He Brought Me From Death

I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows to 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 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 will call upon the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the LORD’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

Anguish Remembered 116:1-4

Death and Sheol are agressive in Hebrew Poetry cf. Psalm 6:5

“I will call on Yahweh.” 2b, 13b, 17b

Remembered Mercy 116:5-11

“Simplehearted” or “simple” are the simpletons of the Wisdom Literature. They are the one’s to be scammed easily by others. There’s much there going on in their minds. The Psalmist identifieds himself among their number (116:6).

116:10 “I believed and so I spoke” - Paul quotes in 2 Corinthians 4:13. Paul must speak of what has happned to him and in those in Corinth: The one who raised Christ from the dead is present with himself and the Christians in Corinth.

2 Corinthians 4:13-16
13 And in keeping with what is written: “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak,
14 knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.
15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may overflow in thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”

Fervent Gratitude 116:12-19

12 What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows to 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 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 will call upon the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the LORD’s house,

Lessons from Psalm 116

#1 Gratitude Is Necessary, Hopelessness is Not

One of the most important things we can learn is to be thankful.

#2 We Must See God’s Hand in Our Lives

There are some who view God as Divine Watch Maker. He in the past wound up the universe and how it ticks because of the mechanism he put in place. Because this is the result of what God did in the past, we are not going to see much if any of God’s actions today.

In fact, to think that God still interacts with the world today is test God in someway. Sure we pray, but we don’t think so.

The early church also struggled in this area of faith. When Peter was freed by an angel from prison, the disciples were gathered together praying.

ere are key New Testament passages about prayers being answered: Jesus’s direct promises:

Matthew 7:7-11 - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened” Matthew 21:21-22 - Faith and prayer can move mountains; “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it” Mark 11:24 - “Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” John 14:13-14 - “Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” John 15:7 - “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” John 15:16 - “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you” John 16:23-24 - “Whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you”

Apostolic teaching:

James 1:5-6 - Ask God for wisdom in faith without doubting James 5:16 - “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” 1 John 3:21-22 - “Whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments” 1 John 5:14-15 - Confidence that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us Philippians 4:6-7 - Present requests to God with thanksgiving

Parables on persistence:

Luke 11:5-13 - Parable of the friend at midnight Luke 18:1-8 - Parable of the persistent widow

Acts 12:14-15
14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her gladness she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. 15 But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.”

#3 Rest in God

This whole scene is a banquet or a feast the Psalmist has to the Lord. In Leviticus 7:11ff and Deuteronomy 12:17ff, Moses writes about a thanksgiving offering to God where you eat some of the offering to God.

Leviticus 7:11, 15-16
11 ‘This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer to the LORD:

15 ‘The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning. 16 But if the sacrifice of his offering is a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offers his sacrifice; but on the next day the remainder of it also may be eaten;

The thanksgiving offering to God was like a “just cause” offering. No set occasion. Maybe a Father’s child was delivered from a terrible sickness. Maybe the harvest this year was more bountiful. It was an offering of thanksgiving.

Here the Psalmist takes time to celebrate God’s hand in his life and this took time. He couldn’ve spend this time in the field with his crops, or even hunting. But instead he decided to celeberate God’s answered prayer.

Resting in Worship

You can see the Psalmist is at the table giving thanks to God. Look in verse 13-14:

Psalm 116:13-14
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14 I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people.