Psalm 116
19 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →
Speaks with:Psalms 119×3Psalms 116×3Psalms 22×3Psalms 145×2Psalms 103×2Matthew 11×2
Summary
Chapter summary
A personal thanksgiving from death's door: 'I love Jehovah, because he heareth my voice… The cords of death compassed me.' Then I called: 'O Jehovah, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.' Gracious is Jehovah, and righteous: he preserveth the simple. 'Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for Jehovah hath dealt bountifully with thee… I will walk before Jehovah in the land of the living.' 'What shall I render unto Jehovah for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of Jehovah… Precious in the sight of Jehovah is the death of his saints.'
Context
Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview
The world behind this chapter
Psalms 116The history
This is a thanksgiving service put into words. When an Israelite in danger vowed an offering, he was expected to come to the sanctuary afterward, bring the animal, share the meal, and say publicly what God had done. The repeated phrase about paying vows in the presence of all his people is the legal core of the occasion.
The cup of salvation was part of that service. Offerings were accompanied by a drink offering of wine poured out at the altar, and lifting the cup was the visible act of thanks. Sung at Passover, where four cups came round the table, the line landed with obvious force.
The description of the crisis uses standard language for near death — the cords of death, the narrow straits of the grave, feet slipping. Being kept from stumbling was not a figure of speech in a country of rocky paths and terraced hillsides.
The singer calls himself the son of your handmaid. A slave born inside the household, rather than bought, had the closest and most permanent place of any servant, and his freedom was a gift from within the family rather than a purchase. Saying God had loosed his bonds while calling himself a home-born servant is a deliberate knot.
What it meant to them
The first hearers were people who knew what it was to bargain with God at night and then have to walk into the temple in daylight and say so.
One line would have stopped them: the death of his faithful ones is costly in God's sight. In a world where a peasant's death was of no consequence to anybody, God is said to count it dear.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- The Mishnah, tractate Pesahim (Danby translation)
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Psalms 116. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.