Subject. - This is a continuation of the Paschal Hallel, and therefore must in some measure be interpreted in connection with the coming out of Egypt. It has all the appearance of being a personal song in which the believing soul, reminded by the Passover of its own bondage and deliverance, speaks thereof with gratitude, and praises the Lord accordingly. We can conceive the Israelite with a staff in his hand singing, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul," as he remembered the going back of the house of Jacob to the land of their fathers; and then drinking the cup at the feast using the words of the thirteenth verse, "I will take the cup of salvation." The pious man evidently remembers both his own deliverance and that of his people as he sings in the language of the sixteenth verse, "Thou hast loosed my bonds"; but he rises into sympathy with his nation as he thinks of the courts of the Lord's house and of the glorious city, and pledges himself lo sing "in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." Personal love fostered by a personal experience of redemption is the theme of this Psalm, and in it we see the redeemed answered when they pray, preserved in time of trouble, resting in their God, walking at large, sensible of their obligations, conscious that they are not their own but bought with a price, and joining with all the ransomed company to sing hallelujahs unto God.

Since our divine Master sang this hymn, we can hardly err in seeing here words to which he could set his seal, - words in a measure descriptive of his own experience; but upon this we will not enlarge, as in the notes we have indicated how the Psalm has been understood by those who love to find their Lord in every line.

Division. - David Dickson has a somewhat singular division of this Psalm, which strikes us as being exceedingly suggestive. He says, "This Psalm is a threefold engagement of the Psalmist unto thanksgiving unto God, for his mercy unto him, and in particular for some notable delivery of him from death, both bodily and spiritual. The first engagement is, that he shall out of love have recourse unto God by prayer, Psalm 116:1-2; the reasons and motives whereof are set down, because of his former deliverances, Psalm 116:3-8; the second engagement is to a holy conversation, Psalm 116:9; and the motives and reasons are given in Psalm 116:10-13; the third engagement is to continual praise and service, and specially to pay those vows before the church, which he had made in days of sorrow, the reasons whereof are given in Psalm 116:14-19."

Hints to Preachers

Psalm 116:1, Psalm 116:2. -

I. Present - "I love."

II. Past - "He hath."

III. Future - "I will."

Psalm 116:1, Psalm 116:2. - Personal experience in reference to prayer.

I. We have prayed, often, constantly, in different ways, etc.

II. We have been heard. A grateful retrospect of usual answers and of special answers.

III. Love to God has thus been promoted.

IV. Our sense of the value of prayer has become so intense that we cannot cease praying.

Psalm 116:1, Psalm 116:2, Psalm 116:9. - If you cast your eyes on Psalm 116:1, you find a profession of love - "I love the Lord"; if on the second, a promise of prayer - "I will call on the Lord"; if on the ninth, a resolve of walking - "I will walk before the Lord." There are three things should be the object of a saint's care, the devotion of the soul, profession of the mouth, and conversation of the life: that is the sweetest melody in God's ears, when not only the voice sings, but the heartstrings keep tune, and the hand keepeth time. - Nathanael Hardy.

Psalm 116:2. - "He hath," and therefore "I will." Grace moving to action.

Psalm 116:2, Psalm 116:4, Psalm 116:13, Psalm 116:17. - Calling upon God mentioned four times very suggestively - I will do it (Psalm 116:2), I have tried it (Psalm 116:4), I will do it when I take (Psalm 116:13), and when I offer (Psalm 116:17).

Psalm 116:2, Psalm 116:9, Psalm 116:13, Psalm 116:14, Psalm 116:17. - The "I wills" of the Psalm. I will call (verse 2), I will walk (Psalm 116:9), I will take (Psalm 116:13), I will pay (Psalm 116:14), I will offer (Psalm 116:17).

Psalm 116:3, Psalm 116:4, Psalm 116:8. - See Spurgeon's Sermon, "To Souls in Agony," Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1216.

Psalm 116:3-5. - The story of a tried soul.

I. Where I was. Psalm 116:3.

II. What I did. Psalm 116:4.

III. What I learned. Psalm 116:5.

Psalm 116:3-6. -

I. The occasion.

1. Bodily affliction.

2. Terrors of conscience.

3. Sorrow of heart.

4. Self-accusation: "I found," etc.

II. The petition.

1.:Direct: "I called," etc.

2.:Immediate: "then," when the trouble came; prayer was the first remedy sought, not the last, as with many.

3. Brief - limited to the one thing needed: "deliver my soul."

4. Importunate: "O Lord, I beseech thee."

III. The restoration.

1.:Implied: "gracious," etc., Psalm 5:5.

