I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116 Christian experience and its results W. Hancock, B. D. I. The psalm opens with a general declaration of GRATITUDE TO GOD, AS THE HEARER OF PRAYER (ver. 1). I. The true believer is a man of prayer. 2. Another feature of the child of God is conviction of sin (ver. 3). 3. He is one who can testify that the Lord has answered his prayers: one who has tasted the sweetness of Divine mercy (vers. 5, 6, 8). 4. He seeks his happiness from God, and looks to the bosom of God as the only resting-place for his soul (ver. 7). II. THE RESULTS OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. 1. A deep sense of gratitude, and a desire of manifesting the same (ver. 12). 2. A special resolve to manifest his gratitude, by a devout attendance on ordinances, appointed of God as the public and solemn expression of thanksgiving and self-dedication (vers. 13, 14). ( W. Hancock, B. D. ) The religion of gratitude Homilist. We trace this religious gratitude — I. In a PROFOUND IMPRESSION of God's relative kindness. His relative kindness is shown in two ways. 1. In delivering from distress. The distress seemed to have consisted(1) In bodily suffering.(2) In mental sorrow. 2. In delivering from great distress in answer to prayer. II. In an EARNEST CONFESSION of God's relative kindness. 1. His general kindness (ver. 5). 2. His personal kindness (ver. 6). III. In a DETERMINATION TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE IN CONSEQUENCE of God's relative kindness. Here is a determination — 1. To rest in God (ver. 7).(1) The soul wants rest. Like Noah's dove it has forsaken its home, and is fluttering in the storms of external circumstances.(2) Its only rest is God. It is so constituted that it can only rest where it can find unbounded faith for its intellect, and supreme love for its heart. And who but God, the supremely good and supremely true, can supply these conditions?(3) To this rest it must return by its own effort. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." The soul cannot be carried to this rest. As you steer the sea-tossed bark into harbour, so it must go itself into the spheres of serenity and peace.(4) A sense of God's relative kindness tends to stimulate this effort. "The Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." "The goodness of God shall lead to repentance." 2. To walk before God. "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." "I will set the Lord always before me." Whoever else I may lose sight of, ignore, or forget, His presence shall always be before my eye. IV. In a PUBLIC ACKNOWLEDGMENT of God's relative kindness. ( Homilist. ) Prayer answered, love nourished The particular objects which you are now to look back upon are the manifold and manifest answers to prayer, which God has given you. I. The first thing I would have you recollect is, YOUR OWN PRAYERS. If you look at them with an honest eye, you will be struck with wonder that ever God should have heard them. Look back now, Christian, upon thy prayers, and remember what cold things they have been. Thy desires have been but faint, and they have been expressed in such sorry language, that the desire itself seemed to freeze upon the lips that uttered it. And yet, strange to say, God has heard those cold prayers, and has answered them too, though they have been such that we have come out of our closets and have wept over them. Then, again, believer, how unfrequent and few are your prayers, and yet how numerous and how great have God's blessings been. Ye have prayed in times of difficulty very earnestly, but when God has delivered you, where was your former fervency? Look at your prayers, again, in another aspect. How unbelieving have they often been! You and I have gone to the mercy-seat, and we have asked God to bless us, but we have not believed that He would do so. How small, too, the faith of our most faithful prayers! When we believe the most, how little do we trust; how full of doubting is our heart, even when our faith has grown to its greatest extent! I am sure we shall find much reason to love God, if we only think of those pitiful abortions of prayer, those unripe figs, those stringless bows, those headless arrows, which we call prayers, and which He has borne with in His long-suffering. The fact is, that sincere prayer may often be very feeble to us, but it is always acceptable to God. It is like some of those one-pound notes, which they use in Scotland — dirty, ragged bits of paper; one would hardly look at them, one seems always glad to get rid of them for something that looks a little more like money. But still, when they are taken to the bank, they are always acknowledged and accepted as being genuine, however rotten and old they may be. So with our prayers: they are foul with unbelief, decayed with imbecility, and worm-eaten with wandering thoughts; but, nevertheless, God accepts them at heaven's own bank, and gives us rich and ready blessings, in return for our supplications. II. Again: I hope we shall be led to love God for having heard our prayers, if we consider THE GREAT VARIETY OF MERCIES WHICH WE HAVE ASKED IN PRAYER, AND THE LONG LIST OF ANSWERS WHICH WE HAVE RECEIVED. It is impossible for me to depict thine experience as well as thou canst read it thyself. What multitudes of prayers have you and I put up from the first moment when we learnt to pray! You have asked for blessings in your going out and your coming in; blessings of the day and of the night, and of the sun and of the moon; and all these have been vouchsafed to you. Your prayers were innumerable; you asked for countless mercies, and they have all been given. Only look at yourself: are not you adorned and bejewelled with mercies as thickly as the sky with stars? III. Let us note again THE FREQUENCY OF HIS ANSWERS TO OUR FREQUENT PRAYERS. If a beggar comes to your house, and you give him alms, you will be greatly annoyed if within a month he shall come again; and if you then discover that he has made it a rule to wait upon you monthly for a contribution, you will say to him, "I gave you something once, but I did not mean to establish it as a rule." Suppose, however, that the beggar should be so impudent and impertinent that he should say, "But I intend, sir, to wait upon you every morning and every evening:" then you would say, "I intend to keep my gate locked that you shall not trouble me." And suppose he should then look you in the face and add still more, "Sir, I intend waiting upon you every hour, nor can I promise that I won't come to you sixty times in an hour; but I just vow and declare that as often as I want anything so often will I come to you: if I only have a wish I will come and tell it to you; the least thing and the greatest thing shall drive me to you; I will always be at the post of your door." You