse 1).
I. The true believer is a man of prayer.
2. Another feature of the child of God is conviction of sin (verse 3).
3. He is one who can testify that the Lord has answered his prayers: one who has tasted the sweetness of Divine mercy (verses 5, 6, 8).
4. He seeks his happiness from God, and looks to the bosom of God as the only resting-place for his soul (verse 7).
II. The results of Christian experience.
1. A deep sense of gratitude, and a desire of manifesting the same (verse 12).
2. A special resolve to manifest his gratitude, by a devout attendance on ordinances, appointed of God as the public and solemn expression of thanksgiving and self-dedication (verses 13, 14). (W. Hancock, B. D.)
The religion of gratitude
We trace this religious gratitude--
I. In a profound impression of Gods relative kindness. His relative kindness is shown in two ways.
1. In delivering from distress. The distress seemed to have consisted
(1) In bodily suffering.
(2) In mental sorrow.
2. In delivering from great distress in answer to prayer.
II. In an earnest confession of Gods relative kindness.
1. His general kindness (verse 5).
2. His personal kindness (verse 6).
III. In a determination to live a better life in consequence of Gods relative kindness. Here is a determination--
1. To rest in God (verse 7).
(1) The soul wants rest. Like Noahs dove it has forsaken its home, and is fluttering in the storms of external circumstances.
(2) Its only rest is God. It is so constituted that it can only rest where it can find unbounded faith for its intellect, and supreme love for its heart. And who but God, the supremely good and supremely true, can supply these conditions?
(3) To this rest it must return by its own effort. Return unto thy rest, O my soul. The soul cannot be carried to this rest. As you steer the sea-tossed bark into harbour, so it must go itself into the spheres of serenity and peace.
(4) A sense of Gods relative kindness tends to stimulate this effort. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. The goodness of God shall lead to repentance.
2. To walk before God. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I will set the Lord always before me. Whoever else I may lose sight of, ignore, or forget, His presence shall always be before my eye.
IV. In a public acknowledgment of Gods relative kindness. (Homilist.)
Prayer answered, love nourished
The particular objects which you are now to look back upon are the manifold and manifest answers to prayer, which God has given you.
I. The first thing I would have you recollect is, your own prayers. If you look at them with an honest eye, you will be struck with wonder that ever God should have heard them. Look back now, Christian, upon thy prayers, and remember what cold things they have been. Thy desires have been but faint, and they have been expressed in such sorry language, that the desire itself seemed to freeze upon the lips that uttered it. And yet, strange to say, God has heard those cold prayers, and has answered them too, though they have been such that we have come out of our closets and have wept over them. Then, again, believer, how unfrequent and few are your prayers, and yet how numerous and how great have Gods blessings been. Ye have prayed in times of difficulty very earnestly, but when God has delivered you, where was your former fervency? Look at your prayers, again, in another aspect. How unbelieving have they often been! You and I have gone to the mercy-seat, and we have asked God to bless us, but we have not believed that He would do so. How small, too, the faith of our most faithful prayers! When we believe the most, how little do we trust; how full of doubting is our heart, even when our faith has grown to its greatest extent! I am sure we shall find much reason to love God, if we only think of those pitiful abortions of prayer, those unripe figs, those stringless bows, those headless arrows, which we call prayers, and which He has borne with in His long-suffering. The fact is, that sincere prayer may often be very feeble to us, but it is always acceptable to God. It is like some of those one-pound notes, which they use in Scotland--dirty, ragged bits of paper; one would hardly look at them, one seems always glad to get rid of them for something that looks a little more like money. But still, when they are taken to the bank, they are always acknowledged and accepted as being genuine, however rotten and old they may be. So with our prayers: they are foul with unbelief, decayed with imbecility, and worm-eaten with wandering thoughts; but, nevertheless, God accepts them at heavens own bank, and gives us rich and ready blessings, in return for our supplications.
II. Again: I hope we shall be led to love God for having heard our prayers, if we consider the great variety of mercies which we have asked in prayer, and the long list of answers which we have received. It is impossible for me to depict thine experience as well as thou canst read it thyself. What multitudes of prayers have you and I put up from the first moment when we learnt to pray! You have asked for blessings in your going out and your coming in; blessings of the day and of the night, and of the sun and of the moon; and all these have been vouchsafed to you. Your prayers were innumerable; you asked for countless mercies, and they have all been given. Only look at yourself: are not you adorned and bejewelled with mercies as thickly as the sky with stars?
III. Let us note again the frequency of His answers to our frequent prayers. If a beggar comes to your house, and you give him alms, you will be greatly annoyed if within a month he shall come again; and if you then discover that he has made it a rule to wait upon you monthly for a contribution, you will say to him, I gave you something once, but I did not mean to establish it as a rule. Suppose, however, that the beggar should be so impudent and impertinent that he should say, But I intend, sir, to wait upon you every morning and every evening: then you would say, I intend to keep my gate locked that you shall not trouble me. And suppose he should then look you in the face and add still more, Sir, I intend waiting upon you every hour, nor can I promise that I wont come to you sixty times in an hour; but I just vow and declare that as often as I want anything so often will I come to you: if I only have a wish I will come and tell it to you; the least thing and the greatest thing shall drive me to you; I will always be at the post of your door. You would soon be tired of such importunity as that, and wish the beggar anywhere, rather than that he should come and tease you so. Yet recollect, this is just what you have done to God, and He has never complained of you for doing it; but rather He has complained of you the other way. He has said, Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob. He has never murmured at the frequency of your prayers, but has complained that you have not come to Him enough.
IV. Think of the greatness of the mercy for which you have often asked him, We never know the greatness of our mercies till we get into trouble and want them. Gods mercies are so great that they cannot be magnified; they are so numerous they cannot be multiplied, so precious they cannot be over-estimated. I say, look back to-day upon these great mercies with which the Lord has favoured thee in answer to thy great desires, and wilt thou not say, I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications?
V. How trivial have been the things which we have often taken before God, and yet how kindly has He condescended to hear our prayers. In looking back, my unbelief compels me to wonder at myself, that I should have prayed for such little things. My gratitude compels me to say, I love the Lord, because He has heard those little prayers, and answered my little supplications, and made me blessed, even in little things which, after all, make up the life of man.
VI. Let me remind you of the timely answers which God has given you to your prayers, and this should compel you to love Him. Gods answers have never come too soon nor yet too late. If the Lord had given you His blessing one day before it did come, it might have been a curse, and there have been times when if He had withheld it an hour longer it would have been quite useless, because it would have come too late.
VII. Will you not love the Lord, when you recollect the special and great instances of His mercy to you? You have had seasons of special prayer and of special answer. What shall I say then? God has heard my voice in my prayer. The first lesson, then, is this--He shall hear my voice in my praise. If He heard me pray, He shall hear me sing; if He listened to me when the tear was in mine eye, He shall listen to me when my eye is sparkling with delight. My piety shall not be that of the dungeon and sick-bed; it shall be that also of deliverance and of health. Another lesson. Has God heard my voice? Then I will hear His voice. If He heard me, I will hear Him. Tell me, Lord, what wouldst Thou have Thy servant do, and I will do it. The last lesson is, Lord, hast Thou heard my voice? then I will tell others that Thou wilt hear their voice too. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Reality of answer to prayer
A prayer is an appeal from helplessness to power. No wonder that prayer in its prompting and incentiveness is always attributed to the Holy Spirit. David says, He has heard my cry and my supplications. All the language is not on one side. I sent a letter to a certain city across the Atlantic, believing that the mail would carry my missive, that the British flag under which the mail ship sailed would protect her in safety across the Atlantic, and that thus my epistle would reach its destination. In due course a reply comes, showing that my expectations were fulfilled. You could not reason me out of my belief; you might go into discussion about the mighty leagues of ocean that separate Glasgow from Chicago, but you could not reason me out of my belief when I had that reply in my hand. There are men who as literally and as definitely have had a reply from God to their cry. They can say with David, God has heard my voice and my supplication; they have got the proof; they have received the reply. (J. Robertson.)
Love of God in the heart
I love the Lord. Can you say that? There is a bell in Moscow that never was hung and never was rung. It is one of the largest bells in the world, but its clapper has never swung against its great echoing sides. There is many a human heart that was placed where it is to beat with love to God; but, like the bell, it has never been hung and never been rung. Dead, lost soul, your heart was made to love God. Will you let it lie there, as they let the Moscow bell lie in the courtyard amid the dust and rubbish and daily defilement of the palace? Would you not rather pray, and strive, and agonize that your heart should be hung, and that it should be rung in a melody of love to God? (J. Robertson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 116
Psalms 116
THIS psalm is intensely individual. "I," "me," or "my" occurs in every verse but two (Psa_116:5, Psa_116:19). The singer is but recently delivered from some peril, and his song heaves with a groundswell of emotion after the storm. Hupfeld takes offence at its "continual alternation of petition and recognition of the Divine beneficence and deliverance, or vows of thanksgiving," but surely that very blending is natural to one just rescued and still panting from his danger. Certain grammatical forms indicate a late date, and the frequent allusions to earlier psalms point in the same direction. The words of former psalmists were part of this singers mental furniture, and came to his lips, when he brought his own thanksgivings. Hupfeld thinks it "strange" that "such a patched up (zusammengestoppelter) psalm," has "imposed" upon commentators, who speak of its depth and tenderness; it is perhaps stranger that its use of older songs has imposed upon so good a critic and hid these characteristics from him. Four parts may be discerned, of which the first (Psa_116:1-4) mainly describes the psalmists peril; the second (Psa_116:5-9), his deliverance; the third glances back to his alarm and thence draws reasons for his vow of praise (Psa_116:10-14); and the fourth (Psa_116:15-19) bases the same vow on the remembrance of Jehovahs having loosed his bonds.
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The early verses of Psalms 18 obviously colour the psalmists description of his distress. That psalm begins with an expression of love to Jehovah, which is echoed here, though a different word is employed. "I love" stands in Psa_116:1 without an object, just as "I will call" does in Psa_116:2, and "I believed" and "I spoke" in Psa_116:10. Probably "Thee" has fallen out, which would be the more easy, as the next word begins with the letter which stands for it in Hebrew. Cheyne follows Graetz in the conjectural adoption of the same beginning as in Psa_116:10, "I am confident." This change necessitates translating the following "for" as "that," whereas it is plainly to be taken, like the "for" at the beginning of Psa_116:2, as causal. Psa_116:3 is moulded on Psa_18:5, with a modification of the metaphors by the unusual expression "the narrows of Sheol." The word rendered narrows may be employed simply as distress or straits, but it is allowable to take it as picturing that gloomy realm as a confined gorge, like the throat of a pass, from which the psalmist could find no escape. He is like a creature caught in the toils of the hunter Death. The stern rocks of a dark defile have all but closed upon him, but, like a man from the bottom of a pit, he can send out one cry before the earth falls in and buries him. He cried to Jehovah, and the rocks flung his voice heavenwards. Sorrow is meant to drive to God. When cries become prayers, they are not in vain. The revealed character of Jehovah is the ground of a desperate mans hope. His own Name is a plea which Jehovah will certainly honour. Many words are needless when peril is sore and the suppliant is sure of God. To name Him and to cry for deliverance are enough. "I beseech Thee" represents a particle which is used frequently in this psalm, and by some peculiarities in its use here indicates a late date.
