Psalms 116:10-19

The whole Psalm is one of joyous thanksgiving because of God's mercy to the singer. He had been in deep waters of trial and affliction, but had not been suffered to sink. He had known fierce assaults of sin that threatened tearful eyes and falling, stumbling stops, but God had upheld and strengthened. As he recalls all this, he longs to make some return by way of praise, and witness to others. Hence he now inquires.

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

And uncommonly near the truth he came, even though he was in a hurry in saying it, for if you trust in any men they must be liars to you. They will fail you, either from want of faithfulness, or else from want of power. There are pinches where the kindest hand cannot succor. There are times of sorrow when she who is the partner of your bosom cannot find you alleviation. Then you will have to come to God, and God alone, and you will never find him fail you. The brooks of the earth are dry in summer, and frozen in winter. All my fresh springs are in thee, my God, and there neither frost nor drought can come. Happy man who has got right away from everything to his God.

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

Here we see gratitude is springing up in this man's breast. He lives upon God, and he loves God, and now the question comes, «What shall I do for God?» Service is not first. We make a mistake when we begin with that. No: we begin as he did, with «I love the Lord.» Tell what the Lord has done for you, and then go on to, «What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?»

Psalms 116:13. I will take 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. Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

We do well to notice those deaths, for God notices them. They are among his precious things. And if God thinks so much of dying saints, depend upon it he will not forget the living ones. He will help us. He will help us to the end.

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.

What a sweet thing to be the servant of God. Well does David say it twice over. Well does he delight to look upon himself as a slave that was born in his Master's house. «My mother,» says he, «was one of thy servants. I am the son of thy handmaid.» Oh! It is a blessed thing to be able to be God's every way to feel in looking back, «I am not only his by redemption and by the new birth, but I seem as if I was bound to be his by a long ancestry of men and women, whom his sovereign grace called to himself.» Grace does not run in the blood, but it is a great mercy when it runs side by side with it; and when the handmaiden of the Lord is mother of a man who is a child of God as well as her child. «Thou hast loosed my bonds.» You are never quite free, you have never got your bonds all loosed till you can doubly feel the bonds of God. Read that: «I am thy servant. I am thy servant.» That is two blows. «Thou hast loosed my bonds.» There is no freedom except in perfect subjection to the will of God. When every thought is brought into captivity to the mind of God, then every thought is free. You have heard much of the freedom of the will. There is no freedom of the will till grace has bound the will in fetters of divine affection. Then is it free, and not till then. «I am thy servant thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds.»

Psalms 116:17. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.

He has been doing it. What a man has done he will do. Oh! it is a blessed thing that the children of God at last catch a habit of devotion. Just as the sinner continues in his sin, so may I venture to say, «Shall the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?» If so, then he that has once heartily learnt to praise his God may begin to forget to do so. Use is second nature, and the holy use to which God has put us by his grace shall be our nature for ever.

Psalms 116:18. 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.

I see that David liked company. He would have been happy here, though we meet under conditions not wholly pleasant. He would have been glad to be in the midst of a smiling company of grateful saints, who could all say, «That is true, David. What you have written of yourself, you might have written of each one of us, and we can each one say, ‘I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.'»

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 116:10; Song of Solomon 2:1.