would soon be tired of such importunity as that, and wish the beggar anywhere, rather than that he should come and tease you so. Yet recollect, this is just what you have done to God, and He has never complained of you for doing it; but rather He has complained of you the other way. He has said, "Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob." He has never murmured at the frequency of your prayers, but has complained that you have not come to Him enough. IV. Think of THE GREATNESS OF THE MERCY FOR WHICH YOU HAVE OFTEN ASKED HIM, We never know the greatness of our mercies till we get into trouble and want them. God's mercies are so great that they cannot be magnified; they are so numerous they cannot be multiplied, so precious they cannot be over-estimated. I say, look back to-day upon these great mercies with which the Lord has favoured thee in answer to thy great desires, and wilt thou not say, "I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications"? V. HOW TRIVIAL HAVE BEEN THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE OFTEN TAKEN BEFORE GOD, AND YET HOW KINDLY HAS HE CONDESCENDED TO HEAR OUR PRAYERS. In looking back, my unbelief compels me to wonder at myself, that I should have prayed for such little things. My gratitude compels me to say, "I love the Lord, because He has heard those little prayers, and answered my little supplications, and made me blessed, even in little things which, after all, make up the life of man." VI. Let me remind you of THE TIMELY ANSWERS WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO YOUR PRAYERS, and this should compel you to love Him. God's answers have never come too soon nor yet too late. If the Lord had given you His blessing one day before it did come, it might have been a curse, and there have been times when if He had withheld it an hour longer it would have been quite useless, because it would have come too late. VII. WILL YOU NOT LOVE THE LORD, WHEN YOU RECOLLECT THE SPECIAL AND GREAT INSTANCES OF HIS MERCY TO YOU? You have had seasons of special prayer and of special answer. What shall I say then? God has heard my voice in my prayer. The first lesson, then, is this — He shall hear my voice in my praise. If He heard me pray, He shall hear me sing; if He listened to me when the tear was in mine eye, He shall listen to me when my eye is sparkling with delight. My piety shall not be that of the dungeon and sick-bed; it shall be that also of deliverance and of health. Another lesson. Has God heard my voice? Then I will hear His voice. If He heard me, I will hear Him. Tell me, Lord, what wouldst Thou have Thy servant do, and I will do it. The last lesson is, Lord, hast Thou heard my voice? then I will tell others that Thou wilt hear their voice too. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Reality of answer to prayer J. Robertson. A prayer is an appeal from helplessness to power. No wonder that prayer in its prompting and incentiveness is always attributed to the Holy Spirit. David says, "He has heard my cry and my supplications." All the language is not on one side. I sent a letter to a certain city across the Atlantic, believing that the mail would carry my missive, that the British flag under which the mail ship sailed would protect her in safety across the Atlantic, and that thus my epistle would reach its destination. In due course a reply comes, showing that my expectations were fulfilled. You could not reason me out of my belief; you might go into discussion about the mighty leagues of ocean that separate Glasgow from Chicago, but you could not reason me out of my belief when I had that reply in my hand. There are men who as literally and as definitely have had a reply from God to their cry. They can say with David, "God has heard my voice and my supplication;" they have got the proof; they have received the reply. ( J. Robertson. ) Love of God in the heart J. Robertson. "I love the Lord." Can you say that? There is a bell in Moscow that never was hung and never was rung. It is one of the largest bells in the world, but its clapper has never swung against its great echoing sides. There is many a human heart that was placed where it is to beat with love to God; but, like the bell, it has never been hung and never been rung. Dead, lost soul, your heart was made to love God. Will you let it lie there, as they let the Moscow bell lie in the courtyard amid the dust and rubbish and daily defilement of the palace? Would you not rather pray, and strive, and agonize that your heart should be hung, and that it should be rung in a melody of love to God? ( J. Robertson. ) Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. Psalm 116:2 Answers to prayer confirm habits of prayer Philip Henry, after he had been engaged in prayer for two of his children that were dangerously ill, remarked, "If the Lord will be pleased to grant me this my request concerning my children, I will not say, as the beggars at our door used to do, I'll never ask anything of Him again;" but, on the contrary, "He shall hear oftener from me than ever;" and I will love God the better, and love prayer the better, as long as I live." The sorrows of death compassed me. Psalm 116:3, 4 To souls in agony I. First, here is THE WRETCHED CONDITION into which many a poor awakened soul has been brought. 1. Many a troubled conscience feels the sorrows of death; that is to say, he is the subject of griefs similar to those which beset sinners on their dying beds. They are all around him — these sorrows of the past, and the present, and the future. 2. Awakened sinners sometimes feel what they describe as the pains of hell: not that any living man does endure the pains of hell to the extent which they are suffered in hell, but still a dreadful foretaste of those pains may he experienced by an awakened conscience. What are these pains of hell? Remorse; a sense of condemnation; a terrible despair; a crushing sense of misery. 3. But the case was worse than this, for the poor soul felt no alleviation and knew of no escape. These things were by themselves, unsoftened, left in all their terror, the gall was unmixed, the vinegar undiluted. Notice the language. "The sorrows of death compassed me." It is a very strong word. When the hunters seek their prey they form a cordon around the poor animal that is to be destroyed. The poor panting creature looks to the right, but a man with a spear is there, he looks to the left and there are the dogs. Before and behind him are more spearmen, more hounds, more hunters; there is no way of escape. So does an awakened soul discern no rescue, no loophole by which it may be delivered. The text says, "The pangs of hell gat hold upon me." "Gat hold," as if the jaws of the lion had really gripped the lamb, or the paws of the bear were hugging the poor defenceless sheep. "Gat hold upon me," as though God's terrible sergeant from the court of justice had laid his band upon his shoulder, and said, "I arrest thee in the name of God to lie in hell's prison, and perish for ever." Many a soul has felt that, and felt also that it could not get away from the terrible grip. 4. Once more, the psalmist felt no comfort from any exertion that he made. That takes in the last sentence of the text's description. "I found trouble and sorrow;" so that he looked for something, but the only result of his search was that he found trouble and sorrow. Do you remember, in the days when you were under bondage on account of sin, how you bound yourself apprentice to Moses to work out your own salvation by your own goodness? What did you get? Surely you found trouble in the work, and sorrow as its wages. You found trouble and sorrow. Perhaps you went to Mr. Legality, and he and his son, Mr. Morality, did what they could for you; but if you were really awakened all that you got from them was trouble and sorrow. That was the whole result of it. II. THE AWAKENED SINNER'S COURSE OF ACTION. What did he do? First, he called — called upon God's name, lifted up his heart, and lifted up his voice, and called as a man might do who is lost in a fog and calls to a neighbour, hoping to hear a voice that will guide him; or as one who is far away in the bush of Australia and gives a call in the hope that some human voice may respond to it. This call is often described as a cry — a natural, simple, inartificial, unpleasant, but most effectual style of expressing our distress. Oh, sinner, if God has really been at work with you, and put you where I have been describing, you will call to God now. Now, notice, he says, "Then called I upon the name of the Lord." The sinner had forgotten the Lord till then, and now the Lord came to his remembrance. When did he call? That is the important point in this text. "Then called I upon the name of the Lord." Then. Was that the first time in his life? Perhaps it was. Begin at once, O sinner. When his condition was at its very worst, then he called upon God. Why did he not stop till he became better? He knew that delays are dangerous. And now for his prayer. Here it is — "O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul." A very natural prayer, was it not? He just said what he meant, and meant what he said, and that is the way to pray. It is a very short prayer. Many a prayer is too long by twenty times. It is smothered under a bed-full of words. It was a humble prayer: "O Lord, I beseech Thee." It is the language of one who is bowed into the dust. It was an intense prayer: "O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul." But I want you most of all to notice that it was a scriptural prayer. There are three great little prayers in Scripture, — 'O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul;" "God, be merciful to me a sinner;" and, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." These are all contained in the Lord's Prayer. "O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul," is "Deliver us from evil." "God be merciful to me a sinner," — what is that but "Forgive us our trespasses"? And what is the prayer, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom," but that grand petition, "Thy kingdom come"? How wonderfully comprehensive is that prayer which our Lord Jesus has given us for a model. All prayers may be condensed into it, or distilled from it. III. DELIVERANCE (ver. 8). He gained a great deal more than he asked for. He prayed, "O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul," and God delivered his soul from death, his eyes from tears, and his feet from falling. He asked for one thing, and he obtained it, and two other things besides; for it is our Heavenly Father's way to do exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or even think. He gained deliverance from death; for souls can die though they cannot cease to exist. They die when separated from God; all souls are dead until by union to God they are quickened into spiritual life. His eyes were also cleared from tears. Who is not free from sorrow when he is free from the fear of the death-penalty? Forgiveness brings joy at its heel wherever it comes. And then, having gained salvation and joy, the Lord gave him stability. Those feet that were so apt to slide were set fast, and the fear of future apostasy was removed by the gracious securities which God gave to him that He would never leave him. Thus he had a blessing for his soul, his eyes, and his feet — salvation, joy, and stability. The last word to be said is this — these same blessings can be had by others. "Gracious is the Lord and righteous; yea, our God is merciful." That is why the Lord heard David's prayer — because He is gracious, and He loves to show grace to sinners. It was also because He is righteous, and therefore keeps His promise. Remember, too, that if your distresses are like David's you may use the same prayer, because you have the same promises. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) I was brought low and He helped me. Psalm 116:6 God's method of helping Anon. Thousands of times has this experience of the psalmist been repeated. It is the Divine method. Bring low and then help. Cast down and then lift up. There are some diseases of the human system which the skilful physician thus treats. He begins at once to deplete and bring down the patient, reducing him little by little till the unskilled observer trembles lest life itself will depart. But at the right moment when the disease has been expelled the restoratives are applied, and a new life enters into the system. And there is a rapid and healthy building up. Brought low he has been helped. So in all God's gracious dealings with human souls, this is His method. Take the process in conversion. First comes the terrible conviction. The soul discovers depth after depth of the evil within it, till it seems as though its condition were absolutely hopeless. And when this process is complete, and the soul is thoroughly cast down, brought low, then the Infinite Helper stretches forth His hand. Then power from on high comes. And thus through all the stages of the Christian life. The soul is brought low, pride is humbled, lofty looks are brought down, and then the help comes. Was is not thus with poor sinning Peter? He had grown self-reliant. He could even boast of his resolution and firmness. But when the trial came he was weaker than weakness itself, and fell; terribly, disgracefully fell. He wept bitterly. But just when the humiliation was complete he was reinstated in his office, and commissioned to feed Christ's sheep. He was brought low and he was helped. Ask the aged and experienced disciple of to-day how it had been with him in the long years of his pilgrimage. He will tell you that he has many times been laid low, even in the dust, and just then he has been helped. Divine help is neither welcomed nor appreciated till the soul is taught its need of it in the stern school of experience. The process may not be pleasant at the time, but an infallible, Physician superintends it. ( Anon. ) Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Psalm 116:7 The gate to rest M. R. Vincent, D.D. The psalmist exhorts his soul to return unto its rest; not because it has heard of God, or has seen His power in nature; not because He recognizes Divine order in the universe, not because his poetical feeling is kindled by the thought of Divine majesty and glory, but because he has had personal dealings with God. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." I supplicated Him, He "heard" my supplication, I was brought low, He "helped" me: He "delivered my soul from death." He wiped the tears from my eyes and gave His angels charge to keep my feet from falling. Therefore, on my side, I too, will deal with Him. I will "call" upon Him: I will "rest" in Him: I will "walk before" Him: I will "believe" in Him: I will "pay my vows" to Him. We really need get back to the old Hebrew conception of God's relation to man. But we never can do so through any conception of God which makes Him less than a personal Father in heaven. Now, let us look at three questions in the light of this thought of the soul's rest, all of them practical questions which every thoughtful man asks. "Whence do I come? How shall my life be ordered? Whither am I going?" No soul is at rest until it can answer these three questions; and no soul will ever find rest until it shall have found its answer in God. 1. As to the first of these questions — "Whence did I come?" Modern thought is seeking rest for itself, not in God, but in scientific theories of the origin of man. We have no fault to find with such researches. All I say now is that the scientist does not give you anything restful, even if he succeeds in proving that God had no hand in your creation. You go on craving a leather in heaven just the same. You are restless as ever, no less restless than the child who knows his mother is in her grave, but who, nevertheless, cries for her unceasingly. You want the truth, but may not your filial instinct be truthful? May not your sense of sonship be a sense of a stupendous truth? 2. How shall I live? How make the most and best of life? What guides shall I follow? Here again we find a point of rest only in a personal God, a God of providence, who interferes (I am not afraid of the term) in our affairs. You may prove, if you can, that your life moves on under the guidance of mere, settled, mechanical order. That conclusion will not give you rest. If this world of men which we see and of which we are a part, with all its clashing and contradiction, its triumph of evil and its struggle of good, is uncontrolled by a Supreme Will, if men like grains of sand, merely fly before the wind that drives them against the rocks and against each other, if change, and sickness, and ruin, and death come just as the water shoots the precipice, just as two and two make four, — it is but mockery to point our souls to such a conception of life and say, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul." We can obtain a calm, restful outlook upon life, a tranquil, cheerful participation in life only as we get back to God. We find these only when Christ leads us as He led the disciples of old to the market, and points to the little dead sparrow, and says "Your Father marked its fall; fear not, ye are of more value than many sparrows." We shall not be frightened at a mystery, provided we know God is behind it. 3. And, once more, the soul finds no rest as regards the question of destiny, until it finds it in God. Whatever restful thought of heaven we have, whatever knowledge of its conditions we have, comes entirely from the moral quality of heaven, and therefore from the thought of God; for, take out God from the universe, and no determinate moral quality is left anywhere, in heaven or in earth. Heaven is heaven to us because God is there; because God's law rules there absolutely; because its happiness is the happiness of perfect moral order. ( M. R. Vincent, D.D. ) The soul's rest W. J. Potter. "There would seem," says James Martineau, "to be an incurable variance between the life which men covet for themselves and that which they admire in others; nay, between the lot which they would choose beforehand and that in which they glory afterwards. In prospect, nothing appears so attractive as ease and licensed comfort; in retrospect, nothing so delightful as toil and strenuous service." The truth of this remark is being repeatedly impressed upon us both by public and private circumstance. It does seem as if Providence had conditioned us to a lot of labour and struggle, — nay, forced it upon us, — while our first aim is to smooth our path and prepare the way for an after happiness which consists in rest and passive pleasure. Born for contest, we ask for repose. We would skip, if possible, the drill and the discipline, and clutch at once the prizes of victory. How many of us go through life like complaining school-children, — doing our tasks, it may be, but longing for the time when books shall be put aside and all lessons come to an end! But, notwithstanding the prevailing extent of this desire for repose and the fallacious arguments with which we attempt to cover our own delinquencies in the matter, human nature, in its inmost heart, is sound, and honours no repose which is not honourably achieved by contest and victory. Human nature is to be judged, not by the standard which individual men live by, or even set for themselves, but by that which they most admire in others; and that must be regarded as the aim of humanity at large, which, though exhibited in the attainment of but a single individual, gathers about it the greatest number who applaud and revere it. Who but the brave, who but those who against all obstacles have contended manfully and unflinchingly and kept their integrity to the bitter end, have ever been adopted as the models or worshipped as the heroes of mankind? How immeasurably more has the world admired the character of for refusing to avail himself of the plan of his jailer, who had been bribed to aid his escape! These two points, then, seem to be clearly established: first, in the midst of the toil, trials, and struggles of our lot there is an instinctive craving within us for rest; and yet, secondly, the standard of life which we also instinctively place the highest, and which, at the bottom of our hearts, we do most really admire, is that in which there is the least of rest. Solve this seeming paradox, and we shall answer the question of what the soul's rest is. We crave for rest, it is true; and the desire is so universal that it must be regarded as instinctive. But, like all our instincts, the desire is blind. Instinct does not see and consciously choose its end, but gives only direction toward a certain satisfaction which human nature requires in order to fulfil its destiny. What is the extent and character of that satisfaction, not any one instinct or desire, but the whole nature, must determine. What, then, is the kind of rest which the human soul demands, and which alone can satisfy its desires? The rest that our natures crave is not the repose of passivity, of listlessness, of sleep, but the rest of healthy spiritual life, — of life in accordance with the laws of our being, which are laws of progressive activity, and, if obeyed, put us into harmony with the spirit and peace of God. The rest that we want is like the rest of the heavenly bodies, which, though all may be in rapid and varied movement, are yet at peace with regard to each other, because moving according to the harmony of a Divine law. And such rest as this we can have, though in the midst of labour and trial and conflict. It is the rest to which Jesus invited the "weary and heavy-laden"; the rest, not of those who have thrown their burdens off or would impose them upon others, but of those who would have taken upon them the yoke of God's law, and find the "yoke easy" and the "burden light," because, through obedience to this law, a mighty strength and a mighty peace have come into their being. ( W. J. Potter. ) The Christian's disposition under a sense of mercies received J. Witherspoon, D.D. I. THE STATE OF THOSE WITH WHOM THE LORD HATH DEALT BOUNTIFULLY. 1. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with those from whom He hath removed any affliction under which they groaned, and for deliverance from which they prayed. 2. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with you, if you can observe a particular mark and signature of His providence in your mercies.(1) When the means by which any mercy is brought about are extraordinary, and far beyond the reach of human wisdom, it serves to show that God Himself hath been their help.(2) Sometimes the providence of God is seen in the season of the mercy. It is bestowed when it is most needed, or when it may be of greatest use.(3) The signature of providence is sometimes seen in the nature of the mercy, when it is exactly suited to the state and character of the person concerned. 3. The Lord deals bountifully with His people, when He gives them a clear and satisfying view of the salutary end, and enables them to make a sanctified use both of their trials and mercies. 4. The Lord hath dealt bountifully with those whom He hath admitted to the most intimate and spiritual communion with Himself; those whom He hath carried above the sphere of temptation, filled them with sensible joy in the Holy Ghost here, and earnest desires after the complete and perpetual enjoyment of His presence in heaven. II. THE IMPORT OF THE PSALMIST'S RESOLUTION. 1. Return and give the praise where it is due; and humbly acknowledge God as the author of thy mercies. 2. This expression may imply returning to God, and delighting in Him as our reconciled God, and supreme portion and happiness. 3. This expression implies a confidence and reliance on God for protection and security against future dangers. III. PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENT. 1. Observe one great branch of the sinfulness of the world in general — forgetfulness of God, and unthankfulness for His mercies. 2. Let me beseech every serious person to consider how far he hath sinned against God and his own comfort by forgetting the goodness of God, both in common and special mercies. 3. Directions to those who are truly sensible of the goodness of God.(1) Be circumspect and watchful; though a thankful frame of spirit is of great advantage, both for your sanctification and peace, yet it is not out of the reach of temptation; let it not produce pride, security, or self-sufficiency.(2) Be public-spirited and useful; if the Lord hath dealt bountifully with you, commend His service, and speak to His praise.(3) Be frequent and diligent in secret prayer. This is the way to preserve your watchfulness, and to increase your usefulness. ( J. Witherspoon, D.D. ) Soul rest Homilist. I. AS AN ORIGINAL INHERITANCE. "Return unto thy rest." There is no rest for souls in places, however fair, beautiful, or grand; not in any externalisms, however calm and sunny. It is nowhere but in their own moral states. But what are the moral states that constitute soul rest? 1. Unquestioning trust. 2. Satisfying love. 3. Conscious rightness. 4. Congenial pursuits. II. AS A LOST INHERITANCE. The whole world is in disquiet. Men are trusting, but their trust is not unquestioning. The foundations of their hopes prove to be sand. The staff they grasp for support proves to be a reed that breaks beneath their weight. Everything they rest on fails them. Men are loving, but their love is unsatisfying. They are loving the imperfect, and the discovery of their imperfections distress them. They are loving the unreciprocating, and their indifference fills them with painful solicitude. They are loving the inconstant, and their inconstancy tosses them as timbers on the billows. They love the unhappy, and the sorrows they discern bring a shivering shadow over themselves. Men want righteousness; their deep cry is, "Oh! wretched man that I am." They see the right, they reach after it, but it eludes their grasp. Men are ac

Benson Commentary Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116:1-2 . I love the Lord — Hebrew, I love, because the Lord hath heard my voice. “The soul, transported with gratitude and love, seems, at first, to express her affection without declaring its object, as thinking that all the world must know who is the person intended. Thus Mary Magdalene, at the sepulchre, though no previous mention had been made of Jesus, says to one, whom she thought to be the gardener, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, &c. John 20:15 . And ought not the love of God to be excited in all our hearts by the consideration, that when we were not able to raise ourselves up to him, he mercifully and tenderly inclined and bowed down his ear to us?” — Horne. Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live — Hebrew, ???? ???? , bejamai ekra, in my days, that is, as long as I have a day to live, as this phrase is used 2 Kings 20:19 ; Isaiah 39:8 . Psalm 116:2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Psalm 116:3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Psalm 116:3-4 . The sorrows of death compassed me — Dangerous and deadly calamities as bitter as death: Hebrew, ???? ??? , cheblee maveth, the cords, or bands of death: see note on Psalm 18:4-5 . The pains of hell — Or of the grave, or of death; either cutting, killing pains, or such agonies and horrors as dying persons often feel within themselves; gat hold upon me — Hebrew, ?????? , found me, that is, surprised me. Having been long pursuing me, at last they overtook and seized upon me, and I gave up myself for lost. Then called I upon the name of the Lord — Being brought to the last extremity, I made use of this, not as the last remedy, but as the old and only remedy which I had found, a balm for every wound. Psalm 116:4 Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Psalm 116:5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. Psalm 116:5-6 . Gracious is the Lord — Therefore he will maintain my just cause against my unrighteous oppressors, will perform his promises, and save those who faithfully serve and trust in him. The Lord preserveth the simple — That is, those who are upright and sincere, and make use of no crafty arts or counsels, no indirect or unlawful means for their deliverance; who, as the original word implies, depend wholly upon God, as little children do upon their parents. I was brought low — Plunged into the depth of distress and misery; and he helped me — Patiently to bear what was laid upon me, and to hope for deliverance at the proper time. Psalm 116:6 The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me. Psalm 116:7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. Psalm 116:7-8 . Return unto thy rest, O my soul — Unto that tranquillity of mind, and cheerful confidence in God’s providence and promises, which thou didst once enjoy. Repose thyself in God; seek not for that rest in the creature which is to be found only in the Creator. God is thy rest; in him only canst thou dwell at ease; to him therefore thou must retire. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully, &c. — Hath many ways expressed his bounty most liberally to thee, and provided sufficiently for thy comfort and refreshment. Thou hast delivered my soul — Myself; from death — From threatening and approaching death; or from spiritual death, the death of sin, and from eternal death, the death of hell. Thou hast caused me to pass from death unto life. Mine eyes from tears — That is, my heart, from inordinate grief. When God comforts those that are cast down, when he looses the mourners’ sackcloth, and girds them with gladness, then he delivers their eyes from tears; which yet will not be perfectly done till we come to that world where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, And my feet from failing — Namely, from falling into sin, and so into misery. Psalm 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Psalm 116:9 I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 116:9 . I will walk — Hebrew, ?????? , ethhalleck, I will set myself to walk; before the Lord — I determine, in the strength of divine grace, to set him before me; to live as in his presence, and as under his eye; to speak and act in a manner becoming his presence, and the relation in which I stand to him as his servant and worshipper, his son and heir; to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing. It is the psalmist’s promise and resolution, in return for the blessings acknowledged in the preceding verse. In the land of the living — Among living men in this world. Observe, reader, the land of the living is a land of mercy, which we ought to be very thankful for; it is a land of opportunity, which we ought to improve; and the consideration that we are in this land should engage and quicken us to walk before God. Psalm 116:10 I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: Psalm 116:10 . I have believed — God’s promise of deliverance; therefore have I spoken — What I have now said; or, I have firmly believed, and trusted in God’s almighty power, and ever watchful providence, and therefore have addressed my prayer unto him with confidence in my greatest dangers and distresses. In this, or a similar sense, this clause is quoted by St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:13 , with application to himself and his fellow-ministers, who, though they were exposed everywhere to sufferings for Christ’s sake, and were even in danger of being put to death wherever they came; yet were neither ashamed nor afraid to own him, because they confided in the promise he had made them of a blessed resurrection. Psalm 116:11 I said in my haste, All men are liars. Psalm 116:11 . I said in my haste — Yet once, I confess, I spoke very unadvisedly, through precipitation of mind, for want of due consideration, as the same phrase, ????? , bechophzi, is used Psalm 31:22 . It may, however, be rendered, in my terror, or amazement, that is, when I was discomposed, and almost distracted with the greatness of my troubles. All men are liars — There is no credit to be given to their promises of deliverance; I am lost and undone. Thus understood, he questions the truth of God’s promises, yet so that he does not reflect directly on God, but only on the instrument by whom the promises were declared. Some render the clause, All men are a lie, or lies, are vain, a thing of nothing, a mere phantom without any solidity; all human help fails me; so that my case is desperate if God do not help me. Psalm 116:12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me? Psalm 116:12-14 . What shall I render unto the Lord — Yet, notwithstanding all my dangers, and my distrust of God also, he hath conferred so many and great blessings upon me, that I can never make sufficient returns to him for them. I will take the cup of salvation — Or of deliverance, as Bishop Patrick renders ??????? , thus interpreting the clause: “I will call my friends together to rejoice with me, and taking the cup, which we call the cup of deliverance, (because, when blessed and set apart, we are thus wont to commemorate the blessings we have received,) I will magnify the power, goodness, and faithfulness of God my Saviour before all the company.” The phrase is doubtless taken from the common practice of the Jews in their thank-offerings, in which a feast was made of the remainder of the sacrifices, and the offerers, together with the priests, did eat and drink before the Lord; and among other rites, the master of the feast took a cup of wine into his hand, and solemnly blessed God for it, and for the mercy which was then acknowledged, and then gave it to all the guests, who drank successively of it. According to Dr. Hammond, this cup, among the Jews, was two-fold; one offered in a more solemn manner in the temple, Numbers 28:7 , the other more private in families, called the cup of thanksgiving, or commemoration of any deliverance received. This the master of the family was wont to begin, and was followed by all his guests. On festival days it was attended with a suitable hymn, such as that sung by our Lord and his disciples on the night when he advanced that cup into the sacrament of his blood, which hath ever since been to Christians the cup of salvation; and which all penitents should now receive in the church of Christ, with invocation, thanksgiving, and payment of their vows made in time of trouble. Psalm 116:13 I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. Psalm 116:14 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people. Psalm 116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15 . Precious, &c., is the death of his saints — He sets a high price upon it: he will not easily grant it to the will of their enemies. If any son of violence procure it, he will make him pay very dearly for it. And when the saints suffer it for God’s sake, as they frequently do, it is a most acceptable sacrifice to him, and highly esteemed by him. Thus the blood of God’s people is said to be precious in his sight, Psalm 72:14 . And in the same sense the life of a man is said to be precious in the eyes of him who spares and preserves it, 1 Samuel 26:21 ; 2 Kings 1:13 . God’s people are precious in his eyes both living and dying, for, whether they live, they live unto the Lord, or whether they die, they die unto the Lord, Romans 14:8 . Psalm 116:16 O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds. Psalm 116:16 . O Lord, truly I am thy servant — This is a thankful acknowledgment of his great obligations to God, whereby he was in duty bound to be his perpetual servant. The son of thy handmaid — The son of a mother who was devoted, and did devote me to thy service. Thou hast loosed my bonds — Thou hast rescued me from my enemies, whose captive and vassal I was, and therefore hast a just right to me and to my service. Psalm 116:17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. Psalm 116:18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his people, Psalm 116:19 In the courts of the LORD'S house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 116:1 I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Psalm 116:1-19 THIS psalm is intensely individual. "I," "me," or "my" occurs in every verse but two ( Psalm 116:5 , Psalm 116:19 ). The singer is but recently delivered from some peril, and his song heaves with a groundswell of emotion after the storm. Hupfeld takes offence at its "continual alternation of petition and recognition of the Divine beneficence and deliverance, or vows of thanksgiving," but surely that very blending is natural to one just rescued and still panting from his danger. Certain grammatical forms indicate a late date, and the frequent allusions to earlier psalms point in the same direction. The words of former psalmists were part of this singer’s mental furniture, and came to his lips, when he brought his own thanksgivings. Hupfeld thinks it "strange" that "such a patched up ( zusammengestoppelter ) psalm," has "imposed" upon commentators, who speak of its depth and tenderness; it is perhaps stranger that its use of older songs has imposed upon so good a critic and hid these characteristics from him. Four parts may be discerned, of which the first ( Psalm 116:1-4 ) mainly describes the psalmist’s peril; the second ( Psalm 116:5-9 ), his deliverance; the third glances back to his alarm and thence draws reasons for his vow of praise ( Psalm 116:10-14 ); and the fourth ( Psalm 116:15-19 ) bases the same vow on the remembrance of Jehovah’s having loosed his bonds. The early verses of Psalm 18:1-50 obviously colour the psalmist’s description of his distress. That psalm begins with an expression of love to Jehovah, which is echoed here, though a different word is employed. "I love" stands in Psalm 116:1 without an object, just as "I will call" does in Psalm 116:2 , and "I believed" and "I spoke" in Psalm 116:10 . Probably "Thee" has fallen out, which would be the more easy, as the next word begins with the letter which stands for it in Hebrew. Cheyne follows Graetz in the conjectural adoption of the same beginning as in Psalm 116:10 , "I am confident." This change necessitates translating the following "for" as "that," whereas it is plainly to be taken, like the "for" at the beginning of Psalm 116:2 , as causal. Psalm 116:3 is moulded on Psalm 18:5 , with a modification of the metaphors by the unusual expression "the narrows of Sheol." The word rendered narrows may be employed simply as distress or straits, but it is allowable to take it as picturing that gloomy realm as a confined gorge, like the throat of a pass, from which the psalmist could find no escape. He is like a creature caught in the toils of the hunter Death. The stern rocks of a dark defile have all but closed upon him, but, like a man from the bottom of a pit, he can send out one cry before the earth falls in and buries him. He cried to Jehovah, and the rocks flung his voice heavenwards. Sorrow is meant to drive to God. When cries become prayers, they are not in vain. The revealed character of Jehovah is the ground of a desperate man’s hope. His own Name is a plea which Jehovah will certainly honour. Many words are needless when peril is sore and the suppliant is sure of God. To name Him and to cry for deliverance are enough. "I beseech Thee" represents a particle which is used frequently in this psalm, and by some peculiarities in its use here indicates a late date. The psalmist does not pause to say definitely that he was delivered, but breaks into the celebration of the Name on which he had called, and from which the certainty of an answer followed. Since Jehovah is gracious, righteous (as strictly adhering to the conditions He has laid down), and merciful (as condescending in love to lowly and imperfect men), there can be no doubt how He will deal with trustful suppliants. The psalmist turns for a moment from his own experience to sun himself in the great thought of the Name, and thereby to come into touch with all who share his faith. The cry for help is wrung out by personal need, but the answer received brings into fellowship with a great multitude. Jehovah’s character leads up in Psalm 116:6 to a broad truth as to His acts, for it ensures that He cannot but care for the "simple," whose simplicity lays them open to assailants, and whose single-hearted adhesion to God appeals unfailingly to His heart. Happy the man who, like the psalmist, can give confirmation from his own experience to the broad truths of God’s protection to ingenuous and guileless souls! Each individual may, if he will, thus narrow to his own use the widest promises, and put "I" and "me" wherever God has put "whosoever." If he does he will be able to turn his own experience into universal maxims, and encourage others to put "whosoever" where his grateful heart has put "I" and "me." The deliverance, which is thus the direct result of the Divine character, and which extends to all the simple, and therefore included the psalmist, leads to calm repose. The singer does not say so in cold words, but beautifully wooes his "soul," his sensitive nature, which had trembled with fear in death’s net, to come back to its rest. The word is in the plural, which may be only another indication of late date, but is more worthily understood as expressing the completeness of the repose, which in its fulness is only found in God, and is made the more deep by contrast with previous "agitation." Psalm 116:8-9 , are quoted from Psalm 56:13 with slight variations, the most significant of which is the change of "light" into "lands." It is noticeable that the Divine deliverance is thus described as surpassing the psalmist’s petition. He asked, "Deliver my soul." Bare escape was all that he craved, but he received, not only the deliverance of his soul from death, but, over and above, his tears were wiped away by a loving hand, his feet stayed by a strong arm. God over answers trustful cries, and does not give the minimum consistent with safety, but the maximum of which we are capable. What shall a grateful heart do with such benefits? "I will walk before Jehovah in the lands of the living," joyously and unconstrainedly (for so the form of the word "walk" implies), as ever conscious of that presence which brings blessedness and requires holiness. The paths appointed may carry the traveller far, but into whatever lands he goes, he will have the same glad heart within to urge his feet and the same loving eye above to beam guidance on him. The third part ( Psalm 116:10-14 ) recurs to the psalmist’s mood in his trouble, and bases on the retrospect of that and of God’s mercy the vow of praise. Psalm 116:10 may be variously understood. The "speaking" may be taken as referring to the preceding expressions of trust or thanksgivings for deliverance. The sentiment would then be that the psalmist was confident that he should one day thus speak. So Cheyne; or the rendering may be "I believed in that I spake thus" -i.e., that he spake those trustful words of Psalm 116:9 was the result of sheer faith (so Kay). The thing spoken may also be the expressions which follow, and this seems to yield the most satisfactory meaning. "Even when I said, I am afflicted and men fail me, I had not lost my faith." He is recalling the agitation which shook him, but feels that, through it all, there was an unshaken centre of rest in God. The presence of doubt and fear does not prove the absence of trust. There may live a spark of it, though almost buried below masses of cold unbelief. What he said was the complaint that he was greatly afflicted, and the bitter wail that all men deceive or disappoint. He said so in his agitation. { Psalm 31:22 } But even in recognising the folly of trusting in men, he was in some measure trusting God, and the trust, though tremulous, was rewarded. Again he hurries on to sing the issues of deliverance, without waiting to describe it. That little dialogue of the devout soul with itself ( Psalm 116:12-13 ) goes very deep. It is an illuminative word as to God’s character, an emancipating word as to the true notion of service to Him, a guiding word as to common life. For it declares that men honour God most by taking His gifts with recognition of the Giver, and that the return which He in His love seeks is only our thankful reception of His. mercy. A giver who desires but these results is surely Love. A religion which consists first in accepting God’s gift and then in praising by lip and life Him who gives banishes the religion of fear, of barter, of unwelcome restrictions and commands. It is the exact opposite of the slavery which says, "Thou art an austere man, reaping where thou didst not sow." It is the religion of which the initial act is faith, and the continual activity, the appropriation of God’s spiritual gifts. In daily life there would be less despondency and weakening regrets over vanished blessings, if men were more careful to take and enjoy thankfully all that God gives. But many of us have no eyes for other blessings, because some one blessing is withdrawn or denied. If we treasured all that is given, we should be richer than most of us are. In Psalm 116:14 the particle of beseeching is added to "before," a singular form of expression which seems to imply desire that the psalmist may come into the temple with his vows. He may have been thinking of the "sacrificial meal in connection with the peace offerings." In any case, blessings received in solitude should impel to public gratitude. God delivers His suppliants that they may magnify Him before men. The last part ( Psalm 116:15-19 ) repeats the refrain of Psalm 116:14 , but with a different setting. Here the singer generalises his own experience, and finds increase of joy in the thought of the multitude who dwell safe under the same protection. The more usual form of expression for the idea in Psalm 116:15 is "their blood is precious". { Psalm 72:14 } The meaning is that the death of God’s saints is no trivial thing in God’s eyes, to be lightly permitted. (Compare the contrasted thought, { Psalm 44:12 } Then, on the basis of that general truth, is built Psalm 116:16 , which begins singularly with the same beseeching word which has already occurred in Psalm 116:4 and Psalm 116:14 . Here it is not followed by an expressed petition, but is a yearning of desire for continued or fuller manifestation of God’s favour. The largest gifts, most fully accepted and most thankfully recognised, still leave room for longing which is not pain, because it is conscious of tender relations with God that guarantee its fulfilment. "I am Thy servant." Therefore the longing which has no words needs none. "Thou hast loosed my bonds." His thoughts go back to "the cords of death" ( Psalm 116:3 ), which had held him so tightly. God’s hand has slackened them, and, by freeing him from that bondage, has bound him more closely than before to himself. "Being made free from sin, ye became the slaves of righteousness." So, in the full blessedness of received deliverance, the grateful heart offers itself to God, as moved by His mercies to become a living sacrifice, and calls on the Name of Jehovah, in its hour of thankful surrender, as it had called on that Name in its time of deep distress. Once more the lonely suppliant, who had waded such deep waters without companion but Jehovah, seeks to feel himself one of the glad multitude in the courts of the house of Jehovah, and to blend his single voice in the shout of a nation’s praise. We suffer and struggle for the most part alone. Grief is a hermit, but Joy is sociable; and thankfulness desires listeners to its praise. The perfect song is the chorus of a great "multitude which no man can number." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.