Psalms 116:1-18

Psalms 116:1. I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

Every answered prayer should make us love the Lord, and especially those prayers that come up from our heart when it is overwhelmed within us. When we pray in deep trouble, and God sends us help and deliverance, it is impossible for us not to love him. Cannot each believer here say, with great gratitude, «I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications»?

Psalms 116:2. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

«This begging business pays so well that I will never give it up as long as I live. The Lord has heard me, so he shall hear me again and again. He is so good and so generous a God, and such bounties are continually being distributed at his door, that I will never go to anybody else, but will continue to knock at God's door as long as I live.» The psalmist goes on to tell us what was the special occasion which brought out this expression of his gratitude.

Psalms 116:3. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

His petition was short, earnest, plain, and personal. It was a sharp arrow shot from the bow of prayer, and it reached its mark in the heart of God. Are any of you just now in very sore distress? Then let each one imitate the example of the psalmist, and pray, «O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.» Have you been delivered as the psalmist was? Then, make a note of it, be sure to jot it down in your pocket-book, so that, when you get into such a trouble again, you may turn to the record of God's delivering mercy, and say, «The God who delivered me before has not changed, so I will apply to him again, for I am sure that he will again deliver me.»

Psalms 116:5. Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

Poor simpletons, who cannot help themselves, but who are, nevertheless, free from deceit and craft, and take God's Word as they find it,-sincere simple souls, who trust in the Lord, he will take care of them, but he will leave those who think they are wise enough to do so, to take care of themselves.

Psalms 116:7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

If we have enjoyed this trinity of deliverances, let us praise the Three One God for ever and ever. Praise him, O my soul, if thou art saved! Praise God, O mine eyes! Be filled with the happy tears of gratitude since he has delivered you from the bitter, briny tears of grief. Praise him, O ye feet that he has kept from falling, and run in the way of his commandments with great joy!

Psalms 116:9. I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

«That shall be my way of walking,-not before me, that I may gain their praise, but I will consider the Lord, and the Lord alone; and so long as I please him, I shall not mind whether I please anybody else or not.

Psalms 116:10. I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: I said in my haste, All men are liars.

It is always better not to speak in haste. It is very seldom that we say much that is worth hearing when we talk too fast. «I said in my haste, All men are liars.»

Psalms 116:12. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

That is better, for it is better to praise the Lord than to find fault with men, even if the fault found be really there. It is better for each one of us to be rendering our homage to God than picking holes in the coats of others, so let each one of us ask, «What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?»

Psalms 116:13. I will take-

The psalmist asks, «What shall I render?» and he answers, «I will take.» That is a strange way of rendering, is it not? Yes, brethren, but that is the way for us to show our gratitude to the Lord for all his benefits toward us. John Newton was right when he wrote,

«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.»

«I will take»

Psalms 116:13. The cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people.

And I can be spokesman for you, brethren and sisters in Christ, and say that the Lord is good, and that we have proved him to be good to us under peculiarly trying circumstances. He does not fail to help his people, neither does he turn his back upon them in their hour of need. We have tried all other dependences, and have been bitterly disappointed; but the Rook of Israel's salvation standeth fast for ever, glory be to the name of Jehovah of hosts! Let us pay our vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

Psalms 116:15. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

It is an event for which he makes all necessary arrangements. He does not allow it to happen accidentally, or according to the will of man. As good old John Ryland says,

«Not a single shaft can hit Till the God of love thinks fit.»

Psalms 116:16. O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

The palmist said that he was a home-born slave, because his mother was a servant of God, and he was born, as it were, a servant of his mother's Lord. How delightful it is to be a Christian, and the Son of a Christian! Let us rejoice and be glad if that is our happy lot. It is more honour to have had a mother who feared the Lord than a mother who was princess or an empress, but who had not the grace of God in her heart.

Psalms 116:17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.