February 26
Reading: Psalm 116
1 I love the LORD, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the LORD
in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
“I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the LORD
for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the LORD,
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints.
16 O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!
Psalm 116 is the fourth song in the Egyptian Hallel, sung every year at the Passover. It is one of the sweetest and most personal songs in the psalter. It is the song of the child of God who knows that he or she needs the Lord to hear, to save, and then just wants to worship the Lord because God is so good.
What is the reason for the cry to the Lord in this psalm? It is the possibility of death. The psalmist is faced with death, or the shadow of death. (vss. 3, 8, 15) Of all our enemies, death is the most fearsome, the one from which we most need rescuing.
Psalm 116 begins with this most passionate statement, “I love the Lord because He hears me.” What does He hear me saying? Verse 4 tells us, “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul.” This could just as well be translated, “O Lord, I pray, save my life.”
In verses 5-11 the emotion pours out. Amid all assaults, enemies, and afflictions, the Lord is the one who saves. He rescues me.
Therefore, in verses 12-19 the psalmist wants to praise the Lord in worship among His people. We say to the Lord, “How can I ever repay You?” (vs. 12) Of course we cannot, but we can thank Him. We can worship Him. To know that the Lord saves me is to desire to come together with others whom the Lord saves and worship our great Savior together. Verse 13 speaks of a cup that we lift to the Lord. This “cup of salvation” is given to us graciously by God. It is symbolized in the cup in the Lord’s Supper. It is the opposite of the “foaming cup” of judgment in Psalm 75:8. Verse 15 alerts us to the fact that even physical death cannot thwart the salvation that the Lord makes for us.