2. Expressed, Psalm 5:6, generally: "The Lord preserveth," etc.; particularly: "I was brought low," etc.: helped me to pray, helped me out of trouble in answer to prayer, and helped me to praise him for the mercy, the faithfulness, the grace, shown in my deliverance. God is glorified through the afflictions of his people: the submissive are preserved in them, and the lowly are exalted by them. - G. R.

Psalm 116:5. -

I. Eternal grace, or the purpose of love.

II. Infinite justice, or the difficulty of holiness.

III. Boundless mercy, or the outcome of atonement.

Psalm 116:6. -

I. A singular class - "simple."

II. A singular fact - "the Lord preserveth the simple."

III. A singular proof of the fact - "I was," etc.

Psalm 116:7. - "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." Rest in God may be said to belong to the people of God on a fourfold account.

I. By designation. The rest which the people Of God have in him is the result of his own purpose, and design, taken up from his mere good pleasure and love.

II. By purchase. The rest which they wanted as creatures they had forfeited as sinners. This, therefore, Christ laid down his life to procure.

III. By promise. This is God's kind engagement. He has said, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest," Exodus 33:14.

IV. By their own choice gracious souls have a rest in God. - D. Wilcox.

Psalm 116:7. - "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." When, or upon what occasion a child of God should use the Psalmist's language.

I. After converse with the world in the business of his calling every day.

II. When going to the sanctuary on the Lord's-day.

III. In and under any trouble he may meet with.

IV. When departing from this world at death. - D. Wilcox.

Psalm 116:7. -

I. The rest of the soul: "My rest," this is in God.

1. The soul was created to find its rest in God.

2. On that account it cannot find rest elsewhere.

II. Its departure from that rest. This is implied in the word "Return."

III. Its return.

1. By repentance.

2. By faith, in the way provided for its return.

3. By prayer.

IV. Its encouragement to return.

1. Not in itself, but in God.

2. Not in the justice, but in the goodness of God' "for the Lord," etc. "The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." - G. R.

Psalm 116:8. - The trinity of experimental godliness.

I. It is a unity - "Thou hast delivered"; all the mercies come from one source.

II. It is a trinity of deliverance, of soul, eyes, feet; from punishment, sorrow, and sinning; to life, joy, and stability.

III. It is a trinity in unity: all this was done for me and in me - "my soul, mine eyes, my feet."

Psalm 116:9. - The effect of deliverance upon ourselves. "I will walk," etc.

I. Walk by faith in him.

II. Walk in love with him.

III. Walk by obedience to him. - G. R.

Psalm 116:10, Psalm 116:11. -

I. The rule: "I believed," etc. In general the Psalmist spoke what he had well considered and tested by his own experience, as when he said, "I was brought low and he helped me." "The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me."

II. The exception: "I was greatly afflicted, I said," etc.

1. He spoke wrongfully: he said "All men are liars," which had some truth in it, but was not the whole truth.

2.:Hastily: "I said in my haste," without due reflection.

3. Angrily, under the influence of affliction, probably from the unfaithfulness of others. Nature acts before grace - the one by instinct, the other from consideration. - G. R.

Psalm 116:11. - A hasty speech.

I. There was much truth in it.

II. It erred on the right side, for it showed faith in God rather than in the creature.

III. It did err in being too sweeping, too severe, too suspicious.

IV. It was soon cured. The remedy for all such hasty speeches is - Get to work in the spirit of Psalm 116:12.

Psalm 116:12. - Overwhelming obligations.

I. A sum in arithmetic - "all his benefits."

II. A calculation of indebtedness - "What shall Irender?"

III. A problem for personal solution - "What shall I?" See Spurgeon's Sermon, No. 910.

Psalm 116:12, Psalm 116:14. - Whether well-composed religious vows do not exceedingly promote religion. Sermon by Henry Hurst, A.M., in "The Morning Exercises."

Psalm 116:13. - Sermon on the Lord's supper. We take the cup of the Lord -

I. In memory of him who is our salvation.

II. In token of our trust in him.

III. In evidence of our obedience to him.

IV. In type of communion with him.

V. In hope of drinking it new with him ere long.

Psalm 116:13. - The various cups mentioned in Scripture would make an interesting subject.

Psalm 116:14. - "Now." Or the excellence of time present.