The psalmist does not pause to say definitely that he was delivered, but breaks into the celebration of the Name on which he had called, and from which the certainty of an answer followed. Since Jehovah is gracious, righteous (as strictly adhering to the conditions He has laid down), and merciful (as condescending in love to lowly and imperfect men), there can be no doubt how He will deal with trustful suppliants. The psalmist turns for a moment from his own experience to sun himself in the great thought of the Name, and thereby to come into touch with all who share his faith. The cry for help is wrung out by personal need, but the answer received brings into fellowship with a great multitude. Jehovahs character leads up in Psa_116:6 to a broad truth as to His acts, for it ensures that He cannot but care for the "simple," whose simplicity lays them open to assailants, and whose single-hearted adhesion to God appeals unfailingly to His heart. Happy the man who, like the psalmist, can give confirmation from his own experience to the broad truths of Gods protection to ingenuous and guileless souls! Each individual may, if he will, thus narrow to his own use the widest promises, and put "I" and "me" wherever God has put "whosoever." If he does he will be able to turn his own experience into universal maxims, and encourage others to put "whosoever" where his grateful heart has put "I" and "me."
The deliverance, which is thus the direct result of the Divine character, and which extends to all the simple, and therefore included the psalmist, leads to calm repose. The singer does not say so in cold words, but beautifully wooes his "soul," his sensitive nature, which had trembled with fear in deaths net, to come back to its rest. The word is in the plural, which may be only another indication of late date, but is more worthily understood as expressing the completeness of the repose, which in its fulness is only found in God, and is made the more deep by contrast with previous "agitation."
Psa_116:8-9, are quoted from Psa_56:13 with slight variations, the most significant of which is the change of "light" into "lands." It is noticeable that the Divine deliverance is thus described as surpassing the psalmists petition. He asked, "Deliver my soul." Bare escape was all that he craved, but he received, not only the deliverance of his soul from death, but, over and above, his tears were wiped away by a loving hand, his feet stayed by a strong arm. God over answers trustful cries, and does not give the minimum consistent with safety, but the maximum of which we are capable. What shall a grateful heart do with such benefits? "I will walk before Jehovah in the lands of the living," joyously and unconstrainedly (for so the form of the word "walk" implies), as ever conscious of that presence which brings blessedness and requires holiness. The paths appointed may carry the traveller far, but into whatever lands he goes, he will have the same glad heart within to urge his feet and the same loving eye above to beam guidance on him.
The third part (Psa_116:10-14) recurs to the psalmists mood in his trouble, and bases on the retrospect of that and of Gods mercy the vow of praise. Psa_116:10 may be variously understood. The "speaking" may be taken as referring to the preceding expressions of trust or thanksgivings for deliverance. The sentiment would then be that the psalmist was confident that he should one day thus speak. So Cheyne; or the rendering may be "I believed in that I spake thus"-i.e., that he spake those trustful words of Psa_116:9 was the result of sheer faith (so Kay). The thing spoken may also be the expressions which follow, and this seems to yield the most satisfactory meaning. "Even when I said, I am afflicted and men fail me, I had not lost my faith." He is recalling the agitation which shook him, but feels that, through it all, there was an unshaken centre of rest in God. The presence of doubt and fear does not prove the absence of trust. There may live a spark of it, though almost buried below masses of cold unbelief. What he said was the complaint that he was greatly afflicted, and the bitter wail that all men deceive or disappoint. He said so in his agitation. {Psa_31:22} But even in recognising the folly of trusting in men, he was in some measure trusting God, and the trust, though tremulous, was rewarded.
Again he hurries on to sing the issues of deliverance, without waiting to describe it. That little dialogue of the devout soul with itself (Psa_116:12-13) goes very deep. It is an illuminative word as to Gods character, an emancipating word as to the true notion of service to Him, a guiding word as to common life. For it declares that men honour God most by taking His gifts with recognition of the Giver, and that the return which He in His love seeks is only our thankful reception of His. mercy. A giver who desires but these results is surely Love. A religion which consists first in accepting Gods gift and then in praising by lip and life Him who gives banishes the religion of fear, of barter, of unwelcome restrictions and commands. It is the exact opposite of the slavery which says, "Thou art an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow." It is the religion of which the initial act is faith, and the continual activity, the appropriation of Gods spiritual gifts. In daily life there would be less despondency and weakening regrets over vanished blessings, if men were more careful to take and enjoy thankfully all that God gives. But many of us have no eyes for other blessings, because some one blessing is withdrawn or denied. If we treasured all that is given, we should be richer than most of us are.
In Psa_116:14 the particle of beseeching is added to "before," a singular form of expression which seems to imply desire that the psalmist may come into the temple with his vows. He may have been thinking of the "sacrificial meal in connection with the peace offerings." In any case, blessings received in solitude should impel to public gratitude. God delivers His suppliants that they may magnify Him before men.
The last part (Psa_116:15-19) repeats the refrain of Psa_116:14, but with a different setting. Here the singer generalises his own experience, and finds increase of joy in the thought of the multitude who dwell safe under the same protection. The more usual form of expression for the idea in Psa_116:15 is "their blood is precious". {Psa_72:14} The meaning is that the death of Gods saints is no trivial thing in Gods eyes, to be lightly permitted. (Compare the contrasted thought, {Psa_44:12} Then, on the basis of that general truth, is built Psa_116:16, which begins singularly with the same beseeching word which has already occurred in Psa_116:4 and Psa_116:14. Here it is not followed by an expressed petition, but is a yearning of desire for continued or fuller manifestation of Gods favour. The largest gifts, most fully accepted and most thankfully recognised, still leave room for longing which is not pain, because it is conscious of tender relations with God that guarantee its fulfilment. "I am Thy servant." Therefore the longing which has no words needs none. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." His thoughts go back to "the cords of death" (Psa_116:3), which had held him so tightly. Gods hand has slackened them, and, by freeing him from that bondage, has bound him more closely than before to himself. "Being made free from sin, ye became the slaves of righteousness." So, in the full blessedness of received deliverance, the grateful heart offers itself to God, as moved by His mercies to become a living sacrifice, and calls on the Name of Jehovah, in its hour of thankful surrender, as it had called on that Name in its time of deep distress. Once more the lonely suppliant, who had waded such deep waters without companion but Jehovah, seeks to feel himself one of the glad multitude in the courts of the house of Jehovah, and to blend his single voice in the shout of a nations praise. We suffer and struggle for the most part alone. Grief is a hermit, but Joy is sociable; and thankfulness desires listeners to its praise. The perfect song is the chorus of a great "multitude which no man can number."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This Psalm is an evidence of the truth and…
INTRODUCTION
“This Psalm is an evidence of the truth and depth of the religious life in individuals after the return from the Exile.… It reminds us of earlier Psalms, and especially of the Psalms of David. His words must have laid hold in no common degree of the hearts of those who were heirs of his faith, and have sustained them in times of sorrow and suffering; and nothing would be more natural than that later poets would echo his strains, and mingle his words with their own, when they poured forth their prayers and praises before God.”—Perowne.
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PRAYER: ITS OBJECT AND ITS VALUE
(Psa_116:1)
The exact rendering would be, “I love, because the Lord heareth my voice,” &c., and brings before us the proper object and the ethical value of prayer.
I. Characteristics of prayer.
1. “My voice.” Prayer should, as far as possible, be vocal. The conditions of prayer are hardly fulfilled when it is merely a current of devotional thought passing through the mind. True, there are circumstances under which sighs, unexpressed desires, are acceptable to God; but expression
(1) gives definiteness, prevents the mind from wandering;
(2) gives completeness; the sacrifice of the heart is then accompanied by the sacrifice of the lips.
2. “My supplications.” Which teaches us that prayer should be
(1) humble. We are simply beggars at the throne of grace, and are absolutely dependent for every gift on God’s free bounty.
(2) Full. One supplication is not enough. We must multiply our supplications, as showing our need, and our confidence in God’s infinite resources. We fail because we do not ask enough, or for enough.
(3) Earnest. Cold formalities never reach the ear of God.
II. The object of prayer. “The Lord heareth.”
1. God can hear prayer. “He that planted the ear shall He not hear?” God made man for communion with Himself, which would be impossible unless God could hear when man prays.
2. God is willing to hear prayer.
(1.) His commandments prove it. “Make your requests known unto God.”
(2.) His promises prove it. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble,” &c.
(3.) Direct revelations to this effect prove it. (Jer_29:11-14., Zec_13:9.)
3. God does hear prayer. (Isa_45:19.) All the Bible proves it; all Christian experience has proved it. “This poor man cried,” &c.
III. The value of prayer.
1. Prayer secures the object for which it asks. “The Lord heareth.” For God to hear is for God to answer, and His all comprehending answer is Himself.
2. In securing this grand object it secures all that it wants. To answer some petitions would be harmful. The promise is, “My God shall supply all your need.”
3. The effect of prayer “is to put the affections in motion. Its object is the uncreated love, the eternal beauty; He of whose beauty all that moves love and admiration here is at best a pale reflection. To be in His presence is to be conscious of an expansion of the heart, and of the pleasure which accompanies it, which we feel in another sense, when speaking to an intimate and loved friend or relative. And this movement of the affections is sustained throughout the act of prayer. It is invigorated by the spiritual sight of God; but it is also the original impulse which leads us to draw near to Him. (Mat_15:8, 1Jn_3:21-22.) In true prayer: ‘Out of the abundance of the heart,” &c.—Liddon.
IN CONCLUSION.—“How vain and foolish is the talk ‘To love God for His benefits is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!’ Whether pure or impure, no other lore can flow out of the heart of the creature towards its creator. ‘We love Him,’ said Christ’s holiest apostle, ‘because He first loved us;’ and the increase of our love and filial obedience is in proportion to the increased sense of our obligation to Him.”—Dr. A. Clarke.
THE MOTIVE FOR PERSEVERING PRAYER
(Psa_116:2)
There can be no reasonable objection to motives as long as they are pure, and so long as they are adequate for the purpose for which they are employed. The motives in God’s Word are worthy and sufficient. We have a very beautiful one in the text. God has heard the particular request of the Psalmist, and he takes that as a guarantee of His willingness to hear and answer in all time to come. In the strength of this he vows to pray without ceasing. Notice—
I. This motive reveals God’s condescension and anxiety to hear. “The Psalmist represents himself as so sick and weak that he could scarcely speak. The Lord is here considered as bowing down His ear to the mouth of the feeble suppliant, that He may catch every word of His prayer.”—Dr. A. Clarke.
II. The determination that is based upon this motive, “I will call,” &c.
1. What? “I will call,” implying
(1) Resolution: “I will.” Prayer requires effort. “No man is likely to do much good in prayer who does not begin by looking upon it in the light of a work, to be prepared for, and to be persevered in with all the earnestness which we bring to bear upon subjects which are, in our opinion, at once most interesting and most necessary.”—Bishop Hamilton.
(2) Confidence. Unless there is an expectation of being heard the voice will falter.
(3) Earnestness. Not a feeble whisper, but a loud cry.
(4) Publicity.
2. When? “As long as I live.” Heb.: “In my days.”
(1.) Whenever opportunities occur. These occur constantly.
(2.) As long as life lasts. Not by fits and starts.
(3.) In the hour of death.
(4.) In eternity.
