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I knew a godly woman who, when she was very sick, would always say, “Read me the 116th Psalm.” It is deservedly a great favourite with many experienced Christians. May the Holy Spirit apply it to our hearts as we read it!
Psa_116:1. I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
It is a great condescension on God’s part to listen to us. You know what a comfort it is to find a sympathetic listener, who will let you tell out your griefs. It is not wise to tell them to everybody; but there are some who have an ear into which it is both pleasant and profitable to pour the story of our woe. Because God had listened to the voice of his servant’s supplications, therefore David said, “I love the Lord.” Nothing will make us love God better than the assurance that he hears our prayers. We could not love a deaf God; so, when Jehovah does attend to our voice and our supplications, we feel drawn more closely than ever to him.
Psa_116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
That same blessed experience which is a reason for love is also an argument for continued prayer. “As he has heard me, he shall still hear me; as he has listened to me, he shall listen to me again; — at least, it shall not be for want of my cries that he doth not listen.” That expression, “He hath inclined his ear unto me,” seems to me to mean, “He has stooped down to me to catch my faintest words; he has been favorable to me; he has smiled as he has heard my broken prayers and cries; he has inclined his ear unto me. It was not a mere hearing such as his omniscience might warrant me to expect; but it was such a favorable hearing as only infinite love would have given to me; and, oh! if he is so favorable as to hear, can I be so ungrateful as not to pray?” Here was the case that David had laid before the Lord.
Psa_116:3. The sorrows of death compassed me,—
Just as the dogs surround the poor stag, and shut him in the fatal circle.
Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:—
They set their teeth into him as the dogs do into the stag.
Psa_116:3. I found trouble and sorrow.
He was in a double grief; he had trouble without and sorrow within, it was troubled sorrow and sorrowful trouble, wormwood mingled with gall.
Psa_116:4. Then called I upon the name of the LORD;—
That was the very best time to pray. Satan does his utmost to prevent our praying when we are in extremities; but, oh! dear friends, if Jonah prayed in the whale’s belly, where can you and I be where we may not and cannot pray? If we sat down upon the very door-step of Hades; yea, if the pit did open her mouth to swallow us up, we might still pray; and the mercy is, that while we are on praying ground we are also on the ground of grace where God can meet with us: “Then called I upon the name of the Lord;”—
Psa_116:4. O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
It was a short prayer, an eager, earnest petition, full of passionate importunity. There was no dictating to God how the deliverance should be wrought: “I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Do it in thine own way, do it in the way that will bring most glory to thee. If thou dost not deliver my body, yet deliver my soul. If my goods must go; if all I have must melt away; yet, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” This is one of the best prayers in the whole Bible; it is very much like the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Psa_116:5.Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;—
That is a strange combination which the ungodly cannot understand. It is a riddle never to be read except at the cross: “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.” That is what every troubled conscience wants to know,— how God can be just and yet can pardon sin; but we who have believed in Jesus do know that, and it is our joy to say, “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;”—
Psa_116:5. Yea, our God is merciful.
I always feel inclined to mispronounce that word, or to divide it into two, and read it, “Our God is mercy full;” for so he is, he is brimming over with mercy.
Psa_116:6. The LORD preserveth the simple:
The sincere,— sometimes, the ignorant, those who do not pretend to know; or, the simple, those from whose heart the Lord has driven out all guile, making them to be simple-minded. They are such fools (as the world calls them) as to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is to perform the highest act of wisdom on the part of man. They are such simpletons as to believe the old, old Bible, and to cling to the great atoning sacrifice, and to let the novelties of modern thought blow away like the down of the thistle in the summer breeze. “The Lord preserveth the simple.” How did David know that? Listen.
Psa_116:6. I was brought low, and he helped me.
There is no way of knowing a general doctrine so good as that of having a particular experience of it: “I was brought low, brought to be a simpleton, brought so very low that I was obliged to pray a simple prayer; brought so very, very low that I was obliged to have a simple faith in God, for I had nobody else to believe in, and nobody else to trust. ‘I was brought low, and he helped me.’” What a help that is, a help in which God virtually does it all; for our poor weakness, with its best attempts, would rather hinder than help.