Psalm 116:15. -

I. The declaration. Not the death of the wicked, nor even the death of the righteous is in itself precious; but,

1. Because their persons are precious to him.

2. Because their experience in death is precious to him.

3. Because of their conformity in death to their Covenant-Head; and

4. Because it puts an end to their sorrows, and translates them to their rest.

II. Its manifestation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 116:1

"I love the Lord." A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare without the slightest hesitation, "I love the Lord." It was required under the law, but was never produced in the heart of man except by the grace of God, and upon gospel principles. It is a great thing to say "I love the Lord" : 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, reason and emotion 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 formed' 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 our hearts to God. When a man'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.

Psalm 116:2

"Because he hath inclined his ear unto me" : - bowing down from his grandeur to attend to my prayer; 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.

Psalm 116:3

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 116:9

"I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." 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 men live only as in the sight of their fellow men, having regard to human judgment and opinion; but the truly gracious man considers the presence of God, and acts under the influence of his all-observing eye. "Thou God seest me" is a far better influence than "My master sees me." 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 favoured with divine deliverances in answer to prayer finds his own experience the best reason for a holy life, and the best assistance to his endeavours. 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?

Psalm 116:10

"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 the lip of man has emanated from a heart fully persuaded of the truth of God. Not only the Psalmist, but such men as Luther, and Calvin, and other great witnesses for the faith, could each one most heartily say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken." "I was greatly afflicted." There was no mistake about that; the affliction was as bitter and as terrible as it well 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 am I the more resolved to speak to the honour of God. Though greatly afflicted, the Psalmist had not ceased to believe. his faith was tried but not destroyed.

Psalm 116:11

"I said in my haste, All men are liars." In a modified sense the expression will bear justification, even though hastily uttered, for 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 from the expression, "I said in my haste," it is clear that the Psalmist did not justify his own language, but considered it as the ebullition of a hasty temper. In the sense in which he spoke his language was unjustifiable. 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 is as ill in some cases as it is good in others. 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; we may repent of our words, but we cannot so recall them as to undo the mischief they have done. If even David had to eat his own words, when he spoke in a hurry, none of us can trust our tongue without a bridle.

Psalm 116:12

"What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" He wisely leaves off fretting about man's falsehood and his own ill humour, 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. His benefits are so many that we cannot number them, and our ways of acknowledging his bestowments ought to be varied and numerous in proportion. Each person should have his own peculiar mode of expressing gratitude. The Lord sends each one a special benefit, let each one enquire, "What shall I render? What form of service would be most becoming in me?"

Psalm 116:13

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

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

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

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

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

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

Psalm 116:14

"I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people." 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 fulfil: "I will pay my vows unto the Lord." He-does so at once, "now," and that publicly, "in the presence of all his people." Good resolutions cannot be carried out too speedily; vows become debts, and debts should be paid. It is well to have witnesses to the payment of just debts, and we need not be ashamed to have 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. How can those do this who have never with their mouth confessed their Saviour? O secret disciples, what say you to this verse! 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.

Psalm 116:15

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," and therefore he did not suffer the Psalmist to die, but delivered his soul from death. 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 shall not die prematurely; they shall be immortal till their work is done; and when their time shall come to die, then their deaths shall be precious. The Lord watches over their dying beds, smooths their pillows, sustains their hearts, and receives their souls. Those who are redeemed with precious blood are so dear to God that even their deaths are precious to him. The death-beds of saints are very precious to the church, she often learns much from them; they 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 Jehovah himself, who view 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.

Psalm 116:16

The man of God in paying his vows re-dedicates himself unto God; the offering which he brings is himself, as he cries, "O Lord, truly I am thy servant," "rightfully, really, heartily, constantly, I own that I am thine, for thou hast delivered and redeemed me." "I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid," a servant born in thy house, born of a servant and so born a servant, and therefore doubly thine. My mother was thine handmaid, and I, her son, confess that I am altogether thine by claims arising out of my birth. O that children of godly parents would thus judge; but, alas, there are many who are the sons of the Lord's handmaids, but they are not themselves his servants. They give sad proof that grace does not run in the blood. David's mother was evidently a gracious woman, and he is glad to remember that fact, and to see in it a fresh obligation to devote himself to God. "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. Note how the sweet singer delights to dwell upon his belonging to the Lord; it is evidently his glory, a thing of which he is proud, a matter which causes him intense satisfaction. Verily, it ought to create rapture in our souls if we are able to call Jesus Master, and are acknowledged by him as his servants.

Psalm 116:17

"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 not bring bullock or goat, but I will bring that which is more suitable, namely, the thanksgiving of my heart. My inmost soul shall adore thee in gratitude. "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. He is fond of this occupation, and several times in this Psalm declares that "he will call upon the name of the Lord," while at the same time he rejoices that he had done so many a time before. Good feelings and actions bear repeating: the more of hearty callings upon God the better.

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