III. The divine intention that is suggested by the ground of this motive, and the warrant for this determination. God answers prayer—
1. That we should believe that He hears and answers it.
2. That we may have “boldness of access with confidence.”
3. That He may surround Himself with a royal priesthood, who shall “show forth the praises of Him who hath called them,” &c. Learn—(i.) For our encouragement that God desires our prayers, and is anxious to hear them. (ii.) For our warning. Unless we call, God will not hear. A prayerless people are a godless people.
SPECIAL PRAYER
(Psa_116:3-4)
Prayer must be the Christian’s atmosphere. As long as there is necessity for prayer we must pray. But there are special seasons which require special prayer. Our text indicates some of them.
I. The time for special prayer.
1. In the pangs of disease, either hopeless or apparently so. Heb.: “The cords of death encircled me.” In the Old Testament death is represented as a hunter with a cord and net. In consumption or any lingering sickness the cord gets tighter and tighter, and the meshes more and more intricate, until all possibility of escape is cut off. One by one hopes fade, and encouraging symptoms disappear. Step by step does the fell malady march to conquest, and then the time comes when there is but a step between man and death. The Psalmist would appear to have been in the death struggle. Whether the affliction was physical disease, overwhelming trouble, or extreme danger, does not appear, but the expression is suggestive of all.
2. In the painful anticipation of the future. Heb.: “The pangs of the underworld discovered me.” “As if they had been searching for me, and had found my hiding-place. Those sorrows ever in pursuit of us will soon find us all. We cannot long escape the pursuit. Death tracks us, and is on our heels”—Barnes.
(1.) The pain of leaving those we love.
(2.) The pain of unfinished work.
(3.) The sorrowful contemplation of sin.
(4.) For some, the fearful apprehension of wrath to come.
3. In bitter disappointment. “Death found me, and I found trouble and sorrow. I did not seek it, but in what I was seeking I found this. Whatever we fail to ‘find’ in the pursuits of life, we shall not fail to find troubles and sorrows”—Barnes.
4. In any kind of trial. Whole text.
II. The subjects of special prayer. “O Lord, deliver my soul”
1. The Psalmist’s prayer literally was for life. This value of and desire for life runs through the Old Testament. Not that we are warranted in believing that the Jew held that death was the extinction of the soul’s life. But life that was spared was ever viewed in the light of consecration to God. The rest of this Psalm, and the conclusion of the previous, bears this out. He wished for life that he might pay his vows.
2. The Psalmist’s prayer admits of a spiritual interpretation. Soul deliverance is deliverance from sin. Sin is the soul’s death. All other aspects of death are comparatively insignificant. Of all legitimately special subjects this is the sum. If the soul is saved from death, physical dissolution can be apprehended calmly.
3. The Psalmist’s prayer suggests that subordinate details should be left in the hands of God. His subsequent path is a matter of unconcern. If God spares his life, he knows that God will support it. “Is not the life more than meat?” All God’s larger blessings include the lesser. (Rom_8:32.)
III. The manner of special prayer.
1. Earnestly. “Called.” The case is urgent.
2. Resignedly. “I beseech Thee,” i.e., if it be Thy will.
IN CONCLUSION.—God sometimes allows His servants to approach extreme peril, that they may experience His extreme nearness, and the extreme efficacy of prayer.
ENCOURAGEMENTS FOR PRAYER
(Psa_116:5)
Under certain circumstances prayer would be impossible. If its object were unbending, and therefore incapable of hearing it, it would be useless; if capricious, or too easily moved, it would be worthless; if severe and implacable, we should have no heart to pray. The Christian is encouraged by the fact that God is gracious, righteous, and merciful. “He is righteous, He did me no wrong in afflicting me; He is gracious, and was very kind in supporting and delivering me. Let us speak of God as we have found: and have we ever found Him otherwise?”—M. Henry. “Instead of saying, ‘Jehovah answered me,’ he magnifies those attributes, which, from the days of His wonderful self-revelation to Moses (Exo_34:6) had been the joy of every tried and trusting heart.”—Perowne.
I. Pray because God is “the Lord.” Jehovah, the Unchangeable One, who has eternity with its wealth and in its duration, in which and by which to supply all our need.
II. Pray because the Lord is “our God.” Our dwelling-place, inheritance, and covenant possession. Hence all He is and has is ours. (Rom_8:32, 1Co_3:22-23.)
III. Fray because the Lord is “gracious.” חַנּוּן
1. Condescending. God stoops to hear prayer, and comes down to answer it.
2. Favourable to prayer. He has commanded it and promised to bless it. His Son has taught men how to pray, and ever lives to mingle their prayers with His. His Spirit helps men to pray.
3. Kind to those who pray. Does not lay upon them heavy burdens. Does not impose heavy penances or long liturgies. Hears the faintest sighings of the broken and contrite heart.
4. Beneficent is His answers to prayer. “Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” &c.
IV. Pray because the Lord is “righteous.”
1. God is just in all His dealings. Nothing that is right will be withheld; nothing that is wrong, bestowed.
2. God is truthful in all His words. His promises can never fail, because “He is not a man that He should lie,” &c.
3. God is reliable in all His ways. We may depend upon the principles of His government as on an unshakable foundation.
4. “God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
V. Pray because “our God is merciful.” רָחַם.
1. God interests Himself in our case. He is perfectly acquainted with it. “He knoweth our frame,” &c.
2. God is tenderly solicitous of our interests. We are His “inheritance;” the “apple of His eye;” the “sheep of His pasture,” &c.
3. God is compassionate of our sorrows. “In all our afflictions He was afflicted.” Christ is “touched with a feeling of our infirmities.”
4. God is friendly towards our persons. We are His “children,” His “friends,” “loved with an everlasting love,” and “loved unto the end.”
IN CONCLUSION.—Notice (i.) The crime and folly of unbelieving despondency. (ii.) Let the considerations urge you to earnest and believing prayer.
THE TIMELY HELP OF HELPLESSNESS
(Psa_116:6)
I. Who are the helpless? “The simple.” פָּתַה has three meanings:—
1. To be open in the sense of being foolish and thus simple. The immature in experience, the weak in understanding or will. God does not despise the poor imbecile, nor those who, through no fault of their own, are peculiarly open to the craft of those who “lie in wait to deceive.”
2. To be open in the sense of being frank, trustful, and ingenuous. One who yields readily to truth and duty; without cunning, trickery, or guile. A Nathaniel.
3. To be open, as in the case of little children, which is indeed the rendering of nearly all the versions. Such, being members of the Kingdom of Heaven, are under the special care of its King. “Take heed how ye offend,” &c.
4. To be open, as in the weakness of sickness and old age.
II. When are they helped? In their extremity. דָּלַל to wave, to totter, to be loose; to be dried up, drained, to fail; to hang, to swing from side to side, as miners letting themselves down (Job_28:4); lit., they hang, they swing, far from men.
1. In their insecurity. The simple of all kinds are open to crafty and unscrupulous foes. How often are the weak of intellect or will outwitted in trade, opportunity, or health! How often does the guileless honesty and unsuspicion of the man who is determined to do right lay him open to intrigue! How often is the trustfulness of little children, and the semi-imbecility of old age, imposed upon! How often is sickness taken advantage of! But let their foes beware; for the Almighty has pledged Himself to be on their side.
2. In their exhaustion.
(1.) In the exhaustion of their natural resources.
(2.) In the failure of their understanding “God will guide them by His counsel.”
(3.) In the abortion of their preventive efforts the Lord will fly to their succour.
(4) In the decrepitude of their physical strength, in the feebleness which harassing anxiety has engendered, and in the failure of power at the hour of death. “His rod and His staff shall comfort” them.
III. How are they helped?
1. “The Lord preserveth.” שָמַר. To pierce, to be wakeful and active as a gatekeeper or shepherd, to protect and to attend to strictly. Then
(1) God keeps a vigilant watch over the weakness of the simple and the strength and subtlety of their foes. “He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.”
(2) God throws an omnipotent protection round the simple. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower,” &c. “The Lord God is a sun and shield.” “Underneath are the eyerlasting arms.” But are the weak thus cared for? Notice
(1) Do the weak trust in God, or lean to their own understanding?
(2) Have the TRUE. interests of the weak, in so far as they have trusted in God, been permanently assailed? Have their losses, sufferings, been real? Unsuspecting persons have been robbed of their temporal rights, perhaps, but has not the soul been safe, and is there not treasure in heaven? Children have been slaughtered, but they have passed to their crown without the pain and danger of the conflict.
2. “He helped me” יָשַע
(1.) God will SAVE the simple in their extremity. Let them be assured that if they will trust in Him they are safe.
(2.) God will SUPPORT them in their weakness. “My grace is sufficient for thee.”
(3.) God will ultimately give them victory (Eph_6:13, Rom_8:35-37).
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” (ii.) The enemies of the simple are the enemies of God. (iii.) Isa_40:27-31.
THE SOUL’S RETURN TO ITS REST
(Psa_116:7)
The many afflictions of the Psalmist had agitated his soul and shaken his confidence in God. He had been bound by the cords of death. He had felt the painful straitening of the tomb. Trouble and sorrow were the discovery of his search for good. His enemies had overmatched and exhausted him. In the midst of his affliction miraculous help had been vouchsafed. The Lord saved him, and now he returns to the rest of joyous confidence in God which stills for ever the tumult of his soul.
I. The soul is commanded to return to its rest. Therefore this rest is its rightful heritage. “Thy rest.”
1. This rest is not
(1) the rest of mere local habitation. The soul may be in a state of the greatest disquietude on the most comfortable couches, and in the most splendid dwelling-place. It refuses to be stilled by the tenderest caresses, and by the enchantment of the richest music, and is proof against slumber on beds of the softest down. Heaven itself would afford no repose to a soul in certain moral conditions.
(2) Insensibility. When the soul ceases to feel it is not at rest, it is diseased or dead. Better the keenest anguish than this.
(3) Inactivity, if, indeed, that were possible. An inactive soul would be a soul exhausted of its powers.
2. This rest is, the harmony, health, and tranquil action of all the forces of the soul.
(1.) The soul’s rest consists in pure affection for a worthy object. The soul was made for love: “Thou shalt love … with all thy soul.” There can be no rest where there is no love, where that love is impure, or where it is fixed on unlovely objects. Hell is the state where irregular passions rage and clash with one another and cause agony, because there is no love and no object for love. Unholy love is feverish and insatiable lust. Love of the unlovely is the cause of more unrest than all other causes combined. The soul returns to its rest when it sets its regenerated affections on the things above.
(2.) The soul’s rest consists in satisfying faith in an all-sufficient power. Man was made for trust. No man is conscious of independence. He is therefore at unrest until he finds some one on whom his faith can utterly repose itself. He is at unrest if he is trusting to a broken reed; and when that has given way he trembles to trust again. The doubtful mind (Luk_12:29, μετεωριζεσθε) is that which is tossed about in the open and stormy sea. The soul can only be at rest when its anchorage is in God. Only as we can say with Paul when the blast of Euroclydon was on the vessel, “I believe God,” can we have peace.
(3.) The soul is at rest when its volitions are in harmony with a will higher than its own, and stronger. Self-will is the cause of perpetual unrest. It is constantly thwarted and disappointed, and therefore never at peace. Only as far as the soul is in harmony with Him whose will rules the universe, and cheerfully assists in the fulfilment of the counsel of that will, can it be at rest. Its rest is this, “I delight to do Thy will,” &c.
