Psalm 116

1 I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.

2 Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

The occasion for the psalm appears to be some type of distress, maybe a near death experience, and yet the psalmist is able to celebrate the presence of God and place his trust in God for his ultimate rescue from death. It’s a psalm that hints at an afterlife while being firmly rooted in the present. The opening line is striking. Similar to the opening of Psalm 18, the author declares his love for YHWH. It’s a rather rare occurrence in the Old Testament to declare one’s love for God. Fear, worship, obedience, trust -- these are more common expressions of the relationship between God and man, but here it is love borne out of the repeated experience of God’s faithfulness. Specifically the psalmist remembers how YHWH has heard his prayers and his cries for mercy, leaning in to listen to him. Because of this confidence the psalmist promises to continue calling on YHWH all of his days. Implied in these short lines is the psalmist’s lifetime of experiencing God’s presence and answers to his prayers. He is reflecting on his years and he recounts the distress as well as the pattern of answered prayers, how even through hardship, YHWH was with him and ultimately delivered him. I think of those I know today who are enduring intense trials and yet remain steadfast. This is what the psalmist has done, and these words are the fruit of that. Don’t give up praying to YHWH. He hears and he leans in to listen and act. So call on him all your days. Be in the habit of bringing everything to God, great and small alike. Abide in conversation with him so that like the psalmist you can say “I love the LORD for he heard my voice.”

3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.

4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”

The psalmist reflects back on his near death experience. Bound by the ropes of death’s certainty, held in the distress of the grave, he suffered in trouble and sorrow. Most likely this was an illness that brought him to the edge of life, to the point where perhaps he was saying his goodbyes and making funeral plans. But at the same time he was calling on the name of the LORD, praying for deliverance for his very life. I can’t say that I’ve ever been in such dire straits although a cancer diagnosis many years ago gave me pause to consider my own mortality in a way I hadn’t before. I’ve known many young people who’ve been called home early, and I know that by God’s will and plan that could just have easily been me -- all it takes is a single traffic accident. Today I know of several that are battling serious illness and for some, imminent death is likely. I pray that they would call on the name of the LORD while there is still time. If they don’t have the faith to do it, then let my faith be enough. 

5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; our God is merciful.

6 The LORD preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.

God’s nature is cited as the basis for his deliverance of the psalmist. Three characteristics are cited: graciousness, righteousness, and mercy. “Grace” has been described as God smiling at you. It is his unmerited favor, granting us what we need and not what we deserve. “Righteous” is God doing what is true and right. Often translated “justice” it can be both punitive (punishing evil) and restorative (supporting the vulnerable). “Mercy” is God’s feeling of compassion toward us. In human experience it is the turning in the gut that moves us to take pity on others. That’s the best way the psalmist has to describe his experience as the recipient of God’s grace, righteousness, and mercy. The request is made in verse 4 and the answer given in verse 6. The LORD preserves the simple. He keeps alive those who don’t have the wherewithal to keep themselves alive. When I was brought low, to the brink of death, the LORD saved me. The “simple” is often used pejoratively in the Proverbs as a foolish person, a simpleton, or a thoughtless person. That’s not the sense here, although it is a way the psalmist has of speaking of himself in humility. We speak of people who have a simple faith admirably. Indeed, it can be child-like and this is the kind of faith that Jesus said is required and the scriptures tell us is rewarded. 

7 Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.

8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;

9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

After this near death experience the psalmist tells himself to return to a place of rest. The struggle is over, the crisis averted, life can go back to normal. It suggests that for the person of faith, a place of rest is the default position. One’s soul can rest in the bounty of God’s good provision. There’s a story of a logger who was chopping down trees in a forest. He noted that a bird had nested in a tree he was about to cut down.  Not wanting to harm the bird and its nest, he shook the tree violently and the bird moved to another. Again, the logger shook the tree driving the bird to another tree, and another, and another. But finally the bird abandoned the trees and built its nest in the crag of the rock, an unshakable place of rest in which to nurture new life. Sometimes we may wonder why God is shaking our trees, but he does so in his infinite wisdom to move us to a place of rest. This is the testimony of the psalmist. He has experienced the distress of death and the emotional pain that brought tears. He has been kept from stumbling. Perhaps the reference to stumbling even suggests a loss of faith (compare this to the use of this phrase in Psalm 73:2). He was at the brink of losing everything when God stepped in and moved him to a place of security. Now he can walk before the LORD in the land of the living (that is, all the days of his life). “Walking before the LORD” implies obedience, honesty and wholeness in living confidently as one who trusts in God -- without secrets, without pretension, a simple faith, a soul at rest once more. 

