8
For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
My Thoughts
With this verse, memories come back of all the times my Abba has delivered me from trials and attacks from the enemy. He has dried my tears and given me the strength and direction I needed to keep going forward even when I felt like I couldn’t even stand on my own.
Psalms 116:8 expresses gratitude for divine deliverance and highlights three key areas: salvation from death, relief from tears, and guidance to avoid falling. Charles Spurgeon emphasizes a conscious acknowledgment of these mercies, suggesting that recognition of deliverance should inspire unwavering worship. Other commentators note the dual nature of deliverance—spiritual and physical—illustrating it through personal struggles. The psalmist’s reflections convey a deep sense of obligation to continually serve God in appreciation of His mercies. Overall, the message underscores the connection between God’s grace, emotional healing, and moral perseverance, reminding believers of their commitment in light of God’s unwavering support……Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” The triune God has given us a trinity of deliverances: our life has been spared from the grave, our heart has been uplifted from its griefs, and our course in life has been preserved from dishonor. We ought not to be satisfied unless we are conscious of all three of these deliverances. If our soul has been saved from death, why do we weep? What cause for sorrow remains? Whence those tears? And if our tears have been wiped away, can we endure to fall again into sin? Let us not rest unless with steady feet we pursue the path of the upright, escaping every snare and shunning every stumbling block. Salvation, joy, and holiness must go together, and they are all provided for us in the covenant of grace. Death is vanquished, tears are dried, and fears are banished when the Lord is near.
Thus has the psalmist explained the reasons of his resolution to call upon God as long as he lived, and none can question but that he had come to a most justifiable resolve. When from so great a depth he had been uplifted by so special an interposition of God, he was undoubtedly bound to be forever the hearty worshipper of Jehovah, to whom he owed so much. Do we, not all feel the force of the reasoning, and will we not carry out the conclusion? May God the Holy Spirit help us so to pray without ceasing and in everything to give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us.
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Enduring Word
You have delivered my soul from death: The crisis was deep, even unto death. The deliverance was great, bringing comfort to tearful eyes and strength to falling feet. This powerful praise matched the greatness of the deliverance. (Guzik)
i. “He is recalling the agitation which shook him but feels that, through it all, there was an unshaken center of rest in God. The presence of doubt and fear does not prove the absence of trust.” (Maclaren)
ii. Once again we are moved by the thought that Jesus sang these words with His disciples on the night of His betrayal and arrest. Knowing all the suffering set before Him, Jesus sang with confidence of deliverance from His coming death, His coming tears, and falling under the weight of the cross soon to come. (Guzik)
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John Gill
For thou hast delivered my soul from death,…. From a corporeal death, when his life was in danger, surrounded by Saul’s army, in the hand of the Philistines at Gath, and when his son rebelled against him; and from a spiritual death in regeneration, which is a passing from death to life; and from an eternal death, the just wages of sin: and not only so, but even
mine eyes from tears; they were sometimes full of, and shed in great plenty; he watered his couch with them; and especially when absent from the worship of the Lord, and without his presence, which his enemies sometimes reproached him with; and particularly when he fled before his rebellious son, and at the death of him; but God dried up all his tears; see Psalm 6:6. Many are the occasions of the saints weeping as they pass through the valley of “Baca,” but God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.
And my feet from falling through a “push”, by an enemy, so as to fall; the people of God are liable to fall, both into sin and into calamity; it is the Lord only that keeps them; and which they may expect from their interest in his love, covenant, and promises, and from their being in the hands of Christ; see Psalm 56:13.
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Matthew Henry
God saved him out of his troubles (v. 8): Thou hast delivered, which means either the preventing of the distress he was ready to fall into or the recovering of him from the distress he was already in. God graciously delivered,
First, His soul from death. Note, It is God’s great mercy to us that we are alive; and the mercy is the more sensible if we have been at death’s door and yet have been spared and raised up, just turned to destruction and yet ordered to return. That a life so often forfeited, and so often exposed, should yet be lengthened out, is a miracle of mercy. The deliverance of the soul from spiritual and eternal death is especially to be acknowledged by all those who are now sanctified and shall be shortly glorified.