(4.) The soul is at rest when engaged in that work for which it is divinely fitted. Ignoble callings, vulgar ambitions, and immoral pleasures, have no affinity with that which is the image of the great Creator. The soul was made to fight the good fight of faith, to work the works of Him that sent it; and only in such occupations can it be at rest.
(5.) Therefore, only as the soul is free from the perturbations of sin can it be at rest. Sin has destroyed the moral balance of the soul, and introduced discord where all was harmony. That, thank God, can be removed. Peace follows pardon. Purity precedes refreshment. And the soul pardoned and refreshed, with its love fixed on God, its faith reposing on God, its will governed by God, and its work directed by God, it realises the promise to the full: “I will give you rest.”
II. The soul is commanded to return to its rest; there is hope for weary man, that his lost rest may be regained, Man has lost his rest. Furrowed brows, blasted hopes, ruined fortunes, early graves, all bear witness to this.
“Art thou weary, art thou languid,
Art thou sore distressed?
Come to Me, saith One, and coming,
Be at rest.”
“For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” The details of that bounty are specified in the following verses. Those details may be summed up in one word, GOD. Elsewhere the soul may seek rest, but it will find none. God provides the soul with
(1) a lovely object: He is “the King in His beauty;”
(2) a trusty object: “Casting all your cares on Him;”
(3) a governing will: so that the soul can say, “Thy will be done;”
(4) an appropriate work; “Workers together with God;”
(5) purity, harmony, peace.
IN CONCLUSION.—(i.) Seek the true rest, God. (ii.) Seek it in the proper plate, God. (iii.) Seek it by the best means, God. “God is the centre to which all immortal spirits tend, and in connection with whom they can find rest. Everything separated from its centre is in a state of violence; and if intelligent cannot be happy. All human souls, when separated from God by sin, are in a state of violence, agitation, and misery. From God all spirits come; to Him all spirits must return, in order to be finally happy.”—A. Clarke.
DELIVERANCE
(Psa_116:8)
I. Of “the soul from death.” We are warranted in taking this in its most comprehensive sense. Of the life—
1. From physical death. The Psalmist had been brought to death’s door and was restored to health and strength. Then are few men who cannot say the same. Most have passed through dangerous sicknesses, or just escaped what might have been fatal accidents but for the interposition of a higher power. And, indeed, subtle perils lurk in the atmosphere we breathe, and the circumstances by which we are surrounded every moment, and yet we are spared.
2. From intellectual death. How near men are to that let our asylums show. The brain has a limit to its power, and excess, the anxieties of life, and the grapple with great intellectual problems, sometimes brings us to the very margin which bounds sanity from madness. But God has interposed His “hitherto shalt thou go,” &c.
3. From social death. How near are many men to ostracism from the friends who love them and the homes that cherish them! Many a man has uplifted a hand, which, had it fallen, he would thenceforth have been an outcast from his fellow-men. Many a man has entertained thoughts, which, had he uttered in the feeblest breath, men would have shunned him as a wild beast. Many a man has spoken five words, which, had they been six, the very wife of his bosom and the children of his heart would have spurned him. There have been men whose emotions have risen fifty degrees, and one degree more the brand of Cain would have been written on their forehead for life. God has saved their soul from death. Some men have committed social suicide, and God has given life to the dead.
4. From moral death, the real death of the soul. The soul is now dead in trespasses and sins. Those who live in sin are dead while they live. God can and does raise the soul into newness of life. Sinners, remember that there is a death, which, while it never dies, admits of no resurrection. This is “the second death.”
II. Of the “eyes from tears.”
1. God sometimes delivers us from the occasions of sorrow. Many things which would have caused us helpless grief, God has mercifully checked. Friends have been spared, losses averted, sharp arrows of pain missed their mark.
2. God sometimes gives us grace to bear our sorrows, so that we can say with more than resignation, more than acquiescence, with adoring gratitude even through our tears, “The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away,” &c.
3. God sometimes wipes the tears from our eyes. He “comforts those who mourn,” &c., sends the Comforter, whispers the promises, and assures of the time when there will be no more pain, and when “He will wipe all tears from all faces.”
III. Of his “feet from falling.”
1. Preservation from snares and pitfalls, enabling us so to thread our way as to avoid those dangers which, if encountered, would be perilous to the soul.
2. Firm establishment. On a rock, so that nothing shall shake us. On a broad basis, so that looking down from the lofty pinnacle we shall not be made giddy, and fall.
3. Sudden rescue. The Psalmist’s feet, like Asaph’s (Psalms 72.), may have well-nigh slipped, one foot over and the other going, but God interposed. We have all had times like this.
IN CONCLUSION.—Notice (i.) This deliverance was personal. “Thou,” “My.” Not law, chance, providence. (ii.) This deliverance was conscious. It was not a beautiful theory, or a clever speculation. It was a fact. These two ideas, a personal relationship with a personal God, constitute the charm of the Psalms. Let us not break it. Speaking thus the Psalmist speaks for man.
WALKING BEFORE GOD
(Psa_116:9)
“We mean by men’s ‘walking’ their conduct, the mode in which they carry themselves, and the progress they make as men. All men have ‘ways,’ all men ‘walk’ somehow. The difference between men spiritually is not between walking and not walking, but between walking rightly and wrongly; walking to heaven and to hell. Activity, incessant activity, is impressed upon all. It is the universal law. But some walk after the spirit, and others after the flesh; some in darkness, others in light. True religion is walking with God.”—A. J. Morris.
I. What walking before God implies.
1. That man is a social being. Man was made for companionship. Hence marriage. “It is not good for man to be alone.” Man seldom cares for a solitary walk. Hence, in the journey of life, some “walk with the wise,” others “go with the evil.”
2. That man was made for social intercourse. Without this companions are useless or a burden. Man must have fellowship and interchange of thought and feeling. Without this his best life is sapped. His mind will be dwarfed by narrowness. His affections will be consumed in their own fires.
3. That man’s social instincts find their full development in intercourse with God. Only by this means can the mind be fully fitted for man who is made in the image of God. His love for God, whom he has not seen, will qualify him for loving his brother, whom he has seen.
4. That this bringing of God and man together in social intercourse is the end of providence and grace. This was man’s natural privilege as having affinity with God. By sin he forfeited it. God became offended, and man careless. But in the fulness of time Emmanuel came, and through Him God and man are reconciled and made at one.
II. What walking before God means.
1. Conscious companionship. Not mere intellectual belief in God’s existence, nor a consciousness of God’s omnipresence, but the nearness of God experienced and enjoyed.
2. Spiritual sympathy. “Two walk together because they are agreed. There must be unity of purpose, of taste, a correspondence of circumstances, and a harmony of will. We can admire a man, converse with him, receive favours from him, confer favours on him, dwell in the same house, exchange the courtesies of life with him, without walking with him. There is a general benevolence or humanity that engenders politeness, i.e., kindness seasonably offered ‘in form or reality.’ But the man I walk with is my friend. I have proved his character, and I find it sound. I have noted his conversation, and not only approve his opinions, but imbibe his spirit. I have watched the issues of his heart, and I find their counterpart in my own bosom. He may be separate from me, his profession may be opposite to mine, his attainments, rank, look down upon mine, I still walk with him.… I doubt whether a man or an angel could commune with so entire a union. Then how are we to conceive of a man walking before God?” Genesis 1 supplies the answer.—E. E. Jenkins.
3. Moral progress. Going on to that perfection to which God leads.
4. Careful circumspection. “As ever in the great Taskmaster’s eye.”
III. Where walking before God takes place. “In the land of the living.”
1. Not in the other world.
2. Not in the contemplative sphere. Men have considered this as presenting unusual facilities. Alas! they have found as many hindrances as they have escaped. Men now frequently look forward to the time when, retired from the turmoil and business of the world, they will be enabled to walk before God without distraction. But before that time arrives disinclination sets in, powers are demoralised, and walking before God fully becomes next to impossible.
3. But in the land of the living. In the midst of the living; in the engagements of the living; consecrating living activities to His services.
IN CONCLUSION.—“What a glorious life is this! Who loves not to walk with a dear friend?—and the more if he be very wise and pure and good. Who that had to travel a doubtful road would not rejoice if that friend were a safe guide as well 1 and still more, if there were fear of evil, one of a strong and skilful arm? And further yet, if, being poor himself, that friend were able to meet all the possible charges of the way? We ‘walk with God,’ who can supply ‘all our need,’ who ‘guides us with His eye,’ encompasses us with favour as a shield; and ‘we joy in God.’ ”—A. J. Morris.
THE NATURE AND POWER OF FAITH
(Psa_116:10)
I. The nature of faith. הָאֱמַנְתִּי Hiphil preterite of אָמַן. To make fast or strong; to build. Hence, fig., to maintain, foster, bring up. The Hiphil (text) signifies to hold fast, to stand firm, to trust. “Powerful as is the effect of these words (Gen_15:6, where same word is used) when we read them in their first untarnished freshness, they gain immensely in their original language, to which neither Greek nor German, much less Latin or English, can furnish any full equivalent. ‘He supported himself, he built himself up, be reposed as a child in his mother’s arms (such seems the force of the root of the Hebrew word) in the strength of God; in God whom he did not see, more than in the giant empires of earth, and the bright lights of heaven, or the claims of kindred or country which were always before Him.”—Dean Stanley. Hence the Psalmist’s faith was not a mere intellectual assent to certain truths; but the conscious experience and actual realisation of certain facts. “The true living Christian faith … is a sure trust and confidence in God, that through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God.”—Wesley.
II. The power of faith. “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” Everywhere faith and speech should be inseparable. The man who speaks what he doesn’t believe is a hypocrite; the man who does not speak what he believes is a coward.
1. The power of faith is to find expression for itself. Hence this Psalm becomes a creed, and from this fact springs the vitality of creeds. The three great confessions of the Christian Church are a witness to the heroic faith of those who composed them. May they long continue the same for those who use them.
2. The power of faith is to constrain those who believe to confess their belief. The Psalmist had the burden upon him. He could not help but speak (Act_4:20). And so the Christian who is conscious of the great salvation will not only proclaim it, but do so under an irresistible impulse.
3. The power of faith is to inspire loyalty to the truth we believe. This saves from
(1) narrowness, which contracts the truth and conceals part of it. A sound Christian faith holds “all the truth” and proclaims “all the counsel of God.”
(2) From latitudinarianism. The Psalmist’s was not only a comprehensive, but a correct faith. Latitudinarianism mixes error with truth, or softens its rigour by a spurious charity. A sound Christian faith takes hold of and proclaims “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
4. The power of faith is to impress us with the necessity of its declaration. He felt his confession to be not only truth, but the only truth. The Lord, and the Lord alone, helped him; the Lord, and the Lord alone, could help others. Mighty is the obligation which rests on Christian men. Christian faith takes the facts of humanity and of God as they stand. Man sinful and helpless. Christ not one Saviour among many, but alone sufficient. It will brook the presence and pretentions of no rival in the work of man’s regeneration, and declares again and again that without its efficacy man must perish. Hence the “woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel” which rests on the Christian man.
