1
I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
My Thoughts
The psalmist in Psalm 116:1-2, expresses profound love for God, attributing it to His attentive response to prayers during times of distress. David reflects on his experiences, recognizing God’s condescension in hearing even the faintest whispers of prayer, which motivates him to commit to a lifetime of calling upon the Lord. The interpretations by various commentators, including Matthew Henry and Charles Spurgeon, emphasize that God’s answers to prayers strengthen the believer’s resolve. This relationship fosters a continual devotion to prayer, illustrating that love for God is intertwined with the recognition of His ongoing grace and attentiveness in the believer’s life……..Bill
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Commentaries
Matthew Henry
A general account of David’s experience, and his pious resolutions (v. 1, 2), which are as the contents of the whole psalm, and give an idea of it.
1. He had experienced God’s goodness to him in answer to prayer: He has heard my voice and my supplications. David, in straits, had humbly and earnestly begged mercy of God, and God had heard him, that is, had graciously accepted his prayer, taken cognizance of his case, and granted him an answer of peace. He has inclined his ear to me. This intimates his readiness and willingness to hear prayer; he lays his ear, as it were, to the mouth of prayer, to hear it, though it be but whispered in groanings that cannot be uttered. He hearkens and hears, Jer. 8:6. Yet it implies, also, that it is wonderful condescension in God to hear prayer; it is bowing his ear. Lord, what is man, that God should thus stoop to him!-
2. He resolved, in consideration thereof, to devote himself entirely to God and to his honor.
(1.) He will love God the better. He begins the psalm somewhat abruptly with a profession of that which his heart was full of: I love the Lord (as Ps. 18:1); and fitly does he begin with this, in compliance with the first and great commandment and with God’s end in all the gifts of his bounty to us. “I love him only, and nothing besides him, but what I love for him.” God’s love of compassion towards us justly requires our love of complacency in him.
(2.) He will love prayer the better: Therefore I will call upon him. The experiences we have had of God’s goodness to us, in answer to prayer, are great encouragements to us to continue praying; we have sped well, notwithstanding our unworthiness and our infirmities in prayer, and therefore why may we not? God answers prayer, to make us love it, and expects this from us, in return for his favor. Why should we glean in any other field when we have been so well treated in this? Nay, I will call upon him as long as I live (Heb., In my days), every day, to the last day. Note, As long as we continue living we must continue praying. This breath we must breathe till we breathe our last, because then we shall take our leave of it, and till then we have continual occasion for it.
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Charles Spurgeon
“I love the LORD.” A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare without the slightest hesitation, “I love the Lord.” It was required under the law but was never produced in the heart of man except by the grace of God, and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say “I love the Lord;” for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.”
“Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.” The Psalmist not only knows that he loves God, but he knows why he does so. When love can justify itself with a reason, it is deep, strong, and abiding. They say that love is blind, but when we love God our affection has its eyes open and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic. We have reason, superabundant reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this case principle and passion, reason, and emotion go together, they make up an admirable state of mind. David’s reason for his love was the love of God in hearing his prayers. The psalmist had used his “voice” in prayer, and the habit of doing so is exceedingly helpful to devotion. If we can pray aloud without being overheard it is well to do so. Sometimes, however, when the Psalmist had lifted up his voice, his utterance had been so broken and painful that he scarcely dared to call it prayer; words failed him, he could only produce a groaning sound, but the Lord heard his moaning voice. At other times his prayers were more regular and better formed: these he calls “supplications.” David had praised as best he could, and when one form of devotion failed him he tried another. He had gone to the Lord again and again, hence he uses the plural and says “my supplications,” but as often as he had gone, so often had he been welcome. Jehovah had heard, that is to say, accepted, and answered both his broken cries and his more composed and orderly supplications; hence he loved God with all his heart. Answered prayers are silken bonds which bind our hearts to God. When a man’s prayers are answered, love is the natural result. According to Alexander, both verbs may be translated in the present, and the text may run thus, “I love because Jehovah hears my voice, my supplications.” This also is true in the case of every pleading believer. Continual love flows out of daily answers to prayer.
