Understanding Psalm 116: A Psalm of Gratitude

Overview:

Psalm 116 is a heartfelt expression of gratitude toward God for deliverance from distress and the threat of death, serving as both a personal and communal testament of faith. It highlights themes of individual redemption, and praising God’s mercy in times of trouble. The psalm acknowledges the psalmist’s suffering and vows to publicly honor God, emphasizing the significance of worship within the community. Additionally, its connection to the Passover underscores the historical importance of collective deliverance among the Israelites, as celebrated in Jewish tradition. With themes of individual and communal redemption, it shows the importance of a deep relationship with God and the importance of worshiping Him in life’s trials…….Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

This is a continuation of the Paschal Hallel, and therefore must in some measure be interpreted in connection with the coming out of Egypt. It has all the appearance of being a personal song in which the believing soul, reminded by the Passover of its own bondage and deliverance, speaks thereof with gratitude, and praises the Lord accordingly. We can conceive the Israelite with a staff in his hand singing, “Return unto thy rest, O my soul,” as he remembered the going back of the house of Jacob to the land of their fathers; and then drinking the cup at the feast using the words of Psa 116:13, “I will take the cup of salvation.” The pious man evidently remembers both his own deliverance and that of his people as he sings in the language of Psa 116:16, “Thou hast loosed my bonds;” but he rises into sympathy with his nation as he thinks of the courts of the Lord’s house and of the glorious city, and pledges himself to sing “in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem.” Personal love fostered by a personal experience of redemption is the theme of this Psalm, and in it, we see the redeemed answered when they pray, preserved in time of trouble, resting in their God, walking at large, sensible of their obligations, conscious that they are not their own but bought with a price, and joining with all the ransomed company to sing hallelujahs unto God.

Since our divine Master sang this hymn, we can hardly err in seeing here words to which he could set his seal,—words in a measure descriptive of his own experience; but upon this we will not enlarge, as in the notes we have indicated how the Psalm has been understood by those who love to find their Lord in every line.

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Enduring Word

As another one of the Egyptian Hallel Psalms (Psalms 113-118), sung by Jesus with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and arrest (Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26), we can say with G. Campbell Morgan: “Whatever the local circumstances which gave rise to this song, it is evident that all its rich meaning was fulfilled, when in the midst of that little company of perplexed souls, the shadows of the One Death already on Him, Jesus sang this song of prophetic triumph over the sharpness of the hour of passion to which He was passing. He has made it over to all His own as their triumph song over death.” (Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

The author and date of this psalm are unknown. It seems to be rather of a private than a public character, and there are expressions in it which must have been drawn from the personal experience of its writer. It is adapted to public use only because in all public assemblages there are those who would find their own experience represented by the language of the psalm. It may have been composed after the return from Babylon, but there is nothing in the psalm to limit it to that time, and the language is such that it may have been composed at any period after Jerusalem became the place of public worship, Psalms 116:19.

The Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, which combined the two previous psalms into one, divide this into two, at the end of Psalms 116:9. The reason why this was done is unknown.

The psalm appears to have been composed in reference to a dangerous sickness, or some deep affliction which threatened life, Psalms 116:3, Psalms 116:8-9, Psalms 116:15; and it expresses a purpose to praise and serve God in view of the fact that the author had been delivered from impending death and that his days had been lengthened out upon the earth.

The psalm embraces the following points:

I. An expression of love and gratitude in view of the mercies of God, and of a purpose to serve him as long as life should last, Psalms 116:1-2.

II. A description of his sufferings, as if the pains of hell had seized him, Psalms 116:3-4.

III. A description of the mercy and goodness of God as interposing in answer to his prayer, and delivering him, Psalms 116:5-11.

IV. A solemn declaration of his purpose to praise God for all his mercies; to take the cup of salvation and call on his name; to pay his vows in the presence of the people of God; to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving; to worship in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of Jerusalem, Psalms 116:12-19.

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John Gill

Theodoret applies this psalm to the distresses of the Jews in the times of the Maccabees under Antiochus Epiphanes; and R. Obadiah interprets some passages in it of the Grecians of those times; but it rather seems to have been written by David on account of some troubles of his, out of which he was delivered; and refers either to the times of Saul, and the persecutions he endured from him, particularly when he was beset round about by him and his men in the wilderness of Maon, 1 Samuel 23:26, to which he may have respect Psalm 116:3. The inscription of the psalm in the Syriac version is, “the progress of the new people returning to the Christian worship, as a child to understanding: and as to the letter, it was said when Saul stayed at the door of the cave where David lay hid with his men;” see 1 Samuel 24:4. But since mention is made of Jerusalem, Psalm 116:19, where the psalmist would praise the Lord for his deliverance, which as yet was not in his hands nor in the hands of the Israelites, but of the Jebusites; some have thought it was written on account of the conspiracy of Absalom against him, and who, hearing that Ahithophel was among the conspirators, said the words related in Psalm 116:11, it is very probable it was composed after the death of Saul, and when he was settled in the kingdom, as Jarchi observes, and was delivered out of the hands of all his enemies; and very likely much about the same time as the eighteenth psalm was, which begins in the same manner, and has some expressions in it like to what are in this. David was a type of Christ, and some apply this psalm to him.

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Matthew Henry

This is a thanksgiving psalm; it is not certain whether David penned it upon any particular occasion or upon a general review of the many gracious deliverances God had wrought for him, out of six troubles and seven, which deliverances draw from him many very lively expressions of devotion, love, and gratitude; and with similar pious affections, our souls should be lifted up to God in singing it. Observe,

I. The great distress and danger that the psalmist was in, which almost drove him to despair (v. 3, 10, 11).

II. The application he made to God in that distress (v. 4).

III. The experience he had of God’s goodness to him, in answer to prayer; God heard him (v. 1, 2), pitied him (v. 5, 6), delivered him (v. 8).

IV. His care respecting the acknowledgments he should make of the goodness of God to him (v. 12).

1. He will love God (v. 1).

2. He will continue to call upon him (v. 2, 13, 17).

3. He will rest in him (v. 7).

4. He will walk before him (v. 9).

5. He will pay his vows of thanksgiving, in which he will own the tender regard God had to him, and this publicly (v. 13-15, 17-19).

Lastly, He will continue God’s faithful servant to his life’s end (v. 16).

These are such breathings of a holy soul as bespeak it very happy.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

A PSALM of thanksgiving on deliverance from an imminent peril, placed in the mouth of an individual, but possibly intended for liturgical use on some occasion of a national deliverance. Hengstenberg regards it as composed for use at a festival service shortly after the return from the Captivity. Others adhere to the old Hebrew tradition, which ascribed it to Hezekiah, and considered it to have been written on the occasion of his deliverance from death, as narrated in Isaiah 38:1-22. Many resemblances are traced between the phraseology of the psalm and expressions attributed to Hezekiah in Isaiah 37:1-38; Isaiah 38:1-22.

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Psalm 116 NKJV

I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.

Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.

Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.

The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.

Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.

I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.

I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”

I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?

I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.

O Lord, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.

I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.

I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people,

In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.

Praise the Lord!

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Closing Thoughts

My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4:20-23 NKJV