5. Faith is the power of loyalty to the Lord of faith. The Psalmist believed God, and was thereby strengthened in his submission to God’s will. Faith empowered him to declare what God had done for his soul. And if we believe Christ as the Psalmist did God we shall keep that command, “Go ye into all the world,” &c., disobedience to which is disloyalty to Christ.
6. Faith is the power of confidence, and confidence is the power of successful enterprise. This faith has moved and still will move the world. Men who have faith in themselves succeed every where. What, then, must that faith be which has as it object the Lord God Omnipotent?
CYNICISM
(Psa_116:11)
The Cynics were a sect of Greek philosophers founded by Antisthenes, who from his morose and disagreeable proclivities was termed “the dog.” He with his more famous disciple, Diogenes, are representatives of a class of men all through the ages who cultivate and exhibit a feeling contemptuous of or hostile towards their fellow-men. All are more or less subject to this, and all should strive against it. The Psalmist fell into it in his trouble, but soon got out of it.
I. The Psalmist’s cynicism consisted in a hasty conclusion and an uncharitable verdict. On the spur of the moment, “I was greatly afflicted, and then I said in my haste,” &c.; somewhat rashly and inconsiderately in my amazement (so some); when I was in a consternation—in my flight (so others). Observe the faith of the best of saints is not perfect, nor always alike strong and active. When the Psalmist believed he spoke well; but now through unbelief he spoke amiss.—M. Henry. “The Psalmist, on reflection, felt that he had said this without due thought, and that he was now disposed to think better of men than he did on the day of affliction and trouble. The world is much better than what we think it is when our minds are morbid and our nerves unstrung.”—Barnes.
II. That the Psalmist’s cynicism was natural under the circumstances, although not justifiable. He had been brought low, near to death, and was greatly afflicted. We may suppose that a great deal of his affliction was the result of treachery and bitter disappointment. The words seem to imply the cry of one who fled from men in ambush. But such a hasty generalisation, although natural, was not justifiable, because not true.
III. That the Psalmist’s cynicism was only a passing mood. “He does not seem to have cherished this mood; on the contrary, he seems to have been conscious of its wretchedness.… Most of us must have known what it is to have our sympathies and affections temporarily soured in times of vexation and disappointment.… The great danger is lest it should pass into a habit—lest we should nurse it until it becomes a chronic attitude of mind, and take a morbid pleasure in indulging it.… The fully-developed cynic prides himself on his indifferent tone. Like Iago he is ‘nothing if not critical.’ It is simply his ‘way’ to pick faults and sneer. We find the culmination of cynicism in Mephistopheles; and indeed the word ‘devil’ means ‘accuser,’ slanderer of God and man.”—Finlayson.
IV. That the Psalmist’s cynicism was successfully resisted and overcome. The spirit of cynicism is abroad, how shall we resist it?
(i.) By a charitable estimate of human infirmity; (ii.) By a generous recognition of human excellencies; (iii.) By a modest estimate of our own worth. “Wounded vanity and disappointed ambition and trouble coming on an intense egotism are fruitful sources of cynicism.… A humble recognition of our own faults and defects will help to keep us from it;” (iv.) By looking at all men through Christ. “This is the great antidote to the cynical spirit.”—Finlayson.
SPIRITUAL REQUITAL
(Psa_116:12-13)
The Psalmist is overwhelmed with a sense of the divine benedictions. He asks what return he can make. He feels that no return is so appropriate as acknowledging them in devout and public thanksgiving, and in asking God for more. A later custom of the feast of Tabernacles was to form a grand procession from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam, and for the high priest to hold aloft a golden goblet full of water from that pool, and pour it out as an oblation to God for His goodness. It was on that occasion, and probably in reference to that ceremony, that our Lord said, “If any man thirst,” &c. After the Passover the master of the house lifted up the cup of wine, and blessed God for His mercy, and then passed it round. To this the Apostle referred when he said, “The cup of blessing which we bless,” &c.; and the Evangelist when he tells us that Christ took the cup which was the cup of the New Testament in His blood; so typifying to us the sacrifice of thanksgiving, which becomes us until, as His guests, we shall sit down with Him in heaven and drink the cup of full salvation, which He, the Master of the house, shall pass round to all who shall be with Him there. Notice—
I. That God requites His saints for their prayers. “All His benefits towards me.” These benefits were the salvations for which he had prayed (Psa_116:4), and the answers he had received (Psa_116:6-7). This requital is based on
1. The goodness of God.
2. The fidelity of God to His promises. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble,” &c.
3. God’s approbation of the use of divinely-prescribed means (2Ch_7:14).
II. That the divine requital is ample and sufficient. There is not enough in God’s benefits to intoxicate; they are not dealt out at random; but they exactly meet, and to the full, the creatures’ need.
1. Temporal benefits. God has favoured each one of us with that which is sufficient for our good. The sorrowful and suffering are the first and most earnest in their acknowledgments, that, as their necessities have arisen, God’s supplies have been adequate.
2. Spiritual blessings. These have been full and overflowing. God’s gift of Himself, by His Son and through His Spirit; the means of grace, the hope of glory, &c. All are as rare and costly as they are rich and full.
3. Mitigated sorrows. “It is good for me that I have been afflicted.” They are benefits from the beneficent hand of God. They are mitigated by the fact that they are not penal, but disciplinary; that they are shared by the “Man of Sorrows;” that they are the subjects of the ministry of the precious promises and the consoling Spirit.
4. Holy joys. God’s benefits are for the purpose of making us happy; they are earnests of our inheritance, and heaven begun below.
III. That the divine requital of man’s prayers should be reciprocated by man’s requital of God’s love.
1. How should man requite God for benefits received?
(1.) By a cheerful reception of what God has given. The cup of salvation is of God’s filling. We requite that by drinking it. There is nothing more wounding to a generous heart than to slight his gifts. And to refuse to make our own the things which are freely given us of God is to slight and affront His love. And yet, alas! although God spared not His own Son, and that Son spares not His own Spirit, and that Spirit spares not Himself in providence and the means of grace, yet the great mass, not merely of mankind, but of professing Christians, stand stolidly indifferent, and allow divine blessings to run to waste.
(2.) By a correct appreciation of the contents of our cup. We must recognise that whatever of bitterness there is in it, that it is of God’s filling; and that, however nauseating it may be to our depraved palate, its contents are salvations. Let us take care that we know our blessings, or the empty cup will be eloquent of the mercies of which it once was full—
“That which we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and lost,
Why then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not give us
While it was ours.”—Shakespeare.
(3.) By a thankful recognition of the fact that all our benefits are from Him.
“Call upon the name of the Lord.” Only he who enjoys life in Him enjoys it at all. This is the true infusion that gives sweetness to the bitter, and more sweetness to the sweet. Without this religion will be but a drudgery, and life an empty void.
2. Why should we requite God in this way, viz., by a thankful reception of His gifts?
(1.) Because we are already so much in debt to His mercy. “One reason why we should never come to a fellow-mortal for a favour is, that we have received so much already. Yet this is the only way in which we can discharge our debts to God; and, strange to tell, every such attempt to discharge the debt only serves to increase it.”—A. Clarke.
(2.) Because God delights in no recompense, except “in the payment of a heart won to His love and melted by His mercies. His deep heart is glad when we taste the full cup of His blessings, and as we raise it to our lips and call on the name of the Lord.”—Maclaren.
(3.) Because this will test the contents of every cup proffered to us in life. “There is an old legend of a cup full of poison put treacherously into a king’s hand. He signed the cross over it, and it shivered in his grasp. Take this name of the Lord as a test. Name Him over many a cup which you are eager to drink, and the poison will be spilled on the ground. What you cannot lift before His pure eyes, and think of Him while you enjoy, is not for you. Friendships, amusements, &c., can you call on the name of the Lord while you put these cups to your lips? If not, fling them behind you; for they are full of poison, which, for all its sweetness, at last will bite like a serpent and sting like an adder.”—Maclaren.
IN CONCLUSION.—There is another cup. “In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red—it is full of mixture, and He poureth out the same; but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.” Why should you drink of that cup while God offers to you the cup of salvation?
Psa_116:14, see Psa_116:16
GOD’S ESTIMATE OF DEATH
(Psa_116:15)
I. A high estimate יָקָר is applied to things of
(1) Substantial importance.
(2) Considerable dignity or magnitude.
(3) Rare and costly value.
(4) Majesty, splendour, beauty.
(5) To things held dear, beloved, and precious.
II. An unusual estimate. This value is placed upon death. Death is usually regarded as loss, and with dread. He is called the great robber. It deprives the body of animation.
“Absorbs me quite;
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath.”
Takes ruthlessly that which is most near and dear to the weeping wife, child, husband, friend. Yet, according to our text, “To die is gain.”
III. An unexpected estimate. “In the sight of the Lord.” One would have thought it otherwise. Death is a blast upon God’s fair creation, and blights all on whom it falls. It takes the bloom from the pictures which the divine artist has pencilled, withers the majestic tree which the divine gardener has planted, crumbles the monument which the divine architect has reared, and curses him into whom God breathed the breath of life. Yet God says, “Death is precious.”
IV. A specific estimate. Precious is the death of saints. Their death is a thing of
(1) Substantial importance to God, to the final result of the universe, to the deceased himself.
(2) Considerable dignity. “God took him,” “With Christ.”
(3) Great value. It is a release from the uncertainties, cares, and pains of life.
(4) Majesty. It is the portal of immortality.
(5) To be held dear. It unites us to our friends and to the noblest of our race for ever. And above all, “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”
IN CONCLUSION.—How precious it is may be seen. Ignatius, Polycarp, Huss, Latimer, Jerome of Prague, Baxter, Scott, Wesley, Halyburton, Payson. “Let me die the death of the righteous,” &c.
TWO VIEWS OF DEATH
(Psa_116:15)
1. The Psalmist had been snatched from the very jaws of death. He therefore may have meant that it was too costly to be given to the foe.
2. The Psalmist’s life had been lengthened that he might fulfil the Divine purposes: death was too costly a thing to be given him till his work was done. Both views are true.
I. Death is very precious, therefore God spares life. No weapon can touch God’s people till their appointed time has come.
1. In the family. The great Father sees how far a parent, a child, a friend are necessary, and the reason why so many are spared is because of the preciousness of death.
2. In the nation. The great Governor sees how far, and for how long, princes and citizens are necessary, and the reason why He stays His hand is because of the unspeakable value of death.
3. In the Church. The great Shepherd and Bishop of souls spares as many of His ministers as can be spared, because of the costliness of their death.
II. Death is very precious, therefore God gives it.
1. It is the fitting reward of a saintly life (2Ti_4:6).
2. It is the soul’s movement towards perfection.
3. It is a stage in the direction of the completion of God’s plans in the universe.
4. It illustrates the triumphs of redeeming grace to those who are left behind.
IN CONCLUSION.—These two views are one theory. Death is too precious to be given without deliberation. Death is so precious, that at the appointed time it must not be withheld. It was Paul’s theory, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” There is another. A precious life makes a precious death, a worthless life a worthless death. If to me to live is self, then death is loss and despair. “Died—as a fool dieth”—is the epitaph on the lost soul.
