13
I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
My Thoughts
Psalm 116:13 highlights how we should take up the “cup of salvation” as an expression of gratitude towards God, aligning it with worship and devotion. We serve such a God who loves us to the extent that He offers us the cup of salvation and then, after giving us this, the greatest gift of saving our very souls, to call upon His name. Commentators, including Charles Spurgeon and Albert Barnes, emphasize that receiving this cup symbolizes acknowledging God’s mercy and blessings. The psalmist’s promise to “call upon the name of the Lord” signifies ongoing worship, prayer, and a desire for further divine grace. This reciprocal relationship underscores the significance of gratitude and continual supplication to God for His plentiful blessings. Ultimately, the act serves as both worship and acknowledgment of God’s loving nature………Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“I will take the cup of salvation.” “I will take” is a strange answer to the question, “What shall I render?” and yet it is the wisest reply that could possibly be given.
The best return for one like me,
So wretched and so poor,
Is from his gifts to draw a plea
And ask him still for more.
To take the cup of salvation was in itself an act of worship, and it was accompanied with other forms of adoration, hence, the Psalmist says, and “call upon the name of the LORD.” He means that he will utter blessings and thanksgivings and prayers, and then drink of the cup which the Lord had filled with his saving grace. What a cup this is! Upon the table of infinite love stands the cup full of blessing; it is ours by faith to take it in our hand, make it our own, and partake of it, and then with joyful hearts to laud and magnify the gracious One who has filled it for our sakes that we may drink and be refreshed. We can do this figuratively at the sacramental table, we can do it spiritually every time we grasp the golden chalice of the covenant, realizing the fulness of blessing which it contains, and by faith receiving its divine contents into our inmost soul. Beloved reader, let us pause here and take a long and deep draught from the cup which Jesus filled, and then with devout hearts let us worship God.
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Enduring Word
I will take up the cup of salvation: Gratitude drove the psalmist to receive from God. Before we can do anything for Him, we begin by gratefully receiving. (Guzik)
i. “It is a profound insight: The only way we can repay God from whom everything comes is by taking even more from him.” (Boice)
ii. “We can do this figuratively at the sacramental table, we can do it spiritually every time we grasp the golden chalice of the covenant, realizing the fulness of blessing which it contains, and by faith receiving its divine contents into our inmost soul.” (Spurgeon)
iii. There is a connection between the phrases, I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the LORD. “The cup of salvation is the cup of blessing, which is given to the soul. Let the soul take it and drink it, but let him remember that the very partaking is in itself of the nature of a pledge of loyalty; it is the oath of allegiance in which he calls upon the Name of Jehovah.” (Morgan)
iv. We continue to marvel at how significant it is that Jesus sang these words on the night of His betrayal and arrest, having instituted the cup of salvation under the New Covenant with His apostles (Luke 22:20). Jesus received that cup of salvation from His Father and gave it unto His people. (Guzik)
v. “Within a very little while after this singing, He, in Gethsemane, spoke of a cup, and in complete surrender to His Father’s will, consented to drink it. That was the cup of sorrows, of bitterness, of cursing. Having emptied it, He filled it with joy, with sweetness, with blessing. When we take that cup, let us never forget the cost at which He so filled it for us.” (Morgan)
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Albert Barnes
I will take the cup of salvation – Compare the notes at Psalms 11:6. The “cup of salvation” means the cup by which his sense of the greatness of the salvation might be expressed – the cup of thanksgiving. Compare the notes at 1 Corinthians 10:16. The reference seems to be to a custom in festivals of drinking a cup of wine as a special expression of thanks or of obligation. The act would be more solemn, and the truth more deeply impressed on the mind, when accompanied by some religious rite – some ceremonial, as in the Lord’s Supper, expressly designed to call the mercy of God to remembrance.
And call upon the name of the Lord – Engage in a solemn act of devotion; make it a matter of special ceremony or observance to call the mercy of God to remembrance. This was one way of rendering to the Lord a return for the benefits received at his hands, as it is now. Christians do this at the table of the Lord – in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.
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John Gill
I will take the cup of salvation,…. Or “salvations”; not the eucharistic cup, or the cup in the Lord’s supper, which the apostle calls “the cup of blessing,” 1 Corinthians 10:16; though some so think, and that the psalmist represents the saints under the Gospel dispensation; nor the cup of afflictions or martyrdom for the sake of Christ; being willing, under a sense of mercies received, to bear or suffer anything for his sake he should call him to; as knowing it would be a token to him of salvation, and work for his good: but rather an offering of praise for temporal salvation, and for spiritual and eternal salvation; in allusion to a master of a family, who at the close of a feast or meal, used to take up a cup in his hands, and give thanks; see Matthew 26:27;
and call upon the name of the Lord; invocation of the name of the Lord takes in all worship and service of him, public and private, external and internal; and particularly prayer, which is calling upon the Lord in the name of Christ, with faith and fervency, in sincerity and truth: and the sense of the psalmist is, that he would not only give thanks for the mercies he had received, but continue to pray to God for more; and this was all the return he was capable of making.