Secondly, His eyes from tears, that is, his heart from inordinate grief. It is a great mercy to be kept either from the occasions of sorrow, the evil that causes grief, or, at least, from being swallowed up with over-much sorrow. When God comforts those that are cast down, looses the mourners’ sackcloth, and girds them with gladness, then he delivers their eyes from tears, which yet will not be perfectly done till we come to that world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes.
Thirdly, His feet from falling, from falling into sin and so into misery. It is a great mercy, when our feet are almost gone, to have God hold us by the right hand (Ps. 73:2, 23), so that though we enter into temptation we are not overcome and overthrown by the temptation. Or, “Thou hast delivered my feet from falling into the grave when I had one foot there already.”
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Adam Clarke
Thou hast delivered my soul from death — Thou hast rescued my life from the destruction to which it was exposed.
Mine eyes from tears — Thou hast turned my sorrow into joy.
My feet from falling. — Thou hast taken me out of the land of snares and pitfalls, and brought me into a plain path. How very near does our ancient mother tongue come to this: – [Anglo-Saxon]. For thou he nerode sawle mine of deathe, eapan mine of tearum; fet mine of slide. And this language is but a little improved in the old Psalter:-
For he toke my saule fra dede; my eghen fra teres; my fete fra slippyng.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
For thou hast delivered my soul from death. This verse is exegetical of the last clause of Psalms 116:4. The expressions are taken from Psalms 56:13, and suit a personal better than a national deliverance. Mine eyes from tears. Hezekiah, when told that his death was approaching, had “wept sore” (Isaiah 38:3). And my feet from falling; literally, and my foot from slipping, when man is greatly tried, there is always danger lest his foot should slip. Whether the trial befall an individual or a nation, there is the same temptation to rebel and murmur.
God works in our human lives.
It seems as if God had not done something for the psalmist which he wanted him to do, and this troubled the psalmist and filled him with doubts. He found consolation in thinking how much God had done for him. If he could not see God in a particular circumstance, he could see God in his life. The varied movements in a factory are quite bewildering to us, but the master knows and guides them all to ends of his fashioning.
I. GOD‘S DELIVERANCE FROM BODILY PERILS. “Soul from death.” The “soul” here is the animal life. Spiritual need is not, here, in the psalmist’s mind. We all have had perils of death—from drowning, accident, or disease. Illust.: Hezekiah. Man walking in the dark stopped at the very edge of the quarry. Do we keep the memory of God’s restorations of imperiled life? In this God has “dealt bountifully with us.” And we are bound to God by the claims
(1) of life given; and
(2) of life restored.
II. GOD‘S DELIVERANCE FROM HUMAN SORROWS. “Eyes from tears.” The thought here is of the trouble that causes grief tears. We can look back over trials that were distresses, anxieties. Illustrated by the pathetic picture of David going up Olivet weeping when fleeing before his willful son Absalom. Cannot bear to see a man disheartened unto tears. It is always a sad sight. It has been such to God. For us, he has “wiped the tears away.” Illustrated by the fact that, in our family discipline, we let the child cry; but it is very hard to us to see it cry, and all the while we mean to wipe the tears away. See the bountifulness of God in dealing with us thus.
III. GOD‘S DELIVERANCE FROM MORAL TEMPTATIONS. “Feet from stumbling.” Who can look over life and fail to see times when the “feet were almost gone, the steps had well-nigh slipped”? We are liable to fall. “Prone to wander.” Exposed to temptation. We may learn a lesson from the spread of infectious diseases. Everything depends on the measure of inward susceptibility. Then, should it not be our unceasing wonder that we have not fallen? Why have we not? There can be but one answer: “The Lord hath dealt bountifully with us.” There is, then, a threefold memory-bend binding us to God, and ever setting us upon asking, “What shall we render unto the Lord for all his mercy to us?” There is one fitting answer: “I will pay thee my vows.” We can just be God’s servants, in all holy love and obedience.—R.T.
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
116:8 For thou hast delivered 2502 8765 my soul 5315 from death 4194, mine eyes 5869 from tears 1832, [and] my feet 7272 from falling 1762.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 116:8
8 Because thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
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Closing Thoughts
And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you,” says the Lord. “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.” Jeremiah 15:20-21 NKJV
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” Jeremiah 45:5 NKJV
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