DIVINE RELATIONSHIPS
(Psa_116:14; Psa_116:16-19)
This is the appropriate conclusion of the Psalm. The Psalmist has all along recognised a relationship between himself and God, by which God has given certain benefits and he rendered certain services. This relationship is so close that its termination is too costly to be lightly entertained. God cannot spare him just yet, but when He does it will be to dismiss him to his reward. This relationship is now fully disclosed. He is God’s servant, yet God’s friend. God’s friend, but His servant still. As His servant God spares his life, as His friend God walks with him. And while he feels that God has loosed his bonds, he feels that he must not relax his service.
I. This relationship is one of obedience, yet friendship. “I am thy servant.… Thou hast loosed my bonds.”
1. This relationship is characterised by generous devotion. We obey God not as a hireling toils for wages, but as a friend gives himself to promote the interest of his friend.
2. This devotion is based upon an interest in our friend’s wishes. Every word of our text displays the Psalmist’s interest in what he was doing. And why?
Because he felt that God had taken an interest in him. Could he fail to see that? Can we?
3. This interest is based upon love of our friend. “I will offer Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”
II. This relationship is one of friendship, yet obedience. Friendship must not degenerate into over familiarity or presumption. Remember—
1. That this relationship ceases with our obedience. The moment we forget the special conditions on which this divine friendship is based, that moment God ceases to be our friend.
2. That this relationship is not merely human choice, but Divine election. “Thou hast loosed my bonds.” We have not gained this liberty by our own might and by our own power. God has freed us from the thraldom of sin, that He might bind us by the loving cords of the royal law of liberty.
3. That the power to fulfil the duties of this relationship comes from God. “I will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord.” Our divine friend shows Himself friendly in hearing our prayers. He hears them that He may empower us to fulfil our obligations.
III. This relationship must receive a formal and public acknowledgment.
1. In personal consecration. “I will pay.” So august a friendship, and so noble a service, must not be passed by with the informalities of our ordinary life and friendship. And yet if a friend is worth having he is worth marking out before all others; and if our worldly occupations deserve our attention at all, they deserve special attention. Much more God and His service.
2. In union with His people. “In the court of the Lord’s house.” He who is God’s friend and servant will associate gladly with God’s friends and servants.
(1.) He will gladly unite with them in their public worship.
(2.) He will let not a little hinder him in showing who and what he is by formal membership. A Christian, and yet a member of no church, is an anomaly.
3. Before the world. “In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem!” He is no true friend whose friendship is for private and home consumption.
IV. This relationship should be sought and professed at once. “Now.” Every hour’s delay is a loss of privilege and a neglect of duty. If not done soon, it will be done never.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 (1) There are multitudes who are utterly careless about…
Psa 116:1
(1) There are multitudes who are utterly careless about God, in whose minds He exists as the object neither of one feeling nor another, who never think of Him so as either to love Him or be displeased with Him. (2) There are those who think much about God, but, instead of loving Him, are full of terror of Him. (3) There are not a few who, instead of loving God, hate Him, verily hate Him.
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I. Notice some other species of love with the manifestations of which those of Divine love are liable to be confounded by the undiscriminating. (1) The saints’ love of God has nothing in it of the nature of that affection of appetite by which so much of the love of earthly objects is characterised. (2) The love of God has nothing in it of the nature of that affection of instinct which is characteristic of the love of a mother for her infant child. (3) The saints’ love of God has nothing in it of the nature of the love of compassion. (4) The saints’ love of God is not of that character or degree which is produced by sensible intercourse.
II. In what does the saints’ love of God positively consist? (1) In its purest form, it consists in an admiration and esteem of His excellence—the love of moral approbation. All God’s moral perfections make Him an object of love: (a) His justice; (b) His benevolence. (2) All love of God must commence at least with the love of gratitude, with loving Him because He has loved us, each one discerning for himself that God has been bountiful to him, is bountiful to him now, and will continue bountiful in all time to come. (a) Neither any consideration of God’s bounty in creation nor any review of His bounty in providence will beget love for Him in the bosom of a man who is conscious of guilt, for the obvious reason that neither of these two works of nature contains any assurance for him of that which above all things else he needs: mercy, to pardon his iniquities. (b) No man can attain to the love of God who does not appropriate the tidings of the Gospel to himself.
W. Anderson, Discourses, p. 170.
Psa 116:7
The rest of which the text speaks is the rest of a being who has found again his proper and congenial sphere. In reconciliation to God through Jesus Christ the soul regains its lost equilibrium, finds again the centre of repose for which it had been sighing in vain. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden," is the invitation of incarnate love; "and I will give you rest." And in the soul that yields to this invitation there rises the response of its deepest nature, the instinctive throb of a new yet natural affection, the calm sense of existence fulfilled and unexplained hope and desire solved in fruition—the witness in its own inmost consciousness that its true rest is found at last.
I. The rest of which the text speaks is not bodily or physical, but mental or spiritual, rest. (1) Bodily repose reaches not to the true centre of man’s peace; but mental repose entrenches itself in the deepest region of man’s nature, and renders him impregnable to outward assault. (2) Physical repose can only be periodic; the rest of the soul is essentially continuous.
II. The rest of which the psalmist speaks may be described, again, as the rest not of immobility, but of equipoise. In the repose of a saintly spirit there is latent power. The inward repose which, sooner or later, true religion brings, is the result of the final conquest and subjugation of man’s lower nature. The peace of the holy mind is the peace not of stagnation, but of self-conquest.
III. The true rest of the soul is that not of inactivity, but of congenial exertion. Labour is rest to the active and energetic spirit. The mind itself does not waste or grow weary; and but for the weight of the weapons wherewith it works, it might think, and imagine, and love on for ever. The service of God, beyond all other kinds of labour, may become the most perfect rest to the soul. As love to Christ deepens in the soul that is truly given to Him, the work which it prompts us to do for Him loses the feeling of effort and passes into pleasure.
IV. This rest is not absolute, but relative. Whilst it is a great thing to be an earnest worker in Christ’s service, yet the Christian life is not mainly a life of action, but of trust, not of independent exertion, but of self-abandonment to the working of a mightier agency than ours. Calmly as the midnight voyager sleeps whilst, under watchful guidance, the vessel bears him onwards, so calmly, with such trustful humility, does the believer commit himself and his fates for time and eternity to the unslumbering providence of God.
V. This rest is attainable through Christ alone. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Him." He offers pardon to the guilty, purity to the defiled, peace, joy, hope, heaven, to the wretched, or that which includes them all: that strange, unearthly blessing rest to the weary and heavy-laden soul.
J Caird, Sermons, p. 192.
References: Psa 116:7.—M. R. Vincent, Gates into the Psalm Country, p. 215; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiii., p. 339. Psa 116:8.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 105. Psa 116:9.—M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 319.
Psa 116:11
The text reveals the psalmist as having passed through the shadow of that mood of mind to which we give the name of cynicism. The great danger is lest the mood should pass into a habit, lest we should nurse it until it becomes a chronic attitude of mind, and we begin to lose the taste of its bitterness and to take a morbid pleasure in indulging it. Notice one or two practical safeguards against the attitude or habit of cynicism.
I. Let us cherish a modest estimate of our own abilities and our own importance.
II. Let us cultivate the habit of looking out for human excellences, and of putting the most generous construction on human actions.
III. Let us seek to look at all men as through the eyes of Christ.
T. Campbell-Finlayson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 353.
References: Psa 116:11.—S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 186. Psa 116:12.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 910.
Psa 116:12-13
The great thought which lies here is that we best requite God by thankfully taking what He gives.
I. Note how deep that thought goes into the heart of God. We requite God by taking rather than by giving, not merely because He needs nothing, and we have nothing which is not His. The motive of His giving to us is the deepest reason why our best recompense to Him is our thankful reception of His mercies. The principle of our text reposes at last on "God is love, and wishes our hearts," and not merely on "God has all, and does not need our gifts."
II. Look at the elements which make up this requital of God in which He delights. (1) Let us be sure that we recognise the real contents of our cup. It is a cup of salvation, however hard it is sometimes to believe it. (2) Be sure that you take what God gives. There can be no greater slight and dishonour to a giver than to have his gifts neglected. (3) One more element has still to be named: the thankful recognition of Him in all our feasting. "Call on the name of the Lord." Only he who enjoys life in God enjoys it worthily. Only he who enjoys life in God enjoys it at all.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 142.
Psa 116:13
I. We see here, first, God giving. The form which the giving takes in this representation is the hand of God presenting a cup. Goodness is manifested in all God’s giving, in the cup of wrath as in the cup of blessing; but the cup of blessing is a revelation of love, God giving. This is the ultimate Owner giving. This is giving on His part in whom the absolute right of possession is vested. This is righteous giving. This is giving which need not make us afraid of taking.
II. Man taking. The taking here is not a simple laying hold of that which God gives, but the use and enjoyment of what God bestows. To take the cup of salvation is to receive a blessing in all its fulness, to the utmost limit of our receptive capacity and of our power to accept and to enjoy.
III. God’s servant seeing God in what he takes. There is a name of God on every cup, and in every act of offering a cup.
IV. Worship, the fruit of what we receive and see. Past and present gifts on the part of God should encourage us in three things: prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
S. Martin, Rain upon the Mown Grass, p. 273.
References: Psa 116:13.—S. H. Booth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 161; C. J. Vaughan, Ibid., vol. viii., p. 273. Psa 116:15.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1036; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. ii., p. 278; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 30.
Psa 116:16
There is service in the very fact and nature of existence. A man whose heart, and mind, and soul are right with God, whose affections are really given to Him, whose intellect grasps Him, and whose inner spiritual life is united to Him—that man is truly a servant of God, and in so far does his proper part, though you may call it the mere "service of being."
I. We are right always according as we view anything as God views it. Now God, surveying all His vast creation, regards all things which He has made as created for this one end: to do Him homage and adoration. Even in irrational and in insensible creation there is the service of being. Man is sent to render the service of all the handiwork of God. What then if man himself do not serve God? Then the whole series is idle; then God’s design is frustrated; then throughout the world the absence of man’s service mars the whole system and design of universal being.
II. Every man is a temple. The body is its holy walls, the intellect or the feelings are the sacred interior of the edifice, the soul is the shrine, and the indwelling spirit is the consecrated presence. Let all these be simply there, in their harmony and proportion, and there is the service of being.
III. Service is something beyond and better than obedience. (1) It involves community; you cannot serve right without an identity of interest with the person you are serving. (2) Service is not compatible with divided allegiance. (3) Service must be of the whole man at once.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 34.
Psa 116:16
I. David’s design here is to represent his piety as hereditary; and he mentions his mother because to her especially, in all probability, his religious convictions and impressions were instrumentally due. If this were the case, how much does the Church owe, under God, to the kindly wisdom of that godly mother, for it is the mother, after all, that has most to do with the making or the marring of the man.
II. David and Moses may be regarded as instances in which the good seed fell into good soil, and in which the return was speedy as well as rich. But it is not always so; usually, we may say, it is not so. For the most part the seed lies apparently dormant, the spring is long and unpromising, and the faith of the sower has to be exercised in a patient waiting for the promised growth. Nay, sometimes it seems as if all were lost, as if the seed had utterly perished, and as if the soil that had been so carefully cultured and watched over must be hopelessly given up to desolation or to rank and abominable weeds. But a mother’s teachings have a marvellous vitality in them; there is a strange, living power in that good seed which is sown by a mother’s hand in her child’s heart in the early dawn of the child’s being; and there is a deathless potency in a mother’s prayers and tears for those whom she has borne, which only God can estimate.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian Thought and Work, p. 255.