“Because he hath inclined his ear unto me:”—bowing down from his grandeur to attend to my prayer; the figure seems to be that of a tender physician or loving friend leaning over a sick man whose voice is faint and scarcely audible, so as to catch every accent and whisper. When our prayer is very feeble, so that we ourselves can scarcely hear it, and question whether we do pray or not, yet God bows a listening ear and regards our supplications.
“Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live,” or “in my days.” Throughout all the days of my life, I will address my prayer to God alone, and to him, I will unceasingly pray. It is always wise to go where we are welcome and are well treated. The word “call” may imply praise as well as prayer: calling upon the name of the Lord is an expressive name for adoration of all kinds. When prayer is heard in our feebleness, and answered in the strength and greatness of God, we are strengthened in the habit of prayer, and confirmed in the resolve to make ceaseless intercession. We should not thank a beggar who informed us that because we had granted his request he would never cease to beg of us, and yet doubtless it is acceptable to God that his petitioners should form the resolution to continue in prayer: this shows the greatness of his goodness and the abundance of his patience. In all days let us pray and praise the Ancient of days. He promises that as our days our strength shall be; let us resolve that as our days our devotion shall be.
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Enduring Word
I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice: The psalmist began his song with the most simple expression of grateful love. He had a great love for Yahweh because He answered prayer in a desperate season. (Guzik)
i. “How vain and foolish is the talk, ‘To love God for his benefits to us is mercenary, and cannot be pure love!’ Whether pure or impure, there is no other love that can flow from the heart of the creature to its Creator.” (Clarke)
I will call upon Him as long as I live: The singer vowed to never call upon any other supposed deity. His allegiance, love, and prayer would always be to the One who inclined His ear to me. (Guzik)
i. “It is a resolve to trust God exclusively…and worship him explicitly.” (Kidner)
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Albert Barnes
I love the Lord – The Hebrew rather means, “I love, because the Lord hath heard,” etc. That is, the psalmist was conscious of love; he felt it glowing in his soul; his heart was full of that special joy, tenderness, kindness, and peace, which love produces; and the source or reason of this, he says, was that the Lord had heard him in his prayers.
Because he hath heard … – That is, This fact was a reason for loving him. The psalmist does not say that this was the only reason or the main reason for loving him, but that it was the reason for that special joy of love which he then felt in his soul. The main reason for loving God is his own excellency of nature, but still, there are other reasons for doing it, and among them are the benefits which he has conferred on us, and which awaken the love of gratitude. Compare the notes at 1 John 4:19.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me – See the notes at Psalms 5:1. Because he has been gracious to me, and has heard my prayers. This is a pood reason for serving God, or for devoting ourselves to him, but it is not the only reason. We ought to worship and serve God whether he hears our prayers or not; whether he sends joy or sorrow; whether we are favored with prosperity, or are sunk in deep affliction. People have worshipped God even when they have had no evidence that he heard their prayers, and some of the most pure acts of devotion on earth are those which come from the very depths of darkness and sorrow.
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live – Margin, as in Hebrew, “in my days.” Encouraged by the past, I will continue to call upon him in the future. I will retain a firm faith in the doctrine that he hears prayer, and I will express my practical belief in the truth of that doctrine by regular and constant habits of worship. When a man once has evidence that God has heard his prayer, it is a reason why he should always call on him in similar circumstances, for God does not change.
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John Gill
I love the Lord,…. As the Messiah, David’s antitype, did; of which he gave the fullest proof by his obedience to his will; and as David, the man after God’s own heart, did, and as every good man does; and the Lord is to be loved for the perfections of his nature, and especially as they are displayed in Christ, and salvation by him; and for his works of creation, providence, and grace, and particularly for his great love shown in redemption, regeneration, and other blessings of grace, as well as for what follows.
