Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
My Thoughts
This passage emphasizes returning to a state of spiritual rest by relying on God’s kindness and bounty. Psalm 116:7 invites the soul to find tranquility in God after experiencing turmoil. The commentaries below reflect on the idea that true rest is found in faith and prayer, not in worldly distractions. Figures like Spurgeon and Barnes highlight that the soul’s joy and peace should be sought in God, who has dealt graciously with believers throughout their lives. The teachings encourage individuals to trust in God’s unfailing love and providence, showcasing the importance of spiritual rest as a rightful possession of the soul. For me, I find “my rest” by seeking the Lord through his word and through prayer……..Bill
Strongs definition of the word rest in this verse is:
מְנוּחָה mᵉnûwchâh, men-oo-khaw’; or מְנֻחָה mᵉnuchâh; feminine of H4495; repose or (adverbially) peacefully; figuratively, consolation (specifically, matrimony); hence (concretely) an abode:—comfortable, ease, quiet, rest(-ing place), still.
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Return, unto thy rest, O my soul.” He calls the rest still his own and feels full liberty to return to it. What a mercy it is that even if our soul has left its rest for a while we can tell it—”it is thy rest still.” The psalmist had evidently been somewhat disturbed in mind, his troubles had ruffled his spirit but now with a sense of answered prayer upon him, he quiets his soul. He had rested before, for he knew the blessed repose of faith, and therefore he returns to the God who had been the refuge of his soul in former days. Even as a bird flies to its nest, so does his soul fly to his God. Whenever a child of God even for a moment loses his peace of mind, he should be concerned to find it again, not by seeking it in the world or in his own experience, but in the Lord alone. When the believer prays, and the Lord inclines his ear, the road to the old rest is before him, let him not be slow to follow it.
“For the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Thou hast served a good God, and built upon a sure foundation; go not about to find any other rest, but come back to him who in former days hath condescended to enrich thee by his love. What a text is this! and what an exposition of it is furnished by the biography of every believing man and woman! The Lord hath dealt bountifully with us, for he hath given us his Son, and in him, he hath given us all things: he hath sent us his Spirit, and by him he conveys to us all spiritual blessings. God dealeth with us like a God; he lays his fulness open to us, and of that fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. We have sat at no (miser’s) table, we have been clothed by no penurious hand, we have been equipped by no grudging provider; let us come back to him who has treated us with such exceeding kindness.
(I replaced a word commonly used during the time this was written with the word (miser’s) so as not to offend anyone and take away from the tremendous insight of this commentary…….Bill)
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Enduring Word
Return to your rest, O my soul: For a season, the death-like crisis had troubled the soul of the psalmist. Now he could reflect on how God had dealt bountifully with him, and he had come back to a previous standing of rest. There is true rest for our soul in God’s bounty. (Guzik)
i. “The word ‘rest’ is put in the plural, as indicating complete and entire rest, at all times, and under all circumstances.” (Edersheim, cited in Spurgeon)
ii. “Oh, learn this holy art; acquaint thyself with God, acquiesce in him, and be at peace; so shall good be done unto thee.” (Trapp)
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Albert Barnes
Return unto thy rest, O my soul – Luther, “Be thou again joyful, O my soul.” The meaning seems to be, “Return to thy former tranquility and calmness; thy former freedom from fear and anxiety.” He had passed through a season of great danger. His soul had been agitated and terrified. That danger was now over, and he calls upon his soul to resume its former tranquility, calmness, peace, and freedom from alarm. The word does not refer to God considered as the “rest” of the soul, but to what the mind of the psalmist had been, and might now be again.
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John Gill
Return unto thy rest, O my soul,…. To a quiet and tranquil state after much distress; a soliloquy, an address to his own soul to return to God his resting place, as Kimchi; or to Christ, whose rest is glorious, and which lies in a cessation from a man’s own works; not from doing them, but from depending on them, or from laboring for life by them; in a deliverance from the bondage of the law, its curse and condemnation, and from the dominion and tyranny of sin, and from the distressing guilt of it on the conscience; in spiritual peace and joy, arising from the application of the blood of Christ, and from a view of his righteousness and justification by it, and of his sacrifice, and of the expiation of sin by that; which is enjoyed in the ways and ordinances of Christ, and oftentimes amidst afflictions and tribulations: this is sometimes broke in upon and interrupted, through the prevalence of sin, the temptations of Satan, and divine desertions; but may be returned to again, as Noah’s dove returned to the ark when it could find rest nowhere else; as the believer can find none but in Christ, and therefore after he has wandered from him he returns to him again, encouraged by the following reason.