References: Psa 116:16.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 42; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 312, and vol. xxix., No. 1740; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 13th series, p. 5; Good Words, 1861, p. 190. Psa 116:18.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 38. Psa 117:1.—B. M. Palmer, Ibid., vol. ix., p. 143.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The God of resurrection, and the recall of Israel’s…
The God of resurrection, and the recall of Israel’s heart to Him.
This does not, however, complete the story; and the 116th psalm comes in here to show how nearly Israel had been in those terrible jaws of death, -ingulfed, but for the mercy of God, to utter perdition. It is the sense of this deliverance that brings their hearts to God, and makes them His servants for ever.
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1. The opening of the psalm is simple enough: a story which every one brought to God will recognize as his own. Israel, in the realization of the grace that has answered her, takes her place of confession of Jehovah her God, henceforth to own Him alone.
2. The deliverance is then recounted from the toils of death and the straits of sheol. They calling on Jehovah in distress, He manifested Himself in loving mercy and salvation.
3. The soul can now return to its rest. Delivered from death, Israel walks before God in the land of the living.
4. The fourth section; though only of two verses, is as important as it is emphatic. Experience has shown absolutely what the psalmist believes as a most certain truth, that all confidence in man is vain. "I said in my haste to escape" -not that it was, as we say, a mere hasty speech, for it is this in which he is so confident that he speaks it out -"all men are liars."
This realized in the soul, with honest self-application; sweeps it clean of the last remnant of self-righteousness and self-dependence. Out of a wreck so absolute nothing is saved, except what was never in it. God remains, and there is nothing else. The ground is clear for faith to build its temple for Him alone.
5. He turns, therefore, to ask, "What shall I render to Jehovah for all His benefits toward me?" What is right and suitable when all that is of value is what I find in Him? Well, I can receive and own His grace: "take the cup of salvation; and call upon Jehovah’s Name."
But there is more than this. There are vows now to be performed to Jehovah: and this is repeated in the same words before the close of the psalm. Israel’s legal vow she has, as we know, utterly failed in, and is still suffering the consequences of her failure; but there are thanksgiving vows that in the day of coming blessing shall be fulfilled. (Psa 56:12; Isa 19:21.) They imply no legality, but the consciousness of what grace has done, and the praise with which the heart is filled and empowered. Praise is now easy, -necessary: it is, indeed, but what His vow implies who will be in that day the Leader of His people’s praises (Ps. 22: 22, 33); and who will be silent then? Thus these vows are evangelic only. They are connected with the "cup of salvation," and Another’s work, -the joyful assurance of what that work means for them.
The 15th verse is a kind of enigma, in the connection in which it stands. It is, in fact, however, the solution of an enigma, and one most important for the soul at all times. For the law, death, as we have elsewhere seen abundantly, and as we see in the earlier part of this very psalm, was necessarily a shadow. The blessings declared by law are so thoroughly blessings to be enjoyed on earth, the dead thus losing part in them; those of the prophets themselves being so much of this character -Israel’s blessings in the land in coming times -that of necessity this would be so until, with the New Testament, the full revelation of the heavenly things should come. Going through the sufferings and trials of the latter days, in which the question of their title to national blessing was pressing upon them; death would again have for the remnant of Israel all its significance. Were they to die or live would seem to involve fully the question of the wrath or favor of God; and under the bitter persecution of that time many, in fact, will die. Resurrection might explain this: for the orthodox in Israel have, as we know, always believed in resurrection; but here again there might be a question: Was not the resurrection already passed? For Christians, and along with these the whole of the saints of former times, it will in fact have taken place when Israel’s travail-pangs come upon her; and can they be ignorant of this who are under the teaching of Christ, specially addressed to those in view of that time of unequaled tribulation (Mat 24:1-51)? His word there, moreover, is that "he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." What, then; as to the saints of that period does death mean?
Most confirming it is to find in the book of Revelation,which so clearly brings before us the trials and sufferings of these very Israelitish saints, the same question anticipated and provided for. In the 14th chapter, which has to do with those who are seen anticipatively in the commencement of it as standing upon Mount Zion with the victorious "Lamb," after Babylon is fallen (ver. 8), and when the time of the antichristian "beast" and his followers is in contemplation; it is suddenly announced, as if in contrast with the woe upon the beast-worshipers, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." (ver. 13.)
The words "from henceforth" show the special application of what must seem otherwise a general truth; and the connection shows that the application must be, pre-eminently at least, to the latter-day remnant of Israel. And here is again the assurance so needful, just to those of this class, of death being no loss to these, but rather gain. How perfectly has the tenderness of the Lord provided for the peculiar need of these peculiarly tried and needy sufferers! The New Testament clasps hands, as it were, with the Old about them; to give them an assurance specially needed, as is plain, in their case: while the comfort abides, of course, for all of every time. Such are the "oracles" of God’s living word; and so sweet a testimony have we of the heart behind them!
In the psalm, where it reaches prophetically in the history of the nation; Israel’s salvation has come, and the blessedness of the dead saints has come into open light, and is a matter of experience. And so the numerical structure declares it. But, as already said, by this anticipative expression of it, it has been made the property of believers of every time; and lightens the shadows of the Old Testament with its emphatic assurance, "Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of His pious ones." It is not "holy ones" here, but those whose heart toward Himself the Lord realizes and acknowledges.
6. The closing section beautifully expresses in the number of it the triumph of His ways in bringing thus the heart of Israel back to Himself. We have, first of all, and as the foundation of all else, the spirit of obedience which is the fruit of His grace. They serve in liberty, in the constraining sense of His love who has loosed them from their bonds. They confess His Name with sacrifices of thanksgiving, and thus perform their vows. The circumstances are now added which assure us in what a scene the vision ends for us: "in the courts of Jehovah’s house, in the midst of thee, Jerusalem." Jehovah has taken His place once more in the midst of His gathered people; and that is the sign which shows the day has now come for the earth; and for the "gathering of the peoples" so long foretold, at last to Shiloh. (Gen 49:10.)
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv8, 12 Psa 116:8 - Psa 116:9.
Psalms
EXPERIENCE, RESOLVE, AND HOPE
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Psa 116:8 - Psa 116:9.
This is a quotation from an earlier psalm, with variations which are interesting, whether we suppose that the Psalmist was quoting from memory and made them unconsciously, or whether, as is more probable, he did so, deliberately and for a purpose. The variations are these. The words in the original psalm {Psa 56:1} according to the Revised Version, read, ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death; hast Thou not delivered my feet from falling?’ The writer of this psalm felt that that did not say all, so he put in another clause: ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.’ It is not enough to keep a man alive and upright. God will wipe away his tears; and will often keep him from shedding them.
Then the original psalm goes on: ‘Thou hast delivered . . . my feet from falling, that I may walk before God,’ but the later Psalmist goes a step further than his original. The first singer had seen what it is always a blessing to see-what God meant by all the varieties of His providences, viz. that the recipient might walk as in His presence; but the later poet not only discerns, but accords with, God’s purpose, yields himself to the divine intention, and instead of simply saying ‘That was what God meant,’ he says, ‘That is what I am going to do-I will walk before the Lord.’ There is still another variation which, however, does not alter the sense. The original psalm says, ‘in the light of the living’; the other uses another word, a little more intelligible, perhaps, to an ordinary reader, and says, ‘in the land of the living.’
Now, noting these significant variations, I would draw attention to this expression of the Psalmist’s acceptance of the divine purpose, and the vision that it gave him of his future. It is hard to say whether he means ‘I will walk’ or ‘I shall walk’; whether he is expressing a hope or giving utterance to a fixed resolve. I think there is an element of both in the words. At all events, I find in them three things: a sure anticipation, a firm resolve, and a far-reaching hope.
I. A sure anticipation.
‘Thou hast’-’I will.’ The past is for this Psalmist a mirror in which he sees reflected the approaching form of the veiled future. God’s past is the guarantee of God’s future. Godless people, who get wearied of the monotony of life, begin to say before they have gone far in it, ‘Oh! there is nothing new. That which is to be hath already been. It is just one continual repetition of the same sort of thing.’ But that is only partially true. There is only one man in the world who can truly and certainly say, ‘To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant’; and that is the man who says; ‘He delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.’ For the continuance of things here is not guaranteed to us by the fact that they have lasted for so long. Why, nobody knows whether the sun will rise to-morrow or not-whether there will be a to-morrow or not. There will come one day when the sun sets for the last time. What people call the ‘uniformity of nature’ affords no ground on which to build certainty as to the future. We all do it, but we have no right to do it. But when we bring God into the future, that makes all the difference. His past is the guarantee and the revelation of His future, and every person that grasps Him in faith has the right to pray with assurance, ‘Thou hast been my Helper; leave me not, neither forsake me,’ and to declare triumphantly, ‘The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.’
So, brethren! all the past, as it is recorded for us in Scripture, lives and throbs with faithful promises for us to-day. Though the methods of the manifestation may alter, the essence of it remains the same. As one of the Apostles says, ‘Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our advantage, that we, through the encouragement ministered by the Scriptures, might have hope’; and looking forward into all the future, might discern its wastes unknown, all lighted up by the one glad certainty that He that is ‘the same yesterday and to-day and for ever’ will be there, and we shall be beside Him. What God has done, He will keep on doing. ‘The Lord hath delivered mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling,’ and therefore ‘I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living.’
Our experience yields fuel for our faith. We have been near death many a time; we have never fallen into it. Our eyes have been wet many a time; God has dried them. Our feet have been ready to fall many a time, and if at the moment when we were tottering on the edge of the precipice, we have cried to Him and said, ‘My feet have well-nigh slipped,’ a strong Hand has been held out to us. ‘The Lord upholdeth them that are in the act of falling,’ as the old psalm, rightly rendered, has it, and if we have pushed aside His hand, and gone down, then the next clause of the same verse applies, for He ‘raiseth up those that have fallen,’ and are lying prostrate.
