Psalms · psalm 116 of 150
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Psalm 116 is the thanksgiving of a person who was close to death and cried to the Lord, who delivered him. He declares that he loves the Lord because he heard his voice, that God is gracious and righteous and protects the simple, and asks how to repay the Lord for all his benefits. He promises to lift up the cup of salvation, call on his name and fulfill his vows before all his people.
Psalm 116 is the fifth of the Egyptian Hallel (Psalms 113-118), in Book V, and has no title. Its speaker simply recounts a personal experience of mortal danger and rescue, and responds with public gratitude. Some verses were used by the apostles and early Christians (2 Corinthians 4:13 quotes verse 10), and the psalm has been sung at Passover.
The psalmist begins with a confession: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas. Because he inclined his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. He tells of his danger: the snares of death encompassed me, the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me, I suffered distress and anguish. Then he called on the name of the Lord: O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.
Then he reflects on God's character: gracious and righteous, merciful, he preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me. He tells himself to return to his rest, because the Lord has dealt bountifully with him. He delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling, and he will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
In verses 10-14 he speaks of his faith in the midst of affliction and asks: what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? He will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, and fulfill his vows in the presence of all his people. Verses 15-19 declare that precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, that he is the Lord's servant, the son of his maidservant, whose bonds the Lord has loosed, and that he will offer a thanksgiving sacrifice in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem. Praise the Lord.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The psalmist loves the Lord because he heard his voice and his plea, and so he will call on him as long as he lives. Love for God springs from the experience of having been heard.
God delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling, and so he will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. His rescue becomes a life for God.
He asks what he will give the Lord for all his benefits, and answers that he will lift up the cup of salvation and call on his name. The response to grace is to receive it with gratitude and praise, not to repay it.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. God is not indifferent to the death of those who belong to him, and that certainty comforts in grief.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Because he heard his voice and his pleas and inclined his ear to him. — Psalm 116:1-2
Answer: That he deliver his soul. — Psalm 116:4
Answer: Gracious and righteous, merciful. — Psalm 116:5
Answer: His soul from death, his eyes from tears and his feet from stumbling. — Psalm 116:8
Answer: Lift it up and call on the name of the Lord. — Psalm 116:13
Answer: In the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem. — Psalm 116:18-19
Psalm 116 is a model of gratitude after crisis. In a small group we can invite those who have lived through a rescue, from an illness, a loss or a danger, to tell it, because giving testimony is part of fulfilling vows before the people. Whoever has been delivered does not keep the story to himself.
It also teaches us to respond to grace without trying to pay for it. The question of verse 12 is answered by lifting up the cup of salvation, that is, receiving and proclaiming what God gave. For Christians, the cup of salvation has an echo at the Lord's table, and this psalm can accompany a celebration of gratitude for the work of Christ.
Psalm 116 ends with the promise to offer thanksgiving sacrifices in Jerusalem. Psalm 117, the shortest in the whole Bible, invites all the nations to praise the Lord for his great steadfast love.
The text does not explain it in detail. It probably refers to a drink offering or a cup of thanksgiving lifted in worship when fulfilling a vow, as part of the thank offering. It is a picture of celebration for the salvation received.
It means God is not indifferent to the death of those who belong to him. Each believer's life and death has value to him. The verse comforts those who mourn a brother or sister in the faith, though it does not say that death is good in itself.
In 2 Corinthians 4:13 he quotes verse 10, I believed, and so I spoke, and adds that with the same spirit of faith we also believe, and so we also speak. For Paul, the faith of the psalmist who spoke even in affliction is a model for the faith of the one who preaches.