For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee; in times past, even in an eternity past, having loved him with an everlasting love, chosen him in Christ, made a covenant with him in him, blessed him with all spiritual blessings in him, and made unto him exceeding great and precious promises; provided a Redeemer and Saviour for him, whom he had made known unto him, having enlightened, quickened, and converted him; and had laid up good things for him to come, and had done many great things for him already; all which might serve to encourage his faith and hope in him. The Targum is, “because the Word of the Lord hath rendered good unto me.”
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Matthew Henry
David, in his returns of gratitude to God, showed himself a good man. God had done all this for him, and therefore,
He will live a life of delight in God (v. 7): Return unto thy rest, O my soul!
[1.] “Repose thyself and be easy, and do not agitate thyself with distrustful disquieting fears as thou hast sometimes done. Quiet thyself, and then enjoy thyself. God has dealt kindly with thee, and therefore thou needest not fear that ever he will deal hardly with thee.”
[2.] “Repose thyself in God. Return to him as thy rest, and seek not for that rest in the creature which is to be had in him only.” God is the soul’s rest; in him, only it can dwell at ease; to him, therefore, it must retire, and rejoice in him. He has dealt bountifully with us; he has provided sufficiently for our comfort and refreshment, and encouraged us to come to him for the benefit of it, at all times, upon all occasions; let us therefore be satisfied with that. Return to that rest which Christ gives to the weary and heavy-laden, Mt. 11:28. Return to thy Noah; his name signifies rest, as the dove, when she found no rest, returned to the ark. I know no word more proper to close our eyes with at night, when we go to sleep, nor to close them with at death, that long sleep, than this, Return to thy rest, O my soul!
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The Pulpit Commentaries
Return unto thy rest, O my soul. “Return,” i.e; “to thy state of tranquility, the condition in which thou wast before the imminent danger showed itself.” For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. If Hezekiah is the writer, the “bountiful dealing” will be the addition of fifteen years to his life (Isaiah 38:5). If a poet just returned from the Captivity, the return and the reoccupation of the Holy Land will be especially in his thoughts (comp. Psalms 85:1).
Rest.
These well-known words show—
I. THAT REST IS ONE OF THE RIGHTFUL POSSESSIONS OF THE SOUL. It was designed for the soul. God would not have created a soul to be the perpetual victim of fret, worry, and distress, as we see many souls now are. It must have belonged to the soul. Hence it is called “thy rest.” In the primal paradise, in which our first parents were placed, they enjoyed this rest. Theirs was the repose of the intellect, of the affections, of the will; all were at rest in God.
II. BUT THE SOUL HAS GOT AWAY FROM THIS REST. What need to labor any proof of this?
1. You can read the fact in men‘s very looks—the careworn countenance, the anxious mien, the sad, disappointed air.
2. In their words, whether spoken or written; weariness is written on them all.
3. In the frantic but futile efforts they make to find a substitute for what they have lost.
III. THAT IT CAN, IF IT WILL, RETURN UNTO ITS REST. Yes, in forsaking sin, surrender to Christ, and trust in him, rest is still attainable.—S.C.
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Cross References
Psalm 42:5 (KJV )
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me?
Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him
For the help of his countenance.
Psalm 13:6 (KJV )
6 I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
Matthew 11:29 (KJV )
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Jeremiah 6:16 (KJV )
16 Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Psalm 142:7 (KJV )
7 Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise thy name:
The righteous shall compass me about;
For thou shalt deal bountifully with me.
Psalm 13:5–6 (KJV )
5 But I have trusted in thy mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.
6 I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 119:17 (KJV )
GIMEL.
17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live,
And keep thy word.
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
116:7 Return 7725 8798 unto thy rest 4494, O my soul 5315; for the LORD 3068 hath dealt bountifully 1580 8804 with thee.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 116:7
7 Return unto thy rest, ô (d) my soul: for the Lord hathe been beneficial unto thee,
(d) Which was unquieted before, now rest upon the Lord: for he has been beneficial towards you.
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Closing Thoughts
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 NKJV
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. Psalm 143:8 NIV
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