Psa_116:7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Poor dove! thou art dropping into the water; thy wings can scarcely sustain thee; come back to Noah: “Return unto thy Noah, O my soul!” That is the Old Testament reading of it, and the New Testament rendering is, “Return unto thy Jesus, O my soul, for he is thy true rest! Get back to him, ‘for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.’ In past times, when thou wert dwelling with him in close communion, it was better with thee than it is now that thou hast wandered from him. Return, return, poor prodigal, for there is every inducement to bring thee back. In your Father’s house, there is bread enough and to spare; he never stinted thee. ‘The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee;’ and he is dealing bountifully with thee even now in giving thee the opportunity to come back, in giving thee the power to pray, and in permitting thee to go to the blood-sprinkled mercy-seat.”
Psa_116:8. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Just now, he prayed, “Deliver my soul.” He has received the answer to his petition, for he says, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death.” He said nothing then about his eyes; but God gives exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. He did not say anything about his feet, but the Lord gave him a blessing for them also: “Thou hast delivered my feet from falling.” Oh, for an all-over blessing, a blessing from head to foot,— from the eyes that stream with tears to the feet that are slipping away from under us,— a blessing that begins within by delivering the soul, and then works its way into the very countenance, and makes it resplendent with joy and thankfulness, and gets into the daily life, helping us to march boldly along the slippery way! Glory be to God, he hath given this deliverance to many of us!
Psa_116:9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
“I will not care who sees me so long as he sees me; I will court no presence but his presence, ‘I will walk before Jehovah.’” It is grand walking, under a constant sense of the Lord’s inspection, and a delightful consciousness of the Lord’s smile. This is like Enoch’s walk, and you know how it ends, for Enoch could not die for the life of him; he walked so near to God that he did not pass into heaven by the ordinary road: he “was not, for God took him.” And we, too, though we may die as to these bodies, know that we shall never die as to our souls, for he hath given to us who have believed in Jesus eternal life, and we can never die, or be separated from him.
Psa_116:10. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
“I believed.” Come, friends; can you all say that? It is a blessed thing for you if you can say that when the sorrows of death compass you, and the pains of the grave lay hold upon you. That is glorious faith which says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” “I believed, therefore have I spoken.” Faith is not a dumb grace; it will make its voice heard.
Psa_116:11. I said in my haste, All men are liars.
You see, he had spoken once in the power of the flesh; it was well, therefore, that he should speak now in the power of faith. “I said in my haste, All men are liars.” But it was true for all that, for they will fail us if we trust to them instead of to the Lord; yet, in another sense, they are not all liars, so David retracts the hasty word which might have a double meaning, and might imply what he did not intend, or what he should not mean. See how quickly he turns away from this unpleasant subject; note what comes next.
Psa_116:12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
“There,” he seems to say, “put all men away, I have done with them. If they are all liars, let us say no more about them, but let us turn to God.” When you, dear friends, are disappointed with men, do not sit down and worry; you might have known what to expect before you began with them; and now you have found it to be so, turn it to good account. David feels that he has received everything from God, so he says, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” Well, what can he do? His own poverty comes rushing over his sight again, and the answer to his question is,
Psa_116:13. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
“I ask, ‘What shall I render?’ and I reply, ‘I will take.’” That is what you and I also must say.
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea,
And ask him still for more.
Psa_116:14. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
If you have made any vows, mind that you keep them. It is often better not to vow; but when the vow is made, let it be diligently paid.
Psa_116:15. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
It is very painful for us to witness, but it is precious to God. We think that they have ended their usefulness when they reach that point, but God estimates their very death to be precious. Tread very softly when you go to the bedside of a departing saint; you may brush against an angel’s wing, for the room is full of them, the place whereon thou standest is holy ground; troops of angelic messengers are there to do their master’s bidding in the last hours of his child, which are about to become his first hours in glory. Besides, the Master himself is there; he is never absent when his children are dying: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Psa_116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:—
“Born in thine own house, of one who belonged to thee,— a home-born slave, and glad to glory in that fact. Born in thy house, and bought with thy money, and yielding up myself joyfully to thee: ‘I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid:’ —
Psa_116:16. Thou hast loosed my bonds.