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Matthew Henry
“I will take the cup of salvation, that is, I will offer the drink-offerings appointed by the law, in token of my thankfulness to God, and rejoice with my friends in God’s goodness to me;” this is called the cup of deliverance because it is drunk in memory of his deliverance. The pious Jews sometimes had a cup of blessing at their private meals, which the master of the family drank first of, with thanksgiving to God, and all at his table drank with him. But some understand it not of the cup that he would present to God, but of the cup that God would put into his hand. I will receive,
First, the cup of affliction. Many good interpreters understand it of that cup, that bitter cup, which is yet sanctified to the saints, so that to them it is a cup of salvation. Phil. 1:19, This shall turn to my salvation; it is a means of spiritual health. David’s sufferings were typical of Christ’s, and we, in ours, have communion with his, and his cup was indeed a cup of salvation. “God, having bestowed so many benefits upon me, whatever cup he shall put into my hands I will readily take it, and not dispute it; welcome his holy will.” Herein, David spoke the language of the Son of David. Jn. 18:11, The cup that my Father has given me, shall I not take it and drink it?
Secondly, The cup of consolation: “I will receive the benefits God bestows upon me as from his hand, and taste his love in them, as that which is the portion not only of my inheritance in the other world, but of my cup in this.”
I will call upon the name of the Lord. This he had promised (v. 2) and here he repeats it, v. 13 and again v. 17. If we have received kindness from a man like ourselves, we tell him that we hope we shall never trouble him again; but God is pleased to reckon the prayers of his people an honor to him, and a delight, and no trouble; and therefore, in gratitude for former mercies, we must seek to him for further mercies, and continue to call upon him.
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Adam Clarke
I will take the cup of salvation — Literally, the cup of salvation, or deliverance, will I lift up. Alluding to the action in taking the cup of blessing among the Jews which, when the person or master of the family lifted up, he said these words, “Blessed be the Lord, the Maker of the world, who has created the fruit of the vine!”
But it may probably allude to the libation-offering, Numbers 28:7; for the three last verses seem to intimate that the psalmist was now at the temple, offering the meat-offering, drink-offering, and sacrifices to the Lord. Cup is often used by the Hebrews to denote plenty or abundance. So, the cup of trembling, an abundance of misery; the cup of salvation, an abundance of happiness.
And call upon the name of the Lord. — I will invoke his name, that I may get more of the same blessings; for the only return that God requires is that we ask for more. Who is like GOD? One reason why we should never more come to a fellow mortal for a favor is, we have received so many already. A strong reason why we should claim the utmost salvation of God is because we are already so much in debt to his mercy. Now this is the only way we have of discharging our debts to God, and yet, strange to tell, every such attempt to discharge the debt only serves to increase it! Yet, notwithstanding, the debtor and creditor are represented as both pleased, both profited, and both happy in each other! Reader, pray to him, invoke his name; receive the cup-accept the abundance of salvation which he has provided thee, that thou mayest love and serve him with a perfect heart.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
I will take the cup of salvation. It has been usual to explain this of actual participation in the contents of a cup offered at a sacrificial meal, and then passed round to the worshippers. But there is no clear evidence of any such usage, except in connection with the Passover, which cannot here be in question. Hengstenberg therefore, proposes to regard the phrase as a mere metaphor, like the “cup of trembling” (Isaiah 51:17, Isaiah 51:22), and understands the psalmist to mean that he will gladly and thankfully receive God’s mercy vouchsafed to him, and thus show his gratitude for it. And call upon the Name of the Lord (comp. Psalms 116:4 and Psalms 116:17).
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Cross References
Psalm 16:5 (KJV )
5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup:
Thou maintainest my lot.
Psalm 23:5 (KJV )
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
1 Corinthians 10:16 (KJV )
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
Matthew 26:27 (KJV )
27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
1 Corinthians 15:10 (KJV )
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 116:13
13 I wil (h) take the cup of salvation, and call upon the Name of the Lord.
(h) In the Law they used to make a banquet, when they gave solemn thanks to God, and to take the cup and drink in sign of thanksgiving.
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Closing Thoughts
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Jude:
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
25 To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.
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