5
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
My Thoughts
Psalm 116:5 emphasizes the graciousness, righteousness, and mercy of God. Commentators highlight God’s character in response to prayer, showcasing His faithfulness to His promises. Righteousness serves as a foundation of trust, while His mercy offers comfort to believers. Overall, the verse reassures followers of God’s compassionate nature amidst their struggles…..Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous.” In hearing prayer the grace and righteousness of Jehovah are both conspicuous. It is a great favor to hear a sinner’s prayer, and yet since the Lord has promised to do so, he is not unrighteous to forget his promise and disregard the cries of his people. The combination of grace and righteousness in the dealings of God with his servants can only be explained by remembering the atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the cross, we see how gracious is the Lord and righteous.
“Yea, our God is merciful,” or compassionate, tender, pitiful, full of mercy. We who have accepted him as ours have no doubt as to his mercy, for he would never have been our God if he had not been merciful. See how the attribute of righteousness seems to stand between two guards of love:—gracious, righteous, and merciful. The sword of justice is scabbarded in a jeweled sheath of grace.
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Enduring Word
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous: In light of his deliverance through answered prayer, the psalmist praised the gracious, righteous, and merciful character of God.
Before His obedient surrender to the ordeal of His suffering and crucifixion, Jesus sang these words with His disciples (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26). He testified to the truth that God was gracious, righteous, and merciful before, during, and after His ordeal. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
Gracious is the Lord – This fact was his encouragement when he called on God. He believed that God was a gracious Being, and he found him to be so. Compare the notes at Hebrews 11:6.
And righteous … – Just; true; faithful. This, too, is a proper foundation of appeal to God: not that we are righteous, and have a claim to his favor, but that he is a Being who will do what is right; that is, what is best to be done in the case. If he were an unjust Being; if he were one on whose stability of character, and whose regard for right, no reliance could be placed, we could never approach him with confidence or hope. In this sense, we may rely on his justice – his justness of character – as a ground of hope. Compare the notes at 1 John 1:9 : “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us Our sins.”
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John Gill
Gracious is the Lord,…. So the psalmist found him, calling upon him; so he is in Christ, the author, and giver of all grace, to help in time of need.
And righteous; faithful to his promises, just in every dispensation of his providence, even in afflictive ones; righteous in punishing the enemies of his people, and in saving, justifying, and pardoning them for Christ’s sake.
Yea, our God is merciful; compassionate, tenderhearted, a heart full of pity, as a father to his child; and sympathizes with his people under all their afflictions, and saves them out of them; see Psalm 86:5.
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Matthew Henry
God, in his dealings with him, showed himself a good God, and therefore he bears this testimony to him and leaves it upon record (v. 5): “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. He is righteous, and did me no wrong in afflicting me; he is gracious, and was very kind in supporting and delivering me.” Let us all speak of God as we have found; and have we ever found him otherwise than just and good? No; our God is merciful, merciful to us, and it is of his mercies that we are not consumed.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous. God’s answers to prayer show him to be both “gracious” and “righteous”—gracious, because it is of his mercy that he listens to men; righteous, because, having promised to hear prayer, he is bound to keep his promises. Yea, our God is merciful; or, “compassionate.”
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Matthew Poole
Gracious is the Lord: this he mentions either, 1. As that which he found by experience in answer to his prayers; or, 2. As the argument by which he encouraged himself to pray. And righteous; therefore he will maintain me and my just cause against my unrighteous oppressors, and perform his promises, and save those who faithfully serve him and put their trust in him.
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 179.
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Cross References
Exodus 34:6 (KJV )
6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
Psalm 112:4 (KJV )
4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
Psalm 86:15 (KJV )
15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.
Ezra 9:15 (KJV )
15 O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
Nehemiah 9:8 (KJV )
8 And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
116:5 Gracious 2587 [is] the LORD 3068, and righteous 6662; yea, our God 430 [is] merciful 7355 8764.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 116:5
5 The Lord is (c) merciful and righteous, and our God is full of compassion.
(c) He shows forth the fruit of his love in calling upon him, confessing him to be just and merciful, and to help them that are destitute of aid and counsel.
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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
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