I knew a godly woman who, when she was very sick, would always say, «Read me the 116 th Psalm.» It is deservedly a great favourite with many experienced Christians. May the Holy Spirit apply it to our hearts as we read it!
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 116:3. The sorrows of death compassed me,
Just as the dogs surround the poor stag, and shut him in the fatal circle.
Psalms 116:3. And the pains of hell gat hold upon me:
They set their teeth into him as the dogs do into the stag.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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;»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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;»
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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!
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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,
Psalms 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.
The best return for one like me,
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea,
And ask him still for more.
You have given God all you have when you have given him your weakness, your sin, your emptiness; that is all that is truly yours; and then it is that you render to him that which he asks for, that he may put away your sin, that he may fill your emptiness and glorify himself in your weakness.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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:'
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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!»