10 I believed, even when [Or believed, indeed; Septuagint believed, therefore] I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”;

11 I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.”

This is probably the most difficult verse to interpret in this psalm. The Hebrew translation suggests that this is a description of the psalmist’s suffering. He chose to trust even when he was greatly afflicted, even when he was distressed and said, “everyone is a liar”. He still trusted in God. This is the general mood of the psalm -- faith in adversity. The adversity in this case is at least partially the opposition he is facing from others. In fact, it feels like he is standing alone, something the prophet Elijah felt at one point in his life. Trusting when it seems that no one else is with you is a tall order, but such is his devotion to YHWH. Will you trust in God and his promises when the result is affliction and isolation? When everyone lies about reality and lies about you? When you stand alone, will you remain standing or will you sit so that you don’t stand out from others? I remember a picture from my teenage days that portrayed this precise action. It was a crowd of people prostrating themselves before an idol and one man was simply standing. Will you be that one? The impulse to belong is great, but the psalmist’s devotion to YHWH is greater. So should yours be. Paul seems to use the phrase in a different way, basing it on the Septuagint when he quotes the first part of verse 10 in 2 Corinthians 4:13. He writes, “I believed, therefore I spoke”, omitting the rest of the verse, and suggesting that speaking (preaching) is simply the direct result of believing. In other words, “I believed, so I shared my faith.” If you truly believe something it can’t help but come out in your conversation, you can’t prevent yourself from telling others. The fervency of your belief is reflected in the amount you are willing to speak about it. 

12 What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?

13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,

14 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.

Having recounted the blessings he has received from the LORD, the psalmist promises obedience and public worship. He asks the question of himself, “what shall I give to the LORD in return for his benefits?” Romans 12:1 says that worship is the reasonable, rational response to the grace of God. The psalmist offers three things to the LORD in gratitude for his benefits. First, he will lift up the cup of salvation. This could be in reference to the Passover meal where four cups of wine were typically consumed, the third being called the “cup of salvation”. It’s possible that this psalm corresponds to that cup, and this psalm is the prayer recited at the time of drinking the cup. The psalmist is literally holding up a cup that represents God’s full salvation, complete provision for the psalmist’s rescue, giving thanks to God for his salvation. In a more general sense, lifting something up to God meant giving it to him symbolically. Typically this is the lifting of hands in prayer, offering words and oneself to God. A cup can represent a blessing (Psalm 23 speaks of the host offering an overflowing cup to his guests), so this may be suggesting that the psalmist is offering to God a blessing, a full cup. The cup is filled with the blessing of “salvation” received from God and the worship simultaneously offers it back to God, the gift of himself, his body a living sacrifice of gratitude (to borrow from Paul’s language in Romans 12:1,2). God gives us the cup of salvation and we give our lives to him in gratitude. It is the reasonable response to such a magnanimous gift. Finally, in the ancient near east, pouring out a drink offering, a cup of wine, at the temple was a typical act of worship, comparable to making a burnt offering. This could be what the psalmist is referring to, public worship and vow fulfillment.  

15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

16 O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.

I remember this verse troubling me when I read it as a teenager. How can the death of those who are devoted to the LORD be a precious thing? It seems more like a tragedy, a loss, particularly if that death occurs at a young age. The word “precious” here is consistently translated as costly, rare and precious, usually in the context of a gemstone. In the eyes of the LORD, the death of a person devoted to God (Hasidim) is a rare, costly, and precious thing. We could emphasize each of those three adjectives and come up with a slightly different meaning. “Rare” would suggest that godly people live longer. That idea is found elsewhere in the psalms (37, 92, 71), and could be related to God’s promise of protection (Psalm 91, 121). “Costly” suggests that the godly are so valuable that there is a tremendous loss when they are gone from among the living. We don’t appreciate the value of someone until they are gone. We take them for granted when we should be treating them as extraordinary. Finally, “precious” suggests that the LORD himself values this moment of the godly passing from life to death, implying that death is a means of greater intimacy with God, therefore a net good, something to be valued as precious and costly. Another translation suggests the meaning is “carefully watched over” (because it is precious). This also suggests God’s presence. The next line is somewhat helpful. The psalmist identifies himself as a servant of YHWH, and in a statement of humility, the “son of your maidservant”, a child. This is about as humble and powerless as one might be. Yet, YHWH has set him free, loosed his bonds. Are these the bonds of servitude or the bonds of death? YHWH has offered his servant freedom, that is clear. It is not freedom from death because all die, so it must be another type of freedom. It strongly suggests a life after death with greater intimacy with God. It is precious for God and it is precious for the believer, to transcend the bonds of the material world and exist in a space with greater access to God. This is how the believer looks at death, and it can give tremendous comfort to survivors of those who have died. 

17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD.

18 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,

19 in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!

The psalmist promises to do these three things in response to God’s salvation. He will sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving, call on the name of the LORD, and pay his vows. The sacrifice of thanksgiving was a freewill offering. It was not compulsory but was done simply out of gratitude, from the heart. Calling on the name of the LORD is simply praying to God and placing your trust in Him. It is declaring your dependence on God and devotion to God verbally. Finally, the paying of vows meant the fulfillment of a promise. In the ancient near east individuals made promises to the gods, “If you will give me a child, I will pay you this offering.” When the gods answered the prayer, the worshiper paid the vow. Perhaps the psalmist made such a promise, has experienced God’s salvation and now is fulfilling his obligation. He is doing all of this publicly as the text states three times -- in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst O Jerusalem. On the one hand worship is not to be performed as a show of piety to impress others. On the other hand, it is not merely to be performed in private. It is to be a public witness of faith that might inspire others in the community to do the same. It can become a show but only if our hearts allow it. May my worship be pure and free from such performance aspects. May I be oblivious to the crowd as I pour out my offering, call on the LORD, and fulfill my promises.