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplication; in the original text the words lie thus, “I love, because the Lord hath heard,” or “will hear”; and so read the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and so the Targum; and may be rendered, “I love that the Lord should hear me,” so the Syriac and Arabic versions; nothing is more desirable and grateful to good men than that the Lord should hear them; but Kimchi and others transpose the words as we do, which gives a reason why he loved the Lord; because he heard his prayers, which were vocal, put up in a time of distress, in an humble and submissive manner, under the influence of the Spirit of grace and supplication, in the name of Christ, for his righteousness sake, and through his mediation; and such supplications are heard and answered by the Lord, sooner or later; and which engages the love of his people to him; see Psalm 34:1. It may be applied to Christ, who offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, and was always heard; and for which he thanked his Father and loved him, Hebrews 5:7.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me,…. Not as hard of hearing, for his ear is not heavy that it cannot hear; he is quick of hearing, and his ears are always open to the righteous; it rather denotes his readiness to hear; he hearkens and hears, he listens to what his people say, and hears them at once, and understands them, though ever so broken and confused; when their prayers are but like the chatterings of a crane or swallow, or only expressed in sighs and groans, and even without a voice; when nothing is articulately pronounced: moreover, this shows condescension in him; he bows his ear as a rattler to a child, he stoops as being above them, and inclines his ear to them.
Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live; or “in my days”; in days of adversity and affliction, for help and relief; in days of prosperity, with thankfulness for favors received; every day I live, and several times a day: prayer should be constantly used; men should pray without ceasing always, and not faint; prayer is the first and last action of a spiritual life; it is the first thing a regenerate man does, “Behold, he prays”; as soon as he is born again he prays, and continues praying all his days; and generally goes out of the world praying, as Stephen did, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”; and it is the Lord’s hearing prayer that encourages his people to keep on praying, and which makes the work delightful to them. Christ was often at this work in life, and died praying, Luke 6:12.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
I love the Lord, because.
I. WE MIGHT FILL UP THE TEXT IN MANY WAYS. As St. John does, “because God first loved us.” Or because of what he is in himself. Or because of what he has done for us, is doing, and will do for us or for others dear to us. And there are other ways still.
II. HOW IT IS FILLED UP. “Because he hath heard my voice,” etc. God’s hearing of our prayer is the reason given for loving him.
1. Now, can we say this? Not if we never pray. Not if we do not look out for the answers in the right way—believing—and in the place where they are to be looked for.
2. But many, like the psalmist, can say this.
III. AND HOW REASONABLE IS THIS FILLING UP! It is fitting that we should “love the Lord, because,” etc. If we think of the sad characteristics of our prayers. How unworthy! How slow we are to pray I What a number of desires we have! What unbelief mingles with them! How trivial! How impatient! How misused! What his answering of our prayers has cost!
CONCLUSION.
1. If he hears our prayer, he shall hear our praise, and we will hear his word.
2. And we will tell others of this.—S.C.
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Cross References
Psalm 18:1 (KJV )
1 I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.
1 John 4:19 (KJV)
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
Psalm 66:19 (KJV)
19 But verily God hath heard me;
He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.
Psalm 17:6 (KJV)
6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God:
Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech.
Deuteronomy 6:5 (KJV)
5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Psalm 31:22 (KJV)
22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes:
Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
116:1 I love 157 8804 the LORD 3068, because he hath heard 8085 8799 my voice 6963 [and] my supplications 8469.
116:2 Because he hath inclined 5186 8689 his ear 241 unto me, therefore will I call 7121 8799 upon [him] as long as I live 3117.(as long…: Heb. in my days)
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 116:1-2
1 I (a) Love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my praiers.
2 For he hathe inclined his ear unto me, when I did call upon him (b) in my daies.
(a) He grants that no pleasure is so great, as to feel God’s help in our necessity, neither that anything more stirs up our love toward him. (b) That is, in convenient time to seek help, which was when he was in distress.
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Closing Thoughts
Jeremiah 29:11-14 NASB1995
11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’
A sermon I heard once tied the passage from Jeremiah with the passage below, he said this is how we know the plans God has for us.
1 Corinthians 2:9-15 NASB1995
9 but just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16 For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
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