Why, we thought he was going to say, “Thy grace hath, like a fetter, bound my wandering heart to thee.” Just so; that is the liberty which he enjoys: “Thou hast loosed my bonds.” We are never so free as when free-will has had its death-blow, and we have come under the power of sovereign grace; and now there is another free-will, born of grace, and with its full consent we give ourselves up to God, saying, with David, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds.”
Psa_116:17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
Now David has grown into a priest, offering sacrifices. He has also grown into a singer, praising the Lord with thanksgiving; and he has grown into a preacher: “And will call upon the name of the Lord.” The very man who found the pains of hell laying hold upon him, is now engaged in the holiest exercises.
Psa_116:18-19. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.
Or, “Hallelujah!” I cannot close this reading without remarking how often my ears are shocked with the blasphemous way in which this thrice-holy word is dragged into the mire,—“Hallelujah fiddles!” “Hallelujah lasses!” and I know not what. “Hallelujah”— praise unto Jehovah,— is one of those awful words which never ought to be pronounced except with the utmost solemnity, although there should be mixed with it the most rapturous joy. Let us take heed lest we be found guilty of taking the name of the Lord, Jehovah, our God, in vain, by using that word flippantly; but let us solemnly feel in our hearts, and say with our lips, “Hallelujah,— Praise ye the Lord!”
In this Psalm, David tells us his experience with regard to God and with regard to men.
Psa_116:1. I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Answered prayer is a good reason for loving God. David was in his right senses; and he was, by no means, a fool, yet he declared that God had answered his prayer, and, therefore, he loved him. And this is not only David’s experience, but there are thousands of us who can say that God has heard our prayers, and therefore we love him. How can we help doing so?
Psa_116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
If a beggar in the street were to say to us, “Because you have relieved me once, I will beg of you as long as I live,” we should not be pleased to hear him say that, but God loves to hear us say that to him. He wishes us to resolve that, because we have been successful in prayer once, we will call upon him as long as we live. Now David explains the circumstances which led him to pray: —
Psa_116:3. The sorrows of death compassed me, —
“I seemed to be shut in, — surrounded by a circle of difficulties and terrors: ‘The sorrows of death compassed me,’” —
Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:
They seemed to seize him as a lion seizes his prey.
Psa_116:3-4. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD,
I beseech thee, deliver my soul. His prayer was a very short one, but very much to the point. Words make not prayer; they often burden it, and prevent it from flying. “Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire;” —and David, in a few earnest words, expressed that desire: “O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.”
Psa_116:5. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
All who have ever tried him have proved him to be so, — merciful to forgive our sin, — merciful to help us in the time of trouble, - merciful to strengthen us in the performance of our duty: “Our God is merciful.”
Psa_116:6. The LORD preserveth the simple:
Those who are of a single mind, — who have no double meanings and concealed motives, — those who know their own ignorance and weakness, and who, therefore, dare not trust in themselves.
Psa_116:6. I was brought low, and he helped me.
David could speak for himself, and he did so without the slightest hesitation. Can you, dear friends after making trial of God’s love and grace, say of him, “I was brought low, and he helped me”? If you can, then bear this testimony to his praise and glory.
Psa_116:7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Man’s soul is like the dove that Noah sent out from the ark. It flew over the wide waste of waters, seeking rest, but finding none, so, at last, with weary wing, it made its way back to the ark; and, soul, thou wilt never rest till thou comest back to thy Creator and Redeemer. Thou mayest fly to the pleasures and follies of this world, but they can furnish no real rest for thee; if thou wouldst rest, thou must come back to thy God.
Psa_116:8-9. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eye from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
“Let my fellow creatures think what they will of me, I will not care about their judgments, I will only think of God.” This is the highest noblest, happiest style of living, — to “walk before the Lord.” Why, there are some men who dare not even call their souls their own! They are afraid of their next-door neighbours, or of some great kinsman who sets the fashion for them; but the man who walks before the Lord will think only of the verdict of the Most High, and will care nothing about what men will say.
Psa_116:10-11. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, all men are liars.
He felt that he could not trust them. He had come into such trouble that men would be deceivers even against their own will, for, even when they would have helped him, he found that they could not. He had looked to them as worthy of his confidence, and had found them fail him, therefore he said that, so far as reliance upon them was concerned, “All men are liars.” Well, what then?
Psa_116:12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
“Though men have failed me, the Lord has not. If friends all prove to be false, he still is true.” ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?’
