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.
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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 Psalms 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 ?»
Psalms 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 ?»
Psalms 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.»
Psalms 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?»
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.
Psalms 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.