Psalm 116


Verse 1. I love the Lord. A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare it without the slightest hesitation. It was required under the law, but was never produced in the human heart except by the grace of God, and upon Gospel principles. It is a great thing to say it, for the sweetest of all graces and the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are, and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.” Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. The psalmist not only knows that he loves God, but he knows why he does so. When love can justify itself with a reason, it is deep, strong, and abiding. They say that love is blind; but when we love God our affection has its eyes open and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic. We have reason, superabundant reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this case principle and passion go together, they make up an admirable state of mind. David’s reason for his love was the love of God in hearing his prayers. The psalmist had used his voice in prayer, and the habit of doing so is exceedingly helpful to devotion. If we can pray aloud without being overheard it is well to do so. Sometimes, however, when the psalmist had lifted up his voice, his utterance had been so broken and painful that he scarcely dared to call it prayer; words failed him, he could only produce a groaning sound, but the Lord heard his moaning voice. At other times his prayers were more regular and better framed: these he calls supplications. David had praised as best he could, and when one form of devotion failed him he tried another. He had gone to the Lord again and again, hence he uses the plural and says my supplications; but as often as he had gone, so often had he been welcome. Jehovah had heard, that is to say, accepted, and answered both his broken cries and his more composed and orderly supplications; hence he loved God with all his heart. Answered prayers are silken bonds which bind poor hearts to God. When someone’s prayers are answered, love is the natural result. According to Alexander, both verbs may be translated in the present, and the text may run thus: “I love because Jehovah hears my voice, my supplications.” This also is true in the case of every pleading believer. Continual love flows out of daily answers to prayer.
Verse 2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me. The figure seems to be that of a tender physician or loving friend leaning over a sick man whose voice is faint and scarcely audible, so as to catch every accent and whisper. When our prayer is very feeble, so that we ourselves can scarcely hear it, and question whether we do pray or not, yet God bows a listening ear, and regards our supplications. Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live, or, “in my days.” Throughout all the days of my life I will address my prayer to God alone, and to him I will unceasingly pray. It is always wise to go where we are welcome and are well treated. The word call may imply praise as well as prayer: calling upon the name of the Lord is an expressive name for adoration of all kinds. When prayer is heard in our feebleness, and answered in the strength and greatness of God, we are strengthened in the habit of prayer, and confirmed in the resolve to make ceaseless intercession. We should not thank a beggar who informed us that because we had granted his request he would never cease to beg of us, and yet doubtless it is acceptable to God that his petitioners should form the resolution to continue in prayer: this shows the greatness of his goodness, and the abundance of his patience. In all days let us pray and praise the Ancient of Days. He promises that as our days our strength shall be; let us resolve that as our days our devotion shall be.
Verse 3. The psalmist now goes on to describe his condition at the time when he prayed unto God. The sorrows of death compassed me. As hunters surround a stag with dogs and men, so was David enclosed in a ring of deadly griefs. The bands of sorrow, weakness, and terror with which death is accustomed to bind men ere he drags them away to their long captivity were all around him. These things had come close to home, for he adds, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me. Horrors such as those which torment the lost seized me. He means those pangs which belong to death. I found trouble and sorrow. Trouble was around me, and sorrow within me.
Verse 4. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. Prayer is never out of season; he prayed then, when things were at their worst. When the good man could not run to God, he called to him. In his extremity his faith came to the front: it was useless to call on man, and it may have seemed almost as useless to appeal to the Lord; but yet he did with his whole soul invoke all the attributes which make up the sacred name of Jehovah, and thus he proved the truth of his confidence. We can some of us remember certain very special times of trial of which we can now say, “then called I upon the name of the Lord.” The psalmist appealed to the Lord’s mercy, truth, power and faithfulness, and this was his prayer—O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. This form of petition is short, comprehensive, to the point, humble, and earnest. Real trouble produces real prayer. Here we have no multiplicity of words, and no fine arrangement of sentences; everything is simple and natural; there is not a redundant syllable, and yet there is not one lacking.