Psa_116:13-15. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
It matters not where they die, — in the dungeons of the Inquisition, or on the sick-bed of poverty and obscurity, — God is always with them. The death-bed of a saint is one of the places where God often makes his glory to be best seen. From the lips of dying men and women some of us have heard strange sayings, sweeter than any that ever fell from poet’s tongue or pen. We have heard words which it was almost unlawful for a man to utter, save only for those who were in the very suburbs of heaven, — almost in glory, — even while they spake with us on earth. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” Will yours be a saintly death, dear friend, or will it, on the other hand, be a death of gloom and sorrow? God grant that you may die the death of his people because you have lived the life of his people!
Psa_116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
How pleased David was to be God’s servant! Yet he says, “Thou hast loosed my bonds.” To serve God, is to be free; we are never truly free until we bow our willing necks to the yoke of the Most High. Then we break every chain, and snap every fetter. He is the free man whom our God makes free, and all are slaves besides.
Psa_116:17-19. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.
We have read this Psalm many times, and have often felt it to be a photograph of our own spiritual experience; but we will, on this occasion, read it from one special point of view. Please notice that this Psalm is exceedingly full of the letter I. Cast your eye down the page, and you will be struck with the number of times in which the first person singular appears. Well, then, let us read the Psalm with this view, and each of us for himself or herself say “I” as the psalmist did if the Holy Spirit shall enable us to do so.
Psa_116:1. I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
If this double declaration is true, it turns the reading of the Psalm into a devout spiritual exercise for each one of us who can rightly adopt the psalmist’s language. But can each one of us truthfully say, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee”? If I can honestly say, “I love the Lord,” then I can give the reason for the love that is in me. It is because he has loved me with an everlasting love, and because he has manifested that love, among many other ways, in hearing “my voice and my supplications.”
Psa_116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
“Whatever others may do or may not do, I will call upon him as long as I live, and I have a good reason for doing so, ‘ Because he hath inclined his ear unto me.’ He has stooped from his throne in heaven to hearken to my feeble accents, he has bowed himself in his majesty to listen to the appeal of my misery. I was brought down very low in my sorrow, but the Lord brought his ear down as low as my lip: ‘ He hath inclined his ear unto me;’ and because he has done that, therefore my heart is inclined unto him, and I will call upon him as long as I live.”
Psa_116:3. The sorrows of death compassed me,
“They formed a ring around me, from which I could see no way of escape. I was like a wounded stag that is surrounded by fierce dogs.”
Psa_116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:
“The dogs of hell had fixed their cruel teeth in my throat so that it seemed impossible for me to escape from them.”
Psa_116:3. I found trouble and sorrow.
“When I searched for something better, I only found still more trouble and sorrow. I had enough of them without finding any more; but the more I looked for anything else, the more trouble and sorrow I found.” This is a very graphic description of the state of heart in which some of us have been more than once. We have seen no way of escaping from it, and we have been in great distress because we could not discover any way of alleviating our grief.
Psa_116:4. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
Do you remember, dear friend, when you prayed such a prayer as that,-short, sharp, sincere, pointed, personal, out of the depths of your soul? Then, let your recollection of that prayer have so gracious an influence upon your heart that, in the remembrance of the past mercy, when the Lord heard and answered your supplication, you may find a well of present gratitude.
Psa_116:5. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
Listen to that blessed little sentence, those of you who are full of sin, and who are therefore afraid that God will cast you away for ever: “Out God is merciful.”
Psa_116:6. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
There is here, first, a general doctrine; and, then, there is a particular proof and application of it. It is true, in a general sense, that the Lord preserveth the simple-hearted ones who have learned to trust in him; but, in particular, you or I, if saved by his grace, can say, with the psalmist, “I was brought low, and he helped me.” There is a little book of medicine, which Mr. John Wesley brought out, and he put to some of the recipes the word “Proved.” He had evidently tried the medicine, and proved it to be efficacious in his own case. In a similar fashion, we can often put, in the margin of our Bibles, concerning the Word of the Lord, “Proved.” We have tried it, and proved it, and therefore we also can personally say, “The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.”
Psa_116:7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Cannot we also, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, speak well of our God tonight? If any of us have been wandering at all from his presence, and so have lost the conscious sense of his love, let us come back to him at once. We cannot be happy anywhere else. God has spoiled you and me, beloved, for the world; so we must be happy in him, for we can never be satisfied anywhere else. Only in our God can our joy be full. Come back then, my soul, come back to thy Lord: “Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” He is thy true Noah; thou canst find no real rest anywhere else; therefore return unto him even as the dove flew back to the ark with weary wing after wandering over the wild waste of waters.
Psa_116:8. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
“I have had a trinity of deliverances, — my soul saved from eternal ruin, my eyes delivered from the greatest grief of all, and my life saved from sinful stumbling: ‘ Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from failing.’” This testimony is far in advance of that given in Psa_56:13, where David says, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living ?”
Psa_116:9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
“I will not walk before some great man so as to seek to please him. I will not walk before my fellow-believers so as to be merely looking for their approbation. But ‘ I will walk before the Lord.’” This is the best way of living, so let it be yours and mine, beloved. Let each of us say, “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living ?”
Psa_116:10. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
I call your attention again to the repeated use of the letter-word “I.” Three times in this one verse we have that little personal pronoun, and I want you each one to take this whole Psalm to yourself so far as it is suited to your case, to make a soliloquy of it while we are reading it: “I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted.”
Psa_116:11-12. I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
I expect that we have all of us said, in our haste, some things that we had better not have said. They may have been true; yet, for all that, it was a pity that we uttered them. Yet I am glad that the psalmist, although he said, “All men are liars,” did not dwell upon that unpleasant truth, but speedily turned from unreliable man to his ever-reliable God. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me ?” If all men are liars, if all earthly comforts fail us, if all human dependences disappoint us, our God will not do so. Let us leave the broken cisterns without even grumbling at them, or having bitter feelings concerning them; and let us turn to God, and let this be the question put by each one of us, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” I suggest, dear friends, that we do each of us personally put this question to ourselves, “What shall I render unto the Lord? What can I do for Jesus? What can I give to God? What is there, at this particular time, that I can devise for the glory of God in order to manifest my love to him ?” Peradventure, in this house tonight, there may be the conception —perhaps, the birth — of some high and noble enterprise for God. If this question shall be pressed home upon some ardent spirit here, there may be the first thoughts, in this house of prayer, of some far-reaching ministry which shall be a means of blessing to many lands through all the ages that are yet to come. God grant that it may be so! What shall I, a young man just beginning life, render unto the Lord? What shall I, a man in the full strength of his manhood, render unto the Lord? What shall I — a man far advanced in years, mature and ripe for heaven, and soon to be taken there, — render unto the Lord? Whoever I am, let me make haste to answer the question, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?”
Psa_116:13-14. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
There never was a better time than the present, and there never was better place than this, for some holy resolve concerning consecrated service for the Master.
Psa_116:15. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
They are themselves at all times so precious to the Lord that everything about them is very dear in his esteem, and they are never more precious than in their deaths. We constantly have some of the very choicest of the Lord’s saints going home to their Father; and when the Lord takes any of them home to himself, it becomes those of us who are left to try to do all the more for our God. Let some of us be baptized for the dead, let us press forward to fill the gaps in the ranks of the armies of God, and do all that lies in our power to win the victory for his righteous cause.
Psa_116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
Still read this Psalm very personally, — you especially who have had godly mothers. Say, “I am a born slave, — born of one who was thy slave, for I delight to use even such a hard name as that. I am God’s servant, born of one of God’s servants: ‘the son of thine handmaid.’” I like to remember that it was so in my own case, and I can truthfully say to the Lord, “I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid.” “Thou hast loosed my bonds,” by making me to feel the bonds of thy grace. There is no liberty like complete subjection to God. The greatest freedom of thought is to think only God’s thoughts; and the highest freedom of living is to live according to the rule of holiness in the ways of the Most High.
Psa_116:17-19. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.
And we do and will praise him at this time, and for ever and ever.
Psa_116:1. I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Every answered prayer should make us love the Lord, and especially those prayers that come up from our heart when it is overwhelmed within us. When we pray in deep trouble, and God sends us help and deliverance, it is impossible for us not to love him. Cannot each believer here say, with great gratitude, “I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications”?
Psa_116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
“This begging business pays so well that I will never give it up as long as I live. The Lord has heard me, so he shall hear me again and again. He is so good and so generous a God, and such bounties are continually being distributed at his door, that I will never go to anybody else, but will continue to knock at God’s door as long as I live.” The psalmist goes on to tell us what was the special occasion which brought out this expression of his gratitude.
Psa_116:3-4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
His petition was short, earnest, plain, and personal. It was a sharp arrow shot from the bow of prayer, and it reached its mark in the heart of God. Are any of you just now in very sore distress? Then let each one imitate the example of the psalmist, and pray, “O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.” Have you been delivered as the psalmist was? Then, make a note of it, be sure to jot it down in your pocket-book, so that, when you get into such a trouble again, you may turn to the record of God’s delivering mercy, and say, “The God who delivered me before has not changed, so I will apply to him again, for I am sure that he will again deliver me.”
Psa_116:5-6. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
Poor simpletons, who cannot help themselves, but who are, nevertheless, free from deceit and craft, and take God’s Word as they find it,-sincere simple souls, who trust in the Lord, he will take care of them, but he will leave those who think they are wise enough to do so, to take care of themselves.
Psa_116:7-8. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
If we have enjoyed this trinity of deliverances, let us praise the Three One God for ever and ever. Praise him, O my soul, if thou art saved! Praise God, O mine eyes! Be filled with the happy tears of gratitude since he has delivered you from the bitter, briny tears of grief. Praise him, O ye feet that he has kept from falling, and run in the way of his commandments with great joy!
Psa_116:9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
“That shall be my way of walking,-not before me, that I may gain their praise, but I will consider the Lord, and the Lord alone; and so long as I please him, I shall not mind whether I please anybody else or not.
Psa_116:10-11. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars.
It is always better not to speak in haste. It is very seldom that we say much that is worth hearing when we talk too fast. “I said in my haste, All men are liars.”
Psa_116:12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
That is better, for it is better to praise the Lord than to find fault with men, even if the fault found be really there. It is better for each one of us to be rendering our homage to God than picking holes in the coats of others, so let each one of us ask, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?”
Psa_116:13. I will take-
The psalmist asks, “What shall I render?” and he answers, “I will take.” That is a strange way of rendering, is it not? Yes, brethren, but that is the way for us to show our gratitude to the Lord for all his benefits toward us. John Newton was right when he wrote, —
“
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea,
And ask him still for more.”
Psa_116:13-14. The cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.
And I can be spokesman for you, brethren and sisters in Christ, and say that the Lord is good, and that we have proved him to be good to us under peculiarly trying circumstances. He does not fail to help his people, neither does he turn his back upon them in their hour of need. We have tried all other dependences, and have been bitterly disappointed; but the Rook of Israel’s salvation standeth fast for ever, glory be to the name of Jehovah of hosts! Let us pay our vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.
Psa_116:15. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
It is an event for which he makes all necessary arrangements. He does not allow it to happen accidentally, or according to the will of man. As good old John Ryland says,
“
The palmist said that he was a home-born slave, because his mother was a servant of God, and he was born, as it were, a servant of his mother’s Lord. How delightful it is to be a Christian, and the Son of a Christian! Let us rejoice and be glad if that is our happy lot. It is more honour to have had a mother who feared the Lord than a mother who was princess or an empress, but who had not the grace of God in her heart.
Psa_116:17-19. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.
We have read this Psalm many times, let us read it now, not regarding it so much as the language of the psalmist uttered thousands of years ago, as our own language at this moment.
Psa_116:1. I love the LORD,
Let us go as far as that if we can; let us each one say, “I love the Lord.”
Psa_116:1. Because —
There is a reason for this love. People say that love is blind, but love to God uses her eyes, and can justify herself: “I love the Lord, because” —
Psa_116:1. He hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Can you go as far as that? Do you recollect answers to prayer, when you cried to God with your voice, or when your voice failed you, but supplication rose to God from your heart? Surely there is not a man, whose prayers have been answered, who does not love God. He must love the Lord when he recollects what poor prayers his were, what great blessings came in answer to them, and how speedily and how often God has heard his prayers, and granted his requests.
Psa_116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.
That is a vow which we may well make, and hope for grace to keep it. It means that, as we have succeeded so well in begging at God’s door, we will keep on begging of him as long as we live. I suppose the psalmist meant that, because Jehovah had heard him, therefore he would never call upon any false god; but, as long as he lived, he would resort to the one living and true God. I hope that you and I can say the same. We have tried the fountain of living waters, why should we go to broken cisterns that can hold no water? Prayer to God has always succeeded, why should we not continue it? All you who have plied the trade of mendicants at the mercy-seat must have been so enriched by it in your souls that you are determined to stand there as long as you live.” Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.” This is sound reasoning, for even the emotions of believers, when they are most fervent, are based upon solid reasons. We can defend ourselves even when we grow warmest in love to God and most earnest in prayer. Now the psalmist tells one of his many experiences in prayer: —
Psa_116:3-4. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD;
Dark days are good days for praying; when your eyes cannot see, you pray all the better; when there is no earthly prop to lean upon you are all the more ready to lean upon God alone. The psalmist was like a poor worm in a ring of fire: “the sorrows of death compassed me.” The sheriff’s officer seemed to hold him in his grip: “the pains of hell got hold upon me.” As for his inner experience, he found nothing there but “trouble and sorrow.” When the town of Mansoul was besieged, every way of escape was closed except the way upwards, and it was so with the psalmist, and therefore he made use of that way. “Then called I upon the name of the Lord.” His prayer was short, earnest, and full of meaning: —
Psa_116:4. O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.
He did not have to search for a form of prayer, his words were such as came naturally to his mind; and that is the best sort of prayer which arises out of the heart’s sincere desire.
Psa_116:5. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.
The psalmist was delivered by an act of grace, yet it was an act of righteousness, for God is not unrighteous to break his own promise, and he has promised to help his people. Grace and righteousness both guarantee answers to believing prayers, and mercy comes in to make assurance doubly sure: “Yea, our God is merciful.”
Psa_116:6. The LORD preserveth the simple:
Straightforward men, those who cannot play a double part, those simpletons whom others take in and laugh at because they are honest, true, genuine, — the Lord preserveth such people.
Psa_116:6. I was brought low, and he helped me.
Oh, these blessed personal pronouns, are you laying hold of them as I read them? Are you speaking them out of your own soul?
Psa_116:7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.
Come home to him, for you have no other friend like him in earth or heaven; come back to him, my soul, and rest where you have often rested before.
Psa_116:8. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
An eternity of mercies from the Eternal himself.
Psa_116:9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
The best style of living is walking before God, so living in his sight as to be indifferent to the opinions and judgments of our fellow men and only caring to know that God is looking upon us with approval. This is the way to live; and if we have tried it, we have found it to be so pleasant that we are resolved to continue in it.
Psa_116:10-11. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars.
They have all failed me; some of them could but would not help me, so they were as liars to me; others would but could not, and as I have trusted them, they were as liars to me; but thou, my God, art no liar, thou art the truth itself! I ask those of you who have had a very long and varied experience to look back, and tell me whether you can recollect even once when your God has broken his promise. You have sometimes been afraid that he would forget it, but has he ever done so? If you speak as you have found him, you must praise and adore the faithful, immutable, all-sufficient Jehovah, who has made your strength to be as your days even to this very hour.
Psa_116:12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
That question contains the essence of true religion. This should be the one object of our lives if we have been redeemed by Christ, and are his servants. Whatever we have done for God, we should endeavor to do much more, and to do it much better.
Psa_116:13. I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.
This is a curious way of rendering anything, yet you know that John Newton’s hymn says, —
“
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea,
And ask him still for more.”
It is a great blessing if we are able to say, as David did, that we are born into God’s house. Some of us had gracious mothers who brought us to the Lord in earnest prayer long ere we knew anything. I can say to the Lord, “I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid;” and I have no greater wish than that all my descendants may be the Lord’s.
Psa_116:17-18. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,
Do it, beloved, let your hearts now pour themselves out in silence, and afterwards in grateful song before the Lord. Praise him, magnify him, bless his name, “in the presence of all his people.” It is inspiring to be with your brethren and sisters in Christ. Perhaps the devotion which burns low when there is only one brand on the hearth will burn all the better and brighter when we add many blazing brands to it.
Psa_116:19. In the courts of the LORD’S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.