Psalms 116

¹I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

²Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

Psa 116:1-19. The writer celebrates the deliverance from extreme perils by which he was favored, and pledges grateful and pious public acknowledgments. 1-2. A truly grateful love will be evinced by acts of worship, which calling on God expresses (Psa 116:13; Psa 55:16; 86:7; compare Psa 17:6; 31:2).

³The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

3-4. For similar figures for distress see Psa 18:4, 5. gat hold upon me--Another sense (“found”) of the same word follows, as we speak of disease finding us, and of our finding or catching disease.

⁵Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

⁶The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

⁷Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

⁸For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

5-8. The relief which he asked is the result not of his merit, but of God’s known pity and tenderness, which is acknowledged in assuring himself (his “soul,” Psa 11:1; 16:10) of rest and peace. All calamities [Psa 116:8] are represented by death, tears, and falling of the feet (Psa 56:13).

⁹I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

9. walk before the Lord--act, or live under His favor and guidance (Ge 17:1; Psa 61:7). land of the living--(Psa 27:13).

¹⁰I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

¹¹I said in my haste, All men are liars.

10-11. Confidence in God opposed to distrust of men, as not reliable (Psa 68:8, 9). He speaks from an experience of the result of his faith.

¹²What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD.

¹⁴I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.

12-14. These are modes of expressing acts of worship (compare Psa 116:4; Psa 50:14; Jon 2:9).

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

¹⁶O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

15-16. By the plea of being a homeborn servant, he intimates his claim on God’s covenant love to His people.

¹⁷I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.

¹⁸I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.

17-19. An ampler declaration of his purpose, designating the place, the Lord’s house, or earthly residence in Jerusalem.