Verse 5. 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. At the cross we see how gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful, or compassionate. See how the attribute of righteousness seems to stand between two guards of love: gracious, righteous, merciful.
Verse 6. The Lord preserveth the simple. Those who have a great deal of wit may take care of themselves. Those who have no worldly craft and subtlety and guile, but simply trust in God, and do the right, may depend upon it that God’s care will be over them. The worldly-wise with all their prudence will be taken in their own craftiness, but those who walk in their integrity with single-minded truthfulness before God will be protected against the wiles of their enemies, and enabled to outlive their foes. Though the saints are like sheep in the midst of wolves, and comparatively defenseless, yet there are more sheep in the world than wolves, and it is highly probable that the sheep will feed in safety when not a single wolf is left: even so the meek will inherit the earth when the wicked are no more. I was brought low, and he helped me. Simple though I was, the Lord did not pass me by. Though reduced in circumstances, slandered, depressed, and sick, the Lord helped me. There are many ways in which the child of God may be brought low, but the help of God is as various as the need of his people. There are thousands who can say, “I was brought low, and he helped me.” This should be said to the praise of his grace, and for the comforting of others who may pass through the like ordeal. Note how David after stating the general doctrine proves and illustrates it from his own experience.
Verse 7. 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 his 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. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. You have served a good God, and built upon a sure foundation; come back to him who in former days condescended to enrich you by his love. God lays his fullness open to us, and of that fullness have all we received. Let us come back to him who has treated us with such exceeding kindness. More arguments follow.
Verse 8. 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? 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.
Verse 9. This is the psalmist’s second resolution, to live as in the sight of God in the midst of the sons of men. By a man’s walk is understood his way of life: some live only as in the sight of their fellow-men, having regard to human judgment and opinion; but the truly gracious consider the presence of God. The life of faith, hope, holy fear, and true holiness is produced by a sense of living and walking before the Lord, and he who has been favored with divine deliverances in answer to prayer finds his own experience the best reason for a holy life, and the best assistance to his endeavors. We know that God in a special manner is nigh unto his people: what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?
Verse 10. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I could not have spoken thus if it had not been for my faith: I should never have spoken unto God in prayer, nor have been able now to speak to my fellow-men in testimony if it had not been that faith kept me alive, and brought me a deliverance, whereof I have good reason to boast. Concerning the things of God no man should speak unless he believes; the speech of the waverer is mischievous, but the tongue of the believer is profitable; the most powerful speech which has ever been uttered by human lip has emanated from a heart fully persuaded of the truth of God. I was greatly afflicted. There was no mistake about that; the affliction was as terrible as could be, and since I have been delivered from it, I am sure that the deliverance is no fanatical delusion, but a self-evident fact; therefore I am the more resolved to speak to the honor of God. Though greatly afflicted, the psalmist had not ceased to believe: his faith was tried but not destroyed.
Verse 11. I said in my haste, all men are liars. All men will prove to be liars if we unduly trust in them; some from want of truthfulness, and others from want of power. But it is clear that the psalmist did not justify his own language, but considered it as the ebullition of a hasty temper. He had no right to distrust all men, for many of them are honest, truthful, and conscientious; there are faithful friends and loyal adherents yet alive; and if sometimes they disappoint us, we ought not to call them liars for failing when the failure arises entirely from want of power, and not from lack of will. Under great affliction our temptation will be to form hasty judgments of our fellow-men, and knowing this to be the case we ought carefully to watch our spirit, and to keep the door of our lips. The psalmist had believed, and therefore he spoke; he had doubted, and therefore he spoke in haste. He believed, and therefore he rightly prayed to God; he disbelieved, and therefore he wrongfully accused mankind. Speaking in haste is generally followed by bitter repentance. It is much better to be quiet when our spirit is disturbed and hasty, for it is so much easier to say than to unsay.