As it has been, so it will be. ‘Thou hast been with me in six troubles,’ therefore ‘in the seventh Thou wilt not forsake me.’ We can wear out men; and we cannot argue that because a man has had long patience with some unworthy recipient of his goodness, his patience will never give out. But it is safe to argue thus about God. ‘I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven’-the two perfect numbers multiplied into each other, and the product again multiplied by one of them, to give the measureless measure of the exhaustless divine love, and the sure guarantee that to His servant ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
Then, again, if we put a little different meaning into the Psalmist’s words {and as I said, I think both meanings lie in them}, they suggest that he did not look forward into the future only with expectation, but that along with expectation there was resolve. So we have here
II. A firm resolve.
‘I will walk before the Lord.’ What does ‘walking before the Lord’ mean? There are two or three expressions very like each other, yet entirely different from each other, in the Old and in the New Testament, about this matter. We read of ‘walking with God,’ and of ‘walking before God,’ and of ‘walking after God.’ And whilst there is much that is common to all the expressions, they look at the same idea from different angles. ‘Walking with God,’ communion, fellowship, and companionship are implied there. ‘Walking after God,’ guidance, direction, and example, and our poor imitation and obedience, are most conspicuous there. And ‘walking before God’ means, I suppose, mainly, feeling always that we are in His presence, and have the light of His face, and the glance of His all-seeing eye, falling upon us. ‘If I take the wings of the morning, and fly into the uttermost parts of the sea, Thou art there.’ ‘Thou art acquainted with all my ways, search me, O God!’ That is walking before God. To put it into colder words, it means the habitual-I do not say unbroken, but habitual-effort to feel in our conscious hearts that we are in His sight; not only that we are with Him, but that we are ‘naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.’ And that is to be the result, says our psalm, as it is the intention, of all that God has been doing with us in His merciful providence, in His quickening, sustaining, and comforting influences in the past. He sent all these varying conditions, kept the psalmist alive, kept him from weeping, or dried his tears, kept him from falling, with the intention that he should be continually blessed in the continuous sunshine of God’s presence, and should open out his heart in it and for it, like a flower when the sunbeams strike it. Oh! how different life would look if we habitually took hold of all its incidents by that handle, and thought about them, not as we are accustomed to do, according to whether they tended to make us glad or sorry, to disappoint or fulfil our hopes and purposes, but looked upon them all as stages in our education, and as intended, if I might so say, to force us, when the tempests blow, close up against God; and when the sunshine came, to woo us to His side. Would not all life change its aspect if we carried that thought right into it, and did not only keep it for Sundays, or for the crises of our lives, but looked at all the trifles as so many magnets brought into action by Him to attract us to Himself? Dear brother, it is not enough to recognise God’s purpose, we must fall in with it, accept the intention, and co-operate with God in fulfilling it. It is a matter of purity and of piety, to say, ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death, that I may walk before Thee.’
But there has to be something more. There have to be a firm resolve, and effort without which the firmest resolve will all come to nothing, and be one more paving-stone for the road that is ‘paved with good intentions.’ That firm resolve finds utterance in the not vain vow, ‘I will’-in spite of all opposition and difficulties-’I will walk before the Lord,’ and keep ever bright in my mind the thought, ‘Thou God seest me.’
Ay! and just in the measure in which we do so shall we have joy. In some of those inhuman prisons where they go in for solitary confinement, there is a little hole somewhere in the wall-the prisoner does not know where-at which at any moment in the four-and-twenty hours the eye of the gaoler may be, and they say that the thought of that unseen eye, glaring in upon the felons, drives some of them half mad. The thought that poor Hagar found to be her only comfort in the wilderness-and so christened the well after it-’Thou God seest me,’ must be the source of our purest joy; or it must be a ghastly dread. When He comes at last, some men will lift up their faces to the sunshine and have their faces irradiated by the light; and some will call on the rocks and the hills to cover them from His face, and prefer rather to be crushed than to be blasted by the brightness of His countenance. If we are right with God, then the gladdest of thoughts is, ‘Thou knowest me altogether, and Thou hast beset me behind and before.’ If we are right with God, ‘Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me’ will mean for us support and blessing. If we are wrong, it will mean a weight that crushes to the earth.
And if we are right with Him, that same thought brings with it security and companionship. Ah! we do not need ever to say ‘I am alone’ if we are walking before God. It brings with it, of course, an armour against temptation. What mean, lustful, worldly seduction has any power when a man falls back on the thought, ‘God sees me, and God is with me’? Do you remember the very first instance in Scripture of the use of this phrase? The Lord said unto Abraham, ‘Walk before Me, and be thou perfect.’ That was not only a commandment, but it was a promise, and we might as truly, for the sense of the passage, read, ‘Walk before Me, and thou shalt be perfect.’ That thought of the present God draws the teeth of all raging lions, and takes the stings out of all serpents, and paralyses and reduces to absolute nothingness every temptation. Clasp God’s hand, and you will not fall.
III. There is lastly here, a far-reaching hope.
I do not know whether the Psalmist had any notion of any land of the living except the land of Earth, where men pass their natural lives. I almost think that both he and his brother, whose words he was imitating, had some glimpse of a future life of closer union, when eyes should no more weep nor feet fall. At any rate, you and I cannot help reading that hope into his words. When we read, ‘I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living,’ we cannot but think of the true and perfect deliverance, when it shall be said, with a depth and a fulness of meaning with which it is never said here, ‘Thou hast delivered my soul from death,’ and the black dread that towered so high, and closed the vista of all human expectation of the future, is now away back in the past, hull-down on the horizon as they say about ships scarcely visible, and no more to be feared. We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of ‘mine eyes from tears,’ when ‘God shall wipe away the tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people from off all the earth.’ We cannot but think of the perfect deliverance of ‘my feet from falling’ when the redeemed of the Lord shall stand firm, and walk at liberty on the golden pavements, and no more dread the stumbling-blocks of earth. We cannot but think of the perfect presence of God, the perfect consciousness that we are near Him, when He shall ‘present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’ We cannot but think of the perfect activity of that future state when we ‘shall walk with Him in white,’ and ‘follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.’ And one guarantee for all that far-reaching hope is in the tiny experiences of the present; for He who hath delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling, is not going to expose Himself to the scoff, ‘This “God” began to build, and was not able to finish.’ But He will complete that which He has begun, and will not stay His hand until all His children are perfectly redeemed and perfectly conscious of His perfect Presence.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 115-118 were probably the hymns sung by our…
Psalms 115-118 were probably the hymns sung by our Lord and His disciples. Some modern scholars, however, deny this, on the ground that, in Christ's time, the Hallel was only in its beginning, and consisted simply of Psalms 113, or, at moat, also of Psalms 114 : see Mat_26:30; Mar_14:26. Psalms 116 is apparently a song of thanksgiving after severe illness, but the Ps. has been used by both churches and individuals in spiritual as well as temporal deliverances. The Psalmist's experiences pass through various stages, vk. suffering (Psa_116:3), prayer (Psa_116:4-5), deliverance (Psa_116:6-9), thanksgiving in public (Psa_116:12-19). At Psa_116:10 LXX begins a new Ps.
3. Hell] RM 'the grave.' He was at the gates of death.
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9. His life will be preserved.
10, 11. The sense is most obscure. Two meanings are proposed: (a) I believed even when I spoke, saying, I am greatly afflicted, even when I said in my haste, All men are liars; (b) I believe (for I will speak) that I was greatly afflicted. In my alarm I said, All men are liars.
13. The Psalmist intends to offer a sacrifice, and already anticipates the feast which follows when he would solemnly raise the cup to Jehovah in gratitude for deliverance; hence he calls it the cup of salvation.
15. Precious] i.e. of such consequence to God that He will require penalties for it.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v3 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 116
Psalm 116
The Praise of Israel for Deliverance from Death
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1. The Deliverance-Experience (Psa 116:1-9)
2. Thanksgiving (Psa 116:10-19)
Redeemed Israel expresseth in this Psalm her love to Jehovah for His gracious deliverances, for answered prayer and for His salvation. They were, during the great tribulation, as a faithful remnant; surrounded by the sorrows of death, the pains of Sheol were upon them. Death stared them in the face. Then they cried to the Lord, and, as of old, He heard them and sent deliverance. He dealt bountifully with them, delivered them from death, the eyes from tears, the feet from falling. And now they serve Him, taking the cup of salvation and performing their vows unto the Lord. The death of those who died in the tribulation period as martyrs is mentioned in Psa 116:15. “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” Compare with Rev 14:13, which also refers to the Jewish martyrs during the tribulation. The Psalm ends with another hallelujah.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Extreme Perils.
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Extreme Perils.
The psalmist proclaims the fact that he was saved from great dangers, celebrates his deliverance by giving praise to God alone, and pledges His public acknowledgment of his debt to Jehovah.
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v. 1. I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplications, the fact that God attended to His prayer and delivered him fills his heart with grateful love.
v. 2. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, in the attitude of willing attention, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live, in prayers both of thanksgiving and of further supplication. He now pictures the situation in which he found himself, from which he was delivered.
v. 3. The sorrows, literally, "the cords," of death compassed me, as in a net, and the pains, the oppressions, or straits, of hell, of the realm of death, gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow, experiencing both in full measure. Cf Psa 18:4-5.
v. 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, depending upon the promises in His Word: O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. The psalmist now pictures the manner in which the Lord delivered him.
v. 5. Gracious, full of merciful compassion, is the Lord and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. Cf Exo 34:6-7.
v. 6. The Lord preserveth the simple, guarding them against evil designs of the enemies on every hand. I was brought low, thrown to the ground in utter helplessness, and He helped me.
v. 7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, being quiet and satisfied in the relief afforded by the Lord; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, showing kindness far beyond any man’s merit. After this admonition to his own heart the poet turns back to his prayer.
v. 8. For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling, these three expressions representing all calamities which may befall a man, and the deliverance therefore being complete in every way.
v. 9. I will walk before the Lord, leading his whole life with the consciousness that he is in the presence of Jehovah and His omniscient eye, in the land of the living; instead of becoming a prey to death, he enjoys life and is able always to have his Savior before his eyes.
v. 10. I believed, therefore have I spoken, literally, "for [this] I speak," in speaking he exercised his faith, his speaking was a proof of his faith, 2Co 4:13. I was greatly afflicted, but in spite of his affliction his faith manifested itself in the free confession of his mouth.
v. 11. I said in my haste, in his trembling and terror, the result of his deep dejection, All men are liars. Forsaken by men, miserably neglected by those from whom he expected assistance in his troubles, he has learned to put all his trust in God alone, to depend upon Him in the midst of all calamities.
v. 12. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? How repay His manifold expressions of love and goodness?
v. 13. I will take the cup of salvation, lifting up the cup of thanksgiving for his deliverance, the allusion probably being to this ceremony at the paschal meal, and call upon the name of the Lord, proclaiming Him and His attributes everywhere.
v. 14. I will pay my vows unto the Lord, the special offerings made to express his gratitude to Jehovah, now in the presence of all His people, he was willing and eager to do so in public, that all men might be witnesses of his sacrifice, Num 15:3-5.
v. 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord, esteemed very highly by Him, is the death of His saints, that is, He will not readily let death take them away from before Him.
v. 16. O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant and the son of Thine handmaid, wherefore, as a home-born servant, he claims the privileges of God’s covenant love toward His people. Thou hast loosed my bonds, giving him the freedom of the people of God. Hence he once more expresses his gratitude.
v. 17. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord.
v. 18. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people,
v. 19. in the courts of the Lord’s house, where the congregation assembled for public worship, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord, all the believers of the New Testament joining in this hallelujah in honor of the God of their salvation and paying their vows to Him in cheerful service.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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he hears my voice and my pleas for mercy
Here the word "voice" represents the person who is speaking. The abstract nouns "pleas" and "mercy" can be stated as "plead" and "merciful." AT: "he hears me when I plead for him to be merciful to me" (See: Synecdoche and Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
love
Yahweh
voice
plea
mercy
call
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12 Ps 116 This hymn of thanksgiving rejoices in God’s…
Ps 116 This hymn of thanksgiving rejoices in God’s character and in rescue from death (116:1-11). It gives an assurance of God’s protection in life and reminds the godly that the Lord watches over them even at death. The psalmist commits to living as God’s servant and resolves to honor him publicly (116:12-19).
116:1-4 The psalmist praises the Lord for answering his prayers and rescuing him from death.
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116:1 I love the Lord: This unique opening expresses affection for and commitment to the Lord (see 18:1; Deut 6:5) on the basis of what the Lord has done.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.