Psalm 116

Psalms 116:1-2

I love the Lord: The Hebrew title of this psalm is missing in the literal rendering that keeps titles elsewhere, and the psalm simply opens on the ground of answered prayer: I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. This is one of the Egyptian Hallel psalms, sung at Passover by long custom, and Henry notes that love here follows hearing rather than the reverse, gratitude turned into affection. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me sets the resolve of verse 2, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live, a lifelong habit built on one answered cry.

Psalms 116:3-4

The danger is named plainly, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me, language Barnes reads as mortal illness or a near escape rather than a figure of speech only. I found trouble and sorrow sits before the turn, and then called I upon the name of the Lord names the single act that changes everything in the psalm, a short cry, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gill notes the brevity of the prayer against the length of the danger described, the whole crisis answered by four Hebrew words.

Psalms 116:5-7

The psalmist turns from his own case to God's character, gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea, our God is merciful, the same triad of attributes the exodus generation confessed of him. The Lord preserveth the simple answers the psalmist's own condition, I was brought low, and he helped me, simple meaning open and undefended rather than foolish, so Spurgeon reads it. Return unto thy rest, O my soul speaks to himself as a shepherd speaks to a sheep, the Lord's bountiful dealing named as the ground of the soul's peace.

Psalms 116:8-9

Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling names three deliverances against the three troubles of the opening verses, soul, eyes and feet each answered. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living sets the whole rest of life as the psalmist's response, walking rather than merely surviving. Henry notes the phrase land of the living as a psalm favorite, this present life read as the arena of faithfulness rather than a waiting room for the next.

Psalms 116:10-11

I believed, therefore have I spoken is quoted at 2 Cor 4:13, verified in the floor at both ends, where Paul claims the same spirit of faith for his own suffering ministry, speaking because he believes rather than waiting for certainty to remove all cost. I was greatly afflicted names the pressure the belief spoke through, not a belief that had outrun trouble. I said in my haste, All men are liars is read by most of the bench as the psalmist's own honest confession of a hasty despair spoken under affliction, not a settled verdict on mankind, and Delitzsch notes the Hebrew haste carries the sense of a panicked flight rather than mere speed.

Psalms 116:12-14

What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me turns the psalm from confession to response, a debt that cannot be repaid in kind. I will take the cup of salvation answers it not with payment but with reception, drinking again from what he was given, a phrase the bench reads behind the drink offering poured out at the temple in thanks. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people makes the thanksgiving public rather than private, the congregation named as witness to the payment.

Psalms 116:15

Precious in the sight of the Lord: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints stands alone as its own thought, and the bench reads precious as costly to God rather than merely valued, a death he does not let happen lightly or without regard. Gill and Henry both set it against the danger just survived in verses 3 and 8, the psalmist's own near escape read as an instance of the principle, God does not despise the moment his saints die even when he does not always prevent it. The verse has carried centuries of comfort at gravesides without the psalm's own context of a specific deliverance being lost from it.

Psalms 116:16-17

O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid repeats the claim twice, servanthood named as an inherited status, born into the household rather than newly hired. Thou hast loosed my bonds reads as the psalmist's own deliverance named a second time in different words, chains rather than sorrows. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving answers verse 12's question with the specific offering Leviticus names for exactly this occasion, a votive meal shared with others rather than a burnt offering consumed whole.

Psalms 116:18-19

The psalm closes by repeating verse 14 almost word for word, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people, before naming the place, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. The private cry of verse 4 has become a public thank offering eaten in the temple courts before the covenant congregation, the whole psalm's arc from sorrow to song completed in one place named by name. Praise ye the Lord closes the psalm as its own word, Hallelujah in the Hebrew, joining it to the Hallel set sung at Passover.