Verse 12. He wisely leaves off fretting about man’s falsehood and his own ill humor, and directs himself to his God. It is of little use to be harping on the string of man’s imperfection and deceitfulness; it is infinitely better to praise the perfection and faithfulness of God. The question of the verse is a very proper one: the Lord has rendered so much mercy to us that we ought to look about us, and look within us, and see what can be done by us to manifest our gratitude. We ought not only to do what is plainly before us, but also with holy ingenuity to search out various ways by which we may render fresh praises unto our God. Each person should have his own particular mode of expressing gratitude.
Verse 13. I will take the cup of salvation. 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 is this! 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. 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 fullness of blessing which it contains, and by faith receiving its contents into our inmost soul.
Verse 14. The psalmist has already stated his third resolution, to devote himself to the worship of God evermore, and here he commences the performance of that resolve. The vows which he had made in anguish he now determines to fulfill. He does so at once, and publicly. Good resolutions cannot be carried out too speedily; vows become debts, and debts should be paid. We need not be afraid of having witnesses to the fulfilling of holy vows, for this will show that we are not ashamed of our Lord, and it may be a great benefit to those who look on and hear us publicly sounding forth the praises of our prayer-hearing God. Secret disciples, be encouraged to come into the light and own your Redeemer! If, indeed, you have been saved, come forward and declare it in his own appointed way.
Verse 15. He did not let the psalmist die. This seems to indicate that the song was meant to remind Jewish families of the mercies received by any one of the household, supposing him to have been sore sick and to have been restored to health, for the Lord values the lives of his saints, and often spares them where others perish. They will not die prematurely. The death-beds of saints are very precious to all believers, who delight to treasure up the last words of the departed, but they are most of all precious to the Lord himself, who views the triumphant deaths of his gracious ones with sacred delight. If we have walked before him in the land of the living, we need not fear to die before him when the hour of our departure is at hand.
Verse 16. The man of God in paying his vows rededicates himself unto God; the offering which he brings is himself. I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid, a servant born of a servant and so born a servant, and doubly thine. Oh that children of godly parents would thus judge; but, alas, there are many who are the sons of the Lord’s handmaids but are not themselves his servants. They give sad proof that grace does not run in the blood. Thou hast loosed my bonds—freedom from bondage binds me to thy service. He who is loosed from the bonds of sin, death, and hell should rejoice to wear the easy yoke of the great Deliverer. It ought to create rapture in our souls if we are able to call Jesus Master, and are acknowledged by him as his servants.
Verse 17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Being thy servant, I am bound to sacrifice to thee, and having received spiritual blessings at thy hands I will bring the thanksgiving of my heart. And will call upon the name of the Lord—that is to say, I will bow before thee reverently, lift up my heart in love to thee, think upon thy character, and adore thee as thou dost reveal thyself.
Verse 18. A good thing is worth saying twice. He thus stirs himself up to greater heartiness, earnestness, and diligence in keeping his vow—really paying it at the very moment that he is declaring his resolution to do so. The mercy came in secret, but the praise is rendered in public; the company was, however, select; he did not cast his pearls before swine but delivered his testimony before those who could understand and appreciate it.
Verse 19. In the courts of the Lord’s house. In the proper place, where God had ordained that he should be worshiped. See how he is stirred up at the remembrance of the house of the Lord, and must speak of the holy city with a note of joyful exclamation—In the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. There would he pay his last vows, in the abode of fellowship, in the very heart of Judea. There is nothing like witnessing for Jesus where the report will be carried into a thousand homes. God’s praise is not to be confined to a closet, nor his name to be whispered in holes and corners, as if we were afraid that men should hear us. We should lift up heart and voice unto the Lord, and invite others to join with us in adoring him, saying, Praise ye the Lord, or Hallelujah. This was a very fit conclusion of a song to be sung when all the people were gathered together at Jerusalem to keep the feast. When we worship the Lord we ought with great care to select the words of prayer and praise, and not to trust to the opening of a hymn-book, or to the unconsidered extemporizing of the moment. Let all things be done decently and in order, and let all things begin and end